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Music Monthly, July 1999 by Susie Mudd (excerpt)

"Mary Pat Hughes and the bands that she appeared in played on stage with the likes of Aretha Franklin, Ben E. King, Martha Reeves, the Coasters, the Temptations, and more. Whatever Mary Pat wanted to do, she did it. She appeared on stages from bar mitzvahs to Pier 6, to Artscape to Caribbean cruise ships and Vegas casinos. She also performed for President Clinton and Vice President Gore.

She loved music, it was her passion, it was the thing that kept her going, and it was everything she wanted it to be since she was a little girl. She was a fireball then, and she took that and her music to its highest place. She was doing it on her own terms, making music, and having fun. Not only was Mary Pat a great sax player, but also a brilliant vocalist, and a bassoonist who often played with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. She was gifted with a stage presence unmatched by any other.

Everyone who played with Mary Pat Hughes was touched by her presence. She was loud and loose and fun and energized, and she knew how to bring the house down. When people were not reacting as she wanted them to react, she would break into "Tutti Frutti" and a number of other songs that made her audience stop, look, and listen. Once Mary Pat got you into her music, you couldn’t get out. If you could hear her, you had to be into her, she grabbed you. What a talent this woman was.

I remember the first All Star Jam she performed at. She walked up on that stage, got a mic in its place, and belted out of some of the most soulful sax you’ve ever heard. She wailed, but that’s not all that was happening, her musical magic was taking over everyone around her. At the Jam, I just had to stop and stare. You gotta have guts to do what she did from the moment she picked up an instrument. She had a lot of soul, and her energy, whew, you had to go with it. Special, very truly special. What a loss."

2 Funkin' Heavy horns
Mary Pat, Nancy, Miriam, Chris, Dan, Leigh

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