Story by Tom Fitt, photo by Kevin Schmitz (www.KevinSchmitz.com)

Manhattan Beach bar owner and singer Lou Giovannetti and his 21-piece big band will take to the stage of the Hermosa Beach Playhouse Saturday night to tell people in the South Bay to Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas in a Nice ’n’ Easy fashion, to reminisce about The Good Life in A Marshmallow World where you might be Feelin’ Kinda Sunday, perhaps remember family in New York, New York, or Chicago.

The Broadway veteran won’t be singing exclusively Sinatra tunes, but That’s Life.

At the concert, Anything Goes because Lou says Hermosa is “My Kinda Town,” where he promises to go All the Way. He may seem to be Bewitched because this is an area where The Summer Wind keeps blowing As Time Goes By. There will be no Strangers in the Night as the crooner promises that The Best is Yet To Come because It Was a Very Good Year. It’s Almost Like Being in Love as he pauses at the microphone while Learnin’ the Blues. Lou has High Hopes. How About You? Perhaps it’s Witchcraft.

It most probably won’t be a Winter Wonderland in Hermosa, but undoubtedly there will be a few folks Drinking Again down by the Strand in this Sugar Town of Love & Marriage, though It’s Only a Paper Moon that’s Lost in the Stars. Forget the gal at the end of the bar: The Lady is a Tramp. Just pour One For My Baby because You Only Live Twice.

So, Hey! Jealous Lover, “Come Fly With Me,” Lou appeals, because This Town will be hopping Night and Day, especially In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning.

Tunes and tribute

Louis Giovannetti, owner and sometimes entertainer at the Side Door in Manhattan Beach (first Sunday of the month), was about three years old when Frank Sinatra began his comeback tour in 1974 at Madison Square Garden. Lucky for me, I caught Frank one night after the Garden show when he opened the Richfield Coliseum near Cleveland.

Lou didn’t know Jilly’s, the Stork Club or El Morocco – all the swing street joints — when he was growing up in New York City. But, he did know the music. “Every Italian restaurant you ever walked into in the Bronx always had Frank Sinatra playing,” said Giovannetti. “It’s really not how I got into Sinatra, it’s more like how Sinatra got into me. It was just something that was always around as an Italian-American growing up… Even in college, I had Sinatra records that were given to me. At the time I thought, ‘Oh, whatever.’ Then I heard ‘This Town’ and I thought that was the coolest, hippest, edgiest tune. When I saw the ‘Ocean’s Eleven’ movie and they used that tune at the end, I thought, that is it!”

Appropriately, he has chosen to revive the memories and the great songs of Old Blue Eyes in a city named Manhattan. True, this Main Event will happen in Hermosa, but that’s just a shoo-be-dooby-doo down the beach. Close enough. Kinda like taking a gig that your agent tells you is just outside the city in a suburb called Poughkeepsie.

 Coming in the Side Door

Giovannetti arrived in L.A. after having worked on Broadway. “I was doing parts on some TV shows out here, but nobody believed I did musicals and things like that,” he said. “A friend of mine had a bar – the Side Door, which I now own – and we picked a slow Sunday night. I called a producer friend of mine in New York and we put some tracks together of some songs I’ve always loved and some of them were Sinatra tunes. There was a lot of Broadway stuff mixed in.

“With the tracks from my friend and some halfway decent ones that were already in the karaoke world, I fashioned a little show for the Side Door. We couldn’t fit any musicians in there, but I did the show for my friends. I discovered the world of karaoke. We started with about 15 people on the first Sunday night; it quickly grew to around 60, many of them sitting on the floor and later asking ‘When is this guy going to do this again?’”

Fortunately for Giovannetti, there will be plenty of space for a busload of musicians when he plays the Playhouse. There will be 21 tuxedoed gents, under the baton of Lou’s musical director, Jeff Jarvis, at the concert on the 19th. But these guys need music to read – not a simple or inexpensive undertaking.

 Black dots on paper

“One of the best kept secrets in the world is that you cannot just go out and get the Nelson Riddle arrangement of, say, ‘The Summer Wind,’” said Giovannetti. “These things are not around. But, there is this underground world of charts out there. When I started, I went online, did searches. You get a band together and you play one of these charts down and it sucks and you throw it out. What eventually happened was, through what I was doing and how I was doing it, some great musicians approached me and asked, ‘What do you want to do?’”

Jarvis saw his karaoke show at the Side Door, encouraged Lou to try for some big band gigs and wrote a few arrangements for him. At the idea of launching a big band, Giovannetti first said, “People can’t keep together a four-person rock band these days, much less 20 guys.”

But the memory of the sound interested Lou. “I built a book (of tunes), built a show – there will be nine new charts in the Hermosa concert – and it’s a challenge. The charts aren’t cheap, but this is truly a labor of love. A lot of the time I end up just doing it for fun because I have to pay the guys (band), the venue, and take care of everything else,” he said.

The Playhouse engagement is just a step in the direction Giovannetti is heading. He just finished a five-song EP that he will be distributing during the show and is currently working on what will be his first CD.

“We want to do it at Capital [Sinatra’s early recording home],” he said. “We want to go there and do it in the same room and capture the vibe.”

 Sax and the city

As rich in musicians as is the L.A. market, where do you find guys to play the dates?

“That’s the great thing that is everything Los Angeles… The word got out that Lou is a lot of fun,” said Giovannetti, “and if you want to play a big band gig, this is it. Jeff and I started getting phone calls and now we never have a problem filling the chairs.”

The band’s calendar is filling out quite nicely, according to Lou.

“In September, we played seven times. It’s really the first project I’ve had that has no agenda,” he said. “It’s simply for the sake of playing. I make a joke to the audience, thanking them for coming. Then I tell them that if we weren’t playing at this place, we’d probably be playing in my garage.

“We do a lot of private parties. There aren’t many venues that can handle this. But, here in the South Bay, we have a great fan base; in Orange County we have a nice fan base. We play out usually a couple times a month and sometimes, in October and November, we’re out every weekend.”

Giovannetti is most pleased with his loyal group of followers. As per audience response to the performances, he said, “I can’t even begin to tell you. I’ve been on Broadway, played roles in major studio films and TV, and I’ve felt it from many different angles. But this is something else! I love the song ‘That’s Life.’ It’s one of our closing numbers. You look out at an audience and say, ‘Yeah, I know times are crazy right now, but just sing with me and listen to the words. If stuff gets a little aggravating and you want to kick the dog, that’s just life.

“The song becomes almost evangelical sometimes. And, people get it. It doesn’t matter who you are or where you’ve come from or how old you are. What matters is that you have to participate – which is something people don’t do a lot of these days – but, I make an effort to say ‘let’s do this together.’ It makes it special.”

So, if you get caught being special next Friday sailing Over the Rainbow, thank Lou Giovannetti and blame it on that Old Devil Moon.

Lou Giovannetti and band, Saturday, Dec. 19, Hermosa Beach Playhouse, 8 p.m. Organized by Saint Rocke/Union Cattle Co. Call (310) 739-5926 for tickets. $35 to $100. View upcoming Side Door events at www.thesidedoor.biz. B