John Rossi of Providence, died Saturday, April 9, 2022 at Rhode Island Hospital, surrounded by his family. He was the husband of Linda (Teto) Rossi. They had been married for 37 years.
Born in Providence, John was a son of the late Michael and Jennie (Paolucci) Rossi.
Besides his wife, John is survived by his daughter, Lisa Paiva of Smithfield, his two grandsons: Anthony and Joseph, his brother, Joseph Rossi and his wife, Chris, of Cumberland, his in-laws: Rick and Robin Pasquazzi of Smithfield and Robert Teto and his wife Jane of Smithfield, and his nephews and nieces: Sophia, Michael, Matthew, Michael, Lori, and the late Maryanne and his beloved cat Rocco. He was the brother of the late Janet Barrette.
Johnny was the drummer for Roomful of Blues for 30 years. One of the many highlights of John's career was when he recorded and played with Pat Benatar, and they appeared on the Johnny Carson show and played with the NBC Orchestra. A childhood dream come true for him. He was inducted into the RI Music Hall of Fame in 2012. John Rossi had a heck of a career. He traveled the world, played major TV shows and was nominated for multiple Grammy awards. He recorded extensively and, most importantly, made an awful lot of people very happy.
A Mass of Christian Burial will be held Wednesday at 11 am in St.Philip Church, 622 Putnam Pike, Greenville. Burial will be private. Visitaiton will be Tuesday 4-6pm in the Anderson-Winfield Funeral Home, Rt 44 at Greenville Common,Greenville. In lieu of flowers donations in his memory may be made to Burriville Animal Shelter, c/o Burrillville Town Hall, 105 Harrisville
Main Street, Harrisville, RI 02830
John Rossi, the longtime drummer for Roomful of Blues, passed away on
the morning of April 9th after a short illness.
John was born in Providence, Rhode Island, John grew up
during the rock ’n’ roll era listening to Little Richard, Fats Domino
and countless other treasures of America’s musical heritage.
An epiphany occurred when he went to see tenor sax star Red Prysock at
the Celebrity Club in Providence. Prysock’s drummer had the biggest
cymbals John had seen, and he became fixated by the wash of sound they
made as they rode atop the heavy backbeat propelling Prysock’s frenzied horn
Thus inspired, he took up drums at seventeen, and played in many early
Rhode Island rock ’n’ roll and rhythm and blues bands, recording with
the Del-Rays in 1961 and then spent three years with the area’s premier
band, the Rockin’ Savoys, led by tenor sax player Louie Camp.
His mother Jennie, a classically trained pianist, encouraged John’s
interest in music, all the while admonishing him to learn to read music,
telling him he would never get ahead if he failed to do so.
The advent of the Beatles changed musical tastes and for a few years,
John worked sporadically until he teamed up with the Hamilton-Bates Blue
Flames in the late sixties. The group, co-led by tenor player Scott
Hamilton and guitarist Fred Bates, was causing a sensation in New
England music circles with its emphasis on swing, and was the beginning
of a long rhythm section relationship between John and the group’s
bassist, Preston Hubbard.
He joined Roomful of Blues in 1970 after Fran Christina left, and thus
began a musical journey that eventually led John all over the world,
playing the music he loved. The band, led by guitarist and singer Duke
Robillard, with its lineup of three saxes, Greg Piccolo, Doug James and
Rich Lataille, pianist Al Copley and bassist Eddie Parnigoni, was John’s
dream band, playing classic rhythm and blues from the books of Buddy
Johnson, Roy Milton, Tiny Bradshaw and the myriad other titans of jump
blues and swing from the thirties through the fifties.
Roomful developed a growing reputation through New England for a style
of musicianship that was almost prehistoric in the progressive rock days
of the 1970s, and it was John’s driving style that was at the root of
the band’s sound. He always said that he strove for a ‘powerhouse
sound’, and that was what he delivered, sitting behind a vintage set of
Slingerland Radio Kings and 24” ride and 22" crash cymbals.
Roomful’s drive and class together with the sheer danceability of the
band’s music led to an ever-growing touring base, and by 1977 Island
Records signed the band. By that time John’s erstwhile partner, Preston
Hubbard from Hamilton - Bates Blue Flames had signed on with Roomful.
By 1980 a major blues revival was underway throughout the USA, sparked
in no small part by Roomful’s example, although few bands matched
Roomful’s size, lineup or musicianship. Indeed, although Roomful was
considered by musicians to be a ‘musician's band’, the band members
modestly considered themselves to be a dance band, and the success of
John’s motto to ‘aim the beat at their feet’ was proven by the
increasing turnout of dancers at the band’s shows, lindy-hopping and
swing dancing to John’s relentless groove, learned after years of
listening to masters such as Charles Otis, Earl Palmer, Charles ‘Hungry’
Williams, Roy Milton, Panama Francis and Gene Krupa.
John remained with the band until 1998, when, tired of the endless
hustle and bustle of touring, he quit to stay home with his wife Linda
and family in Providence. At that time he could look back on close to
thirty years with Roomful, thirteen albums, three that were nominated
for Grammies (records with Eddie ‘Cleanhead’ Vinson, Big Joe Turner and
Earl King), an album with pop idol Pat Benatar, another with Canadian
superstar Colin James (both with the Roomful horn section), and
countless record sessions with other name musicians.
Duke Robillard said in an email today, ‘John Rossi was a one of a kind
drummer and the foundation of Roomful of Blues … RIP’ and Greg Piccolo
echoed these thoughts; ‘He was the backbone of the band - he was the one’.
I first met him in 1980, in Atlanta, Georgia. I had gone into a club,
the Downtown Cafe, where Roomful was beginning a three-night stand. I
had never heard Roomful before, and I was blown away by the band’s sound
and authenticity. On a Tiny Bradshaw tune, they had the rhythm just
right. And then on a New Orleans tune they effortlessly nailed that
second line thing. As John walked off the stand after the first set, I
walked up to him and asked ‘Do you listen to Little Richard’? His eyes
opened wide and he grinned a big smile. ‘He’s my man!’ Over the years
John and I would often refer back to that moment, as it was a
transmission of understanding between the two of us. He loved blues and
r & b, but it was rock ’n’ roll that really spun his wheels. He
understood the relationship of 1940’s big band blues to the beginnings
of rock ’n’ roll, and in an interview with Downbeat magazine I remember
him saying, with a faraway look in his eyes, ‘Lionel Hampton - now there
was rock ’n’ roll!’
In a conversation with John last year, he reminisced about playing
alongside the Roomful horn section behind Pat Benatar on the Johnny
Carson show with the NBC orchestra led by Doc Severinsen, plus being on
the Arsenio Hall show with her. And with Roomful he was able to play
with so many of his heroes and contemporaries, such as Red Prysock, Sil
Austin, Eddie ‘Cleanhead’ Vinson, Arnett Cobb, B. B. King, Jay McShann,
Etta James, Big Joe Turner, Earl King, Jimmy Witherspoon, Jimmy Nelson,
Stevie Ray Vaughan, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Los Lobos, Robert Cray,
Albert Collins, Koko Taylor, Jimmy McCracklin, Carlos Santana, Bob
Scaggs, Grady Gaines … the list goes on and on. One time in California
the band opened for a couple of shows headlined by Rolling Stone Charlie
Watts, who was leading a large band while on vacation from the Stones.
Kind of a drummer’s battle of the bands. The reviews gave the night to
Roomful of Blues, who 'unlike Watts' Orchestra, had little trouble
establishing a groove’. (Oakland Tribune, June 17, 1987).
So John Rossi had a heck of a career. Traveled the world, played major
TV shows, appeared with the band in a major movie, ’The Good Mother’
(Liam Neeson and Diane Keaton), recorded extensively and perhaps most
importantly, made an awful lot of people very happy.
And no, he never learned to read music, but he most surely did get ahead.