Blues encompasses the entire range of human emotions
Tony Elitcher
Tony Elitcher at the Monday Jazz Jam.
Tony Elitcher was born in Brooklyn, New York and raised in Montrose, a small town just north of the city. When Tony was six, his parents found a soprano saxophone for $25 and Tony began to play music.
He attended Hendrick Hudson High School which had a fantastic music education program. The high school had every advantage that any private school would have had available. The music department had an orchestra, a stage band, a wind ensemble, a large marching band, and a closet full of instruments to play.
At age 18, Tony left home and began driving a cab, playing saxophone, and working at WBAI, 99.5 FM (Free Speech Radio) to make ends meet. It was the station that first aired George Carlin’s seven deadly words, and where Alice’s Restaurant was first performed live. While working in a commercial loft in Brooklyn with a collective of wood workers, some who he played music with, Tony was asked to attend a jam in the loft. He was very hesitant because some of the band members were terrible musicians. He nearly left the jam but was encourage to stay to hear this new vocalist that was coming, Andie Taras. Tony said “In walked the cutest thing I ever saw”. She began to sing and Tony was hooked, for the rest of his life. They fell in love and will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary in February.
Tony and his Blues harp.
Tony began college late in life. He attended Lehman College in the Bronx which is part of City University of New York, graduating in 1985 at age 34. He was paid to play at the graduation ceremony. A few years later, some very influential neighbors encouraged Tony to enter law school. He remembers his first day at City University of New York Law School. He had a Latin gig the night before, and almost immediately, fell asleep during a three-hour law class. He decided he could no longer gig and attend law school.
Three years later, at age 41, Tony was sworn in as a criminal defense attorney working for The Legal Aid Society of New York, a private institution that was paid by the city to represent 325,000 people arrested every year. For the next 22 years of his legal career, he hardly touched a saxophone but never lost his love of jazz.
Tony feels the Blues encompasses the entire range of human emotions – love, hate, fear, defiance, resignation, shame, and even joy is a part of the Blues. Thanks to his brother-in-law, Tony started to explore the blues harp (harmonica) and it continues to be a passion today.
Tony and wife Andie continued studying and teaching 17th century music harmonies which helped him to continue music after retiring from the Legal Aid Society at age 63. He couldn’t wait to play “Evidence” by Thelonious Monk. The song is based upon another tune “Just You, Just Me”. To Monk, it became “Just Us” and to Tony, it became “Justice”.
Joe Dallas and Tony Elitcher at Viv Wine Bistro playing jazz.
The first-time Tony and Andie came to Key West was in 2010 and they stayed at the Gardens Hotel. He noticed, in the Key West Citizen, an ‘interesting sounding’ concert featuring four trombones, a baritone saxophone, and a rhythm section, The Ilse of Bones concert was being held at the Unitarian Church in the Meadows.
When they attended, he immediately saw an old friend from New York, Richard Crooks who invited him to sit in with the others. Tony met Joe Dallas Jr. and Joe Dallas Sr. who Tony considered a force of nature with his melodic masterpieces.
Like so many others, Tony and Andie decided to stay. He began filling in with the Paradise Big Band, first as a utility player. When the late Bill Goldner retired from playing with the Big Band, Tony replaced him and is now part of the ensemble. Tony has been forever grateful to Bill.
Tony feels we have to get younger people involved in making music. Band leader and music director at Sugarloaf School, Joe Dallas agrees and includes several high school students in every Big Band performance.
There was a time while growing up in the 60s that Tony felt that music could help change the world – it was a decade of change. He has since become disenchanted that music could make people want to move towards a better world and now realizes that it doesn’t. It simply makes people want to hear more music.
While Tony still doesn’t believe music can change the world, he sincerely believes the power of music can change an individual. Tony feels music especially helps young individuals in many ways, helping math skills, learning to cooperate in an ensemble, and building self-esteem. Tony feels in many cases, music helps to just become a better person.
Tony if one of the featured saxophones with the Paradise Big Band.
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