A Sicilian in East Harlem By Salvatore Mondello

The Clarinet

Dorothy had her magic slippers and the Green Lantern had his magic ring. I had my clarinet. Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw and Woody Herman represented glamour, romance, and enchantment. To me they were larger than life heroes. While my friends wanted to be baseball players like Joe DiMaggio, I wanted to be a clarinetist like Artie Shaw. I couldn’t get enough of his interpretations of “Moonglow” and “Star Dust.” I was enraptured by the Big Band sound. To be a member of Herman’s Thundering Herd was my greatest ambition.

I asked my grandfather if he would buy me a clarinet.

Alfio Cassara came from the land of Verdi and Puccini and believed that music was a part of our soul. He had paid for mandolin lessons for my mother and was willing to pay for clarinet lessons for me. An Italian immigrant who played in a local marching band sold Alfio one of his clarinets. It smelled of tobacco but I liked it anyway.

My grandfather knew a singer named Caruso who sang at the Met. He wasn’t Enrico Caruso but he knew professional musicians and recommended Professor Cioè, a violinist with the New York