Young Ernie used to watch older musicians playing accordions at weddings and other festive occasions. He took lessons from a San Jose instructor Earl Sylvester and won the California Juvenile Championship for two successive years, when he was nine and ten years old. When the Felice family moved into San Jose, Ernie continued to study music until he finished grammar school. He often played at parties, either solo or with a drummer.
A neighbor boy who played saxophone asked Ernie to work out some sax arrangements for him. Ernie, who was studying arranging in school, experimented on his accordion, playing up to four different sax parts simultaneously. He liked the different effect, promptly adopting it in his attempt to modernize his style. San Jose State College gave a yearly show called the Spartan Revelries. The Musical Director of the event, a friend of Ernie's, invited him to do the show score in 1936. It featured a large orchestra. Ernie's score was sensationally successful.
After that, Ernie associated all his accordion arrangements with the music of a large band. Following his graduation from High School in 1937, Ernie joined a small group in San Francisco, known as the Four Sharps. They played at Tommy Harris' club on Geary Street (Tommy's). Duke Ellington, then appearing at the Golden Gate Theater, used to drop by often. He encouraged young Ernie to stick to his original style and develop it.
The Four Sharps stayed in San Francisco almost two years. They were booked at the Los Angeles Town House, where they remained for six months. At their next engagement, the Colorado Springs Broadmoor Hotel, they were equally successful. Bing Crosby caught their act and gave Ernie more praise and encouragement. The group then disbanded because of enlistment. Ernie entered the Air Corps, and was assigned to an entertainment unit, which toured the country helping to sell bonds and to promote recruitment.
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