Famously musical friends

Joe Kernan
Posted 2/19/15

There are a lot of musicians being inducted into the Rhode Island Music Hall of Fame this year – 13 to be precise – and it is impossible to argue with the choices, although it makes you …

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Famously musical friends

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There are a lot of musicians being inducted into the Rhode Island Music Hall of Fame this year – 13 to be precise – and it is impossible to argue with the choices, although it makes you wonder when, or if, we will get to the point where there is no one worthy who hasn’t been inducted.

They are certainly not doing that yet. Just reading this year’s list makes you want to spend the day playing the music these people have produced. Makes you wonder why Little Rhody has produced or nurtured so many world-class musicians.

By world class, we don’t mean people who have left the state to make their mark. There are some stubbornly loyal and talented people who refuse to live anywhere else.

In any event, there are lots of people who have made their bones in the larger world of entertainment outside of our state, but there are some who qualify as what people still call “musician’s musicians” who have more or less stayed put but have played with some of the best musicians who every visited Rhode Island, like George Masso, Duke Belaire and Bob Petteruti, who have held their own with some of the biggest and best bands in the country.

“George Masso was born in Cranston in 1926 and excelled in just about every area of the music business – as a trombonist, composer, pianist, recording artist, arranger and educator. He played in the national big bands in the 1940s and recorded as a sideman with some of the biggest names in jazz, including Bobby Hackett and The World’s Greatest Jazz Band,” according to the RIMHOF press release. “He has released a dozen albums as a leader, which feature many of his own compositions, and those songs have, in turn, been recorded dozens of times all around the world. He taught music in the Cranston Public Schools for 11 years and another eight years at the University of Connecticut, mentoring some of our finest musicians, including several RIMHOF inductees.”

RIMHOF also tells us that drummer Anthony “Duke” DeCubellis was born to his calling. His father, Ray Belaire, led one of the top New England big bands of the Swing era and also ran The Arcadia Ballroom in downtown Providence, where Duke got his start. Following in his dad’s footsteps, he adopted the Belaire stage name and organized the house band at The Celebrity Club, Rhode Island’s first integrated nightspot, backing every major star that came through the area.

“In 1967 he founded his own big band and secured a Monday night residency at Bovi’s Tavern in East Providence in 1969. Duke is credited with keeping the big band sound alive in Rhode Island for the next 25 years.

“When I first started the band we were doing so well they wanted to do it two nights a week,” said Belaire in a telephone interview. “But it isn’t that easy to do. I had to get special permission from the union to have a Monday night $25 scale. Scale was usually $75, but these guys would come down from Boston just so they could play big band jazz. That’s always been hard to do, keep a band together like that, even for one night a week.”

Belaire has fond memories of playing with some of the best sidemen in jazz at one time or another, but the pleasure came at a price. The sound may have been big and the money was much smaller, but it didn’t matter if you were allowed to play with your idols.

“I remember one night I was drinking with Woody Herman, when he came down with his band,” starts Belaire, with a certain self-consciousness, as if he was afraid you’d think him a namedropper. “He was a friend of my father’s,” he quickly adds. “My father was also a booker…Anyway, I was complaining that I didn’t have any charts for the band, and Woody said he’d give me some. He spoke to his road manager and told him to give us some charts and they went and Xeroxed some of his charts, about 10 of them, and gave them to me. I still have them and I still use them.”  

The orchestra, still based at Bovi’s and now under the direction of trumpeter John Allmark, is considered the longest continually running big band in the United States with the added attraction of genuine Woody Herman arrangements.

“I have two libraries,” Belaire said, speaking of his musical arrangements. “I have the dance charts and I have the jazz charts. When I did parties, people would tell me they wanted the real jazz but what they really wanted was big band dance music. It’s all tightly written with maybe two or three bars to improvise and it’s back to the melody. When I bring my jazz charts, we set up the song and the soloists can build on it and have some fun with it. If I play a Duke Ellington tune, I want it to sound the way Ellington would play it, or Basie, or Woody.”

At 83, Belaire can’t take to the stage as much as he used to and he’s given up the Bovi’s gig.

“But I’m glad it’s still going. I’m glad there is still a place where you can hear real live jazz.”

Robert “Bob” Petteruti is the “dean” of bass players in Rhode Island who, from time to time, joined Duke Belaire to provide a superlative rhythm section for the national stars who came through the local jazz clubs.

“Over several generations he instructed and mentored dozens of our finest players at the Twin City Music stores in Providence and Pawtucket founded in 1932 by his father, guitarist and bandleader Joseph Petteruti,” says the RIMHOF release. “He began his career in 1943 at age 13 and has performed all over the Northeast in every setting. During the last 70 years he has performed with every major jazz artist to pass through Rhode Island. A fraction of the list of musicians he backed as part of the house band at The Celebrity Club and The Kings & Queens includes Roy Eldridge, Bobby Hackett, Mose Allison, Zoot Sims and Ben Webster, with whom he recorded two albums.

But rock and roll was not neglected this year, and among the inductees was The Schemers, who were at the center of the Rhode Island Punk and new wave music scene for nearly a decade.

“They won the WBRU Rock Hunt and Boston’s Rock ’n’ Roll Rumble talent contests and also released a series of successful independent singles. The major labels all came calling, but no record deal materialized.

In 1987 singer-songwriter Mark Cutler and guitarist Emerson Torrey formed Raindogs with the rhythm section from Columbia Records artists The Red Rockers and Scottish fiddler Johnny Cunningham. Their unique sound put them at the forefront of the blossoming Americana music scene. They released two critically acclaimed albums for Atco Records and toured nationally with Bob Dylan, Warren Zevon and Don Henley.

“Mark Cutler has since pursued a solo career, releasing six successful albums, and is considered the most important Rhode Island songwriter of the modern era,” according to the RIMHOF. “In recent years, The Schemers have reunited for a series of sold-out concerts and in 2015 began recording their first full-length album.”

Only one woman was inducted this year, Warwick-born Brenda Mosher, who, the RIMHOF tells us, began her recording career in 1973 for Columbia Records as a featured singer-songwriter with Rhode Island's Ken Lyon & Tombstone. She then took a job under her married name working for the artist formerly known and yet again named Prince in his wardrobe department “where she was discovered by ‘The Purple One’ who enlisted her for his girl-group project, Vanity 6.

“The group’s 1982 album was certified gold and contained several hits. In 1984 Vanity was replaced and the group became Apollonia 6. Their album went Platinum, they toured the world with Prince and also on their own, and Brenda had a speaking role in Prince's movie, Purple Rain. She retired in 1992 to raise her family, but returned to the scene in 2012 with her first solo album, ‘A Capella.’ Her comeback continued with a major New York dance club hit, ‘Guiltier,’ in 2013.”

Jazz honorees George Masso, Bob Petteruti and Duke Belaire will be inducted Monday, April 20, at Bovi’s at 7 p.m. just before the weekly performance of the Bovi’s Band, at 287 Taunton Ave., East Providence. For all others, the ceremony will be held Sunday, April 26, at 2 p.m. at The Met, 999 Main St., Pawtucket. Tickets for April 26 are $20 in advance and $25 at the door. The 2 p.m. unveiling of the inductee exhibits is free and open to the public. A ticket will be required for the 3 p.m. concert in the Met. Tickets can be purchased at www.rhodeislandmusichalloffame.com starting February 25.

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