THE TONIC*
HISTORY OF THE HALFTONES
Norm Mayell and Judy July met in 1974. At the time, Judy and her first husband, Kit, had a duo called Kit ‘n’ Kaboodle, playing small coffee shops around Marin County, just north of San Francisco. Judy and Kit had recently added two tap dancers to their repertoire of an eclectic mix of Motown covers, favorite songs from Hank Williams, Sons of the Pioneers, the Kinks, Bowie, tap tunes from the 1930s, swing tunes from the 1940s. They became Kit ‘n’ Kaboodle and the Keester Sisters.
A booking agent saw them play at a wedding and claimed to be able to book them on a Pacific Northwest circuit if they found a drummer. Norman answered an ad and came to audition. He provided the solid beat that was needed to quit their day jobs and go on the road. The agency fulfilled the promise to keep the band booked 48 weeks of the year, for the next four years. It was mostly a grand adventure, although changes happen. Eventually, Kit and Judy divorced, one of the Keester Sisters left, and Norm and the other Keester Sister split up.
An opportunity arose for Norm and Judy (now a couple) when a new booking agent’s husband and duo partner were looking to join another group. That new foursome was christened Bamboo. Once again, they were booked 48 weeks each year… for another four years, with a similar club circuit plus a few places in Southern California. Bamboo recorded a couple of original songs in the course of their career, and as music trends changed, so did their set list.
When traveling and playing on the road became tiring, Norm and Judy settled in the Bay Area, set up a home recording studio where they continued to play and record music. To make a living, they started a graphic design service business. Their small business, Generic Type, set type, ran galleys that were waxed, and laid out on production flats. They had, at one point, six monthly magazines that were serviced with a few employees. This was hands-on production, before digital programs had been developed. Judy set type and did much of the paste-up. Norm shot photographs for the magazines using a halftone screen with an Argyle bellows-style stat camera. This was the way newspapers and magazines rendered solid tone photos for print media. Hence, the name The Halftones bridged both the music and the print work they were doing.
Their lives unfolded in a variety of ways: Generic Type embraced technical advancements in the world of graphic design; Norm embraced golf as often as possible; Judy’s interests expanded to photography and travel; both pursued music projects on and off throughout the years. Norm and Judy were life partners and best friends for nearly 45 years before Norm died from cancer in 2022. Resurrecting the Halftones became a tribute to what was shared in those moments. There are songs still being uncovered and rediscovered.
* The tonic (or keynote) is the primary note or pitch of a song that helps you understand the song's form. It is typically the North star on a musical compass—the one thing you can always come back to when lost.
