What: Checo Tohomaso’s Motown Gospel Party
When: Saturday, 7 p.m. (doors, 5)
Where: Hermann’s Jazz Club (753 View St.)
Tickets: $15 at info@hermannsjazz.com
More information: victoriasoulgospel.ca
Harmony and tone are key components of any soul singer worth their salt. That’s the gospel according to Checo Tohomaso, a Vancouver-based choir director and instructor who once toured as a backup musician with Marvin Gaye and fronted a disco band whose fanbase included a teenage Barack Obama.
However, the core elements of singing are nothing without big-picture behaviour, Tohomaso said. Those who are pursuing music as a profession should treat it like a business; be professional but also personable, he added.
“I tell all my students to stay humble,” he said from his home in Vancouver. “Humility is the way to longevity.”
Students would be wise to take Tohomaso at his word; the Florida native has lived a colourful life, indeed.
An accomplished singer, bassist and keyboardist, he has been hired for some sweet gigs during his 30 years in Vancouver: Celine Dion, New Kids on the Block and Reba McEntire, among others, have sought him out during swings through town.
“Once your name’s out there, they will call you,” he said.
Tohomaso received an important phone call in 1979, from none other than Marvin Gaye. The celebrated soul singer was putting together a band for a date in Hawaii — where Tohomaso was living at the time — and word around the islands was that Tohomaso should be involved.
He got the gig, which led to permanent membership in the group that would eventually join Gaye for his 1980 tour of Europe. Tohomaso was happy for his brief friendship with the Motown great, who was murdered four years later, as it gave him front-row access to some of the best soul music ever created.
He also joined Lionel Richie and the Commodores for some dates, recorded with Don Ho and sang in a choir led by gospel favourite Andraé Crouch.
Tohomaso has kept the soul music flame alive in the years since as the musical director for both the Victoria Soul Gospel Choir and the Vancouver Outreach Community Soul Gospel Choir. He also maintains a career as a solo artist, through which he performs the type of Motown gold that never seems to go out of style.
“The Temptations and Smokey [Robinson] — they’ve got that sweet tone,” Tohomaso said. “These guys, they could just get on a corner and sing.”
Tohomaso learned much of what he knows while fronting a Hawaiian disco group, Nova, during the late ’70s.
They were popular around Honolulu and became the go-to group for all the high school proms in the area, Tohomaso said. In 1978, Nova played the junior prom at Punahou School, whose student body included future president Barack Obama, a Punahou junior at the time.
Tohomaso remembers him being at the prom with a date, having known Obama from the local basketball courts.
“I knew him as Barry,” Tohomaso said with a laugh, recalling how the basketball-crazy future president styled his afro after that of his idol, Julius Erving. “Back then, he wanted to be Dr. J.”
Tohomaso now has in his possession an autographed picture and book from Obama. The two were reconnected after a Chicago radio DJ started playing cuts from Nova’s album on the air, which caught the ear of the then-senator when he was running for president.
Tohomaso will play Saturday at Hermann’s Jazz Club, singing soul hits while accompanying himself on piano and bass. He’s a spirited performer, as anyone who has seen him work a stage with the Victoria Soul Gospel Choir can attest. But he’s careful not to overshadow the music itself.
“Whatever you write, make sure you say I’m going to be true to the music,” he said.