Michael “Slick” Rychlik has been a performing singer songwriter and keyboardist for the last forty years. He began his career in the Florida panhandle, as a front man for Big Al Zipper—a popular rock n’ roll band in the late sixties. In 1971, Michael moved to Tallahassee and started an all-original, jazz-fusion band called the Labamba Brothers.
The group stayed together for eight years and recorded a few singles and an album on the Sweetbay label. They performed throughout the southeast and up the east coast opening shows for such artists as George Benson, Spyro Gyra, Herbie Mann, Firefall, Jean luc Ponty, Minnie Ripperton, Little Feat, and Jimmy Buffet.
After Labamba disbanded, Michael became a member of Flipside: another all original, recording band on the Sweetbay label. The band released one album and a pair of singles, and they stayed together for almost four years. When Flipside broke up, Michael took a three-year hiatus from the music business. Instead of music, he began to write prose and pursue journalism. He worked as a music critic and features writer for the Tallahassee Democrat, and he had several short stories and magazine articles published.
Last year, Pocol Press published Michael’s first novel Journeymen. Over the last forty years, Michael has written over two hundred songs. He has recorded several self-produced CDs, and he is currently working on a new novel and he’s brewing up a batch of new songs.