Noted Jazz Pianist Marty Napoleon to Perform at Regency

“Who haven’t I played with?”

This is the way renowned jazz pianist Marty Napoleon, 90, answers the question he says he is asked most frequently.

When you’ve been playing piano for more than 70 years, were a fixture among Louis Armstrong’s All Stars, and were in great demand to get on stage with many of the iconic jazzmen over many decades, you’ve got to accept that Napoleon’s response is not simple hyperbole.

A resident at on School Street, Napoleon will be performing – along with his trio in a program called “Music from the Heart” – at the Regency, this Thursday, 7-8 p.m.

He and a quintet are also scheduled to play on the Village Square, on Friday, July 15, as part of the Downtown Sounds concert series.

Born of Sicilian immigrant parents, into the heavily Italian-American neighborhood of Bensonhurst in Brooklyn, Napoleon was surrounded by family members, deeply invested in music. His uncle, Phil, was a noted trumpet player; his older brother, Teddy, a skilled pianist; his parents played banjo and guitar; and there were a slew of musically gifted cousins. 

“We had nobody in the family who had a drugstore, a grocery store or a hardware store, so I couldn’t get anything at discount except clarinet reeds, and I couldn’t use those,” he said. 

Drawn to piano at 17, Napoleon had a quartet at 18, playing social clubs and parties, and a reputation that was growing, even beyond his own early comprehension. 

“When I got the call from (famed drummer) Shelly Mann to play in the Bob Astor Band, I had no idea how they found me,” he said. “I still don’t know.” 

It could have been an intimidating experience, since, at the time, Napoleon could not read music: “I faked it,” he explained. “I’ve always had a great ear for music and no one in the band ever said I was playing the wrong chord.” 

Napoleon’s route to his association with Louis Armstrong had its ups and downs. As the piano player in a quartet booked into the Prevue Lounge in Chicago, by noted music agent and manager Joe Glazer, Napoleon and the rest of the group began playing to standing room only audiences. Soon, a two-week stint turned into four months and put such a serious strain on Napoleon’s marriage that he quit the group. 

“But Glazer was also Louis’s manager,” he explained, “and he put pressure on me until I couldn’t say ‘no.’”

Again the touring was having a negative effect on his family life. 

“I quit three times and was rehired back each time at a greater salary,” he said. “I figured if I kept doing that, I’d be making more than Louis,” he said. 

At the Regency concert, Napoleon will be playing with bassist Bill Crow and drummer Ray Mosca.