| Swinging it with Jerry Costanzo |
| Written by Cecily Van Horn | |||
| Tuesday, 20 September 2011 11:10 | |||
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He was brought up in a musically inclined Italian family in New York. He had many jobs, such as personal driver for Al Pacino, before realizing that music was his true career calling. He said that he knew that being a musician was what he was meant to do when he had pretty much failed at everything else. I say, that it’s a great thing because he is a pure musical genius and sings with such devotion and passion for the swing jazz style. Times Square was able to have a great chat with him about his life, his music, and his upcoming show in New York. TimesSquare.com: Tell me about how it was growing up in a musical family. Were there ever moments you felt pressured into getting into the industry? JerryCostanzo: Well I never felt pressured getting into the industry at all. But growing up my father was a part-time musician who also came from a musical family. My grandfather was a musician and so were his cousins and brothers that came over here from Sicily. A lot of them were musicians and also became barbers, because that’s what Italians from Sicily did back in the turn of the last century. My father taught me and my two brothers instruments, but I never enjoyed the lessons that my father because he was kind of a tyrant teacher. I studied the saxophone starting in the third grade. But I was never too happy and avoided lessons; I was a rebel without a cause. TS: I read that you weren’t allowed to listen to rock and roll. Did you or your siblings ever rebel against this restriction? JC: Yeah, we grew up in that whole rebellious era of the 60s and 70s. My parents were the ‘squares’ that old generation, we were the hippie generation...and there was such a generation gap. Not like now, where parents and kids understand each other. As kids when we drove in the family station wagon, we only had AM radio in those days FM was a luxury back then and my father wouldn’t let us listen to rock & roll while driving in the car with my parents, we had to listen to WGSM where they played all the standard big bands that were still playing. We grew up simultaneously being a rebel without a cause from that generation, but we still liked listening to Sinatra and Dean Martin. But it wasn’t cool around hipsters, so yeah...
TS: Why are you drawn to jazz and swing big band style as opposed to another style?
JC: That kind of happened in my twenties. I realised wait a minute, I like a lot of the pop and the rock, but you know...every time I hear a great ballad or I hear Sinatra Nat King Cole...the singers especially...It could bring a tear to your eye, beautiful music, everybody loves it no matter who you are, it transcends generations, it’s timeless stuff. TS: I agree. I often wonder if any of the music in today’s mainstream will have the powerful impact as say Sinatra, and all the wonderful musicians of the past. JC: There are some great composers and arrangers that come up with some great stuff still these days. But for the most part there’s a lot of, for lack of a better word, crap out there. Haha, now I sound like my father...
TS: Growing up you wanted to learn piano but that your father decided against it because he didn’t want to pay for lessons. Do you ever wonder if you may have found your musical calling sooner if you had played? Why?
JC: Yes, definitely. My singing...I would have discovered that I was a better singer than saxophone player. But I was also very insecure as a youngster, so getting up in front of a group of people singing was terrifying to me. That was a fear that I had to overcome and I didn’t start overcoming that until I was in my thirties.
TS: How was it playing in your dad’s big band “The Memories of Swing”?
JC: It was a lot of fun. I always looked forward to it, the rehearsals. I started just helping the band out, they let me bring some arrangements down to rehearsal. That’s kind of how I developed my chops...I never really went to school for music. I did study with some vocal coaches to get rid of some bad habits, but singing with the big band is really how I started. A lot of people start with a small group and a piano player or with karaoke tracks; I started in front of a big band.
TS: Of all the sizes of bands you have (trio, quartet, quintet, etc). Which is your favourite to play with at a venue and why?
JC: My favourite is a small group. I love big bands, but you’re kind of restricted to the arrangements. With a small group, we don’t use any music; we fake all the tunes...I’ll call a tune like “A Long Last Love”...I can choose the tempo, the key, and I can play with the lyrics...You can be much more expressive when you’re not restricted to an arrangement. I can do the tunes my way.
TS: Tell me about your new album, “Can’t We Be Friends?” What inspired the name and the choices for the songs?
JC: I thought I would do a record that had a theme...relationships and happy endings. Most of the songs have a theme of rejection because in relationships, in my late teens and early twenties before I got married, I had a lot of roller coaster relationships and breakups. So I took that theme and found songs that had those romantic values... [Jerry started to sing to me] “I thought I found the girl of my dreams, this is where the story ends she’s gonna turn me down, and can’t we be friends?”...Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps, and Love Me or Leave Me...I could sing them all but you get the idea...
TS: How would you describe the live-Jerry Constanzo vibe to someone who has never been to your shows?
JC: I like to be spontaneous. I don’t just stand there, okay next song, next song...I make little jokes, little wise cracks at the end a song. I make eye contact with people in the audience and try to make everyone feel warm and at home. You got to instil some personality as well as singing. You got to have fun on stage and I want people to have fun with me. Come along for the ride, come see the show! TS: Well thanks for the awesome chat! I absolutely love the old-school swing vibe you’ve brought back to life with your music. JC: That’s my mission in life. I should have been born back in the 40s and 50s...I probably would have been a big name crooner back then.
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