Bringing the banjos to Bethel: Club returns for a feel-good performance
Carol Palmer and other members of the Pittsburgh Banjo Club rehearse on a Wednesday night at Elks Lodge 339 on the North Side.
Frank Rossi founded the Pittsburgh Banjo Club in 1988.
Frank Rossi founded the Pittsburgh Banjo Club in 1988.
Joan Dickerson relaxes between songs during rehearsal night for the Pittsburgh Banjo Club.
Norm Azinger, the club’s music director, calls out the next number.
Pittsburgh music legend Lou Schreiber is a member of the club and often sits in to play clarinet.
Members of the Pittsburgh Banjo Club get warmed up at rehearsal.
A banjo player smiles in anticipation of the next number.
J.T. Chiodi, club president, with banjo-virtuoso sons Enzo and Nico
Club founder Frank Rossi plays his four-string banjo.
Norm Azinger takes a close look at the sheet music while he plays.
Get upwards of two dozen people playing banjos together, and you never know who will want to come check out the show.
“Now, over against that wall, we have a 90-year-old guy. His son brings him every week,” Norm Azinger said, pointing across the rapidly filling the main hall of the North Side’s Elks Lodge 339. “Then you’ll see the tattooed ladies and the kids. We have a group of younger people who come down here.
“It’s such a strange mix of folks,” he added, “but everybody has fun.”
Each Wednesday at the Elks is rehearsal night for the Pittsburgh Banjo Club. And as Azinger, the club’s music director, will concede, the term “rehearsal” is kind of subject to interpretation.
Yes, the musicians – some horn players often join the banjoists – play various selections in the club’s 400-tune songbook in preparation for public performances, such as the free concert scheduled for 2:30 p.m. Aug. 14 at the Bethel Park Community Center.
But they do so in a laid-back, anything-goes manner, with those in attendance singing along from lyric sheets while Azinger, leading the proceedings front and center, introduces songs with his combination of musical knowledge and a healthy sense of humor. For instance:
“The banjo club is like going to church,” he said about the relative participation of the 80 or so members, about 20 of whom he labels as active. “Some people go this day. Some go that day. Nobody goes the same day.
“But in Bethel Park, we always have a good response. People like that venue, because it’s a classy venue. We were there last year, and it was a full crowd again.”
The club has performed throughout Western Pennsylvania since Frank Rossi started it in 1988, with Azinger joining him as one of the seven original members. A New York City native, Rossi had been a member of the Long Island Banjo Club.
”When I moved here, I knew there were banjo players,” he said. “We just started to round them all up. We put articles in the newspapers that we were starting a four-string banjo club. Anybody interested? Let me know. We had a lot of people call us.”
That would be four strings as opposed to five. The latter variety, as the instrument was invented, features on oddly configured string that stretches only to the fifth fret instead of the headstock, allowing for tuning to a higher open pitch than possible for the full-length strings.
“The heyday of the four-string banjo was in the 1920s, Dixieland and sing-along songs,” Rossi explained.
Many of those songs retain their popularity nearly a century later, and not just among folks who might have a gray hair or two.
The youngest members of the club are teenagers Nico and Enzo Chiodi, who have a special spot during rehearsals to showcase their talents. They also perform as a trio with their father, J.T., who started bringing the boys to hear the banjos when they were 3 and 2.
“We were looking for family-friendly live music. As a musician” – he was a guitarist then – “I wanted my kids to be able to hear live music. We came down here. I fell in love with it. I bought a banjo, got up onstage and started playing with the club.”
And the Thornburg resident liked the club so much that these days, he serves as president.
For more information, visit http://www.thepittsburghbanjoclub.com/.