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 July 2006 Back to Table of Contents Back to Archives Main Page Section: Arts & Letters Sam Scamacca By Elena Buscarino
Though a little more than twice the size of his tenor saxophone, he is a musical giant. Born in 1926, Scamacca doesn’t just play amazingly well for a man his age — he plays well for anyone, at any age. A central figure in Buffalo jazz, he has been playing and/or teaching on the local scene since he was 11 years old. Given a choice in elementary school, Scamacca’s father steered him toward the clarinet. He later picked up the saxophone. After high school, Scamacca worked at Curtis-Wright riveting airplanes. He brought his check home to his family of ten, as his father was a disabled vet of WWI. At the same time, he was also playing music out six nights per week. Drafted in ’45, Scamacca was shot in training and sent home. He then followed a friend to Ithaca College where he studied classical clarinet, still playing jazz sax at night. As part of his curriculum, the musician was required to learn every instrument: brass, woodwind, piano, as well as vocal method training. Though he didn’t feel he wanted to teach, he majored in music education as a means to a day job. This may have been the major irony of all because Scamacca proved to be a highly revered teacher, imprinting many a young life, and feeling his greatest satisfaction when he could motivate his students. After graduation from college in 1949, Sam did vaudeville in several towns, but grew tired of being broke by Wednesday of each week. He took a chance and went on the road with the Russ Carlisle Band as a solo clarinetist. After three months he left Carlisle and went to LA, which he described as “terrible.” Scamacca’s next stop was Michigan, where for two years he taught English and music for grades 1 through 12. “I sure did learn English,” he chuckled. Back in Buffalo, Scamacca taught music during the day at Sedola’s Music on Grant Street where many a Buffalo musician, including Bobby Militello, took instruction. At night, Scamacca played the Towne Casino. He left Towne for Bafo’s, a dinner club on Main and Tupper, and started a job as a long-term substitute teacher in Ellicottville. He kept that job the next school year and then went to Lafayette High School in 1956, where he stayed until 1990. As a teacher, he recruited whistlers from the hallways and trained them to be horn players. He once turned a tuba player into a drummer, and one football player guarded his piano-playing as a secret, lest he be recruited from the starting lineup to the band room. Additionally, everyone in Scamacca’s band had to sing. He would call a trio of friends from the hallway and teach them to match pitch, and voila! — a vocal group was formed. “I thought of myself as a motivator,” Scamacca says, modestly, maybe still not understanding his impact on his students. Other than local band leader and teacher, Jim Tudini and Bobby Militello, Scamacca’s list of past students includes notables such as Gary Malabar, Steve White, Ernie Corallo, Mike Costly, Diane Taber, Joe Broncatto, Joe Ford, Juni Booth and Stanley Brown. Writers Patti Meyer Lee and Gary Lee, while researching a book on local rhythm and blues and rock and roll, Don’t Bother Knockin’...This Town’s Rockin’, contacted Sam after his name came up over and over as having been a huge influence on many musical careers. One of Scamacca’s early memories had his father rousting him from bed one Easter eve, so that he could play his clarinet in a dining room full of accordion and guitar music amid the aroma of homemade wine. The musician remembers the glee he felt when it would be suggested, “Let’s go to [so and so’s] house,” and off the party would go. Not to mention the other fringe benefits — Scamacca recounted that three weeks after picking up his first clarinet, his uncle paid him a nickel to play. Scamacca found out how much he loved teaching when he went back to school for a degree in administration and ended up as vice principal of Lafayette High School, while still seeing students at Buffalo’s Community Music School. Scamacca is the father of four, and grandfather of ten. His children all had music lessons, and youngest son Sam Jr., carries on the musical tradition as a bass player in various local bands. In addition to playing sax at the Elmwood Lounge on Sundays, Scamacca still plays frequent gigs. When a gig comes up, he has two questions: “Where is it?” and “What instrument?” Scamacca’s close companion of 18 years, Delores Leon, is always nearby. Each Sunday, during the last set, when the band starts to play “You’ll Never Know,” Scamacca finds her in the crowd. They hold each other and dance while onlookers get misty-eyed. Sam finds love in the music, just like he always has. back to top back to table of contents Current Issue | About Forever Young | Where to Find | Advertise | Our Advertisers | Community Calendar | Contest | Clubs | Contact Us | Archives | Home |
