Uncle Joe
Okay Anne, all I needed was a little push...;-)

My great-uncle, Joe Martucci, was a classical & church music composer and performer all his life, in NYC. His family lived just down the hill from Yonkers Raceway, probably less than a mile from where I was born and very near to my grandparents place too. He was a fantastic organist. I remember him as being a kind of quiet person, who rarely talked about himself; at least to young squirts like grand-nephews. He'd rather play, or talk about the Yankees, family gossip, or eat Italian cooking - not necessarily in that order.

The family story goes Joe sold one of his mass pieces to someone for a few hundred dollars. This fellow thought he could do something else with it.....which he did. "Little Drummer Boy" was the result. Joe was educated at Juilliard in New York. It turns out the guy who owns the publishing to Little Drummer Boy, Harry Simeone, also attended Juilliard at about the same time Joe did. No one recalls now if that was the name of Joe's associate. Maybe we can get Joe's daughter to look around in some old boxes for some receipt, or something.

According to ASCAP, this Harry character also owns the rights to:
Little Brown Jug
Alexander's Ragtime Band
Battle Hymn of the Republic
For He's a Jolly Good Fellow
God Rest Yee Merry Gentlemen
Good King Wenceslas
In The Good Old Summertime
Jingle Bells
Joy To The World
O Little Town Of Bethlehem
O Tannenbaum
Rock of Ages
There Is A Tavern In The Town
Twas The Night Before Christmas
Twelve days of Christmas
When The Saints Go Marching In

..and on and on and on...
Amazing how 'prolific' he was. ;-)


Anyway, it would be pretty cool, if the story is true; given my holiday music fetish.

There was also another great uncle who played piano in nightclubs and bars. He was self taught. I wonder which one I'm more genetically similar to. ;-)