“Music is My
First Love”
Cornelious “C.C.” Celestine
When Cornelious “C.C.” Celestine was eight-years-old
and living in New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward, he
recalls watching his brother, James “Larry” Celestine
- 14 years C.C.’s senior - singing with The Drifters on Dick
Clark’s “American Bandstand” TV show in the early 1960s.
Coming from a musical family and seeing his brother perform
on TV with a top-selling group inspired Celestine and convinced
him that he too wanted to perform. And, in later years, he would
be doing just that – sharing the stage with such greats as The
Temptations and opening for The Chi-Lites, The O’Jays, Johnny
Taylor and other luminaries of the popular music world.
Today, as the lead singer for the vocal trio, Real Love, Celestine
and his bandmates have built up a local and regional following
that he hopes to take to the national level. In addition to
Celestine, the group, which originally came together as a vocal
quintet in 1998, also consists of baritone-tenor Rene Fleury and
bass-baritone Nathaniel Brooks. They are backed up by the sixpiece
Real Love Show Band.
“I love what I do,” Celestine began. “Music is my passion. I put
a lot of work into it and collaborate with a lot of different folks;
writing, doing vocal arrangements, producing and recording. It’s
something I just love to do.”
Celestine’s “real love” for music began early, in church, like
Real Love’s
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many others of that time, and in school. One of his teachers
at Carver High School, Martha Francis, perceptively recognized
his talent early and worked intensively with him, honing his
vocal skills – especially in the classical repertoire. It paid off.
“We went full circle,” Celestine said. “She taught me and I
ended up singing with her at The Kennedy Center, Constitution
Hall, The Meyerson Center, and The Senate while part of The
Moses Hogan Chorale.”
But other voices were stirring inside Celestine besides those
in the classical vein. As a teenager hearing the songs of Jackie
Wilson, The Drifters, and Motown artists like Smokey Robinson,
Marvin Gaye and others, he began learning their songs. To the
dismay of his classical music mentors, he began following his
destiny to perform those singers’ hit songs professionally.
At 14 he joined a group called The Counts, belting out Motown
tunes at French Quarter clubs, touring to New York City and
opening for big-name acts whose tours brought them to the
New Orleans region. In 1970 he formed his own group, an R&B
quartet they named Ardi’che. They entered talent competitions,
winning many of them and they performed throughout New
Orleans and the surrounding areas.
A decade later, while employed as the director of loss prevention
at the Sheraton Hotel in downtown New Orleans, Celestine
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