Jazz great returns to YSU

By John Benson

Ralph Lalama studied with the late Tony Leonardi.

YOUNGS-TOWN — To celebrate the 40th year of Youngstown State University’s Jazz Studies Program, alumnus and world-class tenor saxophonist Ralph Lalama will return for a special Leonardi Legacy Series Concert performance Tuesday at The Youngstown Club.

The notion of former students who have gone on to do great things in the music world coming back to their alma mater is nothing new. However, this year’s show featuring the Aliquippa, Pa., native and 1975 YSU Dana School of Music graduate is something different. Lalama jumped at the chance to fly in from his New York City home and pay tribute to his mentor and YSU jazz professor legend Tony Leonard, for whom the concert series is named.

“I haven’t played in Youngstown for like 20 years, so it’s going to bring back a lot of old memories,” said Lalama, who earlier this year won a Grammy Award with the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra for its 2008 CD “Live at the Village Vanguard.” “Tony Leonardi was my mentor. He was also a good friend, even in college. He was like 11 years older than I was. He taught me a lot about the music that I love, which is called jazz.

“At that time, YSU had one ensemble, and it was an elective course. And now Tony made it where you can have degrees in arranging and performance and whatever else in the jazz field. So he originated the program, which this year is entering its 40th year.”

Lalama said that Leonardi, who died in 2001 from pancreatic cancer, helped him expand his musical landscape during college by turning him on to heavier jazz from the likes of Sonny Rollins and John Coltrane. Leonardi also played a key role in helping him start his career right out of college. Within months after graduating, the saxophonist, who actually studied clarinet at YSU, moved to the Big Apple where he began to cut his teeth in the local jazz scene. However, it was Leonardi that helped plant his first seed.

“When I was ready to graduate, Tony brought in this real heavy jazz arranger and trumpeter named Thad Jones,” Lalama said. “Tony was slick enough to bring Thad in my last semester, so I could meet him. I think he had that in the back of his mind. So when I moved to New York, I called Thad because I had just played with him in June as a college student.

“Thad kind of helped me along and years later I joined his band, which I’m still in basically. Back then Thad and Mel Lewis were the leaders of a group that played at the club the Village Vanguard. Now it’s the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra. I’ve been here for 27 years. We won a couple of Grammy Awards.”

To be exact, Lalama has three Grammy Awards on his mantle. In addition to performing in the New York City jazz scene for the last 34 years and traveling around the world — a European Vanguard Jazz Orchestra tour is scheduled for this summer — Lalama also teaches at New York University and the State University of New York.

Among the songs Lalama, who describes himself as a “hard bopster” and a “swinging (expletive),” said he’s looking forward to performing at his upcoming Youngstown show are a few standards, Thad Jones compositions, as well as a few originals, which were arranged by his brother Dave, a 1977 Youngtown University graduate and current head of the Hofstra University Jazz department.

However, there is one song in particular that he’ll be playing in tribute to his mentor Leonardi.

“One of my originals is titled ‘Da-Lama’s Da-Lemma,’ I’ll dedicate that to Tony because that was a saying he used to have in college,” Lalama said. “Me and my brother used to live together, and we used to do all of this stuff and sometimes we’d have problems and we’d say, ‘It’s another Da-Lama’s dilemma.’ That’s a song I recorded for my ‘Momentum’ album.”

He added, “I’m going to be pretty emotional because of the Tony Leonardi legacy, my years in Youngstown and what it meant for me to further what I do now. So I really hope that people come out and honor Tony in what he did for the music community and the community as a whole. I can’t wait to see my old friends from Youngstown. It should be a great musical, swinging night.”