Bruce Fessier|The Desert Sun
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Pat Rizzo made a name for himself in music as a genre-busting, saxophone player. Now he’s being recognized on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars Nov. 30 for what he’s also done locally.
Rizzo, who turns 75 Nov. 30, cut his teeth on the bebop of Charlie Parker, Stan Getz and Gerry Mulligan growing up in the Astoria district of New York. He was educated at the Manhattan School of Music, where he studied classical flute, clarinet and saxophones. He learned piano as a kid listening to his mother, Mary Rizzo, a concert pianist from Gioia Del Colle, Italy.
But Rizzo got just as much schooling from the streets. He started playing Latin jazz with Tito Puente long before Carlos Santana covered Puente’s “Oye Como Va.” He started hanging out at his shows in Queens,got asked to sit in and then earned a regular gig with that “king of salsa music.” He kept playing straight-ahead jazz on the side with a band he co-founded called the Cuff Links. Ron Dante, producer of the Archies' ultimate bubblegum rock song, “Sugar Sugar,” asked them to back him on a song called “Tracy,” in which Dante sang all the vocals. It went to No. 9 on the pop charts in late 1969. Rizzo went on the road, playing jazz on the side whileDante went on to produce Barry Manilow.
In 1970, Rizzo got recommended to replace a saxophonist in the groundbreaking funk bandSly & the Family Stone. Sly Stone called him into his bathroom and asked if he was any good. Rizzo said yeah andSly gave him the job without hearing him play. One night, they went to a recording studio and Rizzo watched Sly jam with Jimi Hendrix. After that, they dreamed of fusing rock and funk with jazz. They started stretching funk in a new jazz direction until drugs famously destroyed Sly’s career, just as they killed Hendrix.
Rizzo had moved to Los Angeles to be near Sly and started hanging out at a Hollywood club called Sneaky Pete’s, partly owned by Joe Howard, owner of the celebrity haunt, Howard’s Manor, in Palm Springs. Rizzo met pianist Frankie Randall at Sneaky Pete’s and they became lifelong friends. Both had played at Jilly’s restaurant in New York, owned by Frank Sinatra’s best friend, Jilly Rizzo. Jilly took such a shine to Pat, they called each other “distant cousins.”
One day, Pat got a call to play a gig at the Trinidad Hotel in Palm Springs. He showed up and only saw Sinatra in the audience. It turned out the Rancho Mirage resident was auditioning him for his big band. He got the gig, but didn’t have to do swing music exclusively. He went back into the studios and became an in-demand session player. He recorded parts of so many disco songs, Donna Summer is the only artist he can remember. And maybe Gloria Gaynor.
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More memorable was the opportunity to record with the eclectic guitarist Ry Cooder on the 1976 groundbreaking album, “Chicken Skin Music.” It fused native Hawaiian folk music with Leadbelly’s Southern folk blues, including the classic “Bourgeois Blues.”
Rizzo joined another group in 1978 for one more opportunity to stretch the envelope of pop music. The East L.A. band, War, had recorded a slew of hits ranging from the chill Latin funk of “Spill the Wine,” with Eric Burdon on vocals, to the Chicano anthem, “Low Rider.” Rizzo and harmonica player Lee Oskar dreamed of adding jazz to their mix of Latin, rock, R&B and funk, and they created compelling harmonies before that band also imploded amid management problems and creative differences.
Transitioning to the desert
By this time, Rizzo had fused his bebop roots with Latin jazz, pop, funk, big band swing, disco, Hawaiian music, and rock and funky R&B. Only Miles Davis stretched as many boundaries of jazz.
But Rizzowas to make an even bigger impact on Palm Springs. After discovering the desert with the Cuff Links, and auditioning for Sinatra, Rizzo bought a home near Randall and Sinatra in Rancho Mirage. Then he took his Sly & the Family Stone money and co-founded Palm Springs’ first disco, Pal Joey’s supper club. He turned himself into a Palm Springscharacter as unique as Mel Haber or Frank Bogert. He became The Riz.
“Pat said, ‘Let’s open up a nightclub,’” said his partner, restaurateur Joe Hanna. “It was a garage owned by Frank Prieto of the Prieto (Agua Caliente) family. Pal Joey’s became a very famous club and Pat was very much involved in it. He hired all the DJs and most of the people that worked there. A friend of Pat’s decorated it. It was there for eight years.”
Pat used his knowledge ofwhat was popular in disco to program Pal Joey’s music. Hanna said Sinatra and Bob Hope came in because the celebrities were curious about this new phenomena. But mostly, it was a hangout for young people. Zelda’s and Cecil’s followed in its footsteps and Palm Springs became a disco town. Unfortunately, Rizzo said, its success wasn’t good for his marriage. As Hanna put it, “He became a test pilot for Constable Mattresses.” With Pal Joey’s going strong, Riz went back on the road with War.
But Palm Springs remained his hangout. He took casual gigs and just became a presence on the scene. Keyboardist Ronnie King, who started playing in a lounge at the old Canyon Hotel at 18 before becoming an in-demand session player and producer in Los Angeles, remembers what it was like to see The Riz enter the room.
“I got commissioned to play keyboard with Frankie Ford (for the 1980-’81 season),” King said. “Pat used to come in and he was different than those guys. He was like a rock star. I was like, ‘Man, I want to do what this guy’s doing. He’s able to just hang out and play and yet he’s rocking the big stages.’ I’d see him on TV and I remember (drummer) Sal Frisaura saying, ‘Oh, he’s played with Sinatra.’ It was very exciting to know somebody like that at such a young age.”
The Riz has a sense of humor all his own — warm and detached all at once. After listening and sounding sincerely interested in helping someone, he’ll sign off by saying, “And if you have any problems, call your doctor.” As an Italian-American immersed in the Sinatra culture, his philosophy was, “Never let a Dago by.”
That personality comes through in his singing and saxophone playing. When he began singing in clubs, people were amazed that he sounded like Tony Bennett. Riz would reply, "He comes from my neighborhood in Astoria. We all sound like that." As a saxophonist, he'd jokearound with an audience and then put the sax to his mouth and become totally immersed inthe emotion of the moment — much like Sinatra. But the playing would reflect his personality.
“The thing about Pat was, he played so differently,” King said. “Like, the way he plays the sax is uniquely a part of his character.I was playing with jazz musicians who were great, but he would bring such a...I wouldn’t call it comedy, but now you would call it a brand. Every time he played, every time he walked into a room, he was Pat Rizzo. He was like a persona, and those are the kind of people I ended up working with, people who knew who they were in their style.”
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King was managed by the late Jerry Heller, who was shown in the film, “Straight Outta Compton,” as the manager of NWA. Heller and The Riz were friends and one night, they decided to go to Haber’s Ingleside Inn, where Pat’s childhood friend, Andy Fraga, led popular singer showcases. Heller was driving his Rolls Royce and they were probably a bit inebriated. Hellermissed a turn and drove his Rolls into the Ingleside pool. The way King and Hanna heard it, they walked away unscathed and just left the Rolls in the pool for somebody to pull out the next day.
Rizzo has calmed down since then. He has a stable relationship with his girlfriend, attorney Bonnie Kramer, and is proud of two daughters, Nina and Lori, and his son, Josh, 24, who Pat said took over his Palm Springs house on his way to becoming agood recording engineer of his own.
The Riz had a reputation for being somewhat of a bad boy. One of his saxophone idols was Georgie Auld, the bad boy of the Big Band Era. Auld got thrown out of the Army during World War II for growing marijuana on his barracks. And Auld called The Riz “my illegitimate son.” When Auld once told me he was worried about Pat, Igot worried.
But The Riz made things happen in this town. After leaving War, he co-founded the best jazz club I've seen in the desert, called Manhattan, featuring major jazz stars such as saxophonist Sonny Stitt — once heralded as Charlie Parker's heir apparent —and singer Morgana King. He once organized a jam session with Auld and two other saxophone heroes, Charlie Ventura and Vido Musso, who was Sinatra’s roommate in the Harry James big band.
Local action
When that club folded, Riz started playing local nightclubs and doing charity gigs. He always had great pianists like Fraga, Joe Massters, Yarek Urant, Marty Steel and Dennis Michaels, who he continues to play with on weekends at Three Sixty North Lounge and Restaurant in Palm Springs. His favorite gig – and mine – was the Ocotillo Lodge under Hanna’s management with Mike Costley on vocals and Hal Blaine, the drummer with the most gold records in history as the cornerstone of the Wrecking Crew studio musicians of the 1960s.
He also recorded some great original songs in Palm Springs, such as “Hurry,” which should be a jazz standard, and “If You Only Knew,” a beautiful ballad that people wanted Sinatra to record. My favorite album of his was “Gold For Silver,” featuring great musicians contributing their own original songs including trumpeter Conte Candoli from Doc Severinsen’s “Tonight Show” Orchestra and bassist Marshall Hawkins, with whom The Riz helped launch the Jazz in the Pines Festival in Idyllwild.
The real action was always at Pat’s house. Riz always kept his door open – not unlocked, but wide open – so anyone could drop in any time of the day or night. Composer-musician Chris Gore, who has spearheaded theeffort to get The Riz inducted into the Walk of Stars, said he spent days, nights and whole months at Rizzo’s house.
“It was Grand Central for a while,” he said. “There were recordings going on, there were jams going on, parties happening. It was a great place for a music scene. He had some great sound engineers. His own son was a big part of it.”
Both King and Gore talked about theinfectious enthusiasm Rizzo brought to projects.
“When he comes up with these ideas, he calls you over because he’s in a creative mode,” King said. “It’s one of those things where Pat calls, you show up. You’re just like, ‘I gotta see what’s going on over there.’ It was always intriguing.”
Pat called me one time with an idea for a lyric he thought I could write. It was based on the break-up line from “Seinfeld,” “It’s not you, it’s me.” Pat had this epiphany that breakups are usually caused by both parties, so it should be, “It’s Not You, It’s We.” So I wrote a lyric around that title, and The Riz and his band put it to music and it became the title song to an album.
Usually, The Riz called me when there was a cause that needed publicity. Until too many of his friends got sick and died, Riz would always round up musicians to stage benefits to help someone in need. This music community became so well known for its philanthropy, trumpeter Steve Madaio, who played Woodstock and recorded with Stevie Wonder and Bob Dylan, moved to the desert to be a part of it. Rizzo spearheaded thatphilanthropy and always called me to spread the news of his projects.
But this time, Riz didn’t call. Gore called because he couldn’t believe no one had championed a star for Riz before. “That’s why I’m honored to have initiated this star ceremony for Pat,” he said. “It’s long overdue.”
So this time, Riz, this column is for you.
Star man
Induction: The Walk of Stars ceremony for Pat Rizzo will be at 3 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 30, at 360 N. Palm Canyon Drive, Palm Springs.
The Party: Doors will open at 5 p.m. at the American Legion Hall, Post 509, 400 N Belardo Road, Palm Springs. Music starts at 6 p.m. with artists including Lee Oskar from War, Greg Errico from Sly & the Family Stone, singer Mike Costley and drummer Andy Fraga Jr.
Information: (760) 799-9101