A couple friends have notified me in recent days of the passing of two veteran Milwaukee musicians.
Guitarist Steven Lewandowski let us know that jazzman Sammy Armato, whose many credits included stints with the Woody Herman Band and Dick Ruedebusch, died peacefully in his sleep on New Year's Eve.
"He was also a WTMJ staff musician," said Lewandowsky, "when there actually existed live musicians serving the broadcast community. Sammy's passing is a great loss for all of us."
Armato's career began in 1927 with the Ritz Vagabonds when he was still a kid and he saved his money from gigs to buy a sax. Later, he served during World War II in the U.S. Army Air Force Band
Services were held yesterday but you can read a bit more about Armato's life here.
Veteran drummer and caretaker of Marquette University's Cuje Collection of Milwaukee music Bruce Cole sent along a link to this tragic story about Roland Stone, who died in Colorado in November after being hit by a car.
"Roland Stone (Roland Oeller) grew up in West Allis and was one of the first serious Milwaukee rockers," Cole said. "He had (maybe the first rock 45) his first record out on U.S.A. Records in 1958. Wrote a lot of tunes, played with popular Miltown bands like the Royal Lancers, Apollos, and was well known to all the players of that era. He was a friend and a very interesting and talented guy."
Condolences to the families and friends of Sammy and Roland.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
