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John Pisano, age 4
A very young John Pisano
strumming on Staten Island
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THE EARLY YEARS
“I was born on Staten Island, in 1931. My first influence musically was my father, Americo Pisano. He played guitar and my uncle played banjo… though never professionally or anything. I found a tune list in my father’s guitar case a few years ago, and if you look at it includes all of the wonderful tunes and standards of his era like ‘In My Solitude’ and ‘Mood Indigo,’ all that kind of stuff.
I started on piano at about the age of 10, but I never really cared to practice. I guess I was about 13 when I started on guitar.
I took lessons from a wonderful lady named Cora Fellows. She was into women’s liberation long before anyone had put a label on it. She was an authority on Esperanto – the international language – as well as paying and teaching all of the fretted instruments. She had all of those old Gibson round-hole archtops. She was a good friend of William Foden, who was one of the early composers for the guitar, too.
At the time, one of the few teaching methods available was ‘The Nick Lucas Method.’ That’s how I started. I progressed very quickly, and in a couple of months, was probably the best guitar player on the block! In a few more months, probably the best, for my age, on Staten Island!
I remember listening to Charlie Christian at the time. I had picked up a copy of ‘Solo Flight’ and took it to Cora and had her play it… but it was written as being all in eighth notes… very choppy. I couldn’t imagine why it didn’t sound the same as when Christian played it on the record. I still have that music, packrat that I am, with a correct transcription that I made. There were so many mistakes in that sheet music! It was also written an octave lower, which I couldn’t figure out. Whoever wrote it didn’t realize that the guitar sounded an octave lower.
My first recollection of being intrigued with the sound of the guitar actually came from listening to the ‘Blondie’ radio show. There was a little two bar guitar break that came in the middle of the show’s theme. That was George Van Eps playing the solo. Later on, a guitarist by the name of Perry Botkin did it. I just loved that woody sound.
The other thing that I remember… which may explain my affinity for Brazilian music… would be Carmen Miranda, and Jose’ Carioca in the old Disney films. The guitars, the rhythms of the music… this stuck in my head and surfaced again some years later.
Then I discovered Django Reinhardt. I remember getting one of the old albums, which was made up of four 10” 78 RPM records. My fascination with Django lasted for quite a long time. In fact my nickname at the time was ‘Django!’ I carved that name in a lot of schoolhouse desks. I would copy his solos. I bought all of his records that were available. My cousin was in the merchant marine, and he bought some 78s in Indo-China. He was able to bring me records that were not available in the U.S. at the time. It was very exciting!
I saw him at Carnegie Hall in 1946, when he was touring the U.S. I was all of 15 at the time. Django opened the second half of the show. They presented a guitar to him. It was all de-tuned. The strings were totally loose, and he had to tune it up. WR-R-R-RANG!!! Right on stage! I close my eyes and I see a Gretsch, like the ones Harry Volpe used to play… with the cats eye sound holes. It was electrified. I can visualize those two fingers. They were all over the guitar. It was amazing. My fascination with Django lasted quite a long time.
Down the street the was a bass player, by the name of John Goodall. He had played… or perhaps sat in with the Stan Kenton band. He realized the talent that I had, and said to me, you should listen to some hip stuff! What you’re listening to is old-fashioned and corny. So, he turned me on to Kenton, and bebop.
Finally, I discovered the jazz radio station WOV in New York, and heard Charlie Parker. That explained it all. Birdland had a live broadcast about 3:00 or 3:30 in the morning. I remember recording people off the radio like Tadd Dameron and Fats Navarro with an acetate disc recorder that I owned.”
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