March 6, 1971: The Rubber Band

 

At least four of the people in the room on this unseasonably warm late winter day went on to significant musical careers. See note at the end.

Saturday, March 6, 1971 

Big Band without a Boss 

Nine Men in Group 

        The nine-man Rubber Band includes four former group leaders, but one of these ex-leaders, talkative organist Jim Wozniak, tells you there’s no boss in this group, just people with jobs to do.

        Some sort of coordinator might come in handy this particular spring-fevery afternoon. It’s four musicians and five to go as the Sansone brothers – John and Frank – offer a tour of their nearly-completed offices in Hertel Plaza.

        Their office – two desks, two filing cabinets, carpet, an office for T. L. C. – Tender Loving Care, a wedding-arrangements arranger. And in back, a freshly soundproofed practice room for bands.

* * *

MEANWHILE, two of the horn players, Charlie Fardella and Mark Josefsberg, have just arrived from Fredonia, where they go to college.

        Charlie’s chin is bandaged, covering stitches from where somebody heaved an ashtray at him and Mark in a South Buffalo diner two days before. Thought they were laughing at him. Charlie can’t play horn now for at least a week. He doesn’t even talk much because of it.

        “Actually it’s a new routine,” Mark quips. “We flip an ashtray across the stage and Charlie catches it in his mouth.”

* * *

JIM WOZNIAK comes in from visiting school with his eldest daughter, Jamie, 15, but he’s forgotten to pick up bass guitarist Steve Gastle. After a bit of confused discussion, drummer Jim Florek goes after him.

        Sax player Dick Griffo is practice teaching and when he arrives he says his car’s been stolen again.

        And then there’s blonde Louise Lambert, 18, dressed in black, the singer the group is thinking about taking in. She hasn’t practiced with them, but she’s sung with them next door at The Mug and anyway here she is.

* * *

IT’S BAD timing that’s done it. Never in the afternoon. For practice, the group gets together here once a week. That’s after the singers and the rhythm section rehearse in the daytime and the horns come in at night.

        “This way,” Jim Wozniak says, “it doesn’t leave the horn players standing around for hours while the rest of us work things out. We used to practice in my store until we got complaints from the neighbors. And besides, the room was about 4 by 8.”

        “The whole group is a co-operative thing,” observes singer Charlie Lagattuta. “Everybody tries to take criticism as it comes. We haven’t gotten to the point where one guy says how it’s supposed to go.”

* * *

WHAT ALSO helps keep The Rubber Band together is a blend of steady work, visible progress and public acceptance. In less than a year, they’ve become one of the more prominent and higher paid bands in the city.

        It all began last May in those warm-weather college-age clubs down around Angola, where singer Dave Smith, Charlie Lagattuta, Jim Wozniak and guitarist Pat Danahy had worked for years with other groups.

        They say they were cheated out of $600 in the final week of their first engagement, but they had just won a battle of bands and a summer-long stay at The Big Ten Club, where the Sansones found them.

        Buffalo scared them a little (“The people here are different than out in Angola,” Charlie Lagattuta says.) but McVan’s liked them and so has The Mug, where they now play Sundays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.

        They’ll be at The Caboose in Fredonia tonight, at The Mug next Friday and Saturday, at the C. E. M. Center, Congress and Lafayette, March 18, at the Angola Rollercade March 20 and at Keystone 90s near Lockport March 26 and 27.

        The Sansones say there’s a possible summer tour, booked by a Midwest talent agency, a few original songs and some recording ahead “shortly.”

* * *

AT THE MUG, the group feels it has built up a sizable following. “We just try to be versatile,” Dave Smith remarks. “We try to play what people want to hear.”

        Jim Wozniak calls the music jazz-rock and says there’s an advantage playing it with a big group. “With a four-man group, if your rhythm man is soloing, you’ve got nothing behind. With this group, we’ve still got a lot of rhythm while anybody’s soloing.”

        Unfortunately, the fans in The Mug seem to appreciate them most for their most commonplace efforts, dancing in droves to the Chicago stuff and that worn-out “Dance to the Music.”

        Subdued response greets the group’s most interesting work – the long jazz-like breaks, the dynamics, the various instruments fading in and out. Mark Josefsberg’s tense vibes solo in Van Morrison’s “I Been Working,” their total put-on in the oldie “In a Moment,” with its la-la chorus.

* * *

THE HORNS are tasteful, well-schooled. When the beat follows their riffs, the effect is tight and powerful. Despite years of commercial work, Jim Wozniak still can make the organ scream. Dave Smith has a clear pleasant voice and Charlie Lagattuta sounds a little like David Clayton-Thomas.

        And there are even redeeming moments in the mundane stuff – the arty flute intro to “Down by the River,” the sax solo and vibes in The Seven’s “Song,” the high organ parts in “Love the One You’re With.”

        Why do you bother with things like “Dance to the Music?” Dave Smith is asked afterwards. “The people here like it,” he replies. “You’ve got to please the people.” 

The box/sidebar: 

Pertinent and impertinent information about The Rubber Band:

        Dave Smith, 24, singer, Hutchinson Tech High School, Army veteran of Vietnam, played with KB Buddies, the Londonaires, Glass Menagerie; single.

        Charlie Lagattuta, singer, Frontier Central, played with Cold Storage, Board of Sound, married, three children.

        Pat Danahy, 22, guitar and backup vocals, Lake Shore Central, played with Cold Storage, Board of Sound; married, one child.

        Steve Gastle, 19, bass guitar, South Park High, attended Hilbert College, played with Stone Cellar, Thyme; single.

        Jim Wozniak, 35, organ, McKinley High, Naval Reserve for nine years, former tool and die maker, operates South Side Music Center, played with The Fenderman, Chick & The Diplomats, Alphonso Yousef and His Soul IV; married, nine children.

        Charlie Pardella, 20, trumpet, trombone and flugelhorn, native of Wantagh, L.I., junior music major at State University College at Fredonia, single.

        Mark Josefsberg, 21, trumpet, vibes and conga drum, native of Queens, senior music major at Fredonia State, single.

        Dick Griffo, 22, sax and flute, Grover Cleveland High, senior at UB, student music teacher at Woodlawn Junior High, played with Al Fiorello and Nelson Starr, single.

        Jim Florek, 24, drums and backup vocals, Cheektowaga High, Army veteran, played with Cold Storage and Board of Sound, single.

        The group was formed last May from a commercial group (Dave and Jim Wozniak) and a rock band, the Board of Sound (Pat, Charlie Lagattuta, Mark and Jim Florek) after an Angola club owner who knew most of the guys suggested they get together and form a big band. Pat’s wife, Midge, thought up the name.       

* * * 

The Buffalo Music Hall of Famer here is Jim Wozniak, who played a variety of musical styles on his Hammond B3 organ but became best known as a bluesman. He also was a piano tuner and rebuilder. He married the singer Donna Rose in 1989, was inducted into the Hall in 2007 and died in 2009. 

According to his bio on allmusic.com, vibes player Mark Josefsberg returned to New York City, played in jazz groups in the early 1970s, then appeared on albums with Dr. Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band. He also has played or recorded with the likes of Don Cherry, Joe Lovano and Bucky and John Pizzarelli. 

Saxophonist Dick Griffo joined the Army after graduating from UB and played in the Army Jazz Ambassadors, then toured with the Woody Herman and Tommy Dorsey bands. He later played with the Buffalo Philharmonic in the Michael Tilson Thomas days and in Las Vegas bands with Keely Smith, Michel Legrand and  Sam Butera and the Witnesses. He died in 2012. 

Louise Lambert, by the way, is alive and well in Maui, singing and giving piano and voice lessons after a career in which she shared stages with some of the leading lights in jazz. A member of a musical family in East Aurora, she’s the sister of  former WBNY deejay Tina Peel.