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Jerry Costanzo
Dedicated to the preservation of this true American art form. Jerry Costanzo is considered one of the best and busiest singer/bandleaders on the scene today.
About Me
In another time and place, Jerry Costanzo wouldn’t be interpreting the
Great American Songbook. It’s likely he’d be conceiving it. Midwest
Record deemed the luminous vocalist and bandleader “A cat that knows
how to swing it and grab the Vegas vibe that most of us never were old
enough to experience,” while Jazz.com raved, “As all great singers do,
he tells a story.” Raised in a musical family, Costanzo’s musical stencil
was etched with the likes of Sinatra, Sammy, Dino, Perry Como, Count
Basie, Mel Torme, Jerry Vale and Nat King Cole. He was playing
saxophone by third grade, and developed chops as a performer studying
acting at New York’s Herbert Berghof Studio. A stint as personal aid and
chauffeur for Al Pacino further apprised Costanzo to the arts, before he
joined his father Joseph’s big band, The Memories Of Swing, first on sax
and then as the outfit’s lead vocalist. While well into his 30s before the
New Yorker recognized his calling card—bringing his musical idols back
to life—Costanzo is making up for lost time. Today, the man behind the
mic is a full-time troubadour and bandleader, surrounded by a Who’s
Who of the jazz world. In 2008, his debut full-length album “Destination
Moon,” produced by Andy Farber and accompanied by Farber & his
Swing Mavens octet, served up a dozen swigin` classics, “Moon” earned
Costanzo a dedicated live following, with gigs including the Annual
Sinatra Birthday Bash at The Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank, N.J.,
Lincoln Centers Mid Summer Night Swing, New York’s Metropolitan
Room, Feinstein’s at The Loews Regency and Waldorf Astoria, the Long
Island, N.Y., Tilles Center for the Performing Arts, Hofstra University’s
Artie Shaw Centennial Concert and dozens of concert series, festivals
and private posh gigs up and down the East Coast. Costanzo’s follow-up
disc, “Can’t We Be Friends”—released on Daywood Drive Records and
executive/co-produced by Costanzo with acclaimed vocalist and
composer Kevin Fitzgerald Burke—raises the torch to fever pitch,
featuring a five-piece rhythm section, that again pays homage to musical
heroes who painted the original brush strokes on American standards,
with a vibe he describes as “George Shearing meets The Nat King Cole
Trio meets Milt Jackson.” In an interview with All About Jazz, Costanzo
was asked to conjure his dream band. He joked, “They’re all dead. I wish
I’d have been in my prime in the ‘30s, ‘40s and ‘50s.”No doubt, those
who have influenced the music of Jerry Costanzo would offer a collective
thumbs up for skillfully preserving their legacy. He is indeed breathing
new life into a venerable chapter of America’s songbook.
Chuck Taylor served as a writer and senior editor at Billboard magazine
for 14 years. He has appeared on CNN, ABC’s “20/20,” VH1’s “Behind
the Music,” A&E’s “Biography,” and been quoted in the New York Times,
USA Today and numerous publications about music.