MEET THE BAND

Eddie Sarkis is the founder and manager of the Head Over Heels band. Originally, Head Over Heels was a Southern and Classic Rock band with Ed as the lead guitarist and vocalist in 1982.

 

He got his start playing guitar in local high schools and colleges in New York, as well as performing solo in many of the local Bay Ridge and New York City bars and clubs.

 

Head Over Heels grew to perform in places such as Club Med for over six years, and beach resorts throughout the Caribbean, Bahamas and Mexico.  Head Over Heels has also played at Hunter Mountain and the Hamptons, and continues to cover the NY Tri-State area, the Jersey Shore and the Atlantic City circuit. Head Over Heels has also played with and for many celebrities.

 

Ed is constantly working on managing and marketing the band for all to see.  Always striving to improve, Eddie consistently updates the band's vast music catalog to keep up with the present trends, which in turn allows Head Over Heels to appeal to a large audience regardless of venue or crowd.

Kelly-Marie, a Brooklyn native, discovered her passion and calling in life, music, after winning her 3rd grade talent show.  This second generation songstress, her father is a singer as well, knew what she was meant to do and there was no turning back.

 

Continuing on her musical journey, at the age of 12 she was a finalist on America’s Most Talented Kids. Following this appearance, she was asked to perform the National Anthem for the New York Mets at Shea Stadium, as well as the Brooklyn Cyclones at Keyspan Park, and went on to perform her rendition for many patriotic holidays, local sports teams/schools, acclaimed ceremonies, benefits, and events. Kelly-Marie has also starred in Off-Broadway and community theatre productions, some of which included Les Miserables, where she portrayed Young Cosette and years later went on to play Eponine. Some other past theater roles include "Annie" ('Annie'),  2 different productions of Guys and Dolls ('Adelaide', 'General Cartwright'), Footloose ('Ariel') , and many others.

 

At 16, she just missed the cut-off to audition for Showtime at the Apollo as a "child star of tomorrow" contestant, but took a chance and competed with the adults. This chance was worth taking, because she came in 1st place and was crowned "Top Dog".  Kelly-Marie competed in Fox 5’s Good Day New York's New York Idol competition and took first place, now  holding  title of the "New York Idol". She also competed in an X Factor competition in Binghampton, NY where she not only won first place and claimed the title of "Binghampton Idol", but won a trip to Dallas, Texas, where out of 25,000 contenders she made the top 350, only to be sent home after an interview round!

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Kelly-Marie's passion is fueled through performing and music. Head Over Heels is a group of phenomenal musicians that allow her to channel her passion and learn more each and every time they play together.

Bassist Paul G. Jacoby, or Paulie Gee as he is known as, is an accomplished musician & music teacher. Paulie attended classes and graduated from Five Towns College for Music, and Queens College, for Performance and Music Education.  Throughout college and up until now, Paulie has been very active in performing and teaching music.  He has performed all over the Northeast/Tri-State area playing clubs, colleges and venues in the Hamptons, Hunter Mountain, Vermont, the Jersey Shore, Pennsylvania, Long Island, and New York.

 

In 1991, Paulie spent the year touring Europe with Joey Fulco, a former Mr. Teen USA, who was a popular recording artist in Switzerland and was originally from Long Island. When he returned from Europe he had his own band, Jane Doe, which became a top cover band and very much in demand in the Northeast and East Coast N.A.C.A. associations (National Association of Campus Activities). Jane Doe were regulars at both the Northeast and East Coast N.A.C.A. Showcases.

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Paulie also spent many years as a home music tutor, tutoring all ages on Bass, Guitar and Piano. He also held teaching positions in different music teaching studios and storefronts as well as having his own home music tutoring service and teaching adult education classes on guitar at churches on Long Island.

 

Paulie was also the band leader for Loose Moose, the house band for The Crazy Moose Saloon, which was a club in Bayside, Queens, where Jane Doe was originally the house band. Loose Moose were finalists on VH1’s Cover Wars, which was a game show hosted by Paul Shaffer (of the David Letterman Show), where cover bands from around the country competed against one another.

 

For the past fourteen years, Paulie has been the bassist for Head Over Heels. Performing is Paulie’s first love and passion. He thrives on playing live, especially with the exceptionally talented musicians, past and present, he’s had the privilege of performing with. There are two kinds of musicians in this world; one who performs to live and one who lives to perform. Paulie lives to perform.

From his Gospel roots, music and faith has always been Joseff's passion and drive to succeed. Joseff McKenneth Goodwin, born September 14, was raised in the small city of Santee, South Carolina by his then-single mother and three sisters. Joseff gained a special interest for singing and playing piano at a very early age!

 

At the age of 16, on a mission to perfect his craft, he began singing and playing piano for church, weddings, community service events, etc. Hardly familiar with the business side of music, Joseff Goodwin enrolled in Claflin University, the oldest HBCU in South Carolina. During his university experience he learned other instruments (violin, cello, percussion) and was exposed to an incredible variety of music cultures, styles, and genres ranging from classical, jazz, blues, soul to R&B, pop and hip-hop. Most of these genres were often looked down upon by close family and friends because of his strict gospel upbringing. But realizing the significance and the impact of expressing himself through a variety of music, Goodwin was fueled to break out of the box! Very quickly opportunities came to him on his artistic journey.

 

Goodwin has opened for R&B/Soul sensation Dave Hollister, Gospel recording artists William Murphy III, Keith “Wonderboy” Johnson, and Byron Cage. In 2007, he was a finalist on MTV’s 4th season of P. Diddy’s “Making the Band”. He later studied music theater at New York University until 2009.

 

He made his Off-Broadway debut in February 2011. He is currently writing, producing, and recording. His very first single, "Be There", was released on October 1, 2011, and is available for download on iTunes and Amazon MP3.

Chris Tibaldi is one of the most in demand percussionists around. Since attending the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, he has performed thousands of shows ranging from small, intimate private affairs, to sold out 16,000 seat arenas and everything in between.

 

Before joining Head Over Heels, Chris was a long-time member of popular NY bands The Touch and Belly Button. For the past 11 years, Chris has been an Associate Professor of Percussion at Five Towns College. Chris is fluent in many styles of music including dance, house, rock, hip hop, Latin, funk and jazz. He seamlessly blends both acoustic and electronic drum sounds to create an exciting drumming style that keeps the dance floor moving.

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Chris is honored to be endorsed by some of the best and largest drum companies in the world including: Sabian Cymbals, Vic Firth Sticks, Evans Drum Heads, and GMS drums.

Alex Cummings is a singer, producer and multi instrumentalist from Camden, New Jersey. Since the age of 10, Alex started using the saxophone as his means of creative expression guided by Camden community heroes Jamal Dickerson, Nasir Dickerson, and Hassan Sabree.

 

After graduating Oberlin Conservatory and Aaron Copeland Music Graduate School, Cummings is now based in New York City and performs around the world collaborating with artists such as Robin Eubanks, Billy Hart, Michael Mossman, Mark Turner, as well as the bands such as Twilyte Axis, Alex Cummings quartet, earthTone, FeveBand, Robin Eubanks Big Band, Spice Cabinet, Street Beat Brass Band, Directions, and Head Over Heels.