Dale LePage Unleash The Lens Photography
Worcester’s storied jazz singer Dale LePage, closing in on age 60, has had , in the past, to suffer insults and indignities for his sexual orientation. While many think the LBGT community is now receiving grand acceptance, there are still those with narrow minds and mean streaks. Just the other week LePage was out walking his dog when a couple of men drove by him in their truck and yelled the slur “faggot” at him.
“It immediately brings you back,” LePage said. “I’m going to be 60. So, I went through the 70s and the 80s with all the homophobia. Even though things are much better now. It brought me back to that time where people would just scream faggot or queer at you. Next thing you know, you get a beer bottle thrown at your head.”
A much stronger person now, LePage has accomplished much in his 60 years. He first joined Worcester’s music scene right after graduating from high school in Templeton, Massachusetts.
“I wanted to have music in my life and I knew I couldn’t do it in Templeton,” he said. “I actually lived in my car for a few weeks until I could find a place to rent and get a job.”
LePage strove to land any gig he could get his hands on. Like many beginners, he was willing to play for free.
“I started out in very small clubs with just a piano player. Then, it grew from there to a trio. Then, I had a five piece band and I have a band that goes all the way up to ten pieces for events and corporate events and things like that.”
Dale LePage; performing Worcester City Hall And Common. photo: Ted Theodore
Most interesting to LePage is his own original music, developing his songs’ storylines. LePage does not read music or play an instrument. He creates the melody in his head, sings it into his tape recorder, and then he writes words to the melody. From there, LePage sends his music through a voice mail to his guitarist, Joey D’Angelo, an award winning musician based in Worcester who has played in many bands and teaches music at multiple schools. LePage has been a staple on the Boston scene as well as Worcester but reigned himself into his beloved Worcester more often in the last ten years.
“I sang in Boston a lot,” LePage said. “In the 80s and 90s I mainly played in Boston. I just got old and tired and just wanted to stay close to home.”
LePage, who plays in Boston a lot, has also worked with the Hub’s own jazz legend Lydia Harrell. The pair teamed up for jazz festivals in Natick and Newton.
“We put together a show and we went to bunch of different venues with the show,” he said. “It was like a 1940s big band show. We had a lot of fun at that. I think she’s probably the most talented female vocalist I’ve ever known,” he said. “She is amazing.”
Aside from his interest in 1940s big bands and other projects, Jazz is his main staple. LePage’s original compositions are usually inspired by his personal friends and the stories they share with him about their love lives. “Some of them are funny. Some of them are tragic. Some of them are heart wrenching,” he said.
Two of his person favorites among his originals were inspired by his husband, Jeff Burk. They’ve been married for 36 years, ten years of marriage when Massachusetts legalized gay marriage. Before that they had a commitment ceremony. LePage’s knowledge of jazz was gained mostly through necessity.
“I grew up listening to Frank Sinatra, Johnny Mathis, Ella Fitzgerald,” he said. “Mel Torme was my favorite. Ii just came naturally. It was part of my life. It’s what I was drawn to. I originally started out being a crooner, people who sing those syrupy love ballads.”
Dale LePage; Worcester City Hall And Common. photo: Ted Theodore
Crooning kicked off his career before he moved into his beloved genre jazz, full time. “Most of my originals are jazz, couple of them are ballads, but most of them are swinging jazz,” he said. “It’s such a wonderful feeling of musical expression. You can sing many different melody lines, weave in and out of a song. It’s fun to play off other band members. You’ve got the basic structure of a song. But, you can take it anywhere and make it your own. A lot of it is just having so much fun on stage with my band. “
Because of the Covid-19 venue closings, LePage and his combos have had 65 gigs cancelled, which is a good part of his income. LePage’s other project is his cable TV show Pride TV which goes out to three millions homes in New England is available nationwide. LePage certainly had to roll up his sleeves and go to work to make it that successful.
“I did what everybody else has to do. I got down in the mud and did all of the work myself. I did all the connecting to different television stations throughout New England, from public access ones to bigger ones,” he said. LePage pitched it to each affiliate stationsby saying it would be the first LGBT TV show to educate the public about different aspect of life, entertainment, social situations, and social outreach programs.
“Everybody was just incredibly supportive,” he said. “I didn’t have one single town or state that said ‘No thank you.” Everybody gave me a slot.” LePage doesn’t know himself what time it comes on in the different towns through New England because it is so widely diverged.
The most powerful episode he ever made was about the LGBT Asylum Task Force. The taskforce rescues people from the 70 countries where it’s illegal to be gay. LePage detailed it well:
“If you are gay in certain countries, you are beaten. You are raped. You are murdered. Your family’s house is set on fire; you’re ostracized, and nobody will do anything about it. The a task force, which is located right here in Worcester, Massachusetts, helps to actually physically rescue these people and save their lives.”
Dale LePage performing with Boston jazz legend Lydia Harrell
“One of the most heart wrenching stories that affected me the most,” LePage continued, “was this young girls who is a lesbian. And she came out to her family. She wanted her family to know who she was, who she really was. She met a wonderful girl, and they were really happy. The father had 11 men come into his house. He let them in. He had 11 men rape his daughter. His thought was she wasn’t getting the right kind of sex or didn’t have the right kind of man in her life to make her not be gay.”
“After the rape, he threw her out of the house and she wound up pregnant from that horrible, horrible night, and she was on the street with a baby. The Asylum Task Force rescued her. That’s the kind of powerful, powerful thing that people need to know about.”
Although restaurants, clubs, and bars are reopening in Massachusetts, LePage feels he’s done performing for the year. Restaurants, he explained, are only going to be serving less than half capacity, and they won’t be able to afford to pay for entertainment.
“Why would they spend a few hundred dollars on me when they don’t have it,” he said. “I’m looking toward maybe Christmas or next year. Something maybe opening up.”
Dale LePage with Brian Sampson, Thomas Spears; John Preves Photography
Meanwhile, the singer has raised $1,500 from Venmo for his live video performances, playing a song every day for the first 50 days of the pandemic. LePage’s long term plan for his career is to play any gig he can get.
“As long as somebody want to hear me, I’ll be there for them,” the singer said. “I don’t care if it’s ten people or a thousand. As long as somebody wants to here what I have to offer. It can be in a restaurant. It can be in a church, coffeehouse. It can be in an auditorium. I will take any gig anyone’s offering me. That’s what music is about.”
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