By Steve Pick
Photograph by Peter Newcomb
Joe Bozzi wants to eat his salad, but once asked a question, he has so much to say he can’t find time for a single bite. At 72 years old, he’s got a long career in music to talk about. Just a few months ago, he released only his third recording, a CD called Nice Vibes and a Trumpet, and rereleased his 1969 debut, Trumpet Italiano.
“I grew up in North St. Louis,” Bozzi says, “but my family went on the Hill quite a bit. That’s where I got into the Italian American War Veterans Drum and Bugle Corps. Later, I saw Harry James, and I wanted to play the trumpet.”
Those were the days when jazz was America’s popular music, but by the time Bozzi was ready for serious study, things had changed a little bit.
“When I first went to the St. Louis Institute of Music, in 1954, I met the registrar, and she asked me what I wanted to do,” Bozzi explains. “I said I wanted to be a jazz trumpet player.
“She said that was all well and good, but what if I didn’t really make it? She asked if I’d be interested in being a teacher. So I went to St. Louis Institute of Music for my music stuff, and then to Washington University for academic courses.”
For nearly 45 years, Bozzi has been sharing his love of music with students around the metropolitan area. He spent 32 years at St. Thomas Aquinas-Mercy High School (now Trinity) and currently splits his week between five different schools.
In the 1960s, Bozzi spent his days teaching at Catholic schools and his nights at the Playboy Club, where he was entertainment director from 1964 until the club closed in the ’70s. “I started there as one of the guys in the band, but within a short time, I was put in charge ... I worked with a lot of big names. Tiny Tim was one. He was really like a 7-year-old kid. Everything you saw on TV, that was him. He would always call me Mr. Bozzi, even though he was probably about my age.”
Bozzi is loaded with anecdotes. “I played a show at the Chase as a member of the band backing up the Rat Pack,” he says, by way of example. “People used to believe Dean Martin was putting on an act, but at the first rehearsal, it took three guys to carry this big tray all full of glasses and booze.”
Many of the world’s greatest musicians befriended Bozzi. “Dizzy Gillespie was always real nice,” he says. “One night, we were going up in the elevator in his hotel, and this woman, who looked like she was 50 or 60 years old, was there. He struck up a conversation, and asked her up for some fruit salad.”
At this point in the tale, years of exposure to the depravity of musicians may lead us to expect a rather different ending than what Bozzi offers. “We became acquainted on the elevator, and she saw that we were harmless, so she came up with us. We went upstairs, he and I and this woman, and we had fruit salad together. Dizzy always made his own fruit salad.”
In 1969, through a series of favors, he had the chance to record and release an LP through Decca, Trumpet Italiano, an easy listening album that sought to ride Herb Alpert’s lite-Latin coattails into Italy. Though Jack Carney played it on KMOX in St. Louis, the album received little promotion. “At the same time,” says Bozzi, “Decca released Tommy by the Who, and it was all over for me.”
Bozzi continues to lead a Top 40 cover band and plays serious jazz when he can. The latter is documented on Nice Vibes, Bozzi’s self-released and locally recorded CD, on which he plays vibraphone more often than trumpet.
“I have no regrets,” said Bozzi, “because I have a great family. I don’t think, if I’d become a hit, I would have enjoyed it. I’ve been able to play all these years and teach music. I’m happy to be where I am.”
Bozzi and his band will kick off the Old Webster Jazz Festival on September 15; catch them on the Gore stage at noon. For more info, go to joebozziband.com.
