At 82, drummer Lucian Ierna has his own six-piece band with a steady gig - and, rumor has it, groupies.
By GINA VIVINETTO
Published October 7, 2004
[Times photo: Cherie Diez]
Lucian Ierna says he started playing drums when he was 10 or 12, in New York City.
NORTH REDINGTON BEACH - Drummer Lucian Ierna has more energy than anyone else in the room. He needs it to lead his jazz band, Lucian & the Allstars.
Ierna, 82, and his sextet, featuring chanteuse Susan Jones Williams, perform a lively mix of American standards, show tunes, contemporary pop and Latin music Sundays at the Wine Cellar in North Redington Beach.
Sure, the music makes dinner fun, but something about that twinkle in Ierna's eye, his mischievous personality and his zest for life keep folks coming back.
Most local musicians profiled for In Your Face show up to the St. Petersburg Times photo studio bedraggled, hung over and generally less than fresh.
Not Ierna.
Ierna arrived positively dapper in a dark suit with his equally lovely "significant other," Alvena Pryor.
1. How long have you been banging on those drums, Lucian?
I used to work in New York City at the Hickory House, a very famous jazz club, world famous. We had Nat King Cole across the street, Thelonious Monk next door. This was the 1940s. I was playing drums in a group. Famous people would come in all the time. One night, I remember, the Three Stooges were hanging out.
I started playing drums when I was 10 or 12 years old in New York, with an Italian professor who had a marching band. He taught me how to read music. His band played a lot of concerts. Whenever a member of the band had someone in their family die, we would play at their funeral - these elaborate Italian funerals. We'd take the snares off the drums and play it like a tom-tom at the cemetery.
As they lowered the casket into the ground, the band would play some melodic music in a minor key. And the wives of the dead guys would throw themselves into the open graves!
2. Which orchestras or bands did you most admire back in the day?
Oh, Count Basie's band. And small groups like Cal Tjader's. He had a five- or six-piece. Everything they played was great jazz, not the usual run-of-the-mill stuff.
You lead your band; not many drummers do that.
No, not many. Art Blakey, Chick Webb did.
Do you run the show?
Oh yeah. I pick out all the sets, but I give them a lot of liberties. What I try to do is get people's attention. The first set is a dinner set, so I don't want to be too boisterous. We open with something nice, the Pink Panther theme, or some Ellington. Later, we'll get crazy.
3. Which drummers really caught your ear when you were starting out?
Chick Webb. Then, there was Gene Krupa. But Krupa was a rudimentalist. He liked to see how fast he could go, and he liked to solo. When I play drums, I like to play for the music, not have a break and show what I can do. Those guys play great, too, but their feature was a hole in the music so they could show off.
4. I've heard you've been called a "chick magnet." Is that true?
(Laughs.) I'm not saying. (Pause.) What? (Defensively) What do you mean? When do you become a chick magnet? Like I went to school for it?
I hear you have groupies.
What? (Ierna fidgets with his tie.)
Pryor: Oh, he has groupies. They're older, but he has them. He has about 30 groupies who follow him. A lot of females. Good-looking ones. (Laughs.)
5. You just turned 82 earlier this week. (Pause.) So, what do you want to be when you grow up?
When I grow up? Oh, geez! (Laughs.)
Do you plan on slowing down?
Yeah, when I'm dead!
- Gina Vivinetto can be reached at 727 893-8565 or gina@sptimes.com
PREVIEW
Lucian & the Allstars perform from 7 to 11 p.m. Sundays at the Wine Cellar, 17307 Gulf Blvd., North Redington Beach. (727) 393-3491.
