I spent 12 years writing my memoir called The Vagabonds: A Musician’s Odyssey. I am a very happy man these days. I’ve published one of the most rewarding projects of my life.
What started out as a list of topics for a series of columns has turned into what my wife Lorry has compared to Spalding Gray’s Monster in a Box. But don’t be intimidated by the length of my book. It’s a fast read.
Yes, first came that topics list; then came fleshing out those topics while keeping up with happenings in the world and in our family; then came the historical research I used as a backdrop to the events in our lives. I conducted many taped interviews with my family, friends and associates. Then came the polishing and editing and polishing and editing.
I began to view this book in many different ways as time passed. I thought of my grandchildren’s grandchildren reading it and learning about our lives and times, and that inspired me to continue working. I thought of helping you the reader understand what mindset one must have to live in New York City and what temperament and talents are required to be a professional musician there. I examined how my experiences have shaped my present views and how I could best share them with you.
As I said in The Vagabonds, my playing experiences have ranged from basking in the applause of cheering thousands in a Berlin sports stadium to the club date from hell in a basement in Brooklyn – from a gig on Staten Island with Tito Puente to evenings in a small, dank Queens bar with Pow-Pow Gonzalez – from a performance with the Joffrey Ballet at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington to a regular gig with the house band at the old Hawaii Kai tourist trap on Broadway – from “Ted Mack and the Original Amateur Hour” and “The Horn and Hardart Children’s Hour” to the “One Night Stand” TV special in Toronto with Lionel Hampton – from the Cleveland bar gig with Mildred Koehler and her Hammond B3 organ to fronting my own 26-piece Umano Orchestra at Symphony Space on Broadway – from hanging out with Gene Krupa when my brother Al and I were child performers on the Steel Pier in Atlantic City to my playing Krupa’s leukemia benefit at Lincoln Center shortly before his death.
I’ve been very fortunate in my life to have studied with and worked with some of the most famous people in the world, including jazz legends, actors, singers and cultural and political thinkers. My wife, my children and their spouses have had similar experiences. And so have most of my friends whose names you may or may not recognize.
You will meet them all in The Vagabonds: A Musician’s Odyssey.
I hope you enjoy my book.
Listed on iTunes (ebook), Amazon (paperback and Kindle), Barnes & Noble (paperback and Nook), Outskirts Press (paperback and ebook), and many other vendors.
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Amazon Reviews
A Must Read for Jazz Fans (5 stars)
By MikeCadet on January 3, 2012
Format: Paperback
This is a terrific account of modern history as told by a contemporary jazz musician/composer. If you ever wanted to know what it was really like to be a working New York Jazz musician, this book is a must read. Filled with colorful anecdotes and personalities. I enjoyed every word.
The Vagabonds: A Musician's Odyssey (5 stars)
By Frank Ferrante on July 15, 2013
Format: Paperback
Amazon Verified Purchase
A book you can't put down... A jazz musician's journey through life including his devoted love for his wife
and children. I was hooked on Thom Gambino's venture from the very first chapter... through his college, high school teaching years, gigs working with greats like Lionel Hampton, touring Russia with the Joffery Ballet and his endless music writing skills for all kinds of bands.
I highly recommend this book for anyone who enjoys music and knows how to read!
Another Great Book from Thomas Gambino (5 stars)
By Marco Katz on June 7, 2013
Format: Kindle Edition
Amazon Verified Purchase
After reading NYET, I knew that this one would make a good read. Years ago, NYET demonstrated how Gambino successfully combined his abilities as a writer with his experiences as a musician. In this way, readers get an inside view of how musicians live. Few, if any, musicians have ever done this so well. In The Vagabonds: A Musician's Odyssey, Gambino employs this ability on a massive scale. Anyone interested in the music scene during the second half of the twentieth century needs to read this book. This volume succeeds in entertaining even as it provides fascinating information. Oh yeah, don't forget to check out Gambino's music as well - he sounds as good as he writes!
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Other Reviews
This review of “The Vagabonds: A Musician’s Odyssey” came from Peter Mugridge of Epsom, England:
This book is just about the most interesting autobiography that I have ever read.
Most autobiographies simply document the subject's life. Thom Gambino, on the other hand, has put his entire life in the context of what was going on in the news at the time and this really brings the story to life in a very interesting way and his style is extremely readable.
Given that the book is 1,101 pages long it is remarkable that I could only spot two factual errors; both of which when we discussed them could be traced to errors in the source material used. It says a lot for the quality and depth of Thom's research that only those two crept in - and one of those was so minor that hardly anyone would have noticed it.
The details given in the book are so intricately written that the reader really gets the feeling of having been there observing through all the years, and take it from me – having read every page – that Thom has led a very interesting life indeed of the sort most of us can only dream of.
My only ( minor! ) gripe is that the book is not illustrated, but to be fair given the size of it the addition of photographs would have probably rendered it too pricey for most. In any case, Thom’s website, thomgambino.com, carries a wealth of photographs far greater than the volume that could be reasonably included in the book so the imagery is there; I would strongly suggest visiting the website while reading the book.
All in all, this is a book that really got my attention all the way through and I can only wish that other people would adopt the same technique when writing their own autobiographies.
____________________________________________
While I didn't win a prize in the 20th Annual Writer's Digest Self Published Awards, I did receive this commentary from the judge who read "The Vagabonds: A Musician's Odyssey." The scale was 1-5, 5 being the highest::
Structure and Organization: 4
Grammar: 4
Production Quality and Cover Design: 5
"Congratulations on writing and publishing your book! The cover design and packaging are very polished and professional. You have written an incredible, immense story, full of specific details and description that make the scenes come alive for the reader. Your story should appeal to anyone interested in this time period and/or music. You have a good mix of action, dialogue, and narration and the book has a lively pace throughout. Good job with grammar, proofreading, and formatting of the interior of the book."
What started out as a list of topics for a series of columns has turned into what my wife Lorry has compared to Spalding Gray’s Monster in a Box. But don’t be intimidated by the length of my book. It’s a fast read.
Yes, first came that topics list; then came fleshing out those topics while keeping up with happenings in the world and in our family; then came the historical research I used as a backdrop to the events in our lives. I conducted many taped interviews with my family, friends and associates. Then came the polishing and editing and polishing and editing.
I began to view this book in many different ways as time passed. I thought of my grandchildren’s grandchildren reading it and learning about our lives and times, and that inspired me to continue working. I thought of helping you the reader understand what mindset one must have to live in New York City and what temperament and talents are required to be a professional musician there. I examined how my experiences have shaped my present views and how I could best share them with you.
As I said in The Vagabonds, my playing experiences have ranged from basking in the applause of cheering thousands in a Berlin sports stadium to the club date from hell in a basement in Brooklyn – from a gig on Staten Island with Tito Puente to evenings in a small, dank Queens bar with Pow-Pow Gonzalez – from a performance with the Joffrey Ballet at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington to a regular gig with the house band at the old Hawaii Kai tourist trap on Broadway – from “Ted Mack and the Original Amateur Hour” and “The Horn and Hardart Children’s Hour” to the “One Night Stand” TV special in Toronto with Lionel Hampton – from the Cleveland bar gig with Mildred Koehler and her Hammond B3 organ to fronting my own 26-piece Umano Orchestra at Symphony Space on Broadway – from hanging out with Gene Krupa when my brother Al and I were child performers on the Steel Pier in Atlantic City to my playing Krupa’s leukemia benefit at Lincoln Center shortly before his death.
I’ve been very fortunate in my life to have studied with and worked with some of the most famous people in the world, including jazz legends, actors, singers and cultural and political thinkers. My wife, my children and their spouses have had similar experiences. And so have most of my friends whose names you may or may not recognize.
You will meet them all in The Vagabonds: A Musician’s Odyssey.
I hope you enjoy my book.
Listed on iTunes (ebook), Amazon (paperback and Kindle), Barnes & Noble (paperback and Nook), Outskirts Press (paperback and ebook), and many other vendors.
_______________________________________________________________________________________
Amazon Reviews
A Must Read for Jazz Fans (5 stars)
By MikeCadet on January 3, 2012
Format: Paperback
This is a terrific account of modern history as told by a contemporary jazz musician/composer. If you ever wanted to know what it was really like to be a working New York Jazz musician, this book is a must read. Filled with colorful anecdotes and personalities. I enjoyed every word.
The Vagabonds: A Musician's Odyssey (5 stars)
By Frank Ferrante on July 15, 2013
Format: Paperback
Amazon Verified Purchase
A book you can't put down... A jazz musician's journey through life including his devoted love for his wife
and children. I was hooked on Thom Gambino's venture from the very first chapter... through his college, high school teaching years, gigs working with greats like Lionel Hampton, touring Russia with the Joffery Ballet and his endless music writing skills for all kinds of bands.
I highly recommend this book for anyone who enjoys music and knows how to read!
Another Great Book from Thomas Gambino (5 stars)
By Marco Katz on June 7, 2013
Format: Kindle Edition
Amazon Verified Purchase
After reading NYET, I knew that this one would make a good read. Years ago, NYET demonstrated how Gambino successfully combined his abilities as a writer with his experiences as a musician. In this way, readers get an inside view of how musicians live. Few, if any, musicians have ever done this so well. In The Vagabonds: A Musician's Odyssey, Gambino employs this ability on a massive scale. Anyone interested in the music scene during the second half of the twentieth century needs to read this book. This volume succeeds in entertaining even as it provides fascinating information. Oh yeah, don't forget to check out Gambino's music as well - he sounds as good as he writes!
_______________________________________________________________________________________
Other Reviews
This review of “The Vagabonds: A Musician’s Odyssey” came from Peter Mugridge of Epsom, England:
This book is just about the most interesting autobiography that I have ever read.
Most autobiographies simply document the subject's life. Thom Gambino, on the other hand, has put his entire life in the context of what was going on in the news at the time and this really brings the story to life in a very interesting way and his style is extremely readable.
Given that the book is 1,101 pages long it is remarkable that I could only spot two factual errors; both of which when we discussed them could be traced to errors in the source material used. It says a lot for the quality and depth of Thom's research that only those two crept in - and one of those was so minor that hardly anyone would have noticed it.
The details given in the book are so intricately written that the reader really gets the feeling of having been there observing through all the years, and take it from me – having read every page – that Thom has led a very interesting life indeed of the sort most of us can only dream of.
My only ( minor! ) gripe is that the book is not illustrated, but to be fair given the size of it the addition of photographs would have probably rendered it too pricey for most. In any case, Thom’s website, thomgambino.com, carries a wealth of photographs far greater than the volume that could be reasonably included in the book so the imagery is there; I would strongly suggest visiting the website while reading the book.
All in all, this is a book that really got my attention all the way through and I can only wish that other people would adopt the same technique when writing their own autobiographies.
____________________________________________
While I didn't win a prize in the 20th Annual Writer's Digest Self Published Awards, I did receive this commentary from the judge who read "The Vagabonds: A Musician's Odyssey." The scale was 1-5, 5 being the highest::
Structure and Organization: 4
Grammar: 4
Production Quality and Cover Design: 5
"Congratulations on writing and publishing your book! The cover design and packaging are very polished and professional. You have written an incredible, immense story, full of specific details and description that make the scenes come alive for the reader. Your story should appeal to anyone interested in this time period and/or music. You have a good mix of action, dialogue, and narration and the book has a lively pace throughout. Good job with grammar, proofreading, and formatting of the interior of the book."
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(Original book blurb)
“BIG BROTHER BACKS DOWN”
The Los Angeles Times
“BOOK SCREENING BY U.S. IS ENDED”
The New York Times
NYET, the harrowing account of the first American rock group to tour the Soviet Union, created a stir when the U.S. State Department insisted on seeing the manuscript–then withdrew its demand in the face of mounting publicity.
The State Department’s concern was well-founded. NYET is hardly calculated to preserve a spirit of détente with Russia. Instead it is a vivid, highly personal but convincing portrait of life in a police state–Russia, it turns out, is not even a nice place to visit.
Author Thomas Gambino is a saxophonist for a six-piece rock band that travels with the Joffrey Ballet of New York City Center. As Gambino points out, it was absolutely necessary for the band to accompany the Joffrey to Russia–the chances of finding Soviet musicians to take their place were slim, since rock music is virtually outlawed under the Communist government.
What starts out as a lark quickly becomes an ordeal as Gambino and his fellow musicians encounter glaring examples of oppression. There are some fine madcap moments as the freewheeling six retaliate by “putting on” the natives. But basically it is a bleak picture that Gambino presents–police brutality, concentration camps, desperate people.
In the end, though a member of his own country’s so-called counterculture, the author concludes:
“Ever since we were children, we had been taught about the ruthlessness and lack of freedom that existed in these countries. After a while, most of the stories took on an air of unreality and we stopped believing them. Sitting here was a simple man who told us in halting English that all of the things we had heard were absolutely true. If anything, the accounts we had heard in the States were sugarcoated for our young ears.”
At a time when Americans are increasingly critical of their own government this book stands as frightening proof that things could definitely be worse.
Thomas Gambino, saxophonist with the Joffrey Ballet; free-lance writer, musician and arranger; has also published My Gentle Pearl (poetry) and Jazz Patterns for the Instrumentalist.
PRENTICE-HALL
ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS, N.J.
1976
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Used hardcover copies of Nyet are available on Amazon, Ebay and other sites.
Review
This review of “Nyet: An American Rock Musician Encounters the Soviet Union” also came from Peter Mugridge of Epsom, England:
This may not be a huge book, but it is a very entertaining read and most importantly it is a very real story of what it was like to visit the USSR at the height of the Cold War paranoia. What makes it so readable is the simple fact that Thom successfully fought off an attempt to have it censored by, ironically, his own country, the USA, the land of the free…
As you read it you really feel the atmosphere of the time and get a real experience of what it was like to be on the tour described in the book. At times the increasingly desperate and unsuccessful attempts by the Russians to compromise the band members look like they came straight out of a Pink Panther film. Towards the end of the book one Russian “lady” uses an assumed name which is so blindingly obviously false ( “My name is Darlink!” ) and fooled nobody that you get the impression that they really had not researched anything about their targets at all.
While all this is going on, you also get a warts and all insight into the lives of those who were living on the wrong side of the Iron Curtain and just how easily they could get into serious trouble just for doing or saying things that the western nations wouldn’t blink twice about.
In summary, this is another highly recommended read from Thom Gambino. If you haven’t got a copy, ask yourself why not and remedy that immediately!
In Leningrad (St. Petersburg), Russia with bandmate Steve Tubin (right). November, 1974.
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These books published by our company are out of print, but used copies may be found on eBay and other sites:
JAZZ PATTERNS FOR THE INSTRUMENTALIST by Thom Gambino
JAZZ PATTERNS FOR THE INSTRUMENTALIST discusses the concept behind the exercise in a simple and concise manner—with composite solos to illustrate ideas. The chapters explain the diminished scale and its function, minor chords and scales as used in II-V-I patterns, the flatted five relationship as a superimposition for improvised solos, the blues scale, the augmented chord and its use with the whole tone scale, and blues choruses with sample solos. THIS BOOK PROVIDES A FIRM FOUNDATION FOR THE JAZZ STUDENT AND THE PROFESSIONAL PLAYER. (Sunrise Artistries, Inc., ISBN 0-936519-01-0).
PRINCIPLES OF HARMONIC SUBSTITUTION by Dom Minasi
This book offers a complete guide for the jazz player who wants to use the latest in chord substitution. It contains many illustrations, charts and examples.
While the author stresses that this book is not meant for the beginning player, its contents will prove quite useful to the new player who takes the time to grasp the material. Dom Minasi begins with a short discussion of basic music theory, including the cycle of fourths, and then explores scales, chords, progressions, substitutions and melodies. Also included are examples of how to form introductions, tags and endings. Emphasizing subtle harmonies rather than overpowering chord structures, PRINCIPLES OF HARMONIC SUBSTITUTION provides the player with plenty of material on which to build. (Sunrise Artistries, Inc., ISBN 0-936519-02-9)
MUSICIANS MANUAL FOR CHORD SUBSTITUTION by Dom Minasi
This book is an abridged version of PRINCIPLES OF HARMONIC SUBSTITUTION that can be tucked easily into any instrument case for quick reference. (Sunrise Artistries, Inc., ISBN 0-936519-03-7).
STRESS POINTS by Dom Minasi
STRESS POINTS—99 easy-to-follow steps to artistry—is a must for the serious, inquisitive instrumentalist. Though written primarily for the guitarist, players of other instruments will discover that the book can be a valuable addition to their improvisational vocabulary. Instead of note groupings or scales, STRESS POINTS teaches the sound of each individual note in relation to the note or chord against which it is used.
STRESS POINTS is written with a warm, personal approach, but it also teaches discipline, the taking of responsibility for creativity and the avoidance of cliché playing. (Sunrise Artistries, Inc., ISBN 0-936519-00-2).
Read about the new STRESS POINTS II, written and released by
Dom Minasi's music company, at domminasi.com
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I was honored to be mentioned recently in "Music and Identity in Twentieth-Century Literature from Our America," the title of musician/author/professor Marco Katz Montiel’s latest book. "Very few musicians I know even read books, much less write them," he said. Marco and I have been friends for more than 40 years. For that and many other reasons, I recommend this book and his other titles to you. Here is an excerpt from the preface:
“One evening, after a performance in Greenwich Village, I wandered into the Gaslight and heard Brownie’s Revenge, a 27-piece big band consisting of five sax players, five trombonists, five trumpeters, four French horn players, two guitarists, an electric piano player, an electric bass player, two Latin percussionists and two solo singers. Don Pinto was conductor, trumpeter and principal arranger. The band took up one-third of the space in the club. Noting the five trombonists, I spoke with a couple of them, Steve Danenberg and Art Baron, about the possibility of subbing whenever one of them had to be absent. Both these fellow musicians encouraged me, and within a week I heard from the conductor, who asked if I would be able to come over for a Sunday afternoon session at the Village Gate. At the age of nineteen, it felt amazing to play at a venue where I had spent my earlier teenage years listening to jazz stars such as Miles Davis, Hugh Masakela, and Charles Earland.
“Weekly sessions with Brownies Revenge introduced me to many musicians. Sometimes I sat next to Tom Malone before he became famous as “Bones” in The Blues Brothers movie. In those days, Tom was already recognized as an incredibly versatile musician who had played every instrument in the famous One O’Clock Lab Band at North Texas State even though, according to legend, he majored in English rather than music. Another literary musician, alto saxophonist Thom Gambino, published a book about his experiences with the first American rock band to tour the Soviet Union. Already, the mixture of literature and music was in the air. Thom later asked me to play in his own big band, the Umano Orchestra. We have remained friends ever since, and continue to share our writings. (xiii)”
© Copyright 2014, Marco Katz Montiel Used with permission.