Last night, Ernie Bastin directed his last concert at Ohio University.

Two trumpet ensembles, two jazz combos and a jazz ensemble all performed at the concert. Bastin, director of the Ohio University Jazz Ensemble II, is retiring after 40 years at OU.

Bastin taught trumpet, directed Jazz Ensemble I for 30 years and Jazz Ensemble II for the past two years.

The concert began with a surprise trumpet ensemble honoring Bastin, who has been playing trumpet for 62 years. The ensemble was comprised of OU alumni who were all taught by Bastin.

Michael Parkinson, director of the Ohio University School of Music, will take over Bastin’s post next year. Parkinson said he met Bastin in the early 1970s while he was a director at Kent State University.

“I heard of his great reputation, and I knew that he was a tremendous musician,” Parkinson said.

The jazz ensemble started off their part of the concert with the piece “Easy Time” by Humberto Ramirez. Bastin said he especially enjoys this piece because the dancers feed off the musicians and the musicians feed off the dancers who are having so much fun.

“I’m surprised I didn’t see some of you dancing in the aisles,” Bastin said.

Jazz Ensemble II alto saxophone player Billy Foster said Bastin is the best band director he has ever had.

“He knows how to keep the rehearsals lively,” said Foster, a freshman studying music education.

Foster had his first solo last night during the salsa piece “Dancing Eyes” by Mike Tomaro. He said he was nervous but also excited because the solo went very well.

A member of two local bands, Bastin said he will still be quite busy after retirement.

“So, I’m officially retired, but it won’t be that much different,” Bastin said.

IRONTON — The Jazztet will perform at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 21, as part of the Ohio University Southern Campus Performing Arts Series.

The performance will take place at the Riffe Center Mains Rotunda. Admission is free.

The Jazztet, Athens’ Premiere Jazz Quintet, consists of Ernie Bastin on valve trombone and percussion, Guy Remonko on drums and percussion, Matt James on saxophone, John Horne on guitar and Terry Douds on bass. A Jazztet performance evokes the classic two-horn quintets of Miles Davis and Horace Silver while embracing the most durable, standard tunes in the jazz canon alongside more contemporary works by composers such as Wynton Marsalis and Pat Metheny.

Bastin is professor emeritus of trumpet at Ohio University. He has a bachelor of music degree from West Virginia University and a master of music degree from the University of Illinois. He currently works part-time teach jazz improvisation and brass methods.

Remonko is professor emeritus of percussion at Ohio University and teaches part-time. He has performed with a variety of well-known artists including Pearl Bailey, Diane Schuur, Eddie Daniels, Marvin Stamm, Gene Bertoncini and Bucky Pizzarelli.

James is a professor of saxophone and jazz studies at Ohio University teaching saxophone, jazz theory, jazz arranging and directs the jazz ensembles. He has degrees from Northern Illinois University and the University of North Texas, where he was the lead alto saxophonist with the acclaimed One O’Clock Lab Band.

Horne is professor of guitar at Ohio University and the University of Rio Grande in addition to having a private teaching practice. He has a degree in guitar performance from Duquesne University. He has taught classes and workshops for Ohio University, the National Guitar Workshop, Jorma Kaukonen’s Fur Peace Ranch Guitar Camp and Athens Community Music School.

Doud is a broadcast technician for Ohio University and teaches audio courses for the Ohio University-Lancaster regional campus. He is a sought after bass instructor, performer, clinician and engineer/producer. He is a graduate of The Ohio State University where he performed on four award-winning albums with The OSU Jazz Ensemble.

For more information, contact Pat McCoy at 740-533-4541.

Reprinted from The Athens News July 24, 2008

Teacher offers youth offenders a 6-string rehab program
Karen Zolka
July 24, 2008

Editor’s note: The full names of the young offenders in this article are not being used out of regard for their privacy.

You walk through a set of double glass doors adorned with announcements printed on yellow cardboard. You continue past a poster with an assortment of pictures, and past a ceramic mural that stretches from the ceiling to the floor. While walking around a circular hallway, you hear snippets of conversation, doors closing and the sound of music.

“I think some of the other staff must be like, ‘Oh God,’ because it gets kind of noisy up there,” Darrell Gladish said with a smile. “They’re all into it.”

This isn’t a floor in Glidden Hall, the music building at Ohio University. Nor is this a private music conservatory. It’s actually the Hocking Valley Community Residential Center, a juvenile correctional facility in Nelsonville.

“I’m not trying to get them to be great guitar players; I want to get them used to the guitar,” says local guitarist John Horne.

For the next several weeks, Horne is the Artist in Residence at the Residential Center, a program sponsored by the Ohio Arts Council. Horne will meet daily with 22 “adjudicated” minors.

Their crimes would be considered felonies if the minor were older than 18. Substance abuse and theft can fall into this category. The boys at the center range in age from 12 to 18 years old, says Gladish, a youth specialist at the facility.

The facility’s mission is to try to rehabilitate the adolescent boys through positive means, instead of locking them up in a cell, explains Gladish. The program strives to rehabilitate the boys, usually in a four- to six-month period, so they can return as members of their community.

This can be accomplished through numerous programs offered at the correctional facility, Gladish says, including the residency programs. The residency programs, such as the one Horne is teaching, are provided to expose the minors to different activities and teach them new skill sets. Before this program, most of the boys had never held a guitar before, Gladish says.

Horne, who graduated from Duquesne University in Pennsylvania with a degree in music performance, notes that the boys come from various backgrounds. “I wanted this to be a creative experience,” he says.

In addition to learning how to hold a guitar, Horne’s students are also learning how to write lyrics and put them to music. In the first week alone, each student was responsible for composing four measures of music.

With Horne’s help, the tunes were strung together and had lyrics set to them. Horne does acknowledge that everyone has different tastes in music, but that just makes the collaborative pieces interesting.

Two program attendees, John and Adam, say they enjoy Horne’s guitar sessions because Horne doesn’t lecture too much or get angry if they miss a chord. Both agree that the laid-back atmosphere is helping them learn how to play the guitar.

John, a 17 year-old former football player, also played the snare drum in the marching band.

Though he has experience with percussion instruments, he says that he never really knew how to play the guitar — at most he would strum one string at a time. The Jimi Hendrix fan says that he now knows much more than one string and will probably continue playing after Horne’s residency is over.

Adam, a 16-year-old sports fan, says that before starting to learn guitar from Horne, he could play half of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama.” Now, after less than two weeks with Horne, Adam can finish the Southern-rock standard and also learned how to play Tom Petty’s “Free Falling.” Adam admits that he is building up his fingers and can now play for more than an hour at a time.

Not only is Horne teaching his students how to play music, he is also teaching them about different music genres. Earlier this month, the boys attended a concert by The Jazztet, Horne’s jazz ensemble, on the College Green at Ohio University.

John admits that he had never listened to an entire jazz song before The Jazztet concert, but he listened to the entire show. Adam adds that it’s not his first choice in music, but the group, well, “they’ve got skill.”

Gladish, also a guitar enthusiast, says that before Horne’s residency he would sometimes play for the boys during their down time. Now that they know how to play, he says he’s always being asked to lend out one of the facility’s eight guitars. “On Saturdays, I may have some boys playing for two or three hours,” says Gladish. “You couldn’t have a more positive way to spend your time.”

John Horne will be at the Hocking Valley Community Residential Center through Aug. 3.

Remonko still playing drums after 50 years
By Ron Paglia, For the Herald-Standard
April 28, 2008

It’s been more than 50 years since Guy Remonko played his first professional gig as a drummer.
And his passion for music shows no signs of waning.

“I love (music), it’s that plain and simple,” said Remonko, a 1959 graduate of South Union High School who now lives in Athens, Ohio. “Music has been my life; I doubt that will ever change. As long as I can hold the sticks and keep groovin’, I’ll be playing.”

That attitude has directed Remonko, who began his play-for-pay career as a rock ‘n’ roll drummer in the 1950s, through myriad genres of music over the years. He has carved a special niche as a musician, clinician and teacher.

His talents are featured with the Athens-based group Los Viejos Blanquitos on a self-titled compact disc on Brick City Records. It offers the infectious rhythms of Afro-Cuban (Latin) jazz with such songs as “Living La Vida Viejo” (written by Gribou), Dizzy Gillespie’s “A Night In Tunisia, ” and the classic “Take Five” by Paul Desmond and Dave Brubeck.

In addition to his work with Los Viejos Blanquitos, he also performs with numerous other groups, including the The Jazztet in Athens and the Dwight Lenox Orchestra. CD recordings by both groups feature him.

And if that’s not enough to keep him busy, Remonko, 66, also is an emeritus professor of percussion at Ohio University, where he taught for 28 years before retiring in 2000. He also is an affiliated studio instructor of percussion of Denison University in Granville, Ohio, and offers private lessons. As a drumset artist, he has performed with such well-known artists as Pearl Bailey, Diane Schuur, Eddie Daniels, Marvin Stamm, Gene Burtoncini and Bucky Pizzarelli. He also has performed with the Rochester Philharmonic and Montreal Symphony Orchestra and has appeared on National Public Radio and TV broadcasts.

In addition to serving on the faculty of the Summer Drumset Workshop at Ohio University since 1980, Remonko also has written articles for Modern Drummer, Percussive Notes and The Instrumental magazines.

He also serves as an artist/clinician for Yamaha Drums and the Avedis Zildjian Cymbal Co.

“It keeps me off the streets,” Remonko said, laughingly, of his agenda.

Guy and his wife, Janice Marilyn, have been married 43 years, and are the parents of two children, Paul A. Remonko of Columbus, Ohio, and Sara Remonko Reeves of Granville, Ohio. Remonko’s parents, Guy “Pete” Remonko and Julia Cappellini Remonko, are deceased. His aunt, Anne Eberly, is formerly of Hopwood and his uncle, Jerry Cappellini, lives in Masontown.

Guy and Marilyn, a native of Princeton, W.Va., met at West Virginia University, where she also was a music major. Remonko completed his master of music degree in percussion performance in 1966.

“(Marilyn) has always been very supportive of my work, of everything I do,” Remonko said. “She has encouraged me to pursue my dreams.”

Remonko doesn’t get back to the area as often as he would like to and he regrets he didn’t learn about former bandmate Tom George’s death until several months after the fact.

“John’s (Gallice) wife, Anna Mae, sent an e-mail telling me that Tom had passed away,” Remonko said. “I felt very bad about missing the funeral. I had heard (Tom) was back in the Uniontown area working as a single, playing piano and doing his comedy routines. He was a very talented entertainer and truly was the heart and soul of our group. I miss him and will always be grateful to have worked with him and, more important, call him a friend.”

Remonko did enjoy a reunion with another guy named Tom George, a musician and photograpaher in Uniontown who was a cousin of the late entertainer, in August 2005.

“Carl Micarelli, who owned a music store in Uniontown for many years and who was a mentor to so many musicians, died just before Christmas 2004,” Remonko recalled. “He was my first jazz idol and I, with permission from Carl’s family, thought it would be fitting to do something in his honor. Bob Thompson and his trio came in from Charleston, W.Va., and helped organize a memorial concert for Carl at the winery in Farmington. So many of the musicians who were influenced by Carl were there. It was a very moving experience.”

Remonko taught at Micarelli’s Modern Music store from 1960-67. He also recalled the men who taught him – Tobby Lyons, “my first teacher … took lessons from him at the Turntable Music store;” Phil Fainini and Dr. Frank Lorince.

Much of what Remonko took with him from those early years in Uniontown, the times with George, Micarelli and “so many others” remains in his heart and soul. It is evident in his intense affection for and commitment to music.

“I think of them often when I’m on stage, in the studio or teaching,” Remonko said. “I’ve been blessed with the opportunity to work with outstanding musicians throughout my career. I’ll never forget any of them.”

Those who have benefitted from Guy Remonko’s presence will tell you the same thing about him.

Additional information about Guy Remonko is available by doing a Google search and also on these Web site: www.athensjazz-tet.com, www.dwightlenox.com, www.brickcity.records.com, and www.losviejosblanquitos.com.

Musician got start in local bands
By Ron Paglia, For the Herald-Standard
April 28, 2008

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Guy Remonko fondly remembers the beginning of his career as a rock ‘n’ roll musician.
“We had a group called the Meteors,” Remonko said. “Joe (Sangston) played guitar, I was on drums and the other guys were Marion Rozzo on piano and Mike Dorobish, who was our singer. Mike became a barber (Shear Designs). We entered a talent revue contest at the Uniontown High School auditorium for entertainers from Fayette County and won first place. We did the Buddy Holly tune, ‘Peggy Sue.’”

That was in 1957, and the experience led to a chance meeting with the late Thomas Charles George, who Remonko recalls as “an excellent pianist with a great voice.”

George, Remonko and Sang-ston eventually recruited John Gallice, a young saxophone player from Brownsville, to the fold to form the Tommy Charles Quartet. It also was known at times as the Tomme Charles Quartet. Remonko, Sangston, who lives in Cooksburg, and Gallice, a resident of Rockville, Md., have often given credit to Jerry Rehanek and Rich Cravotta as also being “instrumental, directly or indirectly,” in the formation of the quartet.

Remonko said George’s talents and leadership were the main reasons for the name of the group.

“We came to realize Tom’s expertise on vocals and the piano would enhance our opportunities to work,” he recalled. “And he was a great leader, so we changed our name and became the Tommy/Tomme Charles Quartet.”

Remonko’s professional music career began with an ethnic/polka band that also included Sangston, a clarinetist.

“I was only 14, and my father always drove me to our performances,” Remonko said. “We would listen to the (car) radio everywhere we went. One day, as I was turning the dial to hear what other stations were playing besides polkas, I came across something new, unusual music and a unique disc jockey. It was WAMO and Porky Chedwick. What an incredible experience. It opened my eyes and ears to rhythm and blues, something I still enjoy today.”

The Tommy Charles Quartet focused on more standard rock ‘n’ roll, however, and were successful throughout the area. They worked such venues as the Twin Coaches supper club, variety shows, post prom parties and record hops.

“We worked a lot with Leon Sykes in the Uniontown and Connellsville areas,” Remonko said. “Leon was a great guy, very supportive of local entertainers.”

They also performed at dances featuring such disc jockeys as Chedwick, Jay Michael, Barry Kaye, Rich Richards, Sheb Abi-Nader and Johnny McFadden, and were virtual regulars at the longstanding record hops at the Stockdale fire hall.

The quartet’s reputation as solid performers finally sent them on the road, with many of experiences still rooted firmly in Remonko’s memory bank.

“We were playing a motel lounge job in Flint, Mich., one Saturday night and were scheduled to perform in La Crosse, Wis., the next night,” he said. “The towns are not that far apart, at least not when you can get from one to the other by a ferry that crossed Lake Michigan between them. We were all set to go that way, but the booking agent failed to tell us you had to make reservations to use the ferry and it didn’t run on Sundays. We had to drive about 200 miles out of our way and just got to La Crosse in time for our show. We were lucky we didn’t get stopped for speeding.”

The group also played numerous dates at seashore venues in New Jersey and worked elsewhere with such artists as the DeJohn Sisters, the Platters, Buddy Knox, the Jay Price Revue, Neil Sedaka, the Crests, Little Anthony and the Imperials, the Big Bopper, the Skyliners, Kenny Ambrose and Johnny October. Another memorable gig came at the Plaza Theater in Brownsville with Xavier Cugat and Abbe Lane in a benefit for youth baseball programs in Brownsville.

Remonko later was the percussionist with the Twin Coaches house band (1964-66) and the house drummer (1967-69).

Holding forth on the stage of the popular Rostraver Township supper club, he performed with such national stars as The Supremes, Jack Jones, Tony Randall, Pearl Bailey and Phyllis Diller.