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Pipe dreams

Akron clarinet player Tommy Reynolds made name for himself in music

By Mark J. Price
Beacon Journal staff writer

Published on Monday, Jan 12, 2009

 

Akron musician Tommy Reynolds didn't become a superstar, but his life was a pretty good gig.

The big-band leader recorded more than 50 songs, starred in national radio programs, headlined famous ballrooms in North America and enjoyed a successful career in show business.

He made a name for himself in music — and it wasn't even his real name.

Reynolds was born Anthony Rinaldo on Jan. 17, 1917, the son of Italian immigrants Salvatore and Nancy Rinaldo. One of 11 siblings, he grew up in a home on Wabash Avenue, where Akron General Medical Center stands today.

Musical talent ran in the family: Three of the Rinaldo brothers were destined to become band leaders. It took some coaxing to get little Anthony interested, however.

''I started to take violin lessons when I was 6, but I didn't like it,'' he once confided to the Beacon Journal. ''I used to push the clock ahead so I could get out and play ball.''

The boy found his calling in the 1920s when he attended an Akron concert featuring a specialty clarinet act. The music was so enthralling that he switched instruments, rededicated himself to lessons and mastered the clarinet in six months.

He played lead clarinet in the South High School band and earned extra cash by performing in local groups. Anthony and his younger brother Frankie, who played saxophone, became well known in Northeast Ohio.

Straying from home, the Italian-American teens changed their stage names while traveling to the South in the mid-
1930s.

''They had a band that was called the Rinaldo Brothers originally,'' said younger brother Joe Rinaldo, 79, of Norton. ''I guess they found out at that time that there were a lot of places that would not book them because of the ethnic name. So they decided that they would change their name to Reynolds, and it made it a lot easier for them to play some of the clubs and dance halls in the South.''

A popular band leader in Ohio, Frankie later formed the Frankie Reynolds Orchestra, organized and directed the Akron Pops Orchestra and operated Frankie Reynolds Music on West Exchange Street. He passed away in 2006 at age 89.

Joe Rinaldo, who played drums for 40 years, led the Joe Rinaldo Orchestra and the Good Times Band, which served as the house band at Akron's Tangier and Fairlawn Country Club.

Tommy Reynolds studied briefly at the University of Akron before quitting to pursue a career in music. His reputation as a clarinetist was growing.

''My first break came in 1939 when I replaced Woody Herman in Isham Jones' band,'' Reynolds told the Beacon Journal in 1951.

After a few months, he decided to strike out on his own. In Cleveland, he formed Tommy Reynolds and Your Band of Tomorrow, a name inspired by the futuristic 1939 World's Fair in New York. The band played in East Coast ballrooms and appeared on live radio broadcasts.

It signed a deal with Columbia subsidiary Vocalion and recorded such songs as Marcheta, Deep Night, I'll Tell It to the Breeze, Once Over Lightly and the band's theme, Pipe Dreams.

''Tommy patterned his band after Artie Shaw,'' Rinaldo said. ''In fact, the sound of his band was very close to Artie Shaw's band. He followed him a lot into the dance halls that Artie Shaw played.''

The soft-spoken Reynolds had an upbeat stage presence. Neatly groomed and dressed to the nines, the dark-haired frontman bounced on his heels, snapped his fingers, smiled from ear to ear and played the heck out of his clarinet. ''After a night on the bandstand, I feel like I've pitched an 18-inning ballgame,'' he once said.

Changing its name to Tommy Reynolds and His Orchestra, the 14-piece band traveled from coast to coast. The group performed Pipe Dreams at the Roseland Ballroom in New York, the Apollo Theater in Harlem, Frank Dailey's Meadowbrook in New Jersey, Roseland State Ballroom in Boston, the Band Box in Chicago, the Palisades in Los Angeles and the Palladium in Hollywood — not to mention East Market Gardens and Summit Beach Park in Akron.

''We always loved having him here,'' Rinaldo said. ''When we were kids, I remember him sending boxes of toys for Christmas.''

Besides listening to radio broadcasts and seeing his big brother perform in Akron, Rinaldo traveled to the Roseland in New York. ''It was thrilling to me,'' he said. ''I always pictured myself as one day playing in a big band and being onstage.''

Reynolds shared the stage with a revolving cast of musicians and singers. Some of the notables included trumpeters Billy Butterfield and Pee Wee Erwin, saxophonists Serge Chaloff and Illinois Jacquette, drummer George Wettling and vocalist Mary Ann McCall.

Future orchestra leader Nelson Riddle got his start at age 18 as a trombonist in Reynolds' band. Hal Linden, the future star of TV's Barney Miller, sang and played clarinet.

Reynolds performed in radio shows with Abbott and Costello, Jerry Colonna, Martha Raye and the Mills Brothers. He substituted for Les Brown in a two-week tour with Bob Hope in Canada.

He released some of his featured tunes in sheet music and also filmed at least six songs for ''Soundies,'' a 1940s version of music videos that captured the orchestra at its peak. He also recorded songs for the Okeh, Derby and Atlantic labels.

Reynolds' orchestra continued to work steadily until the mid-1950s. The band leader bowed out just when rock 'n' roll was coming into vogue.

''The big-band era was pretty much dying off,'' Rinaldo said. ''It wasn't what it was back in the '30s and '40s. I think he was a little tired of doing the circuit, and the traveling that was involved.''

Reynolds and his wife, Alberta, settled in Danbury, Conn. Around 1955, he accepted a job as music director at WOR-AM radio in New York and directed the program Bandstand USA, which aired on 500 stations.

Later, he served as music director at WOR-TV and program director at WOR-FM. He remained with the RKO company for the rest of his life.

Tommy Reynolds was 69 when he died Sept. 30, 1986, in Manhattan after a long illness.

Many musicians have pipe dreams. Reynolds was fortunate to see most of his come true.

''He came very close to hitting it big,'' Rinaldo said.

 

Mark J. Price is a Beacon Journal copy editor. He can be reached at 330-996-3850 or send e-mail to mjprice@thebeaconjournal.com. To read more about Tommy Reynolds, visit http://www.bigbandlibrary.com/tommyreynolds.html.

 

 

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