Syracuse musician Jimmy Cavallo has died at the age of 92.
A close friend says the famous saxophonist died at a hospital in Florida.
A profile of the performer in the Post-Standard in 1993 said that “Syracuse rocks because of Jimmy Cavallo.”
“For everybody who’s ever been a fan of Syracuse music, he’s the man,” Frank Malifitano once said of him. Stan Colella called him the “father, grandfather, whatever you want to call it, of Syracuse rock’n’roll.”
Cavallo was born in Syracuse on March 14, 1927 and played alto saxophone in a swing band while in high school, performing at weddings and parties.
After a stint in the Navy during World War II, he settled in Fayetteville, North Carolina in 1945, where under the tutelage of his mentor Paul “Hucklebuck” Williams, he took to rhythm and blues.
He brought the style of music to his hometown in the late 1940s.
"I brought the rhythm and blues sound to the white people of Syracuse in the 1940s. They were still dancing to the hotel music," Cavallo told the Post-Standard in 2002.
“They did not know what hit them,” Cavallo said.
From Syracuse, he caught the attention of New York City disc jockey Alan Freed.
Freed got Cavallo signed to Coral Records, then put Cavallo and his band in his classic movie "Rock! Rock! Rock!" alongside Chuck Berry, LaVern Baker and more. Cavallo and his band, the House Rockers, played the title track. They appeared in shows at Brooklyn’s Paramount Theater with Berry and Frankie Lyman and became one of the first white bands - maybe even the very first - to play the famed Apollo Theater in Harlem.
Dick Clark had them on “American Bandstand.”
In the early 1960’s, he returned to Syracuse and was MC at the Three Rivers Inn and during that time he recorded his classic song, “Fanny Brown.”
He was inducted into the Syracuse Music Hall of Fame in 1993.
In the last years of his life, Cavallo lived in Florida but was a frequent performer at Syracuse’s Fest Italiana and New York States Blues Fest.
“Music is my love. While I’m trying to think about words to sing, that’s keeping my brain active, not giving a chance to go into a downward spiral,” Cavallo once said.
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This feature is a part of CNY Nostalgia, a section on syracuse.com. Send your ideas and curiosities to Johnathan Croyle at jcroyle@syracuse.com or call 315-427-3958.
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