| Chapter 6: | The Clarinet |
Philharmonic who had performed with Toscanini.
“Caruso has assured me that Professor Cioè can teach the clarinet,” grandpa told me.
The professor maintained a studio in his charming brownstone near Lexington Avenue and One Hundred and Seventh Street. His wife, a tall woman with braids, would let me and my friend Corky, a trumpet student, in and would escort us to the studio, a large room with a piano and late nineteenth-century furnishings. Ten or so minutes later, the professor would enter the room. He was short and fidgety. We would first read music aloud and then play on our instruments. The professor was a stickler for solfeggio. I had to do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti before I was allowed to blow my first note on the clarinet. My grandfather hoped I was heading straight for a career as first clarinetist with the New York Philharmonic. I hoped to join the Woody Herman Band and eventually form my own “herd.” I admired Herman’s flair for catchy numbers. “Your Father’s Moustache” inspired me to try to do one better.
Toots Mondello played saxophone and clarinet with the Goodman Band and I wondered if he was related to me. He was not. But I still thought he might put in a good word for a Mondello when I was ready to turn professional. Toots Mondello began to play professionally at the age of fourteen. Not only did he play alto saxophone and clarinet with the “King of Swing,” but he recorded with many popular bands, including those of Chick Bullock, Jack Shilkret, Bunny Berigan, Dick McDonough, Miff Mole, Larry Clinton, Claude Thornhill, Teddy Wilson, Louis Armstrong, Ziggy Elman and Lionel Hampton. In the late thirties Toots formed his