Remembering Lou
Louis Giampetruzzi
(1953-2006)
It's with profound sadness that I
pass along the heartbreaking news of the death of a great musician, friend, and mentor, Louis
Giampetruzzi (1953-2006). Lou died in the early morning on Friday, July 21, 2006.
For those who didn't have the privilege of knowing him, Lou was a big guy with an even bigger heart.
His two main passions were music and his wife, singer/guitarist Kate Giampetruzzi-- Lou's
partner in love, life, and music since 1974.
Kate
and Lou were "The First Couple" of NYC's bluegrass, old-time country,
& trad folk communities. For more than 30 years they had been active in these scenes as beloved
performers and nurturers.
Lou was an incredible musician who was the master of just about any instrument he picked up--
especially the piano accordion, guitar and mandolin. He was a fixture at the various old-time
country and bluegrass jams that have sprung up in Manhattan and Brooklyn in recent years. Fellow
musician Marni
Rice, in reminiscing about jamming with him at the popular weekly
Wednesday night session at
The Baggot Inn
in the West Village, described Lou as "usually helping someone out with a tune or a forgotten
verse... always interested in new faces and always making new comers feel welcome."
In addition to his seminal role in NYC's old-time country and bluegrass scenes, Lou was also a
pioneer and proponent of the current revival and renaissance of the piano accordion and other
free-reed instruments in contemporary music. He wrote the first modern instruction book for the
"Stomach Steinway" entitled
Contemporary Accordion (Oak Publications, 1981). It was the first
book of its kind to introduce budding piano accordionists to a wide range of trad styles from
English and Irish to old-time country and blues, from Louisiana Cajun and Zydeco to French Canadian
and Norteno/Tejano, as well as the use of the accordion in contemporary folk and folk rock.
Acclaimed accordionist
Walter
Kuhr, the owner of the Big Apple's most favorite squeezebox shop
The
Main Squeeze sez: "Contemporary Accordion is the best
selling book in the store; brilliantly made, tasteful, eclectic and loved by everybody. Intermediate
degree of difficulty, the tunes sound fresh even though some are very old. Accordion players, don't
miss this book!!!!!".
I first came to know Lou and Kate's rich, soulful take on traditional music back in the late '70s.
At the time, they led one of the top string bands in the Big Apple, the Brooklyn-based
Wonderbeans, which included master mandolinist/multi-instrumentalist
Jim Garber, and two great fiddlers Ann Weiss and Art Friedman. Back then I was
just getting into the music as a teen across the majestic Hudson River in Jersey. I enjoyed their
live appearances on Frank Mare's and Kathy Kaplan's BG/OT radio shows on WBAI and
WKCR. Back in the day, I didn't have any money to spend on LPs, so, in order to "catch" the music, I
used to record those shows by holding my cheap cassette recorder up to the radio. That's how I
learned my first old-time songs and tunes. On one of their radio performances Lou and Kate sang a
beautiful rendition of an old
Carter
Family song, The Curtains of Night. I captured it on
tape and wore the cassette out playing it over and over again until I had learned the song. At the
dawn of the New Millennium, I was privileged to perform that same number with them as a member of
The Kate & Lou Band -- an experience I
will always cherish as one of the high points of my musical life.
Lou had a great love of music and life. Several months back, me and two of my brothers-in-music
Peter "Trip" Henderson and Jack Hirschorn ("NYC's Mayor of Old-Time Music") went to visit
Lou and Kate. At that time, Lou was very sick and wheel-chair bound, yet his spirits were high and
indomitable. He didn't have the strength to play his beloved "Stomach Steinway" but he did manage to
pick a couple of tunes with us on his mandolin and guitar. Lou and Kate even played for us a couple
of excellent songs-- including one tasty swing guitar instrumental duet-- that they were working up
in the expectation of the day when he would be well enough to perform again.
In closing, let me leave you with the notice that Kate had placed in the Yahoo! list NY
Bluegrass/Old-Time (NYBGOT) that the couple had started three years ago as cyber meeting place
for performers and fans to share memories and experiences of the Big Apple's bluegrass and old-time
country music scenes over the decades:
"Dear friends,
Louis passed away in the early hours of this day. I am a teardrop. He will be waked on Sunday with a
mass and burial on Monday. He led a beautiful life and now makes his long journey. Have courage.
Love,
Kate"
I'm sure you all join me in sending out all our love and heartfelt condolences to Kate in her great
loss.
Lou, rest in peace, my friend. I know you're playing the music you loved with friends and mentors
who've gone on before in that big jam in the sky.
We love and miss you.
-- Shlomo Pestcoe
