Mary Pat Hughes: Hard Workin' Woman
by Mark Bounds
"Summer's here, and the calls are comin' in," exclaims Mary Pat Hughes. She's a sax player (baritone, alto, and tenor) with 13 years experience. She's also at home on the clarinet (with a decade under her belt on the instrument). And as if that isn't enough, she's accomplished on the bassoon (with a degree in tow), and can wail on vocals with her own set of pipes. Let's face it...Mary Pat Hughes is a music-makin' fireball! Is it any wonder that the calls are comin' in?
Born in Baltimore (but raised in Northern Virginia), it didn't take long for Mary Pat to take the first step on her musical trek. Thanks to supportive parents and a virtual lust for music, she has been busy havin'-at-it since she was very young. "Since the age of ten," she remembers, "I think I have played just about every day of my life. I'd say probably about 325 days out of the year. I just love it. I was not the one who would sit down and practice for hours, but I'd always be in a playing situation."
Being brought up in an area (N. VA) with a large military populace didn't hurt either. In fact, Mary Pat found herself right at home with a number of big band situations. Experience in school also played a part in her musical growth. "When I was in high school, Jazz Band was a class period," she recalls, "so I had four years of playing jazz for an hour a day. I also took lessons from a lot of these show players and military players, and people who told you to play more than one instrument - 'cause then you can play out a lot. The more you know, the more you can work!"
Having that point driven home at an early age obviously paid off for a musician who was serious about what she was doing - even though she was barely a teen. Today, the end result is the proof, as Mary Pat is a bonafide "Woodwind Double" who simply cannot get enough when it comes to playing time.
Throughout her school years, Hughes kept busy at every level, jamming with jazz, big band, various college ensembles, shows, rhythm & blues, and even stints with Latino combos. "I was into everything," she declares with a sense of enthusiasm. "I was reading and improving all over the place with all kinds of groups. I just think of how my parents let me go out and play when I was 16 or 17. They must've had every finger crossed that I'd make it home okay, 'case I'd be playing in just about every funky place that you could imagine." All the while, playing "every kind of music imaginable."
Studying the various facets of jazz, in particular, was to Mary Pat's liking. One summer at Towson State she enrolled in the Kenton Clinic where she learned the ropes from a master. "I was really turned on by Hank Levy," she reveals, "and that particular sound of the big band. It's very unique. Actually, it's very to-the-left of the traditional big band sound. There are different time signatures, like 5/7 and 11/13."
Having family in Maryland, Mary Pat decided to attend Towson State over North Texas, Miami, and Berklee. What was a loss for the Lone Star State, Little Havana, and Beantown, respectively, turned out to be Charm City's gain. It was here that the serious-playin' fireball named Hughes chose to blaze her musical trail.
Having picked up bassoon at an earlier age, Mary Pat was quick to diversity. It wasn't long before she was heeding her previously learned advice to spread out musically.
"I went on to sax," she continues. "I went from baritone to alto to tenor. Then I picked up flute along the way." I couldn't help but breathe a sigh of "Geez!" as she recounts how many bases she was covering simultaneously. "I know," she muses with a smile in her voice. "I was most definitely a schizoid kid. I was going in 10 million directions at once!" But how does one pull off such a feat? "I don't know," she adds, now laughing. "I just loved it - I just played all kinds of stuff. I had these teachers who were behind me too. I'd ask, "Do you think I should do this show?", and they'd say "Sure!". And I'd ask, "Do you think I should play this jazz?", and they'd say, "Of course!". So I was all over Maryland and Virginia as a kid, playing professionally.
Another valuable stepping stone was the element of competition, and Mary Pat rose to the occasion with a wanton sense of confidence. "It was very, very competitive," she affirms. "I want to say that it was almost that "jock" mentality because we competed so often with other groups. When I look back on my education, I see that I was exposed to a whole lot of opportunities and exposure." That combination, coupled with Mary Pat's talent and tenacity, led her to where she is today.
"I must say that I definitely have a gift," she concedes with a chuckle, half-kiddingly. "There's no doubt, because I've always been one to do the last minute cram and get away with it. I guess it's good, because you learn how to play with people, how to get along with them musically, how to blend with them...and how not to kill each other!" In short, she's a natural.
Loving music that's "older than dirt up to tomorrow" proved to be a real asset to Mary Pat Hughes in her travels. Perhaps that's why she's been so successful. "I've been gigging ever since," she agrees. Those gigs have run the gamut. Aside from being a requested sideperson and free-lance player, she's also made here own mark with original projects throughout the Mid-Atlantic and elsewhere. For instance, sitting in on an orchestra in Europe. What?
"Yeah," she adds matter-of-factly. "One summer I lived in Rome and played the old cathedrals with a symphony orchestra, and I traveled with an opera. It was intense."
Meanwhile, back in B-more, she was just as busy with any number of musical combinations that you could imagine. As she tells it, "I've been a support player, and a good sideperson for a number of years. I had my own group, too, called Chain Gang in around '84 or '85. I was on the road for a while, then I landed a full-time gig at Eubie's at the Fish Market. It was a six-night-a-week thing."
Then, after the Fish Market floundered, Hughes pounded the pavement once again with a Philly band called High Energy, and a Delaware-based R&B outfit known as the Cutters. At this point, I wondered just what she could have possibly done next to surprise me. My eyebrows nearly hit the ceiling as she revealed the answer to my hypothetical question: "The circus," she says. "Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus," she repeats. Come again???!! "Yup," she answers, "I sat in on tenor [sax] once, then another time they wanted me for alto [sax]." But why? But how? "Basically because they had heard of me, and because I could read," she admits.
Okay, methinks, I've heard it all now. Well, not quite... Surely, Mary Pat has an agent that just won't quit. Surely, she's backed by a booking company that gets her these varied gigs, right? Wrong! "It's word of mouth," she claims, "It's hustle, a lot of hustle. I've been playing for a long time and I do good work. It's doing the job well, because you have to!" And what about the fact that she's a woman? "Of course," she's quick to claim. "It's a double-edged sword. On one hand you can be very valuable, but then again, you can be very threatening to personalities in a group...just because of the fact that you're a gal. I'm not whining, don't get me wrong. The bottom line is that you have to be good to get called back." And she is.
Her resume speaks for itself. The talents of Mary Pat Hughes have been required by a star-studded roster that would rival any player's: Ben E. King, the Drifters, the Coasters, and Lou Christie. Need I say more? Okay! How about Little Anthony, the Crystals, the Vogues, Leslie Gore, and the Temptations! Get the idea? "I've had a real good time playing in every situation," she says. "Every opportunity is a good one. Every experience is valuable."
Hughes recently made her way overseas once again. This time, to the Fatherland's answer to the Cannes - the Deutsche Film Ball. "Three of us Americans went over and played with some friends in Germany," she explains. "It's kind of like their answer to the Grammys or the Oscars. It was a blast. All these wild theater people were there and the Commitments were on the show too, so it was a lot of fun."
Presently, Mary Pat is hard at work on a project that she'd like to call her own. It's an original idea that warrants the talent and personal signature of Hughes' vast musical arsenal. But before we could get into that, the click of call waiting interrupted us. So I held...and held...then finally she came back on the line with a renewed enthusiasm. "That was another gig," she laughed. I understood. Such is the life of a hard workin' woman.
"Right now," she picks up where we left off, "I'm looking for material, and I'm getting ready to do my own R&B kind of project. I'd like to get settled into it, you know? I'm looking to concertize it!" Somehow, that doesn't surprise me. This is a woman on a mission, and I can't help but think that whether it was a crossword puzzle, or a musical endeavor, Mary Pat Hughes is a woman bent on finishing what she starts. "I've been talking to some writers and people who are interested in doing some recording," she cites. "Everything is pretty much 'go' right now. It's just a matter of deciding what material to do."
The prospects are positive for Mary Pat, especially when you consider that she can always fall back on her vast repertoire of steady work as a backing player. She is, however, somewhat cautions about that particular project. "I'm trying to avoid running out on the road just for the sake of running out on the road," she states emphatically. "I'm looking for something real good, you know? I'm looking to call the shots and not just go along for the ride. I have some very lovely offers, and I'm at a point where it's lookin' good."
As with most musicians (99% or more), Mary Pat Hughes subscribes to the school of cautious optimism. That is, she's not one to count on any one prospect, no matter how inviting. It's unspoken, but universal. "It's superstitious," she offers frankly. "Everything is so day-to-day. A lot of it has to do with putting yourself out on the line to be judged. It's a very vulnerable situation. Something can happen in half-an-hour to change the whole game plan. You never know."
One might never know, but one can certainly speculate. Especially if that one is one Mary Pat Hughes - a self-starter with a game plan to attack any given musical obstacle.
"Yeah, I'm lucky," she conveys. "I just want to keep playing until I can't hold the horn up. As long as I can keep playing, and as long as I'm able to take people someplace that they can't go themselves, musically, then I'll be happy. I guess I have that fire..."
Fire as in fireball. Fireball as in Mary Pat Hughes.
Used with permission from Music Monthly