Roy Mezzapelle (Theatrical) ♣ Sponsors: Jack Smith, Marc Baron
Roy Mezzapelle is at home performing on land and at sea. “I found singing very late,” said Roy Mezzapelle. “It came by accident, when I was on a cruise ship in the Caribbean in 2004. I was at the piano bar and the pianist, Duane Lewis, was playing all these standards from the Great American Songbook, and I started singing. A couple drinks later, I was given a microphone, and Duane said, ‘Come on up.’ When the bar patrons began to dance, the pianist told him, ‘Just keep singing.’”
This past June, while on another cruise, the piano bar entertainer was not feeling well and had to leave early in his performance. The ship’s entertainment director “put me to work.” Roy plugged his iPad with backing tracks into the mixer and performed songs from the Great American Songbook and show tunes for two hours.
One of his all-time favorite performers is Frank Sinatra: “It is said that Sinatra didn’t sing a song, he sang a story.” Roy said that Sinatra was impeccable in appearance. Roy tends to wear a tux when performing, a nod to an era when the style was more formal. In 2015, Roy performed in Hoboken at the 100th anniversary of Frank Sinatra’s birth. Roy sang in the Teak Restaurant as well as in Sinatra Park. A lot of the performers later ended up at the “W” Hotel. He said, “We took over their lobby, and put on quite a show.”
Another of Roy’s favorites is Tony Bennett, whom he saw perform recently at the Westbury Music Fair. Roy said, “Tony Bennett is truly a master of his craft. His power and his range is incredible. He hits notes that I can’t hit.” Roy also admires Ella Fitzgerald, Dean Martin, Bobby Darin, Liza Minelli and Judy Garland. The first CD that Roy owned was In the Digital Mood by the Glenn Miller Orchestra.
His interest in music came early. At four years old, Roy already played the accordion. Five years later he was playing the trumpet in the fourth grade, and in high school performed in its Swing Band as lead trumpet, as well as in the school’s concert band and orchestra.
Roy grew up in the town of Elmont which is just on the Nassau side of the Queens-Nassau border. The Belmont Race Track is there. His mother founded a newspaper, the Elmont Herald, in the town. Roy’s father served in the Marine Corps in Okinawa in World War II. Afterward his father worked for a company currently in Long Island City called Edison Price Lighting that manufactures commercial lighting fixtures. Roy recalls his father working on lighting for venues such as Avery Fisher Hall. Musical talent runs in Roy’s family: his uncle Pete “played just about every instrument invented, from the sax to the banjo, and even had his own orchestra.”
After his schooling, Roy trained as a paramedic and worked in Long Beach Hospital before becoming a police medic with the Nassau County Police Department. “When they found that I could sing, I was drafted into the Department’s Blue Lion Band,” a 17-piece swing band. “Even though I retired from the Department, they didn’t let me retire from the band.” Roy has held positions relating to Emergency Ambulance Service, and was also the coordinator of EMS training in the Nassau County Police Academy. He is also a former special assistant to the Chief Deputy County Executive in Nassau County.
From an early age, Roy has enjoyed being on the water. In his youth, he went boating, fishing, and SCUBA diving on the South Shore of Long Island. In high school in the early 1980s, he worked on a fishing boat chartered out of Freeport, N.Y. Once a telephone-pole floating just below the surface of the water cracked a plank in the boat’s hull. Taking on more water than the boat’s pumps could handle the captain sent out a “May Day” and the Coast Guard sent a helicopter, which dropped them two gasoline-powered sump pumps to keep them afloat, allowing them to get back to the dock, and under their own power.
Roy can sometimes be found in a hammock on the “Serenity Deck” aboard a Carnival cruise ship on the open sea. July 2017, he took his 75th cruise on Carnival. He is enough of a regular that the captains and senior staff all know him, and he is often granted several hours of performance time in different venues around the ships.
“Life is less complicated on the water,” said Roy, who has made friends with people from around the world on these cruises. “If you want to kick back and relax and have the time of your life, Carnival is for you.” He’s been to the Caribbean numerous times. In 2016, he sailed to Hawaii where the passengers saw an active volcano at night. He recalled, “It was incredible. You couldn’t feel the heat, but you could smell the sulfur in the air.”
Roy enjoys visiting Don’t Tell Mama in Manhattan’s midtown. At this piano bar, Roy met Jack Smith there about five years ago, who told him, “You have got to come to The Lambs.” Roy later said, “The love that Jack has for the club is notable.” Coming to Low Jinx, Roy met the Shepherd of The Lambs, Marc Baron, there and they realized that they were from the same hometown of Elmont, L.I. Roy said, “He knew my mom!”
When Roy first visited Low Jinx at The Lambs, the theme was Harold Arlen that evening. “That’s how The Lambs dig down into the history of music,” said Roy, who also attended and performed at Joyce Randolph’s 90th birthday at The Lambs. “There’s so much history at this club.” Roy delights in the appreciation that Lambs’ members have for performing the standards. He said emphatically, “The Great American Songbook is alive and well at The Lambs.”
At Don’t Tell Mama, Roy also met Eva Swan, who founded an organization called VocalEase, a non-profit that brings volunteers to sing to senior audiences throughout New York City. The entertainment generally consists of a pianist and four singers who perform at senior centers, hospitals, at nursing homes. One of Roy’s favorite places to perform with VocalEase is at Mary Manning Walsh Home. Through this group, Roy met Woody Regan, who is the regular pianist for Low Jinx. “He’s sensational,” said Roy.
Roy has also performed at Billy Shepard and Judi Jourdan’s open mic night at Café Iguana, located on West 54 Street, to which Roy auditioned with a track of Cole Porter’s swing version of “Night and Day.” He said, “They signed me up for a performance instantly, and later made me an Associate Producer of the talent search.”
Roy would like to make singing a second career. He has had some private gigs already. He has been asked, “Who is your singing coach? Roy replies with a grin, “Jack Daniels.” He goes on, “What others spend in voice lessons, I probably spent at the bar.”
- – written by Gary Shapiro
