Tell me more about Giovanni Vicari

[D.Martin]

In recent months I've fell more and more in love with the music of Giovanni Vicari and have been transcribing his tunes and listening to his recordings over and over so it got me thinking about reaching out to those here on the forum who were fortunate enough to study with him.

If you'd be willing to share your experiences, I would love to know in your words what he was like as a teacher?

What are some of the major takeaways you got from him as a teacher/mentor that heavily influenced your playing/progress? Things he emphasized in his teaching?

What kind of man was he? What was he like?

Any other particularly memorable stories or anecdotes of your time with him you'd like to share?

I have become such a fan of this man's music and as there is little information about him online I though this might be a nice way to share information about him. I have no idea how many people here might have studied with him. How I would have loved to been able to meet him and hear him play in person. Luckily in this era we have recordings.

Thank you in advance!

Doug

[D.Martin]

Also what was his main axe?

[mandopops]

Hello Doug,
I was a student of Mr. Vicari and I have nothing but positive comments about him as a Person, Player & Teacher. I may have to put this into a couple of replies while I ruminate on my thoughts.

As a person he was proud, warm, & generous. As a player he had the "chops" and was soulful & playful. As a teacher he was demanding and patient.

Major takeaways, he was open to all kinds of Music, if played well. He was not concerned with flash over feeling. He was always aware of the little details, timing,pick direction, fingering,etc.. I still hear him in my head w/ his Italian accent "Up-a Pick, down-a pick".

He could play "Classical" and he loved Jazz and loved to improvise. Even when I would be working on a simple finger exercise or Etudes he would improvise his 2nd part. He would be disappointed if I couldn't hold my part, he'd say "When you make-a mistakes I can't make-up my parts, I have to play with you." He played gigs w/ his DeAngelico Guitar w/ a DeArmond Pick-up.

He had a bunch of Instruments, but his main Mandolin was one of those old 2-Point round sound hole Martins. I think I might have posted an autographed picture of him with his Martin.

I will come up with a little background on him and a couple of stories. I'll try and keep it simple, but I truly loved my time with him.

[D.Martin]

Thank you Mandopops! That is just the kind of info I am looking for! Any other bits you can remember are helpful for getting some insight into this musical hero. Hopefully others will chime in as well.

[mandopops]

A bit of Mr. Vicari's history as I remember it from his stories.This was a long time ago (1979-82 or so) that I took lessons.

He was from Catania , Sicily. He said he got started in Music because his brother was taking Mandolin lessons, and one day his parents came into the house and heard the Mandolin plucking. They assumed it was the brother practicing his lessons. They peeked over the couch and it was little Giovanni w/ the Mandolin copying what he had heard his brother playing. He said he figured by moving his fingers up and down, he could make the notes go up & down. He was 3 or 4 years old. Well, the parents figured they had a prodigy on their hands.

He always considered Mandolin his first instrument, but his studies began as a Violin student. That meant 6 months of Solfeggio studies,without an instrument, standing pretending to hold a Violin, and sight reading. He said he thought that was the best way to start, but you couldn't do that in America. People would think you were stealing their money. They want you to teach them songs.

Time when on and somewhere in his early teens (12-13?), he was 1st Violin in a Sicilian Opera Co. Apparently he did some touring because I saw a picture of him as a lad on a Camel in the desert. What I'd give for that picture. One time he did tell me he could not play "Ball" like the other kids, in fear of hurting his hands. A tinge of sadness, but no serious regrets.

He was hearing Jazz sounds from the U.S. He said he got some local maker to fashion some kind of a Banjo from a drum head and form the 1st Jazz band in Sicily. (?) OK then.

Well, it was figured he had to come to America, so it was arranged. He had some kind of sponsor who got him to stand somewhere in the Music areas of New York with his Instrument cases, Violin,Mandolin,Banjo... At some point some asked if he could play those instruments. He said yes. The rest is history.

[Jim Garber]

In recent months I've fell more and more in love with the music of Giovanni Vicari and have been transcribing his tunes and listening to his recordings over and over so it got me thinking about reaching out to those here on the forum who were fortunate enough to study with him.

I did not know anything about him when I moved to New York in the 1970s but there were a few members of the New York Mandolin Orchestra who took lessons from him.

What recordings have you heard of his? There are not too many available except on a few compilations, notably Italian String Virtuosi, two from Global Village records and some from Randy Osborne.

[D.Martin]

The only recordings I have of him are on the Italian String Virtuosi (as you mentioned) as well as the compilation albums Speranze Perdute and Birichino have cuts of him. I also have the latin music album under the name Juan Vicari. I believe ALL these titles are available at itunes now. Which ones are the Randy Osbourne records? I'll have to look into those. Thanks!

[Jim Garber]

Randy's site is finefretted.com I think there is only one Vicari cut per CD.

GE21

GE26

There are two other CDs but neither have Vicari cuts.

As Mandopops knows (and will nodoubt remind me) I have two OOP LPs of Vicari stuff both of which feature his playing (as opposed to some of the orchestra stuff which he has solos but other instrumentalists. One of these days i will figure out how to work my USB turntable and those will be my first project.

[brunello97]

….I have two OOP LPs of Vicari stuff both of which feature his playing (as opposed to some of the orchestra stuff which he has solos but other instrumentalists. One of these days i will figure out how to work my USB turntable and those will be my first project.

Domani, domani. Sempre domani.

Mick

[mandopops]

I will post another Vicari story tomorrow or Saturday. In the mean time Mick (brunello97) & I will drive out from the midwest to show Jim how to use that new-fangled machine of his to get the Vicari recordings.

Watch out, Jim, we'll be knockin' at your door.

I actually have a few tunes on tape of Giovanni and I. They are just a couple things we recorded at our lessons.

[Jim Garber]

You are welcome, pops and mick... I'll get the teakettle going. I would love to hear some of the lesson tunes. This would give me inspiration to set up my turntable.

[mandopops]

A little bit more on Mr. Vicari,

Backing up a bit.

I lived(live) in the Chicago area. So before I moved to New York I took lessons from Jethro. I was a complete novice, so Jethro got me doing beginning scales & chords. Then started me on my way. He would show me something & put it down on a cassette. I would go home and work on it for awhile. Then I'd go back for more. Very informal, but it was great. A super experience. More than I expected. I am forever grateful & I'm glad I took the lessons. He was equally a master and generous.

I just set this up because my time w/ Giovanni was quite different. I wanted to keep taking lessons because I was in New York & was getting gigs. I knew I needed help. I got his number & thought this was going to be some heavy duty "Classical" guy, and this might be kind of stale. (Compared to Jethro which was totally fun). So, I called and told him I wanted lessons, but didn't know if I wanted to study "Classical". He said," I don't teach-a Classical. I teach-a Music & Mandolin. If you know-a Music & Mandolin, you can-a play what ever you want." I was sold.

I knew it would require learning to read Music. I was willing to bite the bullet and try. Jethro once said he read and it was a good thing. I'm glad I did. I know it can be a raging debate here about reading or not. I'm glad I did. It only helped me. I still play things by ear, but it opened up more avenues of learning. I'm not the best sight reader, but I'm decent. This was a reflection on Mr. Vicari. He was very patient. We worked with the Bickford Method Books. Also some pages from an Italian (of course) Method and Dancla Violin exercises.

Funny thing was after a while I asked him about learning some Classical stuff. We worked on a Bach Bouree and then a Vivaldi Violin Concerto. Mainly the lessons were step by step organized "by the book" so to speak. He was strict, but personally, it was fun it take lessons with him. He was not dry and boring. He didn't crack my knuckles with a ruler.

I hope this doesn't sound too much about me. I'm just telling it from my experience with him. Next installment I'll have a couple of anecdotes. For now good night, kids.

[D.Martin]

Thank you Mandopops for everything you've shared so far. This is so wonderful to hear your first hand accounts of your experience with him. If others feel like chiming in too, this thread can be a nice place to share these stories and honor your teacher. This is also shows the beauty of a forum like this where we can share information and experiences!

[Mandophile]

Here's some trivia. It's my understanding that Vicari played mandolin with the little Sicilian band during the wedding reception in Coppola's Godfather. I believe it was a tarantella. I'm sorry I can't recall where I read this. Can any one corroborate this?

[mandopops]

Yes, indeed he is in the wedding band in "The Godfather". He is plain as day because he keeps peeking his head around the Music stand to get in camera shots. He is playing the Martin Mandolin I mentioned earlier.

Some of the incidental Music in the soundtrack is from that scene, there is a tarentella, The Godfather Tarentella also Godfather Mazurka written by Coppola's Father, Carmine. I wish the tracks would come out in their entirety. They are in the soundtrack only in snippets. Giovanni is very easy to see in the Johnny Fontaine (Al Martino) song serenading Connie. If you find some photo stills you can see some clear shots of him.

This does remind me of a couple of stories. (I do go on, don't I?). I asked him about the shoot and if he met Brando. If so, what was he like because of his reputation. He said he would see him in the morning getting bagels and coffee and said he was very nice. "He-a treated me-a beautiful."

He said one down side was that for the scene they had to bring in fresh food from Luna's everyday (It was a wedding reception,after all) and I think he said it was about a week shooting. He said "We all were-a getting-a fat."

[brunello97]

Great stories, M'Pops, keep them coming… I went back to check out the wedding scene in GF1. I tried to snag a couple caps of GV and his two point. I played one of those (20-S?) up at Elderly a few weeks ago. Very nice mandolin.

Interesting why Coppola chose a NY-based mandolin player for the wedding band instead of tapping into the Italo-mando scene that must have still been pretty vibrant close to home in SF at the time. Tony Flores might have been too tall. But I guess the wedding was supposed to be held out on Long Island (which if it was filmed 'on location' pretty much explains it...)

Mick

[mandopops]

Great job of snagin'.

There he is, he's such a ham, making sure he's in full view of the camera.

It was filmed in Long Island.

[mandopops]

More? In no particular order:

In my Jethro days when I'd show up at his place he'd say. "Get you a cold one, Buddy?". Then he'd grab a couple of lite beers from the fridge, I'd say hi to Gussie (his wife) and we'd go downstairs for the lesson.

With Giovanni, we'd start w/ a couple "hot" ones, freshly brewed espressos. He had a little one bedroom apartment on 24th St in Manhattan. He had a house in Long Island, but he'd kept his old apartment in the city as his studio and he could say over night if he had to be in town. I guess with rent control at the time, it was relatively cheap. Anyway, in his kitchenette area he had an espresso machine. So before our lesson, he would grind the beans, brew a couple of cups and we would have our coffee. I loved this part of my lesson time. It was a little break from the weeks activity. We would just sit and chat and drink our espressos. One time he went right to the lesson without coffee. I just thought he was in a hurry so I said nothing. In mid-lesson, he looked at me startled and said, "We didn't-a have our coffee." I said I thought he was in a rush. He said no & I was to always insist, "I will not start my lesson, until I've had-a my coffee." With that we stopped and he brewed a couple of cups, we drank our espressos, then returned to finish our lesson.

If there ever was a female present, maybe another student arriving early, he would always put on a jacket. He said he didn't feel right not wearing a jacket with a lady in the room. An old world gentleman.

He had superb penmanship, whether writing his name or making Music notation. In fact, for signing his name he had a special pen & ink set. His Music pages were beautiful. Too him, everything was an artistic statement and a reflection on him.

I'd said earlier he was open to different kinds of Music. Nevertheless, he was not into, Johnny Cash. He must have seen him on TV the night before, because he turned to me in the middle of our lesson and asked me if I liked Johnny Cash. I said "Yeah, Johnny Cash is cool." He shook his head and said, "He can't-a sing, and he can't-a play Guitar." I tried to explain that w/ Cash he's the outlaw, tough but sensitive to the underdog etc...He wasn't buying it. Again, "He can't-a sing and he can't-a play Guitar." Well Johnny was down for the count w/ Mr. Vicari.

Next time I'll talk about some of his instruments and his playing.

I'd like to get these down now. A bit of oral history. D. Martin is right this is the place. I hope you enjoy these little stories.

Joe

[D.Martin]

Those are great stories Joe! I for one am really enjoying these anecdotes. I hope other people here are as well. Thanks again for all these!

[Jim Garber]

Nice photos or Sr. Vicari on this page.

Also, additional info and mp3 of Occhi di Bambola for your listening pleasure.

[brunello97]

Great GV quote at the end of the article:

"Do what you love and you will never work a day in your life."

Mick

[mandopops]

I've been preoccupied the last few weeks, but I'd like to return with my last installment, instruments & Music.

Mr. Vicari was from Cantania ,Sicily and kept a contact with the Carmelo Cantania makers there. (In fact while I was taking lessons he arranged a batch of Mandolins to be ordered for some of us students.) He had several Cantania mandolins, Flat backs and at least one Bowl back model. I think one belonged to a student who left it there for his lessons. Giovanni also had a Cantania Bowl back Mando-Cello. He pulled it out once or twice to play something. Beautiful. He also had a Cantania Greek Bouzouki. he pulled it out once and played some Bach thing on it. Again, beautiful.

I think he had one or two Catania Guitars ,one steel strung & one nylon strung. One brief story. I was the 1st lesson of the day once & he must have been felling frisky. He handed me a guitar,he knew I could play a few chords, and started calling out chord changes to me while he started jamming. After a few passes I realized it was a sort of "Minor Swing" A minor,D Minor, E7th alternating pattern. So he just jammed away for a bit, Flat-picking on a nylon string. When he played in that style it was very Djangoy/Gypsy/Jazz style. I thought , well that's the closest I'll ever get to jamming w/ Django.

He had a D'Angelico Guitar, I only saw in pictures. He had a D'Angelico Mandolin which I discovered in a little closet, not in a case,the bridge was off and needed some work. I was freaking out it was just sitting right there in a closet. I think he was a little embarrassed he'd let it get so neglected. He ended up taking it to D'Aquisto (he knew from the old shop for repair) It was a gem two-point, asymmetrical,round sound hole. (Footnote: in the book "Acquired of the Angels" D'Aquisto is quoted about a Mr. Vicari playing Paganini Caprices on his D'Angelico Mandolin. I wished he'd recorded that stuff. This goes with the Paganini thread elsewhere.)(I feel like I'm back in school w/ footnotes. All I need are a few Ibids)

I never heard him play Violin or saw one of his fiddles. He had a Paramount Tenor banjo. We did a tape of us doing 12th St Rag w/ Mando & Banjo. One of my prize recordings.

His Music was diverse. He, of course, did the Italian recordings and the Juan Vicari Latin Lp. He recorded with Bernstein Vivaldi's Concerto in C for Diverse instruments & 2 Mandolins. Carlo De Filippis played the other Mandolin. I really like that recording. He had an autographed picture of Theodore Bikel on the wall, he had done a recording with him of some Russian music, I don't recall if Giovanni played Mandolin or Balalaika on it. He did have a Balalaika on the wall. He did have a Gibson Mandola, like the A4 from the teens. It kind of matched my A4. Although, he never liked Gibson Mandolins all that much.

A lot of his work through the 50's & 60's was playing in the Broadway Pit Orchestras. He would usually play multiple instruments.He played in "My Fair Lady", in which he said he also got paid to be the Guitar teacher. He also did "Hello Dolly". He said once they did a black cast with Armstrong and Pearl Bailey showing up. He did shows like these for years. Playing multiple instruments at union scale & with shows running for years, that's how he could afford to buy a house. I think somewhere in Long island. He kept his old apartment in the city as his studio.

In a previous entry I mentioned an Italian method he used. It was by Bonifacio Bianchi.

I told my Giovanni Vicari stories and I'm glad I got them out. Perhaps there could be a thread just for teacher stories. I'd like to hear some. I know someone here has a family connection to the aforementioned Carlo de Filippis, there was a Samuel Spiegel connection mentioned in another blog. These all could be complied.

Someone start a Jethro as a teacher thread, I'll join in.

Thanx for listening,

Joe

[Jim Garber]

Great stuff, Mandopops. When did you take lessons from GV? I have a feeling I was in New York City also at that time but was unaware of him.

[D.Martin]

Thank you so much for your stories and for taking the time to allow us some insight into this great musician!

[mandopops]

Glad you guys liked the stories.

Jim, I was in NYC around the time '78-81 ish. Koch was Mayor and I was well shall we say a "Free man in New York". I loved it. My wife & I just returned from a long weekend, visiting our son & hanging out in Manhattan & Brooklyn.