May 22, 1971: The Glass Menagerie

This band tapped into the Eastman School of Music in Rochester for horn players so often that it should have been certified as an apprenticeship program. Several of them went on to significant accomplishments. Most significant of them all was Jeff Tyzik, who came through the group after this article was written.   

May 22, 1971 

Glass Menagerie

Brass Band Ready for Bigger Things 

        Now that we’re beyond Woodstock, somewhere between the Greening of America and 1984, it’s reassuring to discover that The Lake is still The Lake.

        As dependable as trees coming into bloom, those summer-home-from-college watering spots near Angola have started watering again and anyone rediscovering them after a 10-year sleep will be comforted to find that little has changed.

        The log cabin that used to be Lerczak’s is now the WMU (for Western Michigan University) Club, but the kids still call the defending champion of The Lake by its old name. Or just plain Zak’s.

* * *

ONCE MORE kids are carefully putting the evening question to mom and dad. The lucky ones get to lumber the fusty family four-door through those lumpy parking lots and be chastened by the bold, shiny scattering of kid-owned cars which inspire envy even bigger than their insurance premiums.

        At the door, the same old barricade for proof and admission. Here the reporter asks for an expense-account receipt and stumbles over a forgotten rule: Don’t Hassle the Big Guys.

        “A receipt?” A blond bartender swings around, the familiar beer and bullying in those timeless eyes, and it’s clear that Hassled Big Guys haven’t changed either. The classic speech remains as stirring as ever:

        “Whattaya think this is, a *&*/*% supermarket?”

* * *

THAT benediction bounces off the pinball machines, picks up a few titters of appreciation at the bar and surges into the main room, past the pile of beer cases behind the phone booth and onto the big dance floor, breaking softly against last year’s pictures of The Road and Wilmer & The Dukes on the far wall.

        Down in the corner, plugging in and tuning up, is this summer’s band – The Glass Menagerie – which has just begun a four-month stand of Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights. And Tuesdays, too, beginning June 1.

* * *

THIS IS the third Glass Menagerie and it surfaced at The Lake last summer after eight months of practice. After wintering in Buffalo with the Eastman School horn section driving in weekly from Rochester, changing a few players, and with Chenango and The Rubber Band broken up, it’s one of the strongest brass groups in the area.

        The Eastman School commitments make it hard lately to get the whole band together, even for jobs. Substitutes come in when the brass players have mandatory school concerts.

        For practice, the horns work out their parts in Rochester and the rest of the band practices in Buffalo. After that, it’s a matter of piecing things together.

* * *

“BY BREAKING things down,” says drummer and leader Paul Vanderbush, “it keeps half the band from sitting around for a couple hours while the other half learns the parts. It saves quite a bit of time.”

        Trumpeters Bruce Trojan and Jeff DePaolo and trombonist Bill Long are jazz fans, full of enthusiasm for Chuck Mangione, who teaches at Eastman. Jeff also digs far-out explanations, like about why he dropped out of the group for a while last fall:

        “It was due to scholastic endeavor. Because I wanted to promote composition in a way that was more homogeneous with my body. The contrapuntal line is still the harmonic process.”

        One member of the group refuses to join the picture because others have suggested replacing him. The complaint is that he plays too loud. How can he stand to be on stage then?

        “That’s because he really digs the music,” someone explains. “When he’s playing, that’s the whole thing. It wipes out everything else. After all, nobody’s ever had a war over music.”

        Hard to see what the complaint is when he hits the solo in “Make Me Smile.” It’s fluid and tasteful, one of the nicest performances of the set.

        And it’s full of good performances. The horns are well-synchronized and they’ll throw in a few jazz chops now and then, like the Maynard Ferguson squeal at the end of a Chicago medley.

* * *

IN SANTANA’S “Evil Ways,” Tim Pickard’s organ wails like a fountain of bagpipes over rhythmic guitar chocks, Chris Haug’s steady bass and the heavy drum backing – Paul Vanderbush supported by vocalists Joe Ferraro and Dave Smith on congas.

        With Dave still learning the material, Joe handles most of the singing in a strong, well-adapted voice. He’s thrown an artful recorder solo into “Down by the River” and between sets polishes his new-found skill on the trumpet.

        For the summer, Paul says, the group is planning to work on some Top 40 songs to break up their collection of 10-minute numbers off albums. He figures the Chicago craze is dying and thinks the group will pick up on Black Sabbath and a new jazz-rock band called Chase.

* * *

THE GROUP has booked itself since last winter and plans to stay independent until next spring, when they’ll be in the market for an exclusive manager. By then, Paul says, the band will be ready for bigger things.

        “We’ve got a year to spend getting ready, working on our original songs, thinking about recording,” he explains. “The horns won’t be getting out of school for another year yet, so there’s no hurry.”

* * *

THE DANCE floor is the same mixture of couples on dates and girls together. The stags snuggle the bar. Another beer case goes on the pile and some girls without proof stand by the door deciding their next move.

        Outside, the icy water chills the clear, bugless air. A Corvette and a Road Runner gleam at each other. The Lake is open and it’s still The Lake.

* * * * *

PHOTO CAPTION: The Glass Menagerie, from left, seated, vocalist Joe Ferraro and bass guitarist Chris Haug; kneeling, trumpeter Jeff DePaolo, organist Tim Pickard and trumpeter Bruce Trojan; standing, drummer Paul Vanderbush, vocalist Dave Smith and trombonist Bill Long.

* * * * * 

The box/sidebar:

Found a Name While in the Army 

Pertinent and impertinent information about The Glass Menagerie:

        Joe Ferraro, 20, vocals and recorder, Lafayette High School, works for father’s water-line-excavation business, engaged.

        Dave Smith, 24, vocals and conga drum, Hutchinson Tech, Army Vietnam veteran, single.

        Chris Haug, 21, bass guitar, Lake Shore High, attended art school in Indianapolis, single.

        Tim Pickard, 24, organ and vocals, Lake Shore High, works as an exterminator, single.

        Paul Vanderbush, 23, drums, Burgard High, Army veteran, works as truck mechanic, married.

        Bill Long, 20, trombone, Clarence High, attended Eastman School of Music, now at UB, single.

Bruce (Wally) Trojan, 20, trumpet, Clarence High, junior at Eastman School, single.

        Jeff DePaolo, 19, trumpet, native of Hyde Park, sophomore at Eastman School, engaged.

* * *

THE GLASS MENAGERIE began with Tim, Paul and Dave in a brass group called The Londonaires. While Paul was in the Army, the brass players were let go and Tim ran it as a five-piece blues group.

        Paul returned with a new name (“It’s a play by Tennessee Williams. I’d thought about it before I left and then I saw a poster for it over in Germany. The girl holding those little glass animals, it really got me.”) and picked up Chris and the horn players.

        Bill and Bruce drove in from Rochester almost nightly a year ago as the band polished up for a summer at the lake. Jeff was brought in after their debut last August, when they decided they needed a third horn player.

        Joe joined last fall after singing with a commercial group, The Difference, and leading a rock band called The Cube. The fiancé of Paul’s cousin’s girlfriend, he replaced a previous singer.

        Guitarist Louis Russo arrived about the same time on recommendation from The Penny Farthing’s Charlie LoVerme. And Dave, who has played with Tim and Paul almost every year since 1963, rejoined them a couple weeks ago following the breakup of The Rubber Band.

* * * * *

POSTSCRIPT: Drummer Paul Vanderbush has posted two quite different histories of this band on the internet. In one of them, on a website chat about groups with the same name, he says the band went on in one form or another for more than 40 years.

“The band performed on the road and then locally as a smaller group until 2014,” he wrote. “They have recently reunited with some new members as a 5 piece group in Western New York.”

On the band’s own website, it’s a different story, though not necessarily an accurate one:

“The band played until 1970, Paul went on to play with National Trust for a short stint as well as Chapter 5. After years of normalcy (Family & day job) Paul and his wife Joanne got the urge to do it one more time and searched for new talented friends and found Frank Campanella (Keyboards) and Jim Legge (Bass) as well as Chuck Casterline (Guitar) a fellow bandmate of Paul from the 1970’s group Chapter 5. They now are the current Glass Menagerie members.”

Back when her name was Joanne Etzel, Paul’s wife’s bio on the band’s current website notes that she was a singer with Glass Menagerie, apparently after this article was written, and kept on singing down through the years at clubs, parties and weddings while she was teaching in the Buffalo schools.

* * * * *

FOOTNOTE #2: Eastman graduate Jeff  Tyzik toured for seven years with Chuck Mangione, produced a Grammy-winning album for Doc Severinsen and has gone on to be principal pops conductor for orchestras in Rochester, Portland, Ore., and Vancouver, B.C.

His good friend and Glass Menagerie bandmate, trumpeter Allen Vizzutti, performed with Doc Severinsen’s Tonight Show band. A composer and teacher, he has appeared on more than 150 movie soundtracks and has played as a solo act at the Newport and Montreaux jazz festivals.

Among the Eastman players in the May 1971 edition of Glass Menagerie, Bruce Trojan says on his website that he had a full career as a performer, composer, arranger, recording artist and teacher. Now retired and living in Victor, outside Rochester, he’s found even more recognition as a woodworking artist.

His website notes that he has been recognized with a Niche Magazine Award in Woodworking in 1999 and a Best in Show Award for the Chapter Collaborative Challenge at the American Association of Wood Turners Symposium in Minneapolis in 2011. He does beautiful work. Check it out at brucetrojan.com.