East Providence Drummer Gets Birthday Surprise

When Elaine Jannerelli’s son, Joey, told her and her husband when he was in junior high that he wanted to play the drums, she wasn’t surprised.

Music had always been part of her family. Her father played for the Holy Rosary Drum & Bugle Corps in Providence, and her brothers played drums, guitar and the accordian.

“I said to Joey, ‘you’re taking after Grandpa,' ” Jannerelli said.

She and her husband got him some drums for Christmas. He practiced for hours at a time in the garage, and she worried that the noise might bother the neighbors after 9 p.m. Her son agreed, but just played more quietly. 

Jannerelli played drums in marching and jazz bands at and . There, he received the Louis Armstrong award for musical achievement.

Starting in junior high, he also took lessons at Rick's Music School, which was then in Seekonk. After he graduated high school in 1999, his drum teacher told him he had taught him all he could about the drums and said Jannerelli could probably show him some tricks. Owner Rick Santos happened to have an opening for a drum teacher and hired Jannerelli.

“He couldn’t believe it,” Elaine Jannerelli said. “It was just like fate.” (The school has since been sold and is now Doug's Music School in Rehoboth).

Jannerelli also joined some bands right out of high school, including one called Fungus Amungus. Fellow East Providence High School graduate Jared Valenti, who plays the saxophone, recruited him.

But it was a hard time for the family as his father was ill with cancer. In 2001, Jannerelli twice donated stem cells to his dad, but it was unsuccessful and his father died.

Jannerelli continued to teach and play in bands that toured up and down the East coast, his mother said.  He loves when his family comes to watch him play, his mom said.

With his 30^th birthday coming up last week, his sister, Chrissi, planned a special surprise.

Fungus Amungus was playing at The Spot Underground in Providence on March 12. She arranged for his family and friends to be there that night, even making up laminated roadie passes.

More than 50 people came out to see him play.