Pellegrino to Host RUHS Benefit Concert

Until age 8, Jerry Pellegrino was legally blind, unable to see anything further than four inches away. It took five operations—three on his left eye and two on his right—to correct his vision.

After gaining his sight, Pellegrino, one of a pair of identical twins growing up in Plainfield, NJ, asked his parents for piano lessons. In fact, he and his brother, Jim, whose sight was unaffected, “demanded” lessons, he said.

“We used to listen to Lawrence Welk, and my father used to play John Philip Sousa [band music] every Sunday morning,” he said during a recent interview at a local coffee shop.

Music had always been so sweet to Pellegrino’s ears in dark times, he couldn’t wait to make it himself.

The healing aspects of playing the piano had unexpected ramifications: he found his calling as a jazz musician and teacher.

“I’m so grateful to have my sight,” said Pellegrino, 56, who was held back in school due to his handicap. Learning music helped him catch up. It also demonstrated to him what studies have shown, he said, that music amplifies the brain and “makes you smarter.”

Along with introducing jazz to new audiences, his goal became “helping those less fortunate than I am.”

To that end, he is setting up a music scholarship fund at to assist music students with the costs of joining the marching and/or jazz band or choir.

The money is “for whatever they need” to perform, said Pellegrino, who plans to provide “a little help” for music students headed for college as well.

Proceeds from the upcoming at the on Feb. 12 at 2 p.m. will go to the school as well.

, parent of one of the band members, is co-producing the concert, which will feature the RUHS Choir for two numbers.

“The [school’s] Jazz Band will play during intermission,” said Naletich, who hopes the event will spur South Bay residents to support music programs threatened by state budget cuts.

Mark Aguero, the director of the RUHS Jazz and Sea Hawk Marching bands, said his students are “very excited” to be a part of the concert.

“We are extremely grateful to Mr. Pellegrino for his tireless efforts in organizing the event and for his generous support of our program,” the band director said. “The students will benefit greatly from this opportunity to see some very fine professional jazz musicians perform.”

Naletich, who has known Pellegrino ever since he started teaching her son piano in 2008, calls him a “children’s music advocate” who is contributing more than his share, especially since he has no children of his own.

Pellegrino’s philanthropic work began back in 1980, when he came to Southern California to cut an album, Jazz Extemporizations, for Stinson Records.

Living in the valley at the time, he volunteered at the United Cerebral Palsy Spastic Children’s Foundation in Chatsworth.

“I worked with a young girl [who] was autistic and couldn’t speak,” the musician said. “I would sit her on the piano bench and play for her.” After a couple of months, he said, she started talking for the first time in her life.

“I’ve been working with kids ever since,” Pellegrino said. “I just love kids.”

Recently divorced, describing himself as "a resident of the South Bay," he teaches piano to students ranging in age from 7 to 70 throughout the area and volunteers in the jazz program at Harbor College.

A kinetic man, whose New Jersey twang is a source of obvious pride, Pellegrino studied classical piano for 13 years, before going to Harlem to learn from such jazz notables as vocalist Maxine Sullivan, trumpeter Jimmy Owens, and Frank Foster, a saxophonist with the Count Basie Orchestra.

After he came to California, he appeared in telethons and as a pianist on screen in films and TV, including the CBS series Spies (1987) with George Hamilton; Another You (1991) with Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder; and Mambo Kings (1992) with Armande Asante and Antonio Bandaras.

Using the same musicians that accompanied him on his 1980 album, he began performing in concerts, many on behalf of children and music, including a benefit for a youth orchestra, I Artisti, in La Mirada.

The jazz band is composed of Pellegrino on piano, his twin brother Jim on saxophone and flute, as well as a base player and drummer.

Among the jazz selections planned for the Feb. 12 concert: Lover Man, Body and Soul, In a Sentimental Mood and My One and Only Love.

The RUHS Choir will join the band for The Greatest Love of All and My Funny Valentine; and the 24-member RUHS Jazz Band will play as ticket holders enter the arts center and during intermission.

Co-producer Naletich, a member of the RUHS Band Boosters, said 100 percent of the proceeds from concessions sold at the event will go to promote the Jazz Band, the Sea Hawk Marching Band and Dance Guard.

The effort band students put in—"the dancing, the field cooreography, the hard work"—is often overlooked, Naletich said, as is the increasing costs to families.

Due to state budget cuts this year, she said, parents of band students have to pay an additional $69 for transportation costs. “They already pay from $300 to $400,” said Naletich, whose son, Max Sarafin, 15, plays trumpet in both the marching and jazz band.

Even though the school provides uniforms and instruments, there are many other expenses, including traveling to games and competitions, the spring trip, sweatshirts, etc. “It just adds up,” she said.

As much as Naletich loves sports, she doesn’t hesitate to decry the disparity between the way schools elevate football and basketball over music. “Let’s start honoring kids that place in state competitions,” she said. “Would we even have a [proper] football game without the marching band?”

The 1,453-seat Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center is located at 1935 Manhattan Beach Blvd. in North Redondo Beach. Tickets are $30 and can be purchased via the event website. Proceeds go to the Jerry Pellegrino Music Scholarship Fund at Redondo Union High School.