Concert Review: Butch Barbella's "Streets of the Bronx" Christmas Show

-
It was a terrific night of good Italian Food & Bronx oldies music on Arthur Avenue, New Yorks real Little Italy. It all happened at Ann & Tony's Restaurant- Annual Christmas Party featuring Butch Barbella's Streets of the Bronx Band.
Butch is a long time veteran in the Bronx / New York music scene, having played (as well as being musical director) with Larry Chance & The Earls & The Dupree's. He has also worked with another Belmont/ Arthur Ave. native; Dion Dimucci in the early 2000's. He was also musical director for Robert DeNiro & Chaz Palminteri's cult Italian / American Bronx classic film-"A Bronx Tale" back in 1993.

Who could forget the great musical overlaps in that film, including my personal & most other people's favorite- the Beatles "Come Together" during the biker scene.

Rumor has it, that it was almost unheard of at the time, to use a Beatles song in a small budget film. But Robert DeNiro liked the scene Butch had put together so much, that a personal call was made to Paul McCartney himself.

Once (Macca) Paul knew it was "Bob" DeNiro on the line, he got right on the phone & slashed the price down almost a third, some where in the range of 150,000.(rumor has it of course).

Butch is also a good long time family friend dating back to my parents & his childhood. So are the Napolitano Family who have operated Ann & Tony's Restaurant since 1927.

Again, It was a great night of fun, food & music, Bronx Italian style. Butch Barbella is the groups musical director, keyboard player & vocalist. Jerry Brown is a fantastic singer & handles the lead vocals & percussion. The drummer is the steady Bobby Rustici who also does backing vocals. By the way these are a heck of a bunch of nice guys too.

Songs included classics like The Wanderer, You Belong To Me, Ruby Baby, Barbara Ann, I Saw Her Standing There, Good Lovin',  Whiter Shade of Pale,  There Goes My Baby, Your Love is Lifting Me Higher,& originals like The Streets of the Bronx. Also included were Run Run Rudolph for Christmas & special dedication of Frank Sinatra's That's Life for my dad, "the best dressed guy in the joint!"

There was a special birthday celebrated for family owner Vera & her grandson, as well as Santa Ralph's reading of "T'was the Night Before Christmas on Arthur Avenue".

As usual the staff was on the ball & chef Anthony cooked up all the good food behind the scenes in the kitchen. Anthony & I are Met fans from the Tom Seaver days when we played Little League together.
You can catch the Streets of the Bronx every month performing at Ann & Tony's & check their website for other gigs as well.



http://www.streetsofthebronx.net/ 



http://annandtonysonline.com/





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Remembering Bobby Ojeda's Tragic Boating Accident (1993)

-
Image
Steve Olin, Tim Crews & Bob Ojeda March 22 nd 1993: was an off day from Spring Training, for three Cleveland Indians pitchers; Former Mets 1986 World Champion pitcher; Bobby Ojeda, Tim Crews & Steve Olin. The three friends, took out an 18-foot open-air bass boat & went out fishing & gator hunting in the darkness of the evening on Lake Nellie in Clermont, Florida. Tragedy struck, when the boat rammed into a private dock that jutted out some 250 feet into the still waters. Two other Cleveland Indians personnel had arrived to meet the fishing party just as the horror took place. They heard Bob Ojeda saying they needed help. The two men jumped into the water and called out for someone to call 911. 27 year old pitcher; Steve Olin was killed instantly. 31 year old pitcher; Tim Crews was alive but was struggling to breathe suffering from massive head wounds. Bobby Ojeda was in & out of shock, he was suffering from head lace...
Read more

The History of Yogi Berra & the Yoo-Hoo Chocolate Drink

-
Image
Yogi Berra & Yoo-Hoo's  history go back to the 1950's. Yogi had met the Oliveri Family, the owners of the Yoo-Hoo company at a Country Club function near his home in New Jersey. Natale Olivieri started bottling the chocolate drink in 1928 in Garfield, w Jersey. By the late 1950's he Yoo-Hoo product wasn't selling all that well. Mr. Olivieri asked for Yogi's opinion at the new Jersey function. Berra said he actually liked the soft drink & started promoting it along with his teammates. Soon Yogi put Yoo-Hoo on the map, appearing in commercials, advertisements and supermarkets promotions.  Berra would show up at the factory in Carlstadt, New Jersey & became a hero to the factory workers. He soon became a Vice President of the company owning a large amount of Yoo-Hoo stock. In his auto biography Yogi wrote "One time I was in the office and the phone rang, I always answer a ringing phone, the woman on the other end asked if Yoo-Hoo was hyphenate...
Read more

Remembering Vixen Founder / Guitarist; Jan Kuehnemund (1961-2013)

-
Image
centerfieldmaz was shocked to learn of the sudden passing of Jan Kuehnemund, the founding member of the all female metal band Vixen. Jan was a fantastic guitarist, song writer & women pioneer in Heavy Metal. I am a huge fan of hard rock all girl bands & Vixen were one my long time favorites. Janice Lynn Kuehnemund was born November 18th, 1961 in St. Paul Minnesota. The female guitarist formed one of the first all female Metal bands in Minnesota with singer Janet Gardner while in high school in 1980. By 1985 they moved the band to Los Angles California, to be part of the Heavy Metal scene. In 1987 the classic Vixen line up of Jan Kuehnemund (lead guitar) Janet Gardner (vocals/ guitar) Share Pederson (bass) & Roxy Petrucci (drums) formed & released their debut album the following year. Vixen 1988 In a world of all male Heavy Metal bands during its heyday, Vixen were groundbreaking in being an all female metal band. The Runaways, with Joan Jett & Lita Ford...
Read more

Remembering Mets History (1979) SNL's Chico Escuela Visits Mets Spring Training & Attempts a Career Comeback

-
Image
Bill Murray interviews (Garrett Morris) Chico Escuela In March 1979, original Saturday Night Live cast member; Garrett Morris joined the Mets at Miller Huggins Field for Spring Training. At the time the Mets were still holding Spring Training in St. Petersburg Florida.  Garrett Morris was posing as  the fictional Mets player, Chico Escuela who wore uniform #5 (cinque).  Escuela was doing his famous spoof of the Latin players of the time, posing as a popular infielder from the Dominican Republic that didn't speak much English. His legendary catch phrase was "baseball been berry- berry good to me". "baseball been berry-berry good... to me" The Chico Escuela character appeared nine times during on SNL's fourth & fifth seasons. He debuted on December 9th, 1978, in a Knight of Columbus sketch as a guest speaker. He then became the Weekend Update Sports reporter, where after being introduced by Jane Curtain, he would reply "tank you Hane". Chico woul...
Read more

Remembering Batgirl: Yvonne Craig (1937-2015)

-
Image
centerfieldmaz interrupts baseball with a sad note on one of his favorite actresses. Being a huge Batman (TV series) fan Yvonne Craig has been someone I adored since I was a child.  As a boy I always hoped the Batgirl cycle would wiz by on the opening credits, meaning it would be a Batgirl episode. I didn't realize why until I got older & liked girls. For myself & millions of young boys of the 60's / 70's Batgirl was one of our first crushes. But her character also she added so much more than that to the final season of Batman. She was special in so many ways ... rest in peace Batgirl! Yvonne Joyce Craig was born May 16th 1937 in Taylorville, Illinois. As a young girl she was a talented ballet dancer, getting accepted to the prestigious Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. She eventually moved to Los Angeles & began an acting career. She landed a part in Gidget (1959) as one of Gidget's beach...
Read more