20th Fox 290
1961
A weird little number penned (and also possibly produced) by Art & Toni Mineo.
Attilio "Art" Mineo (1918-2010) was born in Brooklyn ,from a Sicilian family, he grew up in his parents’ boardinghouse for fellow immigrants. His mother gave him a love for Italian opera, but the young Mineo turned to jazz and became a top-notch musician, playing with Buddy Raye and arranging for the U.S. Army Band in the 1930s.
During World War II, Mineo was posted to Fort Lewis, where he met his future wife, Toni, also a musician. He stayed in Tacoma and became the jazz pianist, bassist and arranger for the New Yorker club on Sixth Avenue, now gone but then the top place to go.
“Art was … wonderful, very tolerant of us young guys,” said Bill Ramsay, a former saxophonist for Mineo’s band, in a News Tribune interview. “One guy would actually fall asleep on his chair. Art would just say, ‘Let him sleep.’ He was very patient.”
Through the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s, Mineo played in town and toured, arranging for greats such as Paul Whitehead, collaborating with Skitch Henderson on a commission for Jackie Kennedy and writing the music for the Bubbleator at the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair.
Of Eugene Darrow, nothing is known and this was probably his sole recording. Was he also from Tacoma?
Toni and Attilio Mineo
Further readings:
