Captain Bacardi
Well-Known Member
Still feeling good about Herb & Lani's gig in Temecula on Saturday night I went to the Vibrato on Sunday night to see Pat Senatore and pianist Josh Nelson perform. Josh was incredible on piano and he and Pat played a couple of sets, mainly standards. They did play some lesser known Duke Ellington tunes as well. I went there with my girlfriend Kathy and we met a couple of guys from the 52nd Street site, namely Bob Bragonier, David Leech and his son Jonathon. This was my first time to the Vibrato so I was really looking forward to the visit. We all had a great time talking and listening to music. We also had dinner there which was very tasty. I had these braised short ribs that just fell off the bone and so delicious, as well as a shrimp cocktail while Kathy had the New York Strip steak that had this tasty peppercorn sauce. It wasn't cheap, but we were on vacation, so what the hell... 
After my 52nd St buddies left Kathy and I stuck around since I wanted to meet Pat. After their set and after giving Pat some time to chill a bit I walked over to him and introduced myself. He was incredibly nice to talk to and enjoyed talking about the TJB days and things he's doing now, so I'll try to give a capsule version of what he told me.
He came to L.A. from New York in 1961. Obviously he was in the musician's union in NY and at that time they had a rule about not being able to transfer membership until being established in L.A. for 6 months. He worked a day job at a record store and one day Herb Alpert came in to get some records and struck up a conversation with Pat. He said it was late '61 or early '62 when that happened. Obviously Herb wasn't that well known at that time and they exchanged phone numbers once they learned they were both musicians. After Whipped Cream & Other Delights got released Herb called Pat and offered him the bass job with the Brass. Pat said Herb told him he would pay $100 for rehearsals. Pat was making $140 a week working 6 days and Pat told Herb "you've got yourself a bass player!" He said they rehearsed for a couple of weeks before playing the first gig in Seattle. Pat said that at the time they had no uniforms to wear, so they got these ruffled tuxedo shirts and dyed them different colors, trying to capture the Mexican image they were going for at that time. The only problem was that once they started playing and they started sweating the dye of the shirts started running and discolored their chests! But they soon got regular uniforms to wear for those early concerts.
He said after the Brass disbanded Pat started his jazz club Pasquale's and he ran that for several years, but had to close it for financial reasons. Before it closed Herb had asked Pat to use Pasquale's to throw a party for someone that had worked for Herb for many years. Pasquale's didn't have food but Pat hired a caterer and everybody had a great time. Herb sent Pat a personal note saying how much he appreciated what he had done and was very grateful that Pat went out of the way to make things great. Pat had talked to Herb about opening up a jazz club, and at first Herb said he would be interested but wanted the club to not only have jazz and food, but also an art gallery. But they never could find the right place that could work. Eventually Rocco's (which is where the Vibrato is now) closed and Pat thought that would be a good place, but there was an outstanding debt of Rocco's that had to be taken care - something like $80,000. So as part of a deal Herb paid that $80k and hired the guy who did the acoustics at the A&M Studios and Sony Studios to redo the entire indoors of what is now the Vibrato, and asked Pat to be the musical director of the club. Pat told me "Herb obviously doesn't need me for anything, but he's just such a nice guy and very loyal and gave me this opportunity, so I took it."
He said he enjoyed his time with the TJB and said that everybody got along, with the exception of Tonni Kalash. He said Tonni was a bit of an outcast and just didn't try to fit in with everybody else. He pretty much kept to himself. He didn't say anything to anybody when he left for Vegas. It was Pat's understanding that Tonni died in an auto accident not long after Nick Ceroli died. But since Tonni never kept in touch they didn't find out about it until long after it happened. He's not sure what happened with Lou Pagani and his passing, but did say that Pat's wife just found out where Lou's wife is living and hopes to find out more about that. Pat's wife and John Pisano's wife are the best of friends and have been close ever since the TJB days. As a matter of fact Pat said that everybody that is left of the TJB - including Herb - stay in close contact. It's just like a family, according to Pat. I thought that was great to hear.
Now for some bad news. Bob Edmondson is not doing well. He had to have some of his stomach and maybe part of his intestine's removed, though Pat wasn't 100% sure what the deal was on that. He does know that the doctors are going to try to make a new stomach for Bob to try to take care of whatever it is that caused this problem in the first place. Bob is approaching 80 so they hope everything works out for him.
I mentioned how I enjoyed seeing the three surviving members talk about the TJB on the BBC documentary. Pat said that segment was filmed at his house and there was a bit of a problem. His neighbor was getting some trees cut down and the sound of the saws kept interfering with the taping of that segment. Pat and the BBC guys talked to the workers to ask if they could hold off for a couple of hours - they even offered $300 to the workers but they refused to do it. But he said the BBC guys were very accomodating and they just kept refilming when they needed to. Pat said they could've done the filming in 1 1/2 - 2 hours if they didn't have to stop all the time, but it ended up taking all day to film. But he said it was fun getting together and talking about the old days.
I asked Pat if he had played on the Summertime album, but he said he did not and didn't really know who all played on that album. Once Herb disbanded the group in late '69 he went on his own starting his club and playing other gigs. He did say there was one time before Nick had passed where most of the original guys got together and played at some benefit just for fun. There wasn't any talk about getting together for any kind of reunion thing, but it was just for fun.
Pat really loved Nick's drumming, saying Nick was the best big band drummer he had ever heard. he said Nick could read any chart. Nick would just look over the chart and then could just play it. He knew where any breaks were, any accents that were needed and had impeccable timing. Pat, Nick and John just loved playing together as a rhythm section.
Pat talked briefly about his time in Stan Kenton's band, and when I told him I was from Austin he remembered playing at UT, and said Kenton loved going up to Denton and raiding North Texas State's One O'Clock Lab Band for players. They played a lot in Texas, but he said there were so many one-nighters during his tenure that eventually it just got old, though it was a great learning experience.
Currently, Pat is working on getting some albums released that he had produced that were only released in Japan. One was a trio outing of Cedar Walton that Pat and Billy Higgins were on. He's in some legal tangle with somebody who's trying to make money off of that, even though that person had nothing to do with the recording. Pat would also like do some live recordings at the Vibrato as a producer. There's such a wealth of jazz talent in L.A. that isn't getting heard so he's hoping to record some of the bands that come through the Vibrato.
I got him to sign my copy of his CD Pasquale (which is his real name in Italian, although in English it's Pat Francis). He's looking to get a dual citizenship in Italy and would like to travel throughout Europe to do some playing. He's a phenomenal bass player and a really nice guy to talk to. He plays frequently at the Vibrato so I would encourage everybody to go listen to him if you get the chance!
After my 52nd St buddies left Kathy and I stuck around since I wanted to meet Pat. After their set and after giving Pat some time to chill a bit I walked over to him and introduced myself. He was incredibly nice to talk to and enjoyed talking about the TJB days and things he's doing now, so I'll try to give a capsule version of what he told me.
He came to L.A. from New York in 1961. Obviously he was in the musician's union in NY and at that time they had a rule about not being able to transfer membership until being established in L.A. for 6 months. He worked a day job at a record store and one day Herb Alpert came in to get some records and struck up a conversation with Pat. He said it was late '61 or early '62 when that happened. Obviously Herb wasn't that well known at that time and they exchanged phone numbers once they learned they were both musicians. After Whipped Cream & Other Delights got released Herb called Pat and offered him the bass job with the Brass. Pat said Herb told him he would pay $100 for rehearsals. Pat was making $140 a week working 6 days and Pat told Herb "you've got yourself a bass player!" He said they rehearsed for a couple of weeks before playing the first gig in Seattle. Pat said that at the time they had no uniforms to wear, so they got these ruffled tuxedo shirts and dyed them different colors, trying to capture the Mexican image they were going for at that time. The only problem was that once they started playing and they started sweating the dye of the shirts started running and discolored their chests! But they soon got regular uniforms to wear for those early concerts.
He said after the Brass disbanded Pat started his jazz club Pasquale's and he ran that for several years, but had to close it for financial reasons. Before it closed Herb had asked Pat to use Pasquale's to throw a party for someone that had worked for Herb for many years. Pasquale's didn't have food but Pat hired a caterer and everybody had a great time. Herb sent Pat a personal note saying how much he appreciated what he had done and was very grateful that Pat went out of the way to make things great. Pat had talked to Herb about opening up a jazz club, and at first Herb said he would be interested but wanted the club to not only have jazz and food, but also an art gallery. But they never could find the right place that could work. Eventually Rocco's (which is where the Vibrato is now) closed and Pat thought that would be a good place, but there was an outstanding debt of Rocco's that had to be taken care - something like $80,000. So as part of a deal Herb paid that $80k and hired the guy who did the acoustics at the A&M Studios and Sony Studios to redo the entire indoors of what is now the Vibrato, and asked Pat to be the musical director of the club. Pat told me "Herb obviously doesn't need me for anything, but he's just such a nice guy and very loyal and gave me this opportunity, so I took it."
He said he enjoyed his time with the TJB and said that everybody got along, with the exception of Tonni Kalash. He said Tonni was a bit of an outcast and just didn't try to fit in with everybody else. He pretty much kept to himself. He didn't say anything to anybody when he left for Vegas. It was Pat's understanding that Tonni died in an auto accident not long after Nick Ceroli died. But since Tonni never kept in touch they didn't find out about it until long after it happened. He's not sure what happened with Lou Pagani and his passing, but did say that Pat's wife just found out where Lou's wife is living and hopes to find out more about that. Pat's wife and John Pisano's wife are the best of friends and have been close ever since the TJB days. As a matter of fact Pat said that everybody that is left of the TJB - including Herb - stay in close contact. It's just like a family, according to Pat. I thought that was great to hear.
Now for some bad news. Bob Edmondson is not doing well. He had to have some of his stomach and maybe part of his intestine's removed, though Pat wasn't 100% sure what the deal was on that. He does know that the doctors are going to try to make a new stomach for Bob to try to take care of whatever it is that caused this problem in the first place. Bob is approaching 80 so they hope everything works out for him.
I mentioned how I enjoyed seeing the three surviving members talk about the TJB on the BBC documentary. Pat said that segment was filmed at his house and there was a bit of a problem. His neighbor was getting some trees cut down and the sound of the saws kept interfering with the taping of that segment. Pat and the BBC guys talked to the workers to ask if they could hold off for a couple of hours - they even offered $300 to the workers but they refused to do it. But he said the BBC guys were very accomodating and they just kept refilming when they needed to. Pat said they could've done the filming in 1 1/2 - 2 hours if they didn't have to stop all the time, but it ended up taking all day to film. But he said it was fun getting together and talking about the old days.
I asked Pat if he had played on the Summertime album, but he said he did not and didn't really know who all played on that album. Once Herb disbanded the group in late '69 he went on his own starting his club and playing other gigs. He did say there was one time before Nick had passed where most of the original guys got together and played at some benefit just for fun. There wasn't any talk about getting together for any kind of reunion thing, but it was just for fun.
Pat really loved Nick's drumming, saying Nick was the best big band drummer he had ever heard. he said Nick could read any chart. Nick would just look over the chart and then could just play it. He knew where any breaks were, any accents that were needed and had impeccable timing. Pat, Nick and John just loved playing together as a rhythm section.
Pat talked briefly about his time in Stan Kenton's band, and when I told him I was from Austin he remembered playing at UT, and said Kenton loved going up to Denton and raiding North Texas State's One O'Clock Lab Band for players. They played a lot in Texas, but he said there were so many one-nighters during his tenure that eventually it just got old, though it was a great learning experience.
Currently, Pat is working on getting some albums released that he had produced that were only released in Japan. One was a trio outing of Cedar Walton that Pat and Billy Higgins were on. He's in some legal tangle with somebody who's trying to make money off of that, even though that person had nothing to do with the recording. Pat would also like do some live recordings at the Vibrato as a producer. There's such a wealth of jazz talent in L.A. that isn't getting heard so he's hoping to record some of the bands that come through the Vibrato.
I got him to sign my copy of his CD Pasquale (which is his real name in Italian, although in English it's Pat Francis). He's looking to get a dual citizenship in Italy and would like to travel throughout Europe to do some playing. He's a phenomenal bass player and a really nice guy to talk to. He plays frequently at the Vibrato so I would encourage everybody to go listen to him if you get the chance!
). He didn't start playing bass until he was a senior in high school.
