When 90-year-old jazzman Attilio “Art” Mineo was growing up in Brooklyn, his mother played him Italian opera, while all around him was the daily opera of immigrant Sicilian life: boardinghouses, ardent suitors, the Mafia.
The young Mineo, however, became a top-notch jazz musician, moving to Tacoma during the 1940s. Yet a love of opera remained, and – in his 70s – Mineo began to compose it, in Italian. Arias from those operas, plus some popular songs, will be performed for the first time Thursday at a musical tribute to the man who was Tacoma’s Mr. Music.
“Around 10 years ago, Art called me out of the blue,” says Barry Johnson, a local opera singer and director who’s organizing the Mineo tribute. “He said he was an opera composer, he wanted me to critique his work. He took me out to lunch. We’ve been friends ever since.”
Mineo, who as Johnson remembers “always wore a coat and fedora – very Italian American,” was in fact one of Tacoma’s biggest postwar jazz stars. From a musical family, he played with Buddy Raye and arranged for the U.S. Army Band in the ’30s, During World War II, Mineo was posted to Fort Lewis. He met his future wife Toni, stayed on and became the jazz pianist, bassist and arranger for the New Yorker club on Sixth Avenue, now gone but then the top place to go.
“Art’s a wonderful guy,” says Bill Ramsay, 80, who played saxophone with Mineo’s band at the New Yorker and who meets Mineo regularly with other old-time musicians in what he calls the “old farts’ club.” “He was very tolerant of us young guys, who liked to drink and carry on. One guy would actually fall asleep on his chair. Art would just say, ‘Let him sleep.’ He was very patient.”
Through the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s, Mineo played in town and toured, arranging for greats like Paul Whitehead, collaborating with Skitch Henderson on a commission for Jackie Kennedy and writing the music for the Bubbleator at the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair. He recorded for Columbia Records and hosted visiting musicians such as the young Oscar Peterson.
Mineo also collaborated extensively with his wife, Toni, who is also a musician. Together, they wrote a suite featuring the well-known Tacoma saxophonist Corky Corcoran, which was recorded at the old Century Ballroom in Fife.
Yet all his life, Mineo kept a passion for opera.
“My mother would take me to the Met in 1928, 1929,” remembers Mineo, who still has a Brooklyn accent. “We’d sit in the balcony for 25 cents. (Over the years) I got to liking Verdi, Puccini, Bellini, listening to those beautiful melodic lines. And I thought, maybe I could write one.”
And so, at age 77, he did. Mineo’s first opera told the history of St. Joan of Valois, an unlucky medieval princess; his second was about the true story of Luigi Tarisio, an eccentric 19th-century violin collector who rediscovered Stradivarius violins. Then came “Three Tenors and Sylvia,” based on the all-Italian Mineo family boardinghouse, where a female tenant was courted by three suitors, eventually being jilted by her fiancé.
Two more operas followed, including one about the Mafia. “I grew up with a lot of mafiosi. But they left musicians alone; they knew we couldn’t handle anything like that,” says Mineo. “They knew we wouldn’t be loyal.”
Nor did they bother him in Tacoma, though the New Yorker was a regular criminal haunt. Mineo’s opera deals with the beginnings of the organization, he says, which started as a way for Sicilians to protect their daughters (“ma figlia”) from the invading Moors.
“They started out as good guys, like the Elks,” Mineo explains. “Then they got too much power, got mixed up with bad people. But in the Great Depression, when there was no food in the house, you’d see three or four mafiosi breaking into a butcher’s shop and feeding the people.”
All of Mineo’s operas are in Italian, which he speaks fluently.
For the Mineo tribute, Johnson has put together a program of arias from the first three operas, plus four of the composer’s popular songs. It’s a difficult task, as Mineo – ever the jazz musician – does not generally write out full accompaniments, only hinting at rhythms and often just giving chart-style chords. For the concert, then, the eight singers (including Johnson) will be accompanied by a CD arrangement by local recording engineer David Lange, who has synthesized orchestral parts. Only the popular songs will have live piano. To connect the arias, actor John Armstrong will play the part of Mineo himself.
“His musical style is southern Italian, though the accompaniment is like Verdi,” says Johnson. “It’s great music.” One example is “Solo Per Te,” which has a tango bass line, Rossini-style chords and a passionate vocal line in Italian.
Mineo doesn’t write or play any more due to poor eyesight. But he’ll be at the concert and is pleased he’s finally seeing his operas performed, at least in part.
“Tacoma’s been awful good to me,” he says.
Rosemary Ponnekanti: 253-597-8568
blogs.thenewstribune.com/arts
‘The Art of Music: A Tribute to Art Mineo”
Who:
Barry Johnson and other singers, actor John Armstrong
When: 7:30 p.m. Thursday
Where:
Tacoma Musical Playhouse, 7116 Sixth Ave., Tacoma
Tickets: $22
Information: 253-759-6639, www.artmineo.com
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