Stone Rooster’s sounds

Stone Rooster’s sounds GOOD TIMES

Gilda Pieregalla Downey hasn’t let turning 95 years old slow her down. In fact, the owner and manager of Gilda’s Stone Rooster in Marion for the past 40 years has stepped up what her popular jazz venue has to offer and infused more youthful performers into the mix.

For the past 11 years, the 17-piece Southcoast Jazz Orchestra has performed at the Rooster twice a month on Monday nights, and that group’s smaller but no less dynamically-sounding offshoot, The Michael J. DeCicco

Cameron Shave

Downey told Shave to put a band together and then he could perform there. The Bridgewater resident chose to recruit his bandmates from a pool of talented young musicians at surrounding area high schools.

“Now at 17 he’s getting to be great,” Downey said. “I’m there watching him, and he’s amazing. I don’t want them to bring a singer, because it takes attention away from the musicians. You’ve got to see them and see how good they are. You’ll think it’s a 40-year-old professional playing.”

She said part of her goal in booking talent for the Rooster right now is encouraging these young performers and those who aspire to perform. “I tell parents to bring your kids to see these young people play and see that they can do it too,” she said.

She has a similar goal when it comes to encouraging those who are already stage ready. “They need a place to play, and I give them whatever they want,” she said. It’s a generation that doesn’t care about the money, she added. They take the door, which means they take whatever proceeds arise from the cover charge. And they are happy with that. “They just want that chance to perform,” Downey said.

Southcoast Brass Band, plays there once a month on Thursday nights.

But it’s on the weekends that Gilda Downey doubles down on thinking young. Three Saturday evenings a month, a trio or quartet of young Jazz musicians perform at the Rooster. Every fourth Saturday, 17-year-old trumpeter Cameron Shave and his 17-piece Big Band orchestra comprised of fellow high-school-age musicians takes the Rooster stage. The Stone Rooster’s current goal, Downey explained, is “promoting the younger generation, the young kids. There’s some great young talent around.” She said she first met Shave two years ago when he was around 15. She invited his teenage bandmate, tenor saxophonist Anthony Defeo-Gelmam, to the club to perform, and he brought Shave along with him.

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Shave’s band attracted a standing-roomonly crowd at the Rooster’s Holiday Big Band Bash on December 28, such that Downey had to leave people waiting outside the door because the building was at capacity.

The band loved playing there so much that they immediately asked to come back for a similar bash in January 25, she said. “I said, okay, why not. And that’s what it’s all about. They love playing here and the atmosphere here. The kids need a chance. And they know me. I can tell them if I like them, and if they’re lousy.” Fresh sounds Shave said he started his own jazz band as a middle school seventh grader when the Bridgewater-Raynham Regional High School band he had joined didn’t play or practice enough times to keep him interested in it. Student musicians from surrounding schools wanted to join that group, and he eventually formed a Big Band group as well. His friend and bandmate, DefeoGelmam, was playing the fourth Saturday of every month at Gilda’s and offered Shave to take over that spot.

He has nothing but praise for Gilda’s help. “Gilda is the most amazing person I know,” Shave said. “We reached out to 70-100 venues in Massachusetts to play. Not one would take a chance on us, except Gilda. I have a certain, special place in my heart for Gilda. I haven’t found any place as welcoming as Gilda’s place.”

Don’t ask Downey to sing her own praises. At the celebration of her 95th birthday last May, she was surprised when state senator Michael D. Brady presented her with House of Representatives and Senate official citations extending congratulations on her birthday. “At first I thought it was a joke,” she said. “I totally didn’t expect it.”

She was born and raised in the north end of New Bedford, where her father was the local shoe cobbler, her mother a mill worker. At age 16, she fell in love with big bands, going out to see her brother’s group perform and to dance at places like Dartmouth’s Lincoln Park Ballroom.

In her 30s, she became a hairdresser with her own Mattapoisett salon, then a cocktail waitress, then a bartender. She was tending bar at what is now the Stone Rooster in 1978 when the owner asked if she wanted to buy the place. She was able to do so only after her late husband, Paul Downey, convinced her father to help financially. She, her husband, and then-18-year-old daughter Toni, as chief cook, became co-owners. Her mother helped her decide on the name. “Stone Rooster” is a rough English translation of her maiden/middle name, Pieregalla.

She brought live music of the type she loved as a teenager to the Rooster around 1981. The Rooster faded as a music venue in 2004 when her husband died. Fate intervened when she was visited by Bob Williamson, the leader of the Southcoast Jazz Orchestra, in 2006. “After I lost my husband, I was depressed,” she said. “I became alive again when Bob first played for me. I said, Bob, don’t ever leave here!” But without a doubt, Downey’s own energetic drive is the biggest reason live music has never left the Rooster since then.

All of the above shows perform from 8 to 10 p.m. and require a minimal cover charge. Gilda’s Stone Rooster is located at 27 Wareham Road in Marion. Michael J. DeCicco has worked as a writer for over 30 years. He is also the author of two award-winning young adult novels, Kaurlin’s Disciples and The Kid Mobster. He lives with his wife Cynthia in New Bedford. “ “ I tell arentstobring yourkidstoseethese young eo le layand seethattheycan doittoo I haveacertain, s ecial lacein myheartfor Gilda. I haven’tfound any laceas elcoming asGilda’s lace

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