Jan. 9, 1971: Isaac (the Burruano brothers)

 

Meet some more lost legends – the Burruanos. Google hardly knows them, except for the shout out Dolly Durante gives them in her Buffalo Music Hall of Fame bio. When they were the Midniters, she snuck out of the house to hear them playing a place called the Riptide on Connecticut Street. They let her get up and sing “Dedicated to the One I Love” and liked it so much they offered her her first gig. 

Jan. 9, 1971 

Isaac Features Tight Sound 

        If anyone ever feels the need to compile a rock ‘n roll history of Buffalo, here are three contacts:

        Stan Szelest from Stan & The Ravens. The Terranova brothers, backbone of The Vibratos. And Tommy Burruano.

        Tommy and his twin brother Sammy share a first-floor apartment on Buffalo’s upper West Side, two blocks from Niagara Street, with Tom Calandra, a bass player with the former Raven. Two British motorcycles, minus gas tanks, hibernate in the front hall.

        In the living room, an upright piano stands without help from its tottering front legs. There’s another in the dining room woefully out of tune and curling with several strings broken by the hammers Tommy covered with shellac to get a harder sound. And there’s a third one – sounds pretty good – behind the closed door of Tom Calandra’s room.

* * *

TOMMY BURRUANO begins with a half-hour recount of the musicians he’s played with and the clubs he’s helped open during the past 11 years while the rest of his newest group – simply called Isaac – crowds around a kitchen table. Tommy isn’t boasting. This is how it was.

“I’ve been through a lot of changes, man,” he begins. His group was The Castells – Bobby DeSoto, Bobby Brainerd, Louis D’Agostino and Richie Calandra at first – and they were Stan Szelest’s competition.

“We were in the first battle of the bands in Buffalo,” Tommy recounts. “With Stan & The Ravens. We won. We got the job. We had more singing. Not playing, but singing.”

* * *

AFTER THAT, there were The Midniters, Pete & The Continentals and The Sound Tradition.

There was Dick Kermode (who was part of Janis Joplin’s unnamed band), Jimmy Klaminski, Billy Bates, Tom Calandra, Pete Shortino, Ernie Corallo, Joe Gatto, Doug Kenney, Ange Cammilleri, Denny Lloyd, Dolly Durante, Sam Guarino and even Stan Szelest.

Isaac is more of a family affair. There’s Tommy on bass and vocals, Sammy on keyboard and their older sister Connie singing, too. Plus drummer Tommy Russo, who turns out to be one of Connie’s former in-laws, and ex-Road guitarist Ralph J. Parker.

And there’s Ralph (Chico) Scioli, 18, a friend of Tommy Russo’s and the group’s personal manager, who manages to balance his ability to irritate with resourcefulness and belief in the group.

“In 11 years I’ve been playin’,” Tommy says, “there’s only been one person in this city that’s really taken an interest and believed in me and that’s Chico.”

* * *

THEIR FIRST job was introducing rock music to The Cocoanut Grove on Connecticut Street. Now they’re finishing two weeks at The Scene on Niagara Falls Boulevard (they close tomorrow night). They’re at Williamsville’s Page One every Monday, and Tuesday they start a two-week stand at the Yellow Monkey, Main Street north of Erie Community College.

“Everything comes out in the wash,” Tommy says, turning on a cassette recorder. The tape is from a gig the week before. “When you’re playin’ on stage, that’s what I call the wash. If it doesn’t come out in the wash, it isn’t gonna come out on records.”

* * *

CHECKING OUT the wash at The Scene, you find a former steak house with a coat checker and futuristic decorations. Plusher than the average rock club. Chico is at the front table, pushing buttons on a lighting console. Tommy Burruano’s friend Ann runs the cassette machine.

The group is very tight, much tighter than you’d expect considering they’ve been together less than three months. Nobody goofs up a rhythm, nobody misses a change.

There’s a lot of bass in their sound, the kind that vibrates inside you and makes you want to bounce around. Everybody sings and the harmonies are well-fitted.

* * *

TOMMY DOMINATES the wash with his Joe Cocker-like voice (“I was singin’ like Joe Cocker before Joe Cocker came around,” he says) and his battle-scarred Fender bass is carved up with names of musicians he’s played with. You’d expect he’d say a lot to the crowd, but he doesn’t.

Sammy works efficiently in the background. Ralph’s guitar is excellent and Tommy Russo’s drumming is a perfect compliment.

Blonde Connie is good to look at and has a well-controlled smooth voice. For some reason, it seems like she should be with a commercial group. Plus she gets songs like “We’ve Only Just Begun,” “One Less Bell to Answer” and “Make It Easy on Yourself.” Now if they’d just let her rock.

* * *

THE TIGHT sound is one of Tommy’s trademarks. He sets down all the rhythms and changes when the group takes up new songs (usually two a week) and everybody rehearses five days a week.

“I think a group needs a strong leader, but I don’t want to take somebody and make a robot out of him,” he says. “I like to give them a part and let them know why it feels right. The whole idea is becoming part of the part. People who don’t feel it should count it and people who can feel it don’t have to.

“We were doing original material, Sammy’s written some songs, but we can’t let jobs like this go,” he adds. “The minute you start buckling down on original material, you lose your club work, ‘cause you can’t sell originals unless you’ve had a hit record.

“That’s what I’m working for, any group works for that. The Sound Tradition recorded things for Columbia, but they were never released. In this decade, I figure the only way you’re gonna keep things together is by eating. After that, you can start thinking about original material.” 

The box/sidebar: 

Rock Veterans 

Pertinent and impertinent information about Isaac:

Tommy Burruano, 26, vocals and bass guitar, Capricorn, leader of the group, Lafayette High School graduate, attended Erie County Technical Institute.

Sammy Burruano, 26, piano and organ, Capricorn, Tommy’s twin brother, Lafayette High, attended Niagara County Community College, National Guard veteran.

Connie Burruano, 28, vocals, Gemini, Grover Cleveland High, two sons – Anthony and Tommy.

Ralph J. Parker, 22, guitar, Taurus, St. Joseph’s Collegiate Institute, attended Niagara University.

Tommy Russo, 19, drummer, Pisces, Lafayette High, attended Bryant & Stratton.

* * *

TOMMY and Sammy Burruano have played rock in Buffalo since 1959, most of the time together. They’ve introduced rock to clubs like Shell’s, the Edgewater, the Inferno, the Romway, the Idle Hour, Aliotta’s, the Colony, the Ivanhoe, the Silhouette and McVan’s.

When their last band, The Sound Tradition, broke up after a tour of the Adirondacks last summer, they began to put together the present group. Tommy Russo, a veteran of The Live Name Band, joined in September and Ralph arrived about five weeks ago.

* * *

CONNIE, who had never sung professionally before, was added in October after the owner of the Cocoanut Grove suggested the group get a girl singer. “I always wanted to sing with my brothers,” she says, “but I never got there.”