His ode to Amityville, full of smooth jazz

Bruce Jenney, a musician from Amityville, has a song in his heart. And he'd like it to become the village's official theme.

Four years ago, Jenney recorded and co-authored "The Friendly Village By the Bay," a smooth-jazz-like composition on which he sings and plays piano, guitar, drums and trumpet -- on tracks recorded in his basement studio.

He made CDs of the song and delivered them to the village mayor and board of trustees. In 2008, the local newspaper, the Amityville Record, made the song available as a free download from its website.

"I think it's a great song," said Peter Casserly, the village's deputy mayor. "He's a talented resident who is active and respected in the village."

Casserly said the village was trying to determine some way to act on Jenney's request.

Perhaps something good will come for Jenney's waiting. There have been other songs that have become loving odes to local places, including Amityville.

Billy Joel sang about baymen scraping to make a living out East; his first album was called "Cold Spring Harbor" and the bar crowd still gets loud with "The Ballad of Billy the Kid."

"From a town known as Oyster Bay

Long Island

Rode a boy with a six-pack in his hand ... "

Then, there's the Wu-Tang Clan, joined by local Flavor Flav of Public Enemy in a shoutout on "Soul Power."

"Word up, Freeport, Long Island, Roosevelt, Long Island."

But there also are songs and lyrics by De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest, Counting Crows, The Rolling Stones and too many other Long Island lovers (and a few haters) to list here.

Jenney, 66, originally wrote the chords and melody of his song for a short-lived radio program. One day he decided to put new words to the music.

He and his co-writer, Jill Sanacore, of Levittown, sat down to synthesize the best of Amityville into a few words.

"Upbeat we stroll the ground there's all my friends around ...

The pair worked to capture a few snippets of local life, such as walking through the village and talking to neighbors.

"Come to think of it, we do do a lot of walking," Casserly said. "We do tend to walk, for exercise or to the village. He does capture that."

"So when you pass our way the friendly village by the bay

The warmest people you can always count on ...

The friendly village by the bay ... "

Jenney said he chose jazz deliberately: "The song needed to sound mature," he said as we sat near his studio.

"This house is 100 years old and I'm the third owner," he said. "I know older people who can remember playing here when they were kids.

"Things stay here, people grow together here -- a modern-sounding composition wouldn't be right for a place with so much history."

Although the village has yet to act, the song is on sale (Jenney gets no proceeds) at the local historical society and is available as a free download from the Amityville Record, the local newspaper.

But Jenney's years of waiting already may have paid off. On Friday I asked a half-dozen Amityville residents if they knew the village slogan.

The overwhelming response? Jenney's song title: "The Friendly Village By the Bay."