Mike Renzi - Early Years

Early Years

Born in Providence, Rhode Island, Renzi began studying classical piano at the age of eight. In his early teens he taught himself accordion and played in his uncle's band at weddings and other local functions; he also took private classes with Julius Chaloff, the renowned Boston-born classical pianist. He played his first jazz piano job in a band with Art Pelosi, a tenor saxophonist and club owner based in Providence. In 1962, at the age of sixteen, Renzi became pianist for the house trio at Kings & Queens, a jazz club in North Providence. Through 1967, Renzi accompanied a long line of renowned artists there, including Coleman Hawkins, Roy Eldridge, Buck Clayton, Ernestine Anderson, Etta Jones, and the married vocal duo of Jackie Paris and Anne Marie Moss. His 1963 engagement with tenor saxophonist Ben Webster – which Renzi played in his junior year of high school – was recorded privately and later released as a bootleg album.

In a 2010 interview, Renzi recalled having no particular musical goals at the time: "I was so young I didn't even think about it." But while backing the singer Carol Sloane at Kings & Queens, he realized he had a flair for accompaniment. "She was calling tunes and I thought to myself, I can really do this. This is easy. The keys don't bother me, I can make instant arrangements. And I knew I could play some jazz."

Renzi went on to study piano at the Boston Conservatory and composition at the Berklee College of Music. Meanwhile he led the resident trio at Allary's, a jazz club in downtown Providence; Renzi held that position from 1968 through 1976.

In 1972 he had become the musical director of The Sonya Hamlin Show, an afternoon talk show on Boston's WBZ-TV. One of Hamlin's frequent guests was the jazz and cabaret singer Sylvia Syms. That year, when Syms co-hosted a week of Hamlin's shows, the notoriously demanding vocalist was so impressed by Renzi's playing and knowledge of songs that she invited him to accompany her in a concert at New York's Town Hall. Broadway composer Cy Coleman came backstage and urged Renzi to move to New York, offering help and connections. In September 1976, Renzi relocated to Manhattan.