Plymouth Meeting musician lends saxophone stylings to musical memoir

By M. English, Journal Register News Service


Local residents may know musician Frank Ewing from bands like Good for Nothing Jazz Trio, ‘Tis the Season and Downtown Harvest. More recently, the Plymouth Meeting native and fellow Plymouth Whitemarsh High School alums Mike Gordon and brothers John and Chris Wood have been headlining area music venues as Bravo Jazz Quartet.

This month, though, Ewing has also been lending his saxophone stylings to “Growing Up Italian-Buon Natale” — area writer Tony Leodora’s musical memoir about “what it was like growing up in the dual Italian and American cultures of the Baby Boomer era.”

The family friendly revue — with a performance lineup that includes Gordon, the Woods and vocalists Andy and Cheryl Petruzelli — is scheduled to move into Conshohocken’s Spamps restaurant Dec. 23 at 4:30 p.m. Tickets are $55 and cover a festive buffet of chicken, beef, pasta and Italian specialties from the culture’s traditional Seven Fishes dinner.

Like many area folks, Ewing learned to treasure his own Italian roots from a grandparent.


“My grandmother was from outside of Naples and was the head of my family,” he says.

“Every Sunday, everyone would gather at her house to eat a huge meal.”

When the 2000 PW grad traveled to Italy “the summer before my senior year, [I] was amazed at how I was welcomed as part of the family and fell in love with the country, culture, people and food.”

Read more: http://www.montgomerynews.com/articles/2012/12/24/colonial_news/news/doc50d0cb1b90715106494313.txt