I met guitarist Joe Negri on my first day as an intern from Thiel College in January of 1974. David Chen, director of the show Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, put me on the crew with Lighting Director Frank Warninsky, Nick Tallo, crew regular Jim Seech, and Michael Keaton – back when he went by Michael Douglas. I had not heard many jazz guitarists when I went to Warren Area High School, but I was immediately wowed by the tight ensemble led by guitarist Joe Negri, who died May 30th in Pittsburgh, just eleven days short of his 100th birthday. Joe, along with pianist Johnny Costa, bassist Carl McVicker, and drummer Bobby Rawsthorne, had the most beautiful camaraderie. I never saw a moment of tension or temper. Fred Rogers set the tone, but Joe Negri had the most continuous smile. I had the chance to watch them improvise at the very highest level, which was never routine and never simplified for children. PBS viewers were treated to some extraordinary music during those three decades.
Encouraged by his dad, Joe sang and played the ukelele before he was five years old. Johnny Costa encouraged him to study composition with Nikolai Lopatnikoff at CMU. Almost forgotten today, Lopatnikoff was widely admired in the 1950’s by conductors, including Leonard Bernstein, who recorded his music. Lopatnikoff was an important influence on both Costa and Negri, but Joe also became a fan of Ravel and Debussy. His study of musical form with Lopatnikoff helped him jump in with visiting jazz greats who discovered his quick study. Benny Goodman was a musician who invited Joe to play, bringing full circle Joe’s earlier admiration for the Goodman-regular guitar legend Charlie Christian. Rimsky Korsakoff’s “Flight of the Bumblebee” was a bring-down-the-house favorite of Negri, who could play it faster than anyone in the form of his own “Bumble Boogie,” which he recorded with the Pittsburgh Pops for a United Artists LP.
Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood often featured musical greats like Wynton Marsalis – who had no idea what to expect of musicians on a children’s TV show, and was delighted to find Joe and the group in top form. Yo-Yo Ma became a lifelong friend of Fred and Joanne Rogers, in part because his visit to Joe’s make-believe Music Shop had been so positive, including a duet of Joe and Yo-Yo playing the song “Tree Tree Tree.” Joe, along with the Johnny Costa trio, and the musical guests who appeared on the Neighborhood, had a priceless impact on their young audience. As a toddler, my own son, Jim IV, was entranced when he saw Joe play Tree Tree Tree with the then-teenage violinist Hilary Hahn. My son asked to watch the VHS tape over and over until it wore out, and he’s now one of the youngest members of the Houston Symphony.
Had Joe Negri been a regular at the Village Vanguard or the Blue Note jazz clubs in New York City, I have no doubt his fame would have exploded – but Joe loved living in Pittsburgh and focusing on family life with his wife Joni, who he was married to for 72 years. The touring life never called to him. Perhaps Joe had enough excitement as a teenager when Shep Fields, the bandleader known for his Rippling Rhythm Orchestra, convinced Joe’s parents to let him tour with them to Chicago and New York. Joe also travelled with The Three Suns, the wildly popular group who’d had a hit with Twilight Time. They became the group First Lady Mamie Eisenhower said was her favorite! The Suns recorded a Christmas album A Ding Dong Dandy Christmas. Suns’ founder Al Nevins decided to concentrate his career on what became a huge music publishing business and invited guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli and Joe Negri to fill in on the road and in the studio. Sixty years later, John Pizzarelli, Bucky’s son who regularly played with Paul McCartney, James Taylor, and more, wrote for Noteworthy Jazz’ 2010 release of Joe’s CD Dream Dancing: “Joe Negri’s playing is deserving of a national audience…it’s a great demonstration of cool jazz at its finest.”
Joe told me he thought the recording studio would be a great place to work, as he admired guitarists like Tony Mottola; but in the 60’s Elvis and the Beatles changed the scene – popular musicians weren’t using freelancers to help make their records. He performed on several early TV shows including 67 Melody Lane beginning in 1954 on KDKA, hosted by the prominent organist Ken Griffin. He started as music director at WTAE around 1960 and stayed there for 20 years. Joe played on The John King Show, composed the theme song and filled in for Paul Shannon on Adventure Time and took over as host in 1975, working with puppet guests and introducing cartoons. In 1968 Fred Rogers invited him to become the make-believe Handyman Negri and proprietor of Negri’s Music Shop on Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, where he remained a regular until the show ended in 2000.
He remembered with special pleasure visits from Tony Bennet, Mabel Mercer, Nathan Davis from the University of Pittsburgh, and Tim Adams, tympanist with the Pittsburgh Symphony. He played with jazz guitarist Joe Pass from Johnstown, PA, who had recorded with Oscar Peterson, Duke Ellington, and Ella Fitzgerald. He also played with Michael Feinstein at the Newport Jazz Festival – and later recorded a CD with Michael. Some of his closest friends on the Neighborhood included “Speedy Delivery” David Newell and “Officer” François Clemmons. Lady Betty Aberlin laughed about the tent that Joe and Fred could not assemble properly; and Joe was there the day crew member Nick Tallo snuck a blow-up doll into the closet to surprise Fred when he reached in to grab his sweater!
Joe Negri was a beloved neighbor, an uber-talented musician, and a sought-after music professor – having taught at the University of Pittsburgh, Duquesne University, and Carnegie Mellon University for nearly five decades. Like Fred Rogers, there was never a divide between on-camera Handyman Joe and the private Joe Negri. He was a truly nice guy with an impish smile that was ever present. I had the privilege of watching him for hundreds of hours in the WQED studio, appearing with him at all sorts of special events including a Children’s Festival Chorus concert, at the unveiling of the US Postal Service Fred Rogers stamp, on stage with the Pittsburgh Symphony, and seeing him with his students at the guitar studio naming ceremony in his honor. Regardless of the setting, Joe was always the same. He had a gentle touch in conversation, laughed often and was always swinging ferociously with the guitar in his hands.
