Jersey Arts Interview: Bucky Pizzarelli
John “Bucky” Pizzarelli was born January 9, 1926 in Paterson, New Jersey and currently lives in Saddle River. The list of artists he’s played with reads like a who’s who in jazz history. He’ll be celebrating his 85th birthday with a concert on Tuesday, January 11th at the Bickford Theatre in Morris Township. I recently got the chance to wish him happy birthday and talk about his career…
GARY: How did you get the nickname Bucky?
BUCKY: When my father was 16, he hitch-hiked down to Odessa, Texas. He was the first Italian cowboy! He was a cowboy for a couple of years. Later on when he got married – much later – his first born was me and he called me Bucky.
You’ve had such an amazing career that keeps on going. Do you still get as much of a kick out of playing as you did in the beginning?
BUCKY: I do, yeah. That’s what I wanted to do and I just keep going. It’s really not a job; it’s a lot of fun!
GARY: I know you’re aware of it, but not many people are aware that so many great jazz musicians came from New Jersey. You’ve certainly played and recorded with most of them. Any idea why this area has been so great for music?
BUCKY: Well there’s a big population of guitar players here. I can name a whole gang of them: Tony Gottuso, Al Casamenti, Tony Mottola, Al Caiola – all guitar players
GARY: Was there ever a friendly rivalry or competition among you guys?
BUCKY: Oh yeah, definitely! But in a nice way, you know? I know that when I got back off the road in 1951, I started going about studio dates and that’s when the rivalry came in because one guy would be working here, another guy would be working there… But everybody was working, that’s the big thing!
GARY: When this was happening, did everybody know who was playing on everybody’s records?
BUCKY: Oh sure, yeah. Everything was freelance. The only steady jobs were the studios (NBC, ABC, CBS) – they had 65 musicians and those guys all wanted to be on the outside to do all the work we were doing!
GARY: Tell me about the beginning. I know you had uncles in the business. Did those family jams sort of get you interested in music? Yeah.
BUCKY: My uncles (Bobby and Pete Domenick) were banjo players and guitar players. On Sundays, they’d always play at the house. I wanted to join in, so they showed me a few chords and I ended up playing with them. Bobby, the younger one, was on the road with a lot of bands (Clyde McCoy, Buddy Rogers, Raymond Scott, Bob Chester) and boy he looked like a million bucks! I saw he had a car and this was during the Depression time!
GARY: Obviously music is in your family’s blood. Were you glad your sons became musicians?
BUCKY: They did automatically. John went to college as a trumpet player and came out a guitar player!
GARY: Knowing what you did about life on the road, did you offer them a lot of advice?
BUCKY: Oh yeah, I gave them a little inside stuff that I came across and they listened to me. But they’re doing very well on the road on their own; they’re making big money.
GARY: What’s it like when you record and perform with them on stage?
BUCKY: Oh, it’s thrilling!
GARY: Going back to your early career, I know you were a fan of many of the artists you wound up playing and recording with. What was it like to be in the studio or on stage with people you used to listen to on the radio?
BUCKY: It was a big thrill because when you hear a good singer in the studio you say “this is unbelievable!” and then all of a sudden they ask you to go here and go there and it’s a double thrill! They’d say can you do this? Vegas, wanna go? So, we’d go for a weekend and fly back.
GARY: Was there anybody that you really wish you could have worked with, but never got a chance to?
BUCKY: The only guy that I missed was Bing Crosby. I wish I had worked for him. I’d have love to play for him, but I played with Sinatra and Perry Como; Tony Bennett and Andy Williams – a lot of great guys.
GARY: Considering all of the great decades of music you’ve had, is there one particular time you would go back to if you could?
BUCKY: I think the one I remember the most was the first time I went with a band. I was still going to high school. We were on Christmas vacation and I got a call to go with Vaughn Monroe’s band. Luckily I was off, so I jumped on a bus with them in New York and played in Scranton, Binghamton, and Rochester. We took a sleeper train home and I went back to high school! That’s a good trick!
GARY: Did that trip show you that this was what you wanted to do for a living?
BUCKY: Yeah, that was it. The first trip. I said, “I’ve gotta know how to do this. I’ve got to know how to do that.” And I worked at it.
GARY: How did you get involved with the 7-string?
BUCKY: Well, one of my heroes was George Van Eps and he developed the 7-string at the Epiphone factory on 14th Street. He once made a beautiful record that just floored everybody. Nobody had ever heard a guitar like that. I said that’s for me and went out and bought one. We had gone down to hear it in person and once you’ve seen him in person playing that thing you wanted to buy four of them!
I still play 6-string too. I play a lot of dates when I’m playing rhythm and I play 6-string rhythm guitar.
GARY: Is the 7-string better for solos?
BUCKY: Yeah, solos and for backing up the singer. It’s perfect!
GARY: I read somewhere that you also paint.
BUCKY: Yeah, I’ve got a whole gang of painting in the cellar. I’ve been painting for about 40 years.
GARY: A lot of musicians seem to paint on the road.
BUCKY: Oh sure. You see things from the bandstand that nobody else can see and all of a sudden you’re saying, “Gee, I’d like to paint that.” One of the first paintings I did was of a bunch of waiters that I saw in a club. They were all standing around with napkins around their arms and they all had different colored socks on… I have about 100 paintings now. My Daughter took pictures of about 40 of them and put them in a book for me over Christmas. It was marvelous!
