If music soothes the savage beast, Nick Mucci is a musical lion tamer. He's been blowing his saxophones and clarinet with gusto for more than 70 years and he still pleases the audience.
Mucci's first cries bellowed 85 years ago when he was born at home on Arlington Ave., near Wellston.
Nick grew up around music. His father played saxophone, clarinet and violin and his uncle was a music teacher. "As a youngster, I spent some summers with my grandparents. One day my uncle said, 'I'm going to teach you to play the saxophone and we'll surprise your dad,' " Mucci recalled. He was nine years old, and this was the beginning of his formal music lessons.
His first public appearance was in 1930 at Sportsman's Park where he played with the Arlington School band between innings. He was 12 years old then and couldn't imagine that his music would last a lifetime.
At 14, Muccie played in his dad's orchestra and was 15 when he landed his first paying job, playing with a trio in a Ferguson tavern. Then came gigs at Tune Town, the Westminster Ballroom and the Forest Park Highlands.
Mucci joined the Air Force in 1941 and played in its concert and jazz bands for three years. Glenn Miller commanded the Air Force bands in the southeast division at that time.
After the War, Nick played with a group and was paid $1, while the band leader reaped the reward. Disgusted, he decided to form his own band. His group was an instant hit and he played at the Kingsway Hotel and at the Rose Bowl Restaurant on Kingshighway near Chippewa.
His trio also played at the Carousel Lounge, with a revolving bar, on 11th and Locust Streets where one of the patrons told Nick he was opening a new dance hall and wanted Nick Mucci's Band to play. The Starlight Ballroom opened on St. Charles Rock Road in 1960 and Nick organized a band of 10 pieces that played there for two years. He has a vivid memory of the end of an evening at the Carousel Lounge. "The piano player pounded out a Russian jig. I started acting silly, dancing backwards, and I fell off the stage. And I didn't even drink," he said.
Dancers glided across the floor at the Casaloma Ballroom to Mucci's tunes from 1971 to 1979 and he played for the St. Louis Singles Club dances for more than 20 years. He was a regular at the Missouri Athletic Club, the Gatesworth and Forest Park Hotels and the Brass Key on Southwest Ave., now the site of Cunetto's Restaurant.
And there were constant weddings and private parties to keep his band pumping. Mucci played for three generations of brides in one family.
He tuned pianos for five years to supplement his income as a Krey Meat Co. salesman and musician.
"After the War, there was a meat shortage and we salesmen were paid on commission. I was making $8 a week or less, so I started playing six nights a week. If it hadn't been for my playing, I would have lost my house," he remembered.
Mucci has lived in Dogtown near Forest Park for 46 years in an immaculate house he designed. He was named mayor of Dogtown in 1991.
His living room is transformed into a music room with a piano and organ as well as his baritone, alto and tenor saxophones and his clarinet.
Mary, his bride of 62 years, died in 2003. Music, his three children, four grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren are the musician's lifeblood. Grandson Bryan Wood follows his grandfather's notes and is a successful sax player in Kansas City.
Mucci's group plays big band music and jazz regularly at the Jefferson Arms Apartments downtown and at Our Lady of Life Retirement Apartments in Shrewsbury. He also plays with a trio called The Goldenaires and with The Hill Band, an 18-piece community orchestra.
Sometimes he sings Darktown Strutters Ball in English, Italian and Yiddish in a clear, cool voice.
Nick Mucci and his music are timeless.
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