Our Jazz Heritage - Roadhouse Cafe Fl

15660 San Carlos Blvd, Ste 36, Fort Myers, Fl, 33908 239.415.4375

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Our Jazz Heritage - Lou Colombo

The owners of the Roadhouse Café have a very famous and musical father, Lou Colombo.

Lou Colombo has had a long and lustrous career as a Jazz trumpeter playing with

the most famous performers of his time including Dizzy Gillespie and Artie Shaw.

Lou brings his talents to the Roadhouse for special performances every Tuesday and Thursday all winter long.

Here s a little of his story:

Lou Colombo was born and raised in Brockton , MA .

He began playing the trumpet at age 12.

Following two years in the service, he played professional baseball for approximately seven years. A badly broken angle forced him to retire from the Brooklyn Dodgers at age 24 – bad for baseball, good for music! (editor’s comments).

His Energies were thrust into music, playing trumpet full time and periodically traveled with several “big bands” including

Benny Goodman, Buddy Morrow, and Perez Prado.

Lou spends winters in eastern Florida (with his family) playing up and down both coasts where he is as well known as he is in New England, especially near his home on Cape Cod.

Among others, one of his best known CD’s, by Concord , was “I Remember Bobby”, (also featuring Dave McKenna), a commemorative to the late Bobby Hackett who was one of Lou’s close friends.

He has played Jazz festivals throughout the US and Canada , as well as in Europe ; has done several Jazz cruises

with the Artie Shaw Band on Norwegian Cruise Lines, and currently travels with the Shaw organization when

his schedule permits.
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The following is Dizzy Gillespie’s commentary on Lou Colombo Taken from the radio interview with

Eric Jackson on WGBH, July 1988

“Lou Colombo is what I would call a trumpet painter, he resolves.

He starts playing and the notes keep going, but the chord keeps changing all the time. He’s a marvelous trumpet player.
I went one night to hear him play. Boy, he asked me to play with him and I said ‘No- you got it Brother.

I’m not going to jump into that hot water’. Lou’s pretty weird the way he plays because he plays with just one hand.

He plays the valves with his right hand but doesn’t hold the horn with his left hand. This guy’s amazing.

I’ve been preaching his name ever since that night I first heard him down on Cape Cod .
Lou’s a beautiful player. One of the characteristics of his playing is his tone, his sound, it’s gorgeous."

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