By John Lawrence
Joe Marillo passed away Saturday, March 26. Born in Niagara Falls, NY, 83 years ago, he moved to San Diego in 1974 from Las Vegas where he had played in show bands for 10 years. He started out playing saxophone in Atlantic City, NJ while swinging from a trapeze.
He was dedicated to bringing straight-ahead, mainstream jazz to San Diego for almost 50 years both with his virtuoso playing and his skills as a presenter and impresario. He received the San Diego Music Awards Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003.
After moving here from Las Vegas, Joe immediately started playing and performing in San Diego clubs. I first saw and heard him at Chuck’s Steak House in La Jolla where Joe lived “in the ghetto” for his entire life.
There were so many clubs that have gone in and out of business in the last 50 years, and Joe played in all of them. The Crossroads, Elario’s, Our Place, Bella Via in Cardiff, Henry’s in Oceanside, George’s in Encinitas, the Jazz Mine, the Catamaran. The list goes on and on. The ephemeral nature of most jazz clubs is contrasted with the constancy of Joe’s presence and dedication to jazz in San Diego over several decades.
Joe initiated a jazz policy at the Catamaran in the 70s that was very successful. He brought in all the greats from the Golden Age of Jazz, roughly 1945 to 1970. People like Stan Getz, Dizzy Gillespie, Sonny Stitt, Ahmad Jamal, Supersax, Bobby Hutcherson. I was in the audience for many of these gigs. I particularly remember when Bill Evans was there with Philly Joe Jones on drums. Bill’s playing was wonderful that night, but Philly Joe sat patiently behind his drum kit in a supporting role not given many chances to solo. Finally, Joe said, “Let Philly Joe go!” Then on the last tune of the set Philly Joe got to play a long drum solo and everyone breathed a sigh of satisfaction. Joe Marillo sat in with all these greats and in the process became one himself.
Unfortunately, Joe’s Society for the Preservation of Jazz was too successful at the Catamaran. Management got the idea that they could save money, get rid of Joe and still bring in all the big guys. Of course, it was the beginning of the end. The dolts who thought they could emulate a true and natural impresario like Joe just didn’t understand the simpatico in the jazz world that was necessary to make a good thing happen, and the jazz program at the Catamaran was doomed. Joe was the Pied Piper. When the Catamaran got rid of the Pied Piper, the musicians didn’t come any more.
As my trumpet playing improved, I got up the nerve one night to ask Joe if I could sit in at his gig at a club in Encinitas. The club was in the corner of an L-shaped strip mall where, it seemed, a lot of jazz clubs were located. Joe let me sit in for one tune and then called something at a furious tempo. I had all I could do to keep up. Many years later I started the San Diego Jazz Society similar to Joe’s Society for the Preservation of Jazz. There were a number of jazz societies in those days including the Society for Straight Ahead Jazz and the San Diego Jazz Festival. We presented Joe in numerous venues on many different occasions as well as many other artists. Joe was kind enough to let us use the silhouette of him from his “Lady Caroline” album on our brochure for the San Diego Jazz Society.
We did a series of gigs at the North Coast Repertory Theater. Like many venues, there was no piano. This problem was solved by moving my piano from home, a 1908 Story and Clark upright, to the gig. I asked Joe if he would do one of the gigs with him and me as the front line. He graciously consented, and I practiced my head off to be worthy of being on the same stage with him. One of the tunes I called was Charlie Parker’s Donna Lee. I cranked up the metronome at home because I wanted to be able to play the head at an ungodly tempo. I counted it off, and Joe, ever the consummate professional, pulled it off without breaking a sweat.
Like many of us, Joe was inspired by Charlie Parker, “Bird”, as he was known to his fans. I never got to see Bird in person as I was in eighth grade in 1955 when Bird died, but Joe bought him a drink once. Joe didn’t get interested in music until he was 20. “That’s when I heard my first Charlie Parker record,” he said, “and immediately got turned on. It’s a strange thing–who knows why we like certain types of music. All I know, to this day, is that something about Parker’s sound, his ideas, his saxophone, really got to me, and before long I was buying every Parker record I could find.”
Joe was lucky in that he got to do what he really loved in life, and, if he didn’t make a great living, at least he survived. He said, “I’m a lot more concerned with realizing my dream of becoming a polished improviser, which is what be-bop is all about. And that’s a continual learning process that will never end.
“So as long as I have a place to play, a place to practice my music, I’m content–even if it’s only one night a week. And aside from playing live, I’m constantly seeking out new avenues to share my creativity–and my love of be-bop–with others.”
Joe was true to his calling till the very end. He was a teacher, an improviser, a promoter. Be-bop, as Parker’s music was called, was his inspiration. For the last almost 50 years, Joe Marillo has been Mr Jazz in San Diego. Clubs have come and gone; venues have come and gone. The one constant was Joe’s presence on the jazz scene having played and presented in all of them. Now he’s graduated to playing celestial harmonies with Bird, Diz, Stan and all the rest from the Golden Age. We were fortunate to have shared the same window of time with them and San Diego was fortunate to have had Joe Marillo as our guiding light for the best in jazz for the last 50 years. Joe, we will miss you. RIP, my friend.
A memorial concert honoring Joe is scheduled for May 24 at Dizzy’s, 4275 Mission Bay Drive, San Diego, CA 92109.
John Lawrence
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John, I am so happy that you got to play with Joe and that Jazz musicians “stick together” Thanks for sharing your experiences!
Joe was one of the most honest people I ever knew, unafraid to say exactly
what he was thinking. He was about as skilled as any musician, from the
wildly popular to the ascended master, and that business about playing on
a trapese underlines his phenomonal proficiency.
My heart goes out to his partner, who kept him alive and healthy in her home
in mid-City, where he continued to give lessons for little money to young
players who, like most of us, thought they could one day, one day, get up
and play a bloody hot solo, just like Joe.
John – thank you for a nice article. Bob Dorn, I’m glad to hear that Joe was still teaching, as he taught me as a high school player in the late 70’s. He might have charged me $5 a session. He lived down by Southwestern College then, and every time I went over I thought, “Wow – this is what 1950’s New York is like!”
Another small club he played at back then was Casaro’s(?) Pizza, in Point Loma. I used to sneak in after it went into nightclub mode just to hear him play (I was 19). Joe would always give me a knowing wink.
He was a good man.
Seen him quite a few times. Now I just wish we would still have a jazz scene. 88.3 is a great station but we really don’t have venues anymore.
There are three jazz venues in San Diego. Jazz at the Handlery hotel in Mission Valley every Friday, 5:30 – 7:30 PM presented by Holly Hofmann is always good. No admission, no minimum. Booze and refreshments available.
Then there’s Dizzy’s in Pacific Beach which has jazz several nights a week presented by Chuck Perrin. No booze. Limited refreshments.
There’s also the Athenaeumn in La Jolla which presents jazz on an irregular basis usually about twice a quarter.
The San Diego Symphony also has a jazz program now including their summer series at the Embarcadero.
Also, KSDS presents some live jazz events: their monthly “Jazz Live” concerts, the (temporarily suspended) jazz happy hour (also monthly) and their new series of jazz legacy concerts (see http://www.jazz88.org for details).
Remember Dizzy’s words: It’s ALL jazz!)
Yeah I’m aware of those and have been to the Handlery for Friday jazz several times. All good but I just miss places like the Juke Joint Café and Croce’s and others that came and went where jazz was the main feature. Croce’s Park West featured Latin jazz for the short time of it’s existence.
It’s a shame but that type of jazz venue has never lasted very long here in Sandy Ego. Juke Joint, the Cat, the La Jolla hotel… so many others, have all tried and failed.
What really kills me is how so many people who fancied themselves as jazz fans were in reality “smooth” jazz fans and loved 98.1 when it was a smooth jazz station. Humphry’s was their hang out. They had absolutely no clue about KSDS. I still have a hard time believing there are so few real jazz fans in SD, especially now with the big mid-century revival scene going on.
Hi John, and thanks for this nice piece about your friend Joe Marillo.
I am not a follower of jazz, but have a friend who is. He goes into Cambridge to hear jazz every month to a bar on the top floor of the Cambridge Hyatt Hotel, I believe. Also, have you heard of the radio program, “Eric in the Evening” on WGBH, an NPR radio station in Boston? That jazz program has been on the air continuously since I was young. I’ll pass your article on to my friend, Hans. Since you say that restaurants have a hard time supporting jazz (I don’t doubt that.), maybe a bar would do better. Just a thought.
The most authentic and open jam I know of WAS at El Zerape, on Adams Ave. It was abruptly cancelled, in the third year of its existence, by the restaurant. Restaurants aren’t a good fit for jazz jams. The musicians attracted to them rarely have enough money in their pockets to feed themselves and they sit in the the seats that owners depend on for dollars. Owners have to love the music enough to be willing to at least support the house band. Few, if any, do. Keep looking for Bill Caballero to surface again at another location. Burnett Anderson is a gentle and complete trumpet player leading a jam at La Maze, in National City, and the players sitting in have to know what they’re doing. A great jazz club, La Maze.
Great piece, John. I’m sorry I’m such a newbie that I never heard Mr. Jazz!
A terrific article….. I wish I could have seen him . I have a DEEP passion for Jazz and it sounds like I would have run to any of his preformances…
performances