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Dear Readers,
In November, a month we traditionally pause to give thanks, I would like to introduce you to Jay Pirrelli, of Sidney, Australia who together with his lovely wife of 27 years, Gisele, has become known, because of their unique duet singing style, as “Australia’s Al Bano and Romina.”

They have a new CD titled “Omaggio ad Al Bano e Romina” (A Tribute to Al Bano and Romina) which has been shooting into all the charts in Australia, especially in Italian Australian communities. Jay and his wife Gisele are well known in Australia but are not a household name yet in the U.S., something they hope to change in 2008 with a U.S. tour.

Some three decades ago, when Jay Pirrelli was a solo artist trying to make it in the U.S. he was befriended by Roger Boschetti, Italian American television pioneer and actress Argentina Brunetti, both wells known to L’Italo-Americano readers for their active commitment to the Italian American community. Jay Pirrelli has never forgotten their kindness and has given thanks many times for his fortuitous meeting with the late Roger Boschetti and Argentina Brunetti and their bountiful hearts…

Jay recalls, “I was born in a little town called Poggioreale, province of Trapani, in Sicily. My parents came from large families, both had experienced the hardship of life in Sicily after World War two and in the late fifties, my three sisters and I together with mom and dad migrated to Australia looking for what every immigrant hungered for, a new and better way of life.

Growing up in Australia was probably not much different then any other migrant’s experience in the world, during that time. We experienced racism, the humiliation of being called a wog and a dago on almost a daily basis but through hard work and many sacrifices made by both our parents, we went on with our new life and carved a place for ourselves in the new land we now call home.

Dad and mom tried everything, from farming to working as a laborer and even though we struggled most of the time, we never really went without the necessities of life. Though no one in mom and dad’s family were professional music people, it seems as though everyone in our family had a love and passion for music. I began to develop my love for music at the age of eight years, when my parents bought me a small piano accordion and I taught myself to play a few songs.

By the age of ten, I was taking music lessons and studied music for five years, but the theory side of music was not of great interest to me, I just wanted to play the accordion without really having any interest in learning to read music. Of course if I understood the importance of learning to read music, I would have turned out to be a much better musician than I am, but I can pretty much pick up an accordion, a guitar or sit at the piano and play a song after hearing it just once or twice.

At age sixteen, much to my dad’s disappointment, I had lost interest in the sweet sound of the piano accordion. Times were changing; everyone I knew was in a band of some kind, playing Beatle songs was the thing. It wasn’t long before I formed my own band. We started playing at birthday parties, family functions, etc. all without pay of course but we all thought it was great. After we had our band for about a year, we had an opportunity to audition for a job playing three nights a week for eight dollars a night at a hotel in Sidney, so we signed up for the audition.

The only problem was that no one in the band sang. After arguing amongst us about who was going to be the singer in the band, it was decided that it would be me. My first attempt at singing at our first job audition somehow landed us the job. We played at Oxford Tavern Hotel for eighteen months and playing there three nights a week gave us the opportunity to learn a huge repertoire of songs and tighten up our sound as a band.

At the age nineteen, our band was working all around the hotel circuit in Sidney and singing became the most important thing in my life. I loved it and still do, after thirty-eight years in this business. By twenty, the band members started to develop different interests in music and personal activities, so we broke up. In weeks I found myself back on stage, performing in the Sydney clubs as a solo artist.

I remember walking into the office of my first agent. She asked me to sing a few songs just with my guitar and said “I only book out of town clubs in country areas,” so I spent the next two years performing in clubs all over Australia. I was very fortunate to do what I loved and earn good money while I traveled around Australia, New Zealand and on P&O ships on South Pacific cruises.

As a small child my dream was to come to America and make it big in the music business. In 1974 I felt the time was right, so at the age of twenty-one I packed up to head to the USA. My parents asked me at the Sidney airport while waiting to board, how long I would be away. I replied “I do not know, we’ll see what happens.” I arrived in San Francisco airport about 11 pm on a Monday night. I did not know anyone, nor did I have any contacts.

I asked the bus driver “are you going to the city center?”, he said “yes”, so I got on board. When the bus stopped, we all got off and the first hotel I saw within walking distance was the Sir Francis Hotel, so I booked in for two days. I fell asleep and slept right through till 5 pm the next day.

That night I went out to the Hyatt Regency Hotel, eager to meet people and make friends and met some of the most wonderful people on the face of this earth. My first friend in San Francisco was a lovely lady I met at the Hyatt. We began talking and she asked me what I was doing in San Francisco. She said she knew of a guy named Roger Boschetti who had his own Italian American variety show on Channel Twenty.

She said “I wonder if he can help you.” I replied “Do you know this guy well?” She said that she did not know him at all personally, but she was going to call him at the station anyhow and see if he could help me.

The next day she had spoken to Roger Boschetti, explained to him that I was an Italian singer from Australia and needed help, so he told her we should meet him at 7 pm that night at the San Francisco Hilltop. I’ll never forget my first impression of him. He had the most incredible persona, well dressed, very debonair and powerful in his appearance. Then in strong broken English with his Italian American accent he said to me “so you’re an Italian from Australia”, I said “yes, my name is Jay and I’m so pleased to meet you.” His response was “you sure talk funny.” We both began laughing and that was the beginning of a very special friendship with a most generous, caring and wonderful man.

Roger arranged for me to get up on stage and sing a couple of songs with the band at the Hilton and then said “ok, I’ll pick you up tomorrow from your hotel and you can come and stay with my wife and me for a while.” Roger and his lovely wife Rachel took me into their home where I lived with them as part of their family for six months.

They were two of the most wonderful people I have ever met, I was a young kid in a new country who knew no one. They understood the feelings of fear, loneliness and the hunger for opportunity that I as a young man far from home was experiencing and they supported me just like a family member. Roger and I became close just like father and son and till he passed away March 8, 2004 we still kept in touch.

In San Francisco I became a regular on Roger’s Italian American TV variety program, but the highlight of my performances in San Francisco was a concert at the world famous Bimbo’s 365 Club. Roger had arranged a special night for me to perform there. It was wonderful and given that I was an unknown in America, I thought that there would be no one in the audience.

But when I stepped out on stage, I was overwhelmed by the auditorium packed with so many people.
Among the many people that spoke to me after the concert was a lady by the name of Argentina Brunetti, Hollywood actress and columnist for the L’Italo-Americano Newspaper and Gente magazine in Italy. Roger had invited her to the concert as a guest. She was wonderful, absolutely marvelous and in a few months Argentina, like Roger and Rachel Boschetti, would become another very important person in my life, during my five years in America.

In San Francisco Roger made arrangements for me to get my Green card so I could stay longer in America. I liked living in San Francisco, but it was not the place that could give me the opportunity I was looking for in the music industry. When I got my Green card, as difficult as it was for me to leave, I went to Hollywood to pursue my dream.

In Hollywood I decided to contact Argentina Brunetti, whom I had met in San Francisco. Argentina, together with her sister-in-law Maria Bozzano, originally from San Francisco, took me out to dinner and offered to help in any way they could. I found an apartment in Hollywood just a few blocks away from where Argentina and Maria lived and we kept in touch almost on a daily basis.

My first months in Hollywood were very difficult. I spent every day just ringing agents, managers, record companies, everyone and anyone who was in the business. No one seemed to be interested in talking to me. I could not get a band together unless I had jobs to offer musicians. I could not get a job performing anywhere unless I had a band. I could not get a manager or an agent unless I had a record company interested in signing me. I could not get a record company to even look at me unless I had a manager or an agent.

- To be continued in next issue

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