Quiet, reclusive and massively talented Billy Colucci’s name is known to Baltimoreans who really know their jazz. A master pianist and composer Billy Colucci has worked with everyone from Anita O’Day to Steve Allen and Andy Warhol. The South Philly native and long-time Fells Point resident is known for his intelligent, lyrical compositions and impeccable technique. As a kid in a home with no piano he used to draw piano keys on the kitchen table to practice. Oh – and he used to play record hops with Frankie Avalon as his vocalist! – The Creative Alliance
Even if I could buy a lion, an elephant, a boat, a villa, what could I do with that? Flavio, at the end of my life, the only thing I love is to play for those who have the joy of listening to it – nothing more than that.”
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Billy Colucci
Between two worlds: old movies and music
By Carl Schoettler | BALTIMORE SUN
His first professional job came in 1958 at a strip club called Golden Show Bar, in North Philly, where he played behind 15 strippers. He must have been good; he picked up his first girlfriend there.
He went on the road with the Treniers, the pioneer rock ‘n’ roll band that still plays Las Vegas. He played Charlie Byrd’s Showboat in Washington in the 1960s and The Steve Allen Show in 1967.
“I played all the clubs in Atlantic City,” he says, “the 500 Club, Le Bistro, all the hotels, the Chalfont and the Claridge, where I used to go on Sundays with my mother and father when I was a kid. Atlantic City – what Philadelphian didn’t go to Atlantic City?”
He wants his Saturday concert to be more than a conventional piano trio.
“I want to try to do something different,” he says. “I want try to revolve the music around the solo piano. I want [the bass and drums] to color what I do. I hope I can pull it off.
He reflects a moment.
“I guess most of this music I play reflects my love for old movies,” he says. “So when I play, a lot of times it almost sounds like a soundtrack from … a John Garfield film.”