Guitarist Don Alessi, once an ubiquitous presence on Boston’s music scene, was 100 years old when he died on Nov 3, 2018. His prolific career began in the 1940s and blossomed in the 1950s and 1960s. He was everywhere then—in clubs, on records, on radio and television. There was a time when it seemed like you could not pass a day living in Boston without hearing Alessi’s guitar somewhere.
Alessi was a jazz man at heart, but he played all styles of music in every imaginable setting. Fred Taylor told me that “Don was the utility infielder of Boston guitarists—whenever anybody came to Boston and needed a guitarist, they called Don Alessi. Any kind of music, he could play it.” On top of his daily radio and TV appearances, trio engagements, and studio work, he backed the likes of Sammy Davis Jr, Tony Bennett, and Jerry Vale. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
Don Alessi owed his first big break to another Bostonian, the bandleader Vaughn Monroe. Monroe organized his first big band in 1940, and based it in Boston during the war years. During that time Alessi was working in the jazz spots around town. The photo of him here was taken at a jam session at the Hop Scotch Room, in the Copley Square Hotel, in 1944. Perhaps someone from Monroe’s band heard him there. Perhaps Vaughn himself did. Someone brought Alessi to Monroe’s attention, and when Bucky Pizzarelli, Monroe’s guitarist, entered the army in late 1944, Don Alessi replaced him. Monroe recorded some of his classic early sides during Alessi’s tenure, including “There, I’ve Said It Again” and “Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow.” Pizzarelli resumed his career with Monroe after his discharge, and Alessi returned to Boston.
On Radio and Television
Fortune next smiled on Don Alessi in November 1947. Promoter Art Rich plucked him from his gig in a hotel lounge for a jazz concert at Jordan Hall starring cornetist Wild Bill Davison and drummer Baby Dodds. Their dixieland wasn’t Don’s style of music (he favored Charlie Christian), but he played well and earned favorable reviews. Perhaps that led WEEI, the Boston affiliate on the CBS Radio Network, to hire Don for its studio orchestra in January 1948. Or perhaps a good word from Monroe, himself a WEEI veteran, turned the trick. Alessi took to the ad-lib nature of radio, and became a fixture on Carl Moore’s Beantown Varieties morning show.
In 1950, Alessi’s trio was gigging nightly at the Sable Room in the Touraine Hotel. He was plucked from that lounge gig for a slot on local television. The R.H. White department store was about to launch a live daytime show, and the producers needed a band. Don Alessi—affable, good-looking, versatile—was just the guy to lead it. So Don’s trio, with pianist Micky Gentile and bassist Vin Parlay, joined the show on WBZ-TV. I don’t know how long it lasted, but the show established Alessi in the new medium.
Radio and television exposure led to work in Boston’s better clubs, like the Darbury Room and the Latin Quarter, where he could blow some jazz. His recording of “The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise” from about 1953 show him much influenced by Les Paul then. At the Darbury Room he surely encountered Herb Ellis, resident there with the Soft Winds. And to my ears, Alessi’s play is more like Ellis’s than any of the other better-known guitarists.
George Clarke of the Daily Record recounted in May 1954 how Eartha Kitt, playing in the big room at the Latin Quarter, listened to Alessi nightly and loved him. She offered Don a job in her group. He had no interest in the road, though, and declined.
After seven years with WEEI, Alessi moved to WHDH radio in February 1955. WHDH dubbed its crew of studio musicians the Park Squares, after the station’s Arlington Street address. Along with Don Alessi were Bill Green on piano, Lou Magnano on vibes, and Ross Centamore on bass. They worked shows with daytime announcers Ray Dorey and Jess Cain, and later joined them on WHDH-TV, too. They were regulars on Dorey’s Morning Key Club (7 a.m.!), the New England Farm and Food Hour, and finally on Cain’s afternoon program. Cain’s show was a mandatory promotional stop for entertainers coming into Boston, and the Park Squares accompanied all of them, without rehearsal. They were the last of Boston’s radio/television studio bands, and WHDH finally let them go in about 1966.
Alessi on Record
One of Alessi’s first assignments at WHDH paired him with Charlene Bartley, a former big band singer from Los Angeles, on her One to Two program. The two started working together in local nightclubs. Somebody noticed, and RCA signed Bartley to a recording contract. With Alessi alongside, she made the album Weekend of a Private Secretary in 1956. RCA added the percussionist Tito Puente on some tracks, and it turned out to be a fortuitous meeting for Don.
Don Alessi recorded one album as a leader, the Latin-flavored Guitar Spectacular! (Tiffany TR-2020) in 1960. The album included some of the usual titles found on the “X goes Latin” albums of the time, like “Poinciana” and “Besame Mucho.” But there were also less-known pieces, like “Noche de Ronda,” a ballad from 1930s Mexico, and “El Relicario,” a Spanish tune from 1914. The liner notes did not list personnel, but the unmistakable sound of Tito Puente’s timbales drives some of these tunes. I can’t help but think Puente influenced Alessi’s choice of material, too. Was Puente the source of Alessi’s fascination with Latin music? I doubt he acquired it growing up in pre-war South Boston.
In 1967 the Don Alessi Trio, with Magnano and Centamore, began a long, long run in the lounge at the Eliot Hotel, well over 100 mostly consecutive weeks. Alessi interrupted it in late 1967 for a trip to Vietnam with pop singer Connie Francis, to entertain troops in a USO show. That might have been planned by Don Costa, another Boston guitarist and Monroe alumna, who was then Francis’s arranger at MGM.
Things changed for Alessi after 1970, as they did for many of his generation, when the rock wave washed over the world of entertainment. He continued to work through the 1970s and 1980s, often in the company of Magnano or trumpeter Eddie Pizzi, although with less prominence. He worked intermittently with his son Jack, a drummer and vocalist, from the 1960s on. (Jack later formed the vocal group the 3 Swingin’ Tenors with Steve Marvin and Jim Porcella.)
Alessi played publicly as late as 2006, presenting the history of the jazz guitar in neighborhood branches of the Boston Public Library system. I hope the library recorded it, because without a doubt, he knew more about that topic than anyone else in town.
To the music. Here’s one I added to my YouTube channel: “El Cumbanchero,” by the Puerto Rican composer Rafael Hernández. As noted earlier, the Guitar Spectacular! liner notes omit personnel and production credits, but I’m betting it’s Tito Puente playing timbales. Hang on: it’s a wild two-minute ride.
Wow, I heard Don Alessi’s name all my life. I know that my mother worked with him in the early days. She thought he was a brilliant guitarist and loved his music. I only know the Silver Dollar Bar that she sang at but I believe she might have been at others.
He played at my wedding (1974) and my sister’s (1979)and my mother sang with him at both.
How privileged we were!
Thanks Richard for this info.
You had Don Alessi play at your wedding? How cool is that–it’s not like you didn’t have a few other things on your mind that day, but what a treat–privileged indeed.
I met my uncle Don for the first time after I came home from the Gulf War in 1992 when they had family gatherings in Holliston at Jack’s house his son. I’m the son of Joesph Alessi his brother. I didn’t know much about my father side of the family until I was an adult but many times heard about Don and his jazz music. Too bad I missed out on many years.
Hi Mike I’m a cousin they were great times I think I met you at one of Jacks pool parties are grandmas were sisters Josephine and Mary there maiden name was DiFranco
I wrote a story about Don Alessi that was published in Primo magazine. I spent several hours at his house in Hyde Park. If you want a copy get in touch with Editor Truby Chiaviello or me and we will be happy to send you a copy. It starts with his upbringing in South Boston.
What was Don’s heritage and background? Was his family from a Hispanic country, and if so, when did he or they come to the United States?
Don was of Italian descent, and I believe his parents were the immigrant generation.
Don was Sicilian. He was a close friend of Chico Scimone (also Sicilian) from Taormina. I interviewed Don about 10-12 years ago and his story was published in Primo Magazine. And He smoked the same stogies as me- Parodi !
Don was Italian, my grandfather name was Santo Alessi married Josephine, my grandmother. They came to Arlington Mass to live.
Hi Steven, my name is Tina and Don and his wife Alice were my aunt and uncle. My grandmother was Alice’s sister. I am so happy to have found a family member! I am putting together a small family history for my children and was wondering if you have any pictures of Alice, Don and Jack that you would be willing to share? I have a very old picture of Alice when I was born, but have none of Don or Jack. I would love to be able to include them for my kids’ family albums. Thank you for any help you can give.
Hi my name is Steven Costgliola Don was my uncle and Godfather , and he actually lived with me after his stroke . I do have some of his recordings but not nearly enough .But thank God I still have his guitars
Very glad to hear those guitars are safe and in good hands.
Does anyone know why the covet to his one and only album is him awkwardly holding his guitar in a half grown garden? Were there no other photos of him?
These are unanswerable questions, I think. No way of knowing who was making decisions at Tiffany Records, or what photos were available. And the label has been gone for 60 years. The half-grown garden, though, was the courtyard at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston.
Hi Steven. A friend of mine recently bought an original reel to reel master of Don’s album Guitar Spectacular. He has a couple of good-quality reel players and he played me a bit of this tape. It has the original splices between takes, and some of these were breaking. He will have to go through and re-glue each splice that doesn’t hold when the reel is played.
This album should be re-issued. Searching Youtube, I’m only seeing three of the tracks.
Guitar Spectacular shows up fairly regularly on the used market–discogs, ebay, etc–on both the Tiffany and the Canadian Sparton labels. Be a lot of work to reissue it, even if your friend’s tape is of high quality. I’ve never looked into who owned the Tiffany label. Besides Don, I know they issued a few recordings by Boston pianist Mike DiNapoli.
Hi, my grandpa, Chico Scimone, was friends with Don. Would love to share info.
Thank you for this post. My introduction to jazz as a youngster & early teen began in the mid 60’s – 70’s & came from my Mother & Grandparents (from Lexington MA) love of Jazz music. Fond memories of seeing The Don Alessi Trio & Bobby Hackett in local Boston/SouthShore clubs. My Grandfather would sneak a cassette recorder in & treated me to “Shirley Temples”. The Scotch & Sirloin in Boston was a favorite go to place. Both men became friends of my Grandfather & each played at an Aunts wedding & the “Trio” played at my parents 25th Anniversary surprise party! Still have many of those cassette recording & a few photos tucked away, but still in the forefront of my minds eye. One of a look of me “melting” as Don had his arm around my shoulder- a superstar in my mind! Great times! Looking back I feel so privileged to have had this music experience at such a young age. Later on to this date I have followed Tony Bennett (Ralph Sharon piano) & Grey Sargent around New England, most recently last summer 19’ . While my father raised me on Elvis & Johnny Cash there was always Jazz music in my life. Wish I could thank them all once again. Be well everyone! ????♥️????
Great story, Caroline! I wasn’t aware of how many fans Don Alessi had around the Boston area, but I’ve heard from quite a few of them since I wrote this post. I wish we had more recordings — maybe there’s a future for some of your old cassettes. Thanks for stopping by.
Great info.When I was a student at Berklee,I would see the trio at the Hotel Elliot. Lou Magnano was a great vibes player. They always invited me to sit in with them on snare drum and brushes. Great guys Don, Lou Magnano and Louie La Monica on bass
My Mom is Don’s cousin. She is 99 years old. We were looking at old pictures from the 1930’s & 1940’s and found one with my Mom and Don (she calls him Donny) so I thought I’d look him up. I can’t believe we found him. Mom is so happy that we did. I’m so sorry he passed. I would have loved for them to reconnect. We are from NY but live in Miami now.
Pat, I’ll pass along your email address if any of Don’s family sees this post and gets in touch.
Are they related on his fathers side or mothers I’m a cousin on mothers side DiFranco
Ron Munafo.,
I had the pleasure of meeting Don a few times at the I.
-A restaurant on E Third street in South Boston when they had the Italian
Pride Day there around the second or third week in August. Another song I
really enjoyed hearing and watching Don play was Granada; I would love to
find a recording.
Always nice to see a guitarist getting some ink on your blog. Thanks as always for the wonderful, well researched information.
There are other Boston guitarists I’d like to add to this blog–Bat Johnson and Chet Kruley come to mind–but the details are hard to come by. And almost everything I know about Irving Ashby takes place after he left Boston to go with Lionel Hampton in 1940. But I’ll keep on it. Thanks for dropping by.
Richard, thank you so much for such a lovely, in depth article about my grandfather. I’m happy that you got to meet him before be passed away. He was an incredible man and we miss him very much.
The pleasure was mine, Kristen, and I’m glad you enjoyed the post.
Great summary of Don’s career. Don was a personal friend of mine, Frank, “Chico” Scimone. I wrote a story about Don for Primo Magazine and it was well received. I saw Don perform many times. I interviewed Jess Cain for the story about a year before he passed away. I visited Don and sat with him at his Hyde Park home after his dear wife passed away. We smoked a Parodi cigar together. He had a great memory and a wonderful personality.
Thanks for the good words, Peter. I keep finding more bits and pieces from Don’s lengthy career. For instance, there’s this…in 1969-70, Dave Garroway (the original host of NBC’s Today show, and before that a jazz deejay in Chicago) hosted a show called Tempo Boston on the old Ch 7. Fred Taylor told me about Dave’s show — but what I didn’t know was, Don was the music director. I wonder if he brought any of the other Park Squares to Ch 7 with him.
Perhaps because I’m not from the Boston area, I was not aware of Don Alessi prior to this blog. Thanks for the info and the “El Cumbanchero” cut, which inspired me to search for more of his music only to find that it all seems to be out of print! He was a great talent and it’s a shame we can’t hear more of his work.
Alessi was sadly under-recorded. Other than Guitar Spectacular and the Bartley album, there is precious little to find — one single (and he’s only on one side of the record) and a few 45s and 78s where he accompanies singers. And the singers aren’t all that good. At least there’s more from Guitar Spectacular on YouTube.