Made in 1936 and released in 1938,"Garden of the Moon" was directed by Busby Berkeley. Night club owner Pat O'Brien battles with bandleader John Payne in this very enjoyable movie. The band numbers include rare footage of Tony Romano on guitar, Joe Venuti on violin , and comedian Jerry Colonna playing a trombonist. Romano was 21 years old at the time.
This is rare footage, perhaps the only footage of Venuti and Romano playing on stage together. They became an in-demand duo performing on radio and clubs until Venuti's death in 1978. Romano met Venuti in the street in front of New York's Chesterfield Hotel a few years before. Venuti saw the skinny musician carrying his enormous Super L5 (a prototype, bigger than an L5, given to Romano by Gibson as one of the leading guitarists of the time) Joe said, "You'll get a hernia carryin' that thing around! Lemme see it!" Romano remembered, "He grabbed it and played a horrible C chord, and another G chord. The guitar was lookin' at me, like, 'HELP!' It had a sad look! So I grabbed it back and got away as fast as I could.
"About 4 years later I was doing a picture at Warner Brothers called 'Blues in the Night' with songwriter Johnny Mercer. When we finished for the day, Johnny said, 'Wait around because Joe Venuti is coming over. Do you know him?' I said 'No, I know him on record and that he's a genius, with Eddie Lang, but we've never met.' Joe walked in, I looked at that FACE and how could I forget?
"He said. 'Hey, kid, you still got that big guitar?' He took his violin out and started tuning it and I played chords to his tuning! We started playing and Johnny Mercer and Ray Heindorf were going crazy!"
They then all retired to an after-hours club across the street, The Blue Evening and played until the sun came up. Joe said, "Hey kid, the next time I get a wedding to play, or a divorce, I'll call ya!"
A lot of hot pepper sandwiches and joyful music ran down the river of time until Venuti's death in August 1978. Their incredible chemistry was recorded for posterity on the album "Never Before -- Never Again" available from Just A Memory Records. The album has been praised by Pat Metheny, Leonard Feather, Martyn Taylor and Bob James.
R.E.M. was an American rock band formed in Athens, Georgia, in 1980 by drummer Bill Berry, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills, and lead vocalist Michael Stipe, who were students at the University of Georgia. R.E.M. was noted for Buck's arpeggiated "jangle" guitar playing; Stipe's distinctive vocal style, unique stage presence, and cryptic lyrics; Mills's countermelodic bass lines and backing vocals; and Berry's tight, economical drumming. In the early 1990s, other alternative rock acts suc...
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