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City People

Play it again, Joe

The music man for Ye Mystic Krewe and the Tampa Yacht club crowd says it takes more than talent to thrive in this business.

By AMY SCHERZER
Published January 27, 2006

BALLAST POINT - If all went as planned, Joe Stagi's band kept a thousand pirates dancing until the wee hours last night. Stagi fans wouldn't expect anything else at Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla's Captain's Ball. The society bandleader is a fixture at coronation and debutante balls, at kings' dinners and tea dances.

On Saturday, Stagi and his band will dress as pirates, board the Gasparilla invasion ship and play music up the Seddon Channel. In past years, they've even climbed on Ye Mystic's parade float and accompanied the krewe along Bayshore Boulevard.

The association with Gasparilla has worked out well for Stagi, who has played piano at the Tampa Yacht and Country Club every Friday night for two decades.

"That's my center of influence," he said, estimating that 60 percent of his bookings for birthday parties, anniversaries and weddings come out of the yacht club. "I guess I know just about everyone."

More often than not, he can tell you a member's favorite song and drink.

Stagi has gotten to know many people through his sideline, custom music. Stagi interviews them and then celebrates their life in a song, a business that evolved from his hobby, writing poetry. He charges $500 and up.

One client hired him to write a song about her successful IRS lawsuit, he said, chuckling as he recalled those lyrics.

Asked to explain his longevity in such a competitive market, Stagi replies in a word: dependability.

"In a very unstable, undependable business, they know I will show up, look right, sit down and play."

To Ye Mystic Krewe, that professionalism ranks right up there with talent.

"I never have to worry about Joe. Every event, every aspect is seamless," said Jim Tarbet, executive director of Ye Mystic Krewe. "He's an integral part of the fabric of our social events."

Stagi, who lives in Lutz, applies lessons learned early on while working in retail management. A bandleader is like a store manager, he says. Both tune up and set the pitch.

"Show me a bad band and I'll show you a bad bandleader," he said.

Stagi grew up outside Pittsburgh, the youngest of seven born to an Italian steel mill worker.

"I had five sisters," he said. "After dinner, the girls did the dishes and we all sang."

At 5, Stagi would listen to radio bands and understood chord progressions. By 16, he was writing his own music and playing drums and percussion with several bands, including professional gigs that paid $15 a night.

"I played with several concert and marching bands, a firemen's band and high school band," Stagi said. "I had five uniforms in my closet and sometimes I'd grab the wrong one."

In the mid 1950s, Stagi enlisted in the Army. He spent three years in the Panama Canal Zone with the 71st Army Band. When he got out, a musician buddy hired him to sell insurance in Baltimore. Stints with Sears and Montgomery Ward followed, and Wards transferred him to Tampa in 1964.

But the music never stopped. Stagi played country clubs, private parties and events, he said. "I never cared for nightclubs."

Two people influenced his career path: bandleader Jack Golly and Stagi's wife of 25 years, Mary Jane.

A 10-year relationship playing with the Jack Golly Orchestras introduced Stagi to Tampa's movers and shakers. When he hired Mary Jane Clark to sing with the band in 1973, she introduced popular music to his repertoire of classics. The couple wed at the Palma Ceia Golf and Country Club in 1981.

"That's when I quit my day job and went full into music," Stagi said.

He left Golly - and Gasparilla functions - soon after starting Tempo Music in 1983. South Tampa physician Ernie Reiner inspired the big band.

"Ernie wanted me to play big-band music for a medical convention coming to town," Stagi recalled. "I got 10 friends together and wrote a couple dozen arrangements and it just took off."

He didn't renew the krewe connection until Dick Conover organized the Cutthroat Chorus, 24 pirates who wanted to sing together. He asked Stagi to compose pirate-type orchestrations.

"I thought they were just fooling around, but they were serious," he said.

The a cappella group was a hit. In 1999, Tarbet hired Stagi to be the krewe's musical director, a role he hopes to play for many pirates - and Gasparillas - to come.

FAMILY: Wife, Mary Jane; three adult children, Gloria Coyle, Rosie Stagi and Joe Jr.; two grandchildren, including Joseph Coyle, 14, who is following in his musical footsteps.

HOME/STUDIO: Three acres in Lutz.

MUSICAL MEMORY: When he joined the musicians union at 17, the president took him to see Leonard Bernstein, who was also a teenager, conduct the Pittsburgh Symphony.

FAVORITE SONG: What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life? composed by Michel LeGrand.

PET PEEVE: People who torture the national anthem.

MOST UNUSUAL GIG: Motorola hosted a corporate party at the former Tides Bath Club and had Stagi's band and all the guests wear clown costumes.

[Last modified January 26, 2006, 08:57:08]