Frank V. Rao

• Death Notes
  • PROVIDENCE --- Frank V. Rao, 80, of the Charlesgate North Apartments, 670 N. Main St., a trumpet player who performed with the giants of jazz in the 1930s and '40s, died Wednesday at Miriam Hospital.
    
    "Frankie was a pioneer in this town," retired reed player Johnny Beatini said last night. "Frank was born March 23, 1914. I was born April 13, three weeks apart."
    
    They lived within blocks of each other in the Eagle Park section, and as they grew up together their careers intermingled.
    
    "Oh no," was the reaction last night of Duke Belaire, a bandleader who for years has performed weekly concerts at Bovi's Tavern in East Providence. "He was at Bovi's every Monday night."
    
    Rao played trumpet with the late Ray Belaire, Duke Belaire's father. "Dad was a bandleader. Frank played with him at the Old Arcadia Ballroom on Washington Street. That was in the middle '40s. The building has been torn down."
    
    Rao performed with such luminaries as Louis Armstrong, Gene Krupa and Rhode Island jazz legend Bobby Hackett.
    
    "He was one of the original Dixieland organizers in this state," Belaire said. "He did play with all the greats. He was in the Krupa band for a while in the late '30s, early '40s. He was with Jack Teagarden. I used to go hear him because he was that much older than me. He had this large book of memorabilia with pictures of all the great bands. He used to bring it down to the club."
    
    Rao also played with other well-known local jazz musicians such as Tommy Masso and the late Art Pelosi.
    
    Rao retired in 1964. Belaire said that he then operated a men's bar on Richmond Street downtown, now the site of Old McShanley's Pub.
    
    His music career was largely spent in clubs and hotels that mostly are now part of history: Fay's Theater on Mathewson Street, the Celebrity Club in Randall Square, the Arcadia Ballroom and Rhodes-on-the-Pawtuxet.
    
    His name does not appear in jazz compilations because he was a member of a generation that played live music.
    
    "In those days it was a rare thing to record," said Belaire. "You had to be hooked up with a major label. It's not like today - you couldn't do it on your own."
    
    "You start playing when you're about 14," said Beatini. "When you get a little older you look to get together with other guys and form a group. That's what we did. Frank was a very good trumpet player even in the standards of those days. He had an old-style Italian teacher chock full of discipline. You dared not make a mistake.
    
    "We used to play church carnivals, doing what they called 'check dancing.' They had a portable dance floor, and they used to charge 10 cents a dance. We were instructed, 'Don't make the sets too long.' That way they sold more tickets. We did what we were told. Way back in those days there was a song 'Ten cents a dance.' It was popular all over the country.
    
    "The trumpet is a lead instrument, and Frank was the leader of this group. It had a couple of names. The last name was Frank Rao and his Dixieland Band.
    
    "Most of our careers we had no PA system. We just blew it out. The bigger the room the better it was. The idea is, you get used to blowing hard enough and the volume would fill the room. Like a singer did in the old days before microphones, you sang out, that was all. It seemed there was more satisfaction with it. Frank could fill a room, believe it.
    
    "He was a great buddy of Bobby Hackett. I traveled on the road with Hackett for years. Hackett was without any reservations a genius. He could hear a tune on radio and write it right down. He helped us with this Dixieland bit when it became popular, say, around 1951. It was when television had just broken in. Hackett wrote a lot of those New Orleans tunes with Frankie as the lead trumpet. I played the reeds. We did pretty good right around town here, and worked the Cape in the summertime."
    
    Rao retired in 1964. Beatini said his friend seemed to lose heart.
    
    "Frank was very, very good. He had good, solid chops - lips. A favorite thing for a trumpet player was to say they lost their lip. But in truth after so long the music falls from popularity a little bit. Engagements don't come around like they should. So you lay off a little bit. Laying off, especially in brass instruments, is deadly. It's like an athlete laying off. The muscles of the lip - they lose their elasticity.
    
    "He claimed that was what happened, but he just lost interest like we all did when Rock 'n' Roll came in. Nobody wanted to hear that kind of thing (Dixieland) anymore. And you are getting older in the meantime. You don't have too much to prove anymore, and Frankie just let things go."
    
    Rao was a member of the American Federation of Musicians, Local 198, the East Side Senior Citizens Center and the Charlesgate North Tenants Association. A lifelong Providence resident, he was a son of the late Salvatore and Giosia (Villella) Rao. He was the husband of the late Anna (Sunday) Rao.
    
    He leaves a daughter, Patricia St. Pierre of Johnston; a sister Emma Truppa of Providence, five grandchildren and a great-granddaughter. He was the brother of the late Anthony, Louis, Armand and Joseph Rao.
    
    The funeral service will be held Monday at 9 a.m. from the Mariani Funeral Home, 200 Hawkins St., with a Mass of Christian Burial at 10 at St. Ann Church, Hawkins Street. Burial will be in St. Francis Cemetery, Pawtucket.
    

Click here for details of Frank V.'s family with Anna Sunday

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