Shortly after winning Disc-O-Teen's second battle of the bands, The Vistas disbanded. Charlie Gentile and John Russo, however, retained the name for performing gigs but, when rounding out the group, became known as The Mass for recording purposes. Although an entire album was completed but never released, Roulette Records did release a 45 by the group. Charlie Gentile provides more information on the band's history, working with Billy Joel, and information on their unreleased album.
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| Back: John Russo and Joe McKowsky. Middle: Charlie Gentile and Joe Napilitano. Front Center: Ray Pilotto |
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An Interview With Charlie Gentile
60sgaragebands.com (60s): How did you first get interested in music?
Charlie Gentile (CG): My dad was a piano player and my aunt was a piano teacher. I was singing with my dad at some gigs when I was as young as four-years old.
60s: Was The Mass your first band?
CG: The Mass started as The Vistas and I started out with them as the sax player. The Vistas formed in 1965.
60s: Where and when was The Mass formed?
CG: The band was formed in Brooklyn. We all lived within two blocks of each other. We won the second Disc-O-Teen battle of the bands and the band broke up after that and reformed as The Mass in 1967 with me (Charlie Gentile, guitar) and John Russo (bass) from the original group, and Joe Crupi (lead guitar) and Jim Montagnino (drums). We weren't happy with "The Vistas" as a name so looked through dictionaries and encyclopedias and somehow came up with "The Mass."
60s: Where did you locate Joe and Jim?
CG: Joey lived around the corner from me and his dad was booking the group. Joey was playing with Lurch & The Brats and quit. His dad knew we were looking for a lead guitar player and hooked us up with him. Jimmy was a friend of Joey's and we were using his house to practice in while Ray was still in the band. Ray quit and Jim joined us.
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| John Russo |
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| Joe Crupi and Charlie Gentile |
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60s: Who were the other members of The Vistas? Did they continue on after you and John left?
CG: Ray Pilotto stayed until he quit and the other two guitar players Joe Napolitano and Joe McKowsky went separate ways.The original drummer Greg Garitto, was the guy who got me into the group but he quit after one rehearsal.
60s: How would you describe the band's sound? What bands influenced The Mass?
CG: We sounded like an American version of The Beatles, who greatly influenced us. The first song we played together was 'Hang on Sloopy.' We fit together perfectly and the song sounded like the record on the first try.
60s: Where did the band typically play?
CG: There were lots of bands and clubs to play at. We used to open for Leslie West there when he was with The Vagrants at The Club Under The El. (We'd play) any place we could get a gig--mostly clubs and bars and some school dances. I went to Brooklyn Tech and we played at some of their dances and were very popular there. I became very friendly with another student named Larry DiMarzio who used to show me his new pickups that he was inventing.
We also played at a teen club with The Vistas called The Meadowlark. It was the only neighborhood teen club that I knew of and it closed by the time The Mass was formed. I met my wife there in 1966. She used to dance with us when we played at the Atlantis on the boardwalk in Coney Island. You can see her name (Kathy) in some of the newspaper clips. Go-Go dancers were very popular then. She became a professional dancer and instructor after that and we are still married today with four kids and two grand children.
In order to play in a bar back then, you had to have cabaret license. We were all under age and had to alter our birth certificates to get one. We were also supposed to be in the union in some clubs and the union delegate would come around and check on us. We didn't have the money to join so sometimes I had to use my dad's card to get us out of a jam.
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| The Vistas at Brooklyn Tech |
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| The Vistas back The Shang-Ri-Las at Brooklyn Tech |
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| The Vistas on Stage |
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60s: How far was the band's "touring" territory?
CG: We mostly played in Brooklyn. We weren't driving yet. It was tough to get the equipment around.
60s: Did The Mass participate in any battle of the bands?
CG: Yes. That was how you got a school dance back then. We usually won. We were very versatile with good musicians and good singing and harmony.
60s: What other local groups of the era do you especially recall?
CG: There was a local band I think called The Chosen Few who had a guitar player named Richie Zito and bass player named Joey Carbone. I see those names come up here and there on Star Search and in movie credits. I don't know if it's the same guys.
But after Joey joined the group, the band got a lot better and we became confident that we were one of the best local groups around. In those days, you kind of knew how good the band was by looking at their equipment. It was kind of like a status symbol.
One Sunday afternoon, we got a call to fill in for the house band at The Club Under the El that night. We were told to get there early to set up because there was going to be another band there. The club was only two blocks away from where we lived so off we went.
After we set up, we were hanging out at the bar when a U-Haul pulled up. Some guys with butt long hair brought in what seemed like a never ending load of mountain sized equipment and set it up on the stage where our stuff was: Voice of the theater P.A., Hammond B-3 with a Leslie speaker, a double bass set of drums and an old Ampeg bamboo colored tube amp from the ‘50s plus a whole load of other stuff. It dwarfed our equipment.
After watching this for a while, I asked one of the guys what the name of the band was and what time they started (I might have been thinking about running). His answer only made the situation worse. He said, "The name of the band is The Vagrants but I'm not in it. I'm only the roadie.” (I was starting to see why the house band didn't show.) A few minutes later, a stretch Limo pulled up and in came The Vagrants. I still remember the visual of Leslie West that night. Back then he was well over 300 pounds. He wore a fur vest and sported long curly hair, kind of like a cross between Haystacks Calhoon and a Grizzly Bear. It looked like "Bensonhurst's self proclaimed best band" was about to get a serious musical ass kickin’. In Brooklyn, you don't run from a fight so we got up to play our first set.
We were dressed in matching outfits that night (gold velour tops with four button fronts). We played a great set and when we finished went downstairs to the dressing room. Leslie was down there warming up and was real friendly. He actually asked us if we were The Monkees. (We used to get that quite a bit because Joey looked a little like Davy Jones and with my hair to the side I looked a little like Mike Nesmith.) We hung out with The Vagrants a while and then we went upstairs to do our second set. We did another great set and then we joined the audience and waited for The Vagrants to go on.
The Club Under the El was real small and by that time it was really packed; after about ten minutes they went on. They started with ‘Gimmie Some Lovin’’ and ended with a Vanilla Fudge-type version of ‘Exodus.’ They were loud and awesome!
We became good friends and opened for them again at another club a few months later. Leslie told us about their upcoming release on Atco called ‘Respect.’ We waited to hear it on the radio but Aretha beat them to it and it never became a hit (almost like what happened to our album). Leslie traded me his vinyl gigbag for my cardboard guitar case and I still have it and keep my Strat in it. He also tried to get Joey to cutout the f-holes in his classic Gretch guitar, to get a better sound, but he never did. Jimmy is still in touch with them. They were a great band; it's too bad they never made it!
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60s: Did The Mass have a manager?
CG: Joey's dad used to book us and drive us around in his '55 Buick.
60s: How popular locally did The Mass become?
CG: Fairly popular.
60s: What were the circumstances leading to The Mass' opportunity to record?
CG: We actually could have recorded with the Jerome brothers because we won the contest on Disc-O-Teen but they wanted us to do a song that we didn't like. It was written by Ernie Maresca, who was a successful songwriter but we had no idea who he was back then. We were looking for Buddah Records and we ended up with Ed Chalpin PPX for a while. He was in the next office. He saw us waiting outside and pulled us inside his office.
We did covers there (with Chalpin). When a name group had a hit, as soon as their next song came out we ran to Tower Records and bought it. We copied it (like the song, ‘Hush’) and Chalpin sent it overseas; he changed the group name to Jean Clark make it sound local where he sent it and because we signed away the royalties. It's all us; I sing lead on that one. Joey played keys and lead guitar. He paid us good money for a couple of hours work so we signed off on them. We weren't under contract there. We were on a song-to-song basis. We received a check after each song was completed.
John Clark was our name in the Islands…or maybe Jean Clark (Jean is French for John and pronounced like “Sean” with a “J”). We didn't get too much info from Ed; he might have made a lot of money on us and didn't want us to know too much. Remember, Chalpin had Hendrix in the early days and there was a big payback to let him out of his contract.
In 1975 Joey was on his honeymoon in Aruba and while lying in bed in his hotel room, one of our songs came on over the speaker system. I think we were a hit down there. We had a lot of fun and learned a lot about recording there. It was a great experience.
Chalpin was a smart man. He and producer Steve Bedell taught us a lot. After that, we were ready for our single and our album and finally landed at Roulette Records through a friend of Jimmy's dad.
60s: Where did The Mass record?
CG: We recorded the single at Incredible Sound studios on 42nd street and the album on 57th Street in Manhattan. Joe Veneri (who produced Vanilla Fudge) was the engineer on our single. We had no keyboard player and Billy Joel was recording the Attila album at the same time we were recording our album. While the engineers were mixing our recordings, we used to hang out with Billy and play Beatles songs together. He ended up playing two songs on our album. One was a party song called 'Evil Temptations' and the other was a ballad that I sang called 'Stolen Waters,' which also had a real full orchestra on it. The album was never mastered but I have copies.
We had some really good producers on the album: Thomas Jefferson Kaye and Mallory Earle. They later went on to produce and record with Walter Becker and Donald Fagen.
60s: Why wasn't the Mass LP never mastered?
CG: The LP was recorded in 1968, mostly and at the same time Tommy James was recording Crimson & Clover, and was produced by Joe Veneri, whom also produced Vanilla Fudge. Tommy had some big hits back then: 'I Think We're Alone Now,' "Hanky Panky' and 'Mony Mony,' and Roulette Records thought the tremelo on 'Crimson' was genious so they pushed all their chips on that album. They released us from our contract and pushed Crimson & Clover.
60s: Do you have any recollections of working with Billy Joel?
CG: I remember his first hit when he was with The Hassles, 'You Got Me Humming,' and I liked the tune a lot. I met him in a Queens, New York club, The Tip Top Club, and was impressed with the band. When we got to the studio I already knew who he was. When you do a recording, there is usually a lot of down time while they are mixing the tracks; where you sit around doing nothing. I remember hanging with the group and Billy playing Beatle songs. Billy was a Beatles freak and so were the rest of us. Joey even got to play with John Lennon. He's all over Lennon's new DVD. Joey was and still is a great player. Billy was a regular guy making a few bucks playing on our stuff. Of course he wasn't famous yet. I don't remember him singing much then. The Attila album that he was working on was mostly jazz; just him and a drummer. I never saw him after that. I often wonder if he remembers those sessions. I was never able to contact him.
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| The Mass 45 on Roulette |
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60s: How many singles did The Mass release?
CG: Only one single called 'Raining Sorrow.' The filp was a song I wrote with John called 'Without You.' Neither were part of the album.
60s: Did The Mass write many original songs? Who was the band's primary songwriter?
CG: Yes, quite a few. Joey and Jimmy were the primary songwriters.
60s: Did the band make any local TV appearances? Does any home movie film footage exist of the band?
CG: Unfortunately, there is no video of The Mass. There's only still pictures and audio.
60s: What year and why did the band break up?
CG: In 1969. We went in different directions. I left first when my daughter was born in Feburary. I'm not too sure what happened after that.
60s: Did you join or form any bands after The Mass?
CG: After the group broke up, Joey played the BBC special with John Lennon. I joined The Mystics (of 'Hushabye' fame). Later I got together with John and played with The Boogieman Band with Vinnie Zummo (Joe Jackson's guitar player).
60s: How often, and where, do you perform today?
CG: Joey and John are playing together in a wedding band. I do some mobile deejay gigs and sing in church and sang for Cardinal O'Connor and Cardinal Egan; Jim is not active musically but we all still keep in touch. We all spoke when they played 'Raining Sorrow' on a New Jersey radio station two summers ago. You can still Google "The Mass, Raining Sorrow" and play the song on RealPlayer.
60s: How do you best summarize your experiences with The Mass?
CG: It was a great experience.
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| The Vistas in Concert |
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| The Mass: Joey Crupi, Charlie Gentile, John Russo (front) and Ray Pilotto (drums) |
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