VILLAGE OF LIVERPOOL – Prominent Syracuse bandleader Mario DeSantis died March 26, 2020 at age 91, but the band plays on.
Under the direction of his vocalist daughter, Maria, the Mario DeSantis Orchestra is celebrating its 76th anniversary this year. Mario had first formed the ensemble in 1947 at Syracuse’s Central High School.
The 12-piece big band — which performs a wide variety of jazz standards, show tunes and popular dance numbers — will play a free concert at 7 p.m. Monday, Aug. 14, at Johnson Park. The performance is part of the 37th annual Liverpool Is The Place Summer Concert Series.
That night, the orchestra will feature saxophonist Joe Riposo — who lives in Liverpool — on his new arrangement of “Body and Soul,” one of the most popular jazz standards in history. Composed by New York City conductor Johnny Green in 1930, the tune was famously recorded by tenor saxman Coleman Hawkins in 1939.
“I asked Joe to write a feature arrangement of one of my favorite pieces,” Maria said. “That remarkable Coleman Hawkins arrangement had always been one of my dad’s favorites as well.”
One of the reasons Maria focused on Riposo is because the lifelong musician and educator marked a milestone birthday on Aug. 5.
“He’ll only say that ‘age is just a number,’” Maria reported. “He simply won’t say his age!”
A quick Google search, however, reveals that Riposo was born in 1933.
In any case, Riposo’s new arrangement of “Body and Soul” will likely echo Hawkins’ pioneering work. The 1939 version is unusual in that the song’s melody is barely hinted at in the recording. Hawkins’ two choruses of improvisation over the tune’s chord progression constitute almost the entire take. That approach clearly presaged the dawn of be-bop.
Riposo is writing the instrumental arrangement for the DeSantis Orchestra featuring his own horn, the alto sax. “Body and Soul” will join two other arrangements in the orchestra’s repertoire which feature Joe’s sax work, Bobby Shew’s “Blue” and “Nadelin.”
Another Liverpudlian, vocalist Keith Condon, is in his 45th year  with the DeSantis Orchestra and will sing some his favorite Sinatra classics Monday including “Luck Be a Lady,” “All The Way” and “Night and Day.”
“Keith skillfully covers some of the great horn band classics of the 1970s and ’80s,” Maria observed, “many of which were written for him as a Liverpool High School student by no one other than Joe Riposo.”
Baritone Nick Blaney, who happens to be a member of the Liverpool Central School District School Board, will bring a pop/classical ambiance to the performance with tunes such as “Pure Imagination” from “Willy Wonka” and “Somewhere…” from “West Side Story.”
Regular vocalists Gary Branch, Michael Ranalli and Maria DeSantis will join Blaney and Condon in presenting DeSantis’s spectacular eight-decade songlist.