Five months ago, I wrote about my long-time dear friend Dick Contino. The man who made our instrument go viral for the second time in the late 40’s, after Guido Deiro first did it in the 1910’s. Today, we lost “The Liberace of the Accordion”, and someone who I feel again is another underappreciated accordionist in US History.
Tony was one of my dearest friends, and grew even closer in his final two years. He was like family, loved and understood my parents, connected me with his nephew Torey Lovullo who manages the Arizona Diamondbacks, and who was just maybe, my biggest fan. He very quietly sent me recordings of him playing various songs so that I could record myself playing with him to make a Duo CD, and I will put this out soon as he wanted.
Between Guido Deiro’s drop off in popularity in the early 30’s (helped by the Great Depression) with the fall of Vaudeville, and Dick Contino’s Horace Heidt performance on December 12th, 1948, there was a two decade gap of accordion unpopularity. Tony was born in 1932, and began to play accordion in 1937, which was very bad timing, and because of it, he dealt with similar hatred as I have in my career for the instrument. “People always made fun of you. Especially in school, when the accordion case looked like an accordion. They would remark ‘Here comes the Polka King’ and the like. I hated the accordion, but I didn’t want to break my father’s heart, so I took it up and kept going.” he told me. I can’t explain how almost word for word this is to my life. Just 60 years later.
His father was incredibly tough on him, and his stories reverberate like an exact script from Tony Dannon’s story of his upbringing in Detroit, “I always told my dad I wanted to play ball with my friends. But he would lock me in my room until I played for 4 hours. And if I made a mistake and kept playing, he’d knock and yell at me!”; Tough Love 101. His father was also forceful in his campaign to make sure Tony always played the melody, no matter how much glitz and sugar I would put with it. “Most of the people I played for were old folks from Italy and he didn’t want Jazz etc., they didn’t understand that. So all my songs were straight; hence it forced me to think of alternative ideas on making the song interesting. Change keys constantly, make great intros, make big endings so they know when to applaud, powerful bellow shakes, my orchestration ideas, etc.”.
His push and resilience finally paid off when Dick Contino’s popularity instantly changed the accordion landscape. This is where Tony’s career began to take off, but his lifelong problem would always be that he was in the shadow of Dick. The “Other” famous and really good accordionist that the common person knew; the “I’m like Dick Contino” vs. “I’m Tony Lovello” problem. He never said it, but I think he knew he had more in the tank than Dick, and I must concur, as his right and left hand technique were Coupe Mondiale level, his bellows control was ferocious, and he had historically great bellows shakes. Of course fame level and ability have never gone hand in hand, or even close to it. But you’d never hear him complain, and had Much respect for Dick because of the opportunities he created for Tony.
In the middle of everything finally going well, Tony went to serve in the Army, heading to Korea, “My best times were in the Army. They needed you because they didn’t want to lug around a piano. You were king of the hill. I was even chief of the USO in Alaksa and was always in demand to take shows in Korea. I would go out with some of Bob Hope’s singers and we would go to the front lines and entertain. I felt bad for Dick Contino after he dodged the draft, as he would have become a high ranking officer and called his shots. He would have had a great time and his career would have continued upward.”
When he came back from the Army, he played with everyone, Red Skelton, Abbott and Costello, touring with the Arthur Godfrey show, Kate Smith, Jimmy Durante, Debbie Reynolds and Frank Sinatra; and had funny stories to tell about all of them. ony was so popular at one time, that it was like the life of famous people today, “Many things were fixed then like now. When Pat Boone and I won on the Arthur Godfrey show, we knew were going to win. That’s when you knew you had made it.” Lovello did in fact get out from under Dick’s powerful accordion shadow at a specific point of his career, stating “When Dick and Horace Heidt broke up, I replaced him, and played for 10 weeks. This got me my own name. He also of course remembered when accordion began to die, stating that “When steel guitar came out, that was the beginning of the end.”
“The Living Legend of the Accordion”, as he was always billed, encompassed everything that defined a high list performer. Charm, comedy, tremendous ability, audience in their hand in 2 minutes, compelling arrangements, and a genuine personality, that additionally matched off stage when you met him. I grew up listening to his records as I did with many players, but I didn’t get to meet him until about 2010, and was I ever impressed. He was so much about entertainment for his audiences, that when he realized he could not Stand Up for a full performance, along with Bellow Shaking for at least 20 minutes of it, he announced retirement. He was either going to be the real Tony Lovello, or not play. Much Respect. I know for a fact, that I have never once met anyone that didn’t have something positive about Tony’s playing or his incredibly warm personality after a show. If he didn’t make you laugh, he made you laugh twice.
I can’t thank Paul Ramunni enough for setting up his event two months ago at the New England Accordion Museum, so that Tony and I could finally do a mini concert together. But much more so than that, it was an eye opening moment for my views on Tony. I always knew how great he was, but the light bulbs never fully went off on why he plays how he plays, and how he thinks as a player. Orchestra; he plays and thinks, as an orchestra. His Octave Melodies, his Gliss’s (which were the greatest gliss’s of all-time), the timing of his famous Bellow Shakes (which were Also the greatest of all-time), his chord choices, his constant volume changes, and his Tremelo’s (which are unquestionably to me, his most important and unique trait as no one can do them like him; and heck, most can’t do them period). These are just some of the things you will hear him do, but they will make So much more sense, when you realize that he thinks as an orchestra in everything he does; Not an accordionist. It is right in line with my lifelong philosophy to be a great Musician on the Accordion, vs. a great Accordionist.
Lastly I will say, he was so unique as a player, that many know from my workshops on “Authenticity of Styles / Genres”, how I would include Tony as a genre himself, and sure enough, the audience would always come up with 10 or more traits that were specific to Tony which truly qualified him as his own genre. Not 2 or 3. That really is a Legacy. That, really is a Living Legend of the Accordion.The Accordion World will miss your flash, your comedy, your outfits, your bellow shakes, that orchestra playing, and your personality Tony. I’ll miss you so much for being such a dear friend.
Photo of Cory Pesaturo and Tony Lovello, April 30, 2017 at the Tony Lovello Workshop at The New England Accordion Connection and Museum Co.
