Sunday, May 8, 2011

Pete Fallico Remembers Little Richie Varola

There is now a Facebook page to honor Little Richie Varola, perhaps one of the greatest contemporary organ players. Richie Varola died in a car crash in 1974. He powered the Louis Prima band in some of its last years before Prima went into a coma after brain surgery. But, as you'll read; he was more than just Louis Prima's organ player. By permission, Pete Fallico (www.doodlinlounge.com).

Little Richie Varola
It's time to remember Richie Varola...it's time to talk about him again and read his name in print and above all, it's time to hear his music once more! We must reissue his recordings and sift through those tapes he left behind in order that our younger musicians can hear the brilliance he possessed.

The nineties proved to be a true renaissance period for Jazz Organ music. The Jazz Organists who survived the hey-day of this musical era were given a second chance at the brass ring with new recording contracts, magazine articles and festival tributes. Equally fortuitous has been the number of younger players who have taken to the Hammond organ because of this revival mode and the commitment they've made to its preservation. The sad reality, however, has been the unconscious neglect of those players who passed on before their contributions were truly acknowledged.

Today, record producers are scrambling to retrieve music posthumously from Don Patterson, Larry Young, Baby Face Willette and others. It is my contention that Richie Varhola (or 'Little' Richie Varola as he came to be known) should be on this list of Jazz Organists receiving this attention. He was one of the most exciting and entertaining Jazz Organists of all time and deserves acknowledgement and respect. With this story I hope that 'Little' Richie Varola will rise again in the musical consciousness of this country and the world.

He was born Richard Varhola on September 17, 1943 in Butler, Pennsylvania. His Czechoslovakian parents had two other sons: Jimmy and Tom. Richie (who was known in his family as Dick) was a true child prodigy with an unbelievable gift of music. His mother, Helen Varhola, explains how this gift was first realized. "He started to play at the age of three", she says, "and it was all on his own. I wanted to get a piano so badly because I really wanted to play and I loved the piano...but he took to it so well and started to play all on his own. After we came home from seeing the movie, 'The Jolson Story' and he loved the songs, and we stayed 'til the end of the movie, he started to play the songs with one finger. His father would come home in the evening and sit down and start to chord with him...and Dick just picked up everything so easily because he never had a music lesson. In fact, we tried to give him a music lesson but the music teacher said she couldn't do anything because he had everything memorized...when he heard a song".

Richie's talent was certainly recognized by his parents at this preschool age but it wasn't long before relatives would also express their amazement and encourage him to play publicly. Richie's uncle was a school teacher and began bringing young Richie to the local, one-room school in Dillsburg, Pennsylvania, to play for the students. "The principal of the school thought Richie was a genius" recalls his mother. The principal invited the newspaper people to come out and photograph this four year old wonder...and they called him a child prodigy. Richie began listening to the organist on station WHP. Then his parents began taking him to an organ dealer in Harrisburg called Troups and the salesman there would let Richie sit in the show window and play the organ. There was also an organist in York who paid a lot of attention to Richie and gave him some fundamental instruction. As soon as he would see young Richie come into this night club with his parents, he would begin playing a special tune for him...and he would invite Richie up to the organ to play by himself. Richie's father (who was a carpenter) built him a special set of pedals along with a stool so that he could actually press them as he played.

When Richie's father came home from the army, he was amazed to hear his son singing tunes like Rum and Coca-Cola or Inka Dinka Do that he would learn from listening to their Stewart-Warner record player day after day.

"Dick was very popular in school", remembers Helen, "Naturally, he played for everything that was going on...and then they were on television for five years, he and his brother... They were here on a local station in Harrisburg, WHP...every Wednesday, Dick would play the piano and they would harmonize together. I should have done something about that. I'm sure we could have got the tapes of those shows. They were on the Jack Paar Show, the Jackie Gleason show...They made a couple of records..." Jimmy Varhola who was four years younger than Richie remembers these days with pride.

"I started to sing with Dick before I went to school", remembers Jimmy, "We were entertaining professionally when I was four years old and he was eight...of course, he had started to entertain in the local clubs in Butler before he was four years old...I never knew a life different than that."

Helen Varhola remembers Richie at nine years and Jimmy at five years but regardless of their age at that time, she felt they always looked a lot younger than what they really were.
"Richie could hear something once and as soon as he heard it, it was memorized and he could do anything with it", Jimmy continues, "The other thing that drove you crazy about Richie is that he had perfect pitch...and if you named a note, Richie could sing it for you."
Eventually, they would include their younger brother Tom in on a few tunes but in the early days, Richie and Jimmy brought fame to their family with this duo they called The Musical Pee Wees. Jimmy still has posters that advertised the two young boys playing in various local venues. Helen Varhola recently moved from the Harrisburg home where she lived for so many years but still holds on to her memorabilia . "I have so many different pictures and things", she says, "In fact, my daughter-in-law has one wall in her den of different things...people can't get over it."

Richie and Jimmy played throughout grade school and high school and they even attempted commercial success with a 45 record called Tootsie Roll which was a variation of Julius Dixon's Lolli Pop. While in high school, Richie formed a group called the 'Six Cards' but it was a fellow named Andy Angelucci who would bring Richie to another level of musicianship. One night he dropped by the Varhola home to ask if he could take young Richie on the road with him. This was the true beginning of Richie's career.

Andy Angelucci is now retired from the music business but he spent decades in the thick of it. He was a school teacher in central Pennsylvania who also had a band that would play during the summer months in the lounges of Atlantic City. Eventually he left teaching and toured his group regionally and, with Richie's help, through the Reno and Las Vegas circuit.
"I sorta 'found' Richie", says Andy, "I was a school teacher when I started out and I was teaching here in Harrisburg and we went to some kind of a seminar (a Mosque in Harrisburg) and they had a big organ there. We're talking...and I hear this organ. I look down there and there's a kid. He couldn't have been more than about fifteen years old when I met him. He could hardly reach the pedals but all the notes were there and the guy played tremendous. I went down and talked to him because, to tell you the truth, I was going down to Atlantic City and playing in the summers when I wasn't teaching. I went to Club Harlem on Kentucky Avenue and I heard Wild Bill Davis and Jack McDuff and guys like this. I was looking for somone to play organ and I said to Richie, 'I'd like to talk with your father'. So I went over to his house and talked to his father and I said 'I'd like to use Richie and I know he's young to play in nightclubs and so forth but he's got a lot of talent and I'd like to use him in my group'."

Richie's mother and father knew how much Richie loved music and felt it was only a matter of time before Richie would be emersed in it. They consented to Richie joining this group plus, as Helen recalls, "Dick wanted a Hammond organ so badly".

"So his Dad gave him permission to play", says Andy, "He was playing piano and I wanted him to play organ, he just had a natural talent for it. So what I did...I took him down to Atlantic City and let him hear Wild Bill Davis and Jack McDuff and Jimmy Smith and guys like this. He just took to it so fast, I mean...when I first heard him he was playing kind of commercial-type organ and (when) he heard these guys, the style just came to him naturally. He was a natural musician because when I first got him, the first thing I said to him was, 'We're gonna do I Get a Kick Out of You in E flat'...and he said, 'What does that mean?'...He had no idea what key he was playing in. He had perfect pitch and he was just one of those guys that could hear something and play it. I was lucky to discover him".
Andy had a five piece band at this time. Ed Easton was his tenor player and he soon became one of Richie's closest friends. Ed fondly recalls these early days with Richie. "Richie was like my brother. He used to call me his teacher because when we played in Atlantic City, we went to see all the famous organists like Jack McDuff, Milt Buckner, Shirley Scott...all of them. Richie must have been only sixteen or seventeen". Both Ed and Andy remember bringing young Richie to places in Atlantic City and sneaking him in or standing by the doors so that Richie could hear the real sound of Jazz Organ. They all were amazed at how Richie picked up the Jazz Organ style so quickly and naturally.

"The first time I met Richie", Ed recalls, "we were having a rehearsal at his house and Richie came to the door to let me in and I said to Andy, 'Who's that who let me in' and he said, 'That is the new organist!' I think he was like fifteen or so". Ed remembers doing local things up around Harrisburg and York, Pennsylvania with Andy's group. "We did a whole mess of little clubs like that...all over the East Coast. I never went to Vegas with Andy, I quit before that... I stayed around York and Harrisburg with my own group".

Richie did travel with Andy to Nevada, however, and as fate would have it, was seen and heard by Sam Butera the musical director for Louie Prima's band. Louie Prima with Sam Butera and the Witnesses was a premier lounge act throughout the Las Vegas-Lake Tahoe-Reno circuit in those days. Few if any other groups were playing with such excitement and providing such entertainment value.

Helen Varhola's recollection of this period in Richie's life goes like this: "Louie saw Dick and I guess he wanted, the way Dick tells us, Danny Thomas and whoever else had an 'in' with him, I think Frank Sinatra, to hear how an organ would sound with his group...and then he hired him...and Dick stayed with Andy a couple more weeks and then went with Louie".
Sam Butera's recollection is that he first saw Richie playing with Andy Angelucci's group at the Sands Hotel: "He was a wonderful player", says Sam, "and a nice little guy...Louie loved him and I did too...the whole band loved him".

Richie had been with Andy's band six years and now Louie Prima had heard them and was enthralled with Richie's playing. Louie began to bring Andy's entire band with them where ever they worked, providing them with lots of work and actually encouraging Andy to refine his show into a real lounge act. Louie even suggested that Andy change his last name to 'Angel' which he did. To this day, Andy uses the name, 'Andy Angel', professionally.

Andy had lost the star of his band but was certainly not bitter. He understood the necessity of Richie moving upward in his career."Once he got with those guys," says Andy, "I think he studied a while because he was writing and everything else. He was just a genuine natural talent. We missed him when he left because we went with Capitol Records; they had heard us with Richie. They were going to record us...well, it wasn't the same without him and they shelved everything we did. Richie was the force in our group at that particular time". Andy would replace Richie with another organist named Danny Grant who, later, would go down to Nashville to record but Andy felt lucky to find someone who wanted to follow in Richie's path. "And I was fortunate to find somebody like that", Andy confirms, "because to follow Richie would be very, very tough...there will never be another Richie as far as I'm concerned...This guy had it all. He probably would have gone on to better things had he lived longer. He would have been a superstar, there's no doubt about that, he had the talent. He added so much to Louie's group. When Richie got with him it was just that much better. I think that (Louie) would have done a lot more for Richie had he stuck on because he was promoting his name along with Sam's name: Sam Butera and the Witnesses featuring Richie Varola". By this time Louie had also persuaded Richie to change the spelling of his last name. It can be surmised that Louie was trying to make the name sound 'more Italian', if you will.

I asked Helen what she and her husband thought about this name change at the time. She said: "I don't know why he did that because a lot of people thought it was an Italian name (already)...maybe he shortened it because it looked better on the jackets of the records or something..." Jimmy Varhola felt the name change was insignificant to Richie, saying: "He liked it...he didn't care...it has a smoother role to it, you know, taking the 'h' out of there, 'Varola'... I'm not so sure Louie could have pronounced the 'h' in 'Varhola' anyway!". From this point on, Dick Varhola was known as 'Little' Richie Varola.

Joining Louie Prima's band right around that same period of time was another musician named Kenny Harkins. Kenny and Richie would become best friends. Here's Kenny's version of how things got rolling for Richie: "Richie came to town with Andy Angelucci because Louie Prima had seen Andy's group and wanted them to work at the Sands Hotel opposite his group...and so one of the reasons Louie asked them to come was because he was already interested in hiring Richie to go to work for his group. I got off Si Zentner's Band and three days later went to work for Louie Prima and three days after I got with the band, Richie joined the band. As soon as I heard Richie, I said, 'Well, there goes my stay with Louie!' 'cause I knew immediately that they didn't need another piano player...but I stayed on and played piano and trumpet with the group...and got to hear Richie every night which was an extreme pleasure for me".

Never before had Louie Prima used an organ in his group. "Louie always had the piano-shuffle thing", Kenny continues, "with piano, bass, drums and guitar. As you know organ music is like high energy stuff. It's fun music and when Richie played organ with the group, he also played bass lines. The bass player and him played bass lines together and it just added an ingredient to the group that was just phenomenal to listen to... The more energy he got out to that room, the better Louie liked it... and, of course, in addition to being a great player, Richie was all over the keyboard physically...and it wasn't just shtick! He got so into it that he moved over the thing like an octopus..." 'The Mighty Might' was a nickname Kenny used for Richie. "He was probably 5' 5" at best, recalls Kenny, "He was a short little guy... but he was all over the Hammond...in fact, a lot of times, he would play the Hammond standing up. He would stand on the footpedals and play his solos".

Richie began to take his playing to another dimension, almost a theatrical level, while still using the basic stops and stylings of his heroes: Jimmy Smith and Jack McDuff. "I think Richie did the same thing that I did", says Kenny, "just observed certain organ settings that other organ players would use and start with those and then your own ear sorta tells you which way to expand for what kinda music you're going for..."
Richie definitely taught Kenny some tricks on the organ...and those who came to hear and watch Richie were eager to learn and cop licks as well.
Kenny and Richie joined Louie Prima's band in April of 1966... Kenny left in 1969 and Richie left in 1971 (some say '72). While with Louie Prima, Richie was featured in their lounge act and showcased on the many television shows that Louie Prima's band was invited to (The Dean Martin Show, for example). It's been said that Louie even helped Richie join the National Guard so that his musical career wouldn't be interrupted by the Viet Nam War. While Richie would attend his weekend meetings or go to summer camp with the army, Kenny (reportedly) would take over the chores of organist for the band. Richie appeared on only one or two of Louie Prima's recordings (to the best of my knowledge). He is featured playing tunes like Spinning Wheel and MacArthur Park on the Quad (# 0030) release called Blast Off! The Live New Sound of Louis Prima and Sam Butera helped him record a self-titled album of his own for Verve Records (Verve #8722) in 1967.

Richie's renditions of Organ Grinder's Swing, Slaughter on Tenth Avenue, Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf and Walk on the Wild Side are chilling examples of his huge talent and undeniably high rating amongst the popular Jazz Organists. Jimmy Varhola supports this by saying: "Jimmy Smith was Richie's idol, in fact, Richie was so excited when he made his LP album, he got a rating in downbeat and I remember him calling me up and telling me about getting an average rating in downbeat for his album but that it took Jimmy Smith four albums to even get rated..." Helen Varhola adds this: "He loved progressive jazz...you remember Jack McDuff? They compared him to Jack McDuff and I think it was Jimmy some-other-one...(Jimmy Smith?) yeah that's his name". I had also heard that when Richie was still very young, he had approached Jack McDuff while Jack was appearing in a music store and that Jack had spent a lot of time talking and discussing music with Richie.

Richie's parents were enormously proud of him and traveled out West to see his performances with Louie Prima and visit with him. "Whenever we went to Vegas", says Helen Varhola, "my husband was so proud of him, he didn't miss one show and he taped every show". These tapes were kept at the Varhola home until Richie's father passed away. Richie came home for his father's funeral and took the tapes and many recording with him back to Los Angeles. As Helen remembers, "When Dick came home this one time, his father was gone...and he took all that with him, plus a lot of pictures, and now I feel so bad because, of course I blame myself...". The saddest part of the 'Little' Richie Varola story, however, was yet to come.

After leaving Louie's band, Richie began to take his music into the world of Jazz/Rock/Fusion. Two other musicians would join forces with Richie in this new direction: Guitarist Ronnie James and drummer Michael Buono. With them, Richie began experimenting with the newly introduced synthesizers and became a pioneer in the use of keyboards in conjunction with the Hammond organ. Ronnie adds this: "Richie was one of the first guys to get an ARP synthesizer. It was a brand new company and they gave him two. He played the two ARPs and the organ and he was playing bass on one of the ARPs". Michael remembers this new group being called either 'The Sixth of July' or 'Energy'. "At one point, there were six of us", he remembers, "and that may have been two female singers (Irene Cathaway was one) and Dave (Tallisman) but that didn't last too long. I believe it became Energy when it was just the three of us".

Ronnie's recollections of how he first met Richie and how they moved through the Prima band together and eventually into this band known as 'Energy' are cogent and emotional. "I first saw Richie on TV a couple of times and then I saw him the year before; I was in Vegas with another group from Philly...and I went to see Louie's show at the Sands and he knocked me out. I never saw anybody play organ like that". Eventually Ronnie accepted a job with the Louie Prima Band and soon became Richie's closest friend. "The first day I was in Vegas, I was staying in a little hotel and Richie came by to go over some arrangements with me because I was going to open that night and all I can say is from that point forward, we laughed and we said some things to each other and we just knew that we were going to be musically compatible and friendly". Both Richie and Ronnie would go on to become favorite soloists in the band and were given ample space to demonstrate their chops each show.

As time progressed, however, Richie and Ronnie began hearing the pop tunes of the early seventies in relation to the music they were doing every night with the Prima band. They felt the need to stretch and took every opportunity they could to play outside the arrangements they were locked into. As Ronnie recalls; "One of the happiest times was immediately following the show; the last chord we would play in the show when the curtain came down would be the one Richie would take and go somewhere with. It was just Richie and I left on the stage, everybody else would leave. We would jam on something; he would go into 'The Song Is You' or one of these standard tunes...and a couple of times, we'd finish and the audience would still be there. They would burst into applause and we'd go, AHH!...'cause we didn't know they were still out there". Richie and Ronnie yearned for a hipper sound. They were being inspired by groups like Chicago and Blood, Sweat & Tears and wanted to build their own rhythm section with similar dynamics. They began to jam regularly with other musicians, some from Richie's past, like Ed Easton, and others who knew and felt the new sound they wanted. Michael Buono was one such musician who came by and wound up staying with Richie and Ronnie. "We knew that we wanted something different than what was going on in our lives at that time", says Michael, "which was around 1972. So they invited me down to the dressing room at Harrah's Club. I drove down with my drums and Richie took the B-3 off the stage at the lounge and we plugged everything in and, without knowledge of what might happen, I just started kicking off a beat and then Richie joined in and Ronnie joined in and it was just...it was true fusion. It was like a catharsis, just a release from all the 'sameness' that we'd been doing night after night".

'Energy' played on the West Coast primarily but did manage to go on the road briefly. "I think the furthest East we went", recalls Michael, "was Cedar Rapids, Iowa. I remember I had a Toyota Land Cruiser and it pulled a huge trailer and the four of us were in that car; it was just an amazing trip".

Jimmy Varhola adds this: "Richie was working toward, what we call today, the 'Rock Concert' type of event. Things were really starting to go together out in Los Angeles. He was heading into the Rock concert style with a jazz flavor to the whole thing; that's where his group was moving. Richie was one of the forerunners in the use of the synthesizers, at that stage, doing some interesting stuff...very innovative".

Richie even had different ideas about the sacred Hammond organ and Leslie Tone cabinet set-up. He modified his Leslies by removing the spinning drum beneath the 15 inch driver, to give, what he felt was a bigger and more sustained sound. "He took his (drum) out", recalls Kenny, "He claimed that the bass became crisper and didn't move around, constantly providing a good bottom...and I agree with him, I think it's much better 'cause you get the chorale sound in the Leslie speaker in the top end anyway, 'cause it rotates."

The 'Little' Richie Varola story was to come to an abrupt end just as it began this apparent upward spiral to stardom. Richie was working at a club called 'Fire and Flame' in Los Angeles. One night, after work, he got in a fatal automobile accident.The news of Richie's sudden death spread through the music world instantly.

Jimmy Varhola will never forget the phone call he received from Richie's wife, Connie. His duty to inform his mother of Richie's unbelievable fate was almost too much to handle. As Helen Varhola recalls: "We went to Vegas three times to see Richie and I was just getting ready to go to California when I had my bags packed and everything, and I got notified of his accident; Connie called my other son. It was in '74...Richie was thirty."

Richie Varola died April 29, 1974. The world lost one of the most gifted musicians ever to have lived and the Varhola family would never be the same. "I know Connie told me she was going to do something with his music", reminisces Helen. "I was so bad when that happened to him...that...I know Jimmy was too. Even now to this day, when I think about him, it's so hard because he had so much to live for and he was such a good kid. I'm just so happy that someone still thinks about him and remembers him".

At the wake held in Riverside at the 'Fire and Flame', Kenny recalls seeing people who he would not have suspected even knew of Richie. The fame Richie had acquired was more wide spread than anyone thought. Ed Easton recalls the musical tribute paid by Richie's friends later on at The Four Queens in Las Vegas: "When we did the tribute to Richie at the Four Queens. Allen Grant had the show there...and we used Richie's organ and a Leslie Speaker and we had a drummer and a guitar player...I have the tapes from that but there is some other tapes from a radio show, for PBS, it was heard all over the country...but it was a tribute to Richie and in the middle of it, Kenny Harkins gave a little talk...it was a shame Richie wasn't there to do it himself...but that's the way things go." Andy Angelucci even got together with others in Harrisburg to pay tribute to Richie. He was able to raise some money with his benefit show to send to Richie's wife, Connie.

Remembering Richie and his shortened life and career is particularly difficult for Sam Butera: "He had big ears...very talented young man. It's a shame he left us when he had such a wonderful future in front of him..." Sam admits the love and energy that Richie brought to the Witnesses and even tried to bring in other organists after Richie to recapture that sound. "It made the sound bigger", he says. Today, Sam feels no one could replace Richie Varola. "No...I can't find anyone comparable to Richie. He was one of a kind" In a recent conversation with Sam Butera, I reminded him of the wonderful recording he made with Richie and asked him if he knew of any others. "I listened to it the other day", admits Sam. "He was most talented", Sam continues, "He could play anything. I wish I could tell you more but I can't tell you more, other than I loved the way he played and I loved him as a young man".

Kenny comments: "He was like a fountain-wealth of music...when he started to play a solo, it was like a never ending mountain of fresh ideas...I always thought of him like: If John Coltrane had ever played organ, that's what Richie played organ like. I mean just sheets of sounds with ideas upon ideas upon ideas, never getting tired".

"I've never stopped thinking about him", admits Ronnie, "There's not a musical moment that goes by that I don't think of Richie... It really shook me up because we had something that was really special".

Jimmy Varhola says this: "There's so much energy in Richie's style..you could just feel it. He was irresistible... the last time I saw him, April the year before, my wife and I had gone out to visit them at North Shore Lake Tahoe, (Jimmy had kept his singing up by performing in the barbershop quartet style which he still does today)...and Richie had a sound-on-sound recorder and we made a couple of different quartet tapes where we'd sing two parts to the songs."
Everyone agrees that if Richie had lived a full life, he would have gone on to become one of the world's greatest and best known musicians. I can only hope that this story on Richie Varola will stimulate others to come forth and contribute thoughts and ideas so that the world can hear more of his music and understand his contribution, albeit short in years, in the proper perspective. 'Little' Richie Varola brought Jazz Organ to another level and will always deserve our audience. He was truly 'One-of-a-Kind'.

Pete Fallico - September 1999

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I took Richie's place with Andy right after Richie left the group. I worked with the group during the summer in Puerto Rico, Miami Beach, and Allentown, PA. I was a school teacher then, and had to leave the group in September. Can you imagine how I felt having to replace Richie? Nobody could.
Henry Casella

Unknown said...

I met Little Ritchie Varola through Kenny Harkins. Kenny and I were one year apart graduating from Allentown High School in Pennsylvania. I saw them both many times appearing in the Copa Lounge at the Sands Hotel, Las Vegas with Louie Prima, Sam Butera and the Witnesses, Jimmy Vincent (Drums), Rollie Dee (Upright Bass) and Morgan Thomas (Trumpet, Trombone). I actually sold Ritchie a Life insurance policy with Prudential while he was with Prima. He loved his 1971 Jaguar 240Z, which I got to ride around town in with him. He certainly would have been a major factor in the music business. I personally handed Connie the death benefit check at their home in Las Vegas., a very sad day. Wally Burian