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Stanley Martin Szelest (February 11, 1942 – January 20, 1991) was an American musician from Buffalo, New York, known for founding an influential blues band in the 1950s and 1960s, Stan and the Ravens, and later as a keyboardist with Ronnie Hawkins and, briefly, with The Band.
Dec 6, 2022 · He returned to Buffalo and started Stan & the Ravens, which served as a training ground for an army of rock ‘n’ rollers over the next 30 years. One group of Ravens split off to form the band Raven, which recorded the first major label record from a Buffalo band and became legendary in its own right.
The Ravens, Buffalo, NY, 1962. Left to right: Chuck McCormick, guitar, Pete Haskell, bass, Stan Szelest, piano, Sandy Konikoff, drums. The Ravens at Lulu Belles Restaurant on Best St. in Buffalo in November of 1961. From left to right are Stan Szelest, Chuck McCormick, Pete Haskell (playing an old Kay electric bass), and Sandy Konikoff.
Jan 22, 1991 · He played for more than 30 years in Stan and the Ravens, a band popular in western New York, perfecting a blues-based style that he worked to pass on to several aspiring musicians.
Jan 31, 2020 · Stan & the Ravens was led by legendary Buffalo keyboardist Stan Szelest, who, in 1960 at seventeen, became a member of the Toronto-based group Ronnie Hawkins and the Hawks. That band included Levon Helm, Rick Danko, and Robbie Robertson, who later became members of The Band, Bob Dylan’s back-up band.
