Tiffany was a small town American girl with a great big wandering heart. She always knew that the only thing she ever wanted to do was to play her flute, and travel the world. As soon as she was able, she moved to Asheville, North Carolina, where she studied music and learned well all of its laws and theories. She even studied technology with the godfather of that art, Robert Moog. But she wondered sometimes if laws and theories might not be what she was actually looking for.
Stay tuned for a dream deferred.
As part of her quest for latitude, after a stint in Woodstock, she ended up quite naturally in the big city... the real big city: New YorkCity. But somewhere along the line, she realized that she had turned an odd and unexpected corner. Albeit through her own hard work and perseverance, the fickle years had led her to Seventh Avenue, the fashion industry, and corporate management. Power and success presented themselves within her fingertip's reach, and her flute temporarily played second fiddle to their seduction. But still, as she attended those meetings in soaring glass and metal towers, as she played the mindgames of politics and compromise, her spirit was constantly drawn away to the unfettered music of the flute, which wafted towards her consciousness across the ether from the East. And she wondered if power and success might not even be what she was looking for.
And yet this corporation which had kidnapped her away from her original intended path, would also become the unwitting accomplice in her gradual disillusionment with her present lifestyle. On a business trip to China, she would witness the tragic conditions of the factory workers she had been sent to observe. She could not help but compare their limitations, within this corporate world market, to her own self-imposed situation. But there she would also witness the remarkable Shaolin Monks - their color, their music, their fantastic dedication to mind and body and spirit. And she realized that, if she were to collect her focus, she might well discover exactly what it was that she was looking for.
Mario Vickram Sen (guitar & vocals)
Mario was a little Indian boy who was named after a famous Italian tenor. It was a different age, it was another world. His father led their intrepid family unit, "The Singing Sens," in what he called a "chucker round the world." Their loco-motion came ultimately to rest in jolly old London just as that city was dawning from out of a grey and dismal post war conventionality, into a place that "swings like a pendulum do." It was an explosion of color and fashion and style and music where anything, and everything... goes! His father, Hara Sen, inspired by the creativity around him, invented the "Sitar-Guitar" an instrument which combined the sounds of East and West. And young Mario, a growing boy now - who loved to watch that Elvis play the Rockabilly music and shake his hips, who loved to watch that Chubby Checker do the twist, who loved to hear those Beatles twist and shout - embraced this new instrument and his father's concept, "Raga-billy" music, which fused Indian music with Rock'n'Roll. Well, the apple may not fall far from the tree, but the son of a rolling stone gathers no moss and just keeps on rolling... at least until he reaches the apple... the Big Apple that is.
That's right, once again — New York City
A place where you can live a thousand lives in a couple of short decades. And Mario did just that. He grew and changed through bands, and jobs, and wives... and even a child. He lived in Queens, in Brooklyn, in Manhattan, in Hoboken. He worked in the fashion industry as a fabric designer. He played in Rock bands and Fusion bands. There were Jazz bands and Reggae bands, Calypso and High Life and even Bhangra which had followed him all the way from India. In New York City you can find any kind of music... and he did. He even played guitar for a while for one of his old idols, Chubby Checker. But Rock'n'Roll just wasn't enough for him anymore; neither was designing floral patterns for women's dresses. It occurred to him that he needed to focus in order to discover exactly what is was that he was looking for.
New York freakin’ City, Seventh Avenue, the fashion industry. The East-side, the West-side, the North, and the South. How many times had their paths crossed? Perhaps they had been in the same elevator at some time. Perhaps on the same plane. How would they find each other? Well, let’s not forget, friends, this is a modern day story. The twenty-first century. Nothing happens without a computer. And so it was, inevitably, the internet which brought these two gypsy souls together.
Boy meets Girl. A classic romance. An electric collision of acoustic experiences and organic styles. Of guitars and flutes. Of male and female. Of X and Y. And out of this intercourse a child was created. An inner child. A little multi-colored raga-muffin gypsy of their inner dreams, running barefoot in the dirt, playing however it wanted to, answering to no one, free as a totally free thing can possibly be. An inner gypsy, if you will, the child of their deepest desires. That’s right, it was this band: Inner Gypsy.
And even though the parents – Mr. and Mrs. Mario and Tiffany Sen (the new "Singing Sens," if you will) – have finally allowed their coupling to be officially sanctioned by the State of New Jersey (they now reside, in Hackensack) their bastard offspring, the “Inner Gypsy,” continues to wreak havoc with the status quo, as it picks up like minded gypsies wherever it goes.
Tony was brought up in Hell’s Kitchen… right there, smack in the middle of Manhattan. And yet somehow, it was the classical guitar that appealed to him — at first, anyway. He began studying when he was a young teenager, and that early training set him up well with a precise understanding of musical theory and fluent music reading skills. But by around 18 he had become captivated by the idea that great music, just like anything else you build, is only as good as the foundation it rests upon. The bedrock; the underpinnings; the bottom; the base… in fact —
the bass.
He felt that it was his talent to support the rest of the music, to hold it up, as it were… hold it up to a higher standard. And so he took up the bass – both upright and bass guitar – and began his long and fertile career as the heartbeat of many different bands with many different styles of music. Tony could not be confined to just one. He wanted to play all kinds, jazz, funk, rock, blues, R&B, and even some Latin and World-beats – and his great knowledge of the principles of music gave him the ability to easily do so. Not satisfied with what he already knew, Tony studied at City College in NY, with legendary jazz bassist Ron Carter, and earned himself a BA in music. This (and his union card) gave him the credentials to get work in many Broadway and Off-Broadway productions such as Rent, Little Shop of Horrors, Tony and Tina’s Wedding, Godspell, and many more. And if you are a Sopranos fan, and remember the episode where Nancy Sinatra sings… you may well recognize Tony as the bassist standing beside her. By now, he also has many TV and film credits to his name, including such productions as Boardwalk Empire, Mad Men, Lipstick Jungle, and even the Disney movie, Enchanted. And he often gets calls to play with classic Rock’n’Roll acts like Jay and the Americans, Bobby Rydell, Darlene Love, The Dixie Cups, and many more. Tony is a musician’s musician… and an extremely hard working one at that. He is always available for gigs and can be reached at bassistny@aol.com.
After all these years of performing, Tony (and his wife) finally settled in Rochelle Park NJ… once again just a hop, skip and a jump from Hackensack, where he discovered an emerging band, looking for a bottom end, that offered him the diversity of styles he craves.
The Gypsies have found their foundation.
Adam Truszkowski(keyboards)
Adam wanted to be a painter. He wanted to create visual dimensions like Picasso or Gauguin or Vincent Van Gogh… or Dali. He saw colors in his mind that were not available in the Polish landscape of his youth. But it was not to be. His father’s dream was that young Adam would become a musician, a pianist — and when your father has a dream for you, it cannot be taken lightly. And so… like it or not, Adam started piano lessons at the age of 8. But once in a while your father knows what he is talking about, and Adam’s love for music (and the piano) grew rapidly within him — until the images of colored oils on painter’s palettes, and canvasses stretched across wooden frames, dissolved like ancient clocks melting upon a washing line; like cypress trees upon an imaginary Provencal landscape; like three eyed cartoon nudes bedecked in primary colors; and faded from his consciousness to be replaced by the effigies of the Golden Gods of Rock’n’Roll, and Jazz, and Blues. And he saw another way forward… not in his mind this time, but in his reality. By the time he was 14, Adam had formed his own band, and after a few short years he was performing regularly at local clubs and bars and other events. During these years he listened and became enamored of such artists as Keith Emerson, Bob James, Carlos Santana, Larry Carlton and Robben Ford. By now he had gravitated toward electronic keyboards and synthesizers of every shape and hue, and he even took up playing a little guitar. Eventually he knew it would be time for him to leave his country and head towards the West where his future lay. He got jobs playing music on cruise ships around the Mediterranean, and then finally all the way to America. Adam is now settled in the North New Jersey town of Garfield, where he owns a little computer shop. Find out more about that by clicking Adam's Consulting. But guess what town Garfield is right next to… you got it — Hackensack NJ. Needless to say, this is where he met up with Mario, Tiffanyand Tony.
Inner Gypsy is now ready to radiate the eighty-eight.
Inner Gypsy Alumni:
We honor all of those who have been part of this band at some
point, and we thank them for the important contributions
that each of them have made to our music through the years.
Don Burke (drums) Don grew up in a musical family. His father Ed Burke, was a multi-instrumentalist who played trumpet, clarinet, trombone and saxophone. He also taught music, and repaired instruments. In 1958, Ed opened up a music store in their home town of Frederick, MD, and young Don, who was only about four or five years old, already knew that he wanted to play music like his dad. He started learning piano, and drums, and would listen to the recordings of John Coltrane, and other great jazz artists of the time, and even from that early age, he would try to emulate his hero, the legendary Elvin Jones. But drums were not enough. By the age of thirteen Don had incorporated the bass guitar into his portfolio, and within a few years of that, he attended his first summer session at Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he learned a multitude of new musical skills. Inspired by his thirst for greater musical knowledge, he returned there for the next few summers, sharpening his ear-training, and improvisational ability until he felt comfortable participating in the jam sessions with the other students.
Eventually, Don began playing with local bands, and throughout the 60s and the 70s, he remained constant to his musical journey, so that by the 80s he found himself playing drums or bass, with various rock, country-rock and jam bands. Later on, however, he revived some of his old piano skills, and started playing synthesizers and keyboards. He bought an old upright which needed repair, and remembering some of what his father had taught him, and taking a few classes, he got the thing working again. This ability to repair pianos has led him back full circle to where he came from. Don is now a certified Master Piano Technician and Tuner, as well as a musician of the highest order. You can learn more about that at DonBurke.com.
Don performed with Inner Gypsy from Oct 2016 through 2017.
Glenn Nataupsky (bass)
Originally from Brooklyn, now living in Northern New Jersey. Glenn started playing bass when he first heard Black Sabbath and some of the other metal bands of the ’70s. Later on he discovered Rush and Yes, and the allure of the complexity of prog-rock propelled him to increase his musical vocabulary and technical proficiency. He LOVES the bass guitar, and has never played 6-string. And he does love to play in bands that require his upright bass skills. He understands what a drummer wants, he speak their language. He also enjoys being part of a tight ensemble performing interesting arrangements.
For over Ten years Glenn made a living solely from playing music. He has toured USA and Europe with many well known artists. Impossible to say how many gigs in NYC, including a stint backing up Chubby Checker in Grease, on Broadway,and various other off broadway shows, including a show called “Speak of the Devil” where he met Mario, who was also part of the band. But then, after his son was born, he put his professional music career on the back burner in order to stay home, and be with his family. Now that his son is older, Glenn is again starting to play out more and more He reads music very well and can also learn pretty complex and challenging songs by ear. You can reach Glenn by clicking this link — Glenn at Bandmix
Glenn performed with Inner Gypsy in 2005 and 2006.
David Wearley (percussion)
David first began playing Afro-Cuban and Afro-Brazilian percussion in his late teens. He apprenticed under David Gomez, the virtuoso Latin-Jazz percussionist, from whom he learned the fundamentals of Afro-Cuban Bata Drums and traditional Lucumi songs.
David spent some time performing Afro-Brazilian percussion for dance groups in the NYC area, where his interest in traditional and folkloric forms of music grew. This led him to wider studies in the history and performance of the many musical styles and instruments related to World Music. One such instrument is the Cajon, a box shaped drum which originated in Peru, and is used widely in various Latin and Gypsy genres. David’s interest in the Cajon gave rise to a great opportunity to learn Afro-Peruvian music under the guidance of Marcos Napa, a renowned Peruvian Cajon player. Napa had been a main percussionist for Peru Negro and Eva Ayllon, before he relocated to the United States.
In addition to this, David has also spent time learning about Flamenco rhythms from the NYC based Flamenco percussionist, Peter Basil Bagdanos.
David currently teaches percussion to middle school students in New York City. He continues to learn and incorporate rhythms and musical styles from around the world – nowadays with a particular focus on the Carnatic rhythmic traditions of South India.
David performed with Inner Gypsy in 2006 and 2007.
