Vincent 'Bob' Ferrari, North Baldwin jazz and swing musician, dies at 105

Music was his life. And North Baldwin’s Vincent "Bob" Ferrari made a lot of music.

In fact, he was still doing it at well past age 100.

He was 102 when he retired as conductor of Long Island’s 18-piece Golden Tone Orchestra, composed of senior musicians who play classic jazz and swing. After that, said trumpeter Mark Figueroa, of Bellmore, "I’d take him once a month to rehearsal," where Ferrari, who had played woodwind instruments since the 1940s, "would sit there with the drummer, myself and the piano player and we’d have a jam session. He'd go, 'OK, "When You're Smiling," one, two, three, four.' And he would start playing and we would accompany him. This is when he's 104."

Even at that age, Ferrari’s memory remained sharp, said a nephew, clarinetist Phil Fontana. "He could play two to three hours just by heart," without sheet music, Fontana, of West Hempstead, said. "I'm lucky if I can play five minutes by heart!"

Ferrari died Nov. 10 of natural causes at Mount Sinai South Nassau, in Oceanside. He was 105. His death was announced this month by Local 802 of the American Federation of Musicians.

"He was a very happy man," recalled his stepdaughter, Karen Heister, of Palm Bay, Florida. "And he was funny as hell. He was just right on top of whatever was going on in the news."

Born Vincent Spartica Ferrari in upstate Rochester on May 20, 1920, he was the third of four children of Italian immigrants Thomas Ferrari and Rose Mercurio Ferrari. His lifelong nickname, Bobby, came from his wearing knickers — loose, knee-length trousers — of the style popularized by famous golfer Bobby Jones, Fontana said.

He took up clarinet at age 15 after a music professor uncle emigrated from Italy and taught the family to play instruments. Ferrari later expanded to saxophone and flute.

By 1940, his parents had relocated to Brooklyn, and Ferrari joined the New York City musicians union local in 1943. According to friends and family, his gigs included playing in orchestras conducted by bandleader Xavier Cugat and entertainer Jackie Gleason.

After a marriage and separation, he was living with his parents in Queens by 1950, working as an accountant in an insurance office. Then, from 1952 to 1982, Ferrari worked mostly as a manager at the Long Island aeronautical company Grumman, living first in North Merrick and later North Baldwin.

For some unspecified amount of time, Ferrari's tasks had him working on the Grumman plant floor. "He told me a story about the riveting and all the noise — that's why he had a hearing problem," Fontana said. "But if you played the wrong note, he would hear that. He might not hear what you're saying, but he could hear a wrong note."

Bandmate Figueroa concurred, adding, "And he still played a clarinet like nobody's business."

Ferrari did so in groups that included the Grumman Volunteer Employees Band; his own Bob Ferrari and His Band, as early as 1963; and his Bob Roberts Band starting in the mid-1980s. In 2000, at age 80, he became lead saxophonist for the Golden Tone Orchestra and, at 92, took over as conductor in 2012.

On Aug. 21, 1977, Ferrari had married singer Eleanor Lewis Pagano. Stepdaughter Heister, already an adult when her divorced mother married Ferrari, said, "Bobby made my mother very happy. There was a lot of love between all of us. When Bobby and my mother were married, my father and they were very good friends." Eleanor died in 1993, at age 64, of cancer.

Ferrari, a member of his local branch of the Knights of Columbus, had few avocations outside music. He delved into books about vitamins and nutrition, said Fontana, but was not vegetarian. "He ate anything he wanted," said his nephew, Ferrari’s caregiver over the last 10 years. "And he liked his beer."

In addition to his stepdaughter, Ferrari is survived by stepson Glen Pagano, of Palm Bay, Florida; numerous nieces, nephews and stepgrandchildren; and two stepgreat-grandchildren.

Visitation was on Nov. 16 at the Barnes-Sorrentino Funeral Home in West Hempstead. He was buried the next day at Pinelawn Memorial Park in Pinelawn.