Publication: Chicago Tribune [US]
Date: July 24, 1986
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Title: "High School Pals To Reunite To Rock"
Written By: Gary Graff

The big time beckoned Casey Terry through a note on his mother's doorstep.

And the singer, known publicly as Sir Casey Terry--front man for Mazarati, the latest pop-funk outfit from Prince's Minneapolis-based Paisley Park camp--almost didn't take the offer.

The note was from Mark Brown, bassist in Prince's band, Revolution. Terry had played in a band with Brown at Minneapolis' Central High School, and, he explained, "We had a pact that if one of us made it, all of us would."

Brown made it first, hooking up with Prince's band in 1980 as a replacement forAndre Cymone.And he didn't forget his promise.

"He really had to track me down for a couple of months," Terry said. "I was out on the road with a rock group called Wire, so I wasn't the easiest guy to find. He just left this note on my mother's doorstep that said, 'Casey, I'm gonna make you a star. Call me and let's get something together.'

"I thought it was a hoax at first. Then one day I said, 'Well, I'll call him up,' and the next week we were in a studio banging away at stuff."

The duo spent a year working on songs for Mazarati and then Terry went to work putting together the band, auditioning local talent and stealing from other Minneapolis bands--bassist Romeo, keyboardist Aaron (Ace) Paul Keith, guitarist Craig (Screamer) Powell and drummer Kevin (Blondie) Patricks--and recruiting a couple of out-of-towners he met at a local club, guitarist Tony Christian and keyboardist Marr Starr.

Mazarati recently released its debut album.

From the start, the group was determined not to be just another band from Minneapolis' fertile music scene. Rather than rent a plush rehearsal hall, for instance, they set up shop in the dank, windowless basement of a warehouse once used as a hideout by gangster Al Capone, "sharing a bag of Cheetos and letting each guy in the band have two sips from a can of pop."

Terry and his mates still rehearse in "the dungeon," though its been customized to provide a more comfortable creative environment.

And their look--whether it was the lace and torn jeans of their early days or the paisley jumpsuits they now sport--became what they'd wear on the streets as well.

"That's just the way we are," Terry explained. "A lot of people dress differently for the stage; we don't."

If Mazarati can drive this new album to the top of the charts and use it as a springboard for a high-mileage career, they will have accomplished something most of the other spinoffs from the Purple Court failed to do.

But, Casey said, there's no worry about an early demise for Mazarati. "This group was together for four years prior to the record deal," he said. "We're already a family."