Prince Tribute Artist to Appear at Lehman Center for the Performing Arts

The Purple Xperience band will be appearing at Lehman Center for the Performing Arts, located at 250 Bedford Park Boulevard West, in the Bronx, Saturday, May 20th at 8:00 pm.

This tribute to is headed up by Prince tribute artist and The Purple Xperience band member, Marshall Charloff. Charloff was a teenager when he first met Prince. Little did he know that 30 years later he would perform as Prince in The Purple Xperience, a tribute act fostered by Matt "Doctor" Fink, Prince's Revolution band scrubs-wearing keyboardist.

"I was in a band with Prince's cousin but I didn't believe Prince was really his cousin. So his cousin decided to prove it. He took me a private personal recording space where Prince was recording. I met Prince and also Matt "Doctor" Fink there and later performed with him. I saw Prince several times and did recordings at the Paisley Park studio. In fact I was on the recordings with Prince for the 94 East Series. I performed with Matt Fink on several occasions and later Matt and I talked about whether we wanted to perform the Prince Catalog. In 2011, we put together the rest of The Purple Xperience band consisting of Cory Eischen on keys, Tracey Blake on guitar, Ron Long on bass who also worked with Prince's father, John Nelson, and Ron Caron on drums. At first The Purple Xperience did infrequent shows with the emphasis being that when performing Prince's music it would be with a high level of musical execution, done with respect, and performed with the blessing of Prince. After Prince died on April 21, 2016, interest in the band exploded and the band began to perform more frequently. The Purple Xperience has performed all around the country and in Canada. Charloff resembles Prince in stature and looks and also vocals. Like Prince, Charloff plays all the instruments in his band. "In Prince's case, he was music! Fortunately I look and sound enough like Prince that I can sing as myself which happens to sound like Prince and thus come off respectful while emulating Prince," remarked the Minneapolis Purple Xperience lead.

The Purple One sold over 100 million records. A consummate and flamboyant showman, Prince was a prolific songwriter, producer, singer and virtuoso self-taught instrumentalist. He was an innovator whose music combined a variety of styles, including funk, rock, R&B, new wave, soul, psychedelia and pop.

"Prince was all-encompassing. His image and music was always cutting edge and unique. At this point it's almost iconic when you think of the color Purple you think of it in association with Prince." stated Charloff.