“Donny Mann” started back in pre-history — the 1970s. \u00a0 \u201cJan Paderewski gave me the name when we were playing five nights a week at the Blue Fox Restaurant in 1974,” Don said. “Talk about wiseguys. \u00a0It was all Mafia guys at the bar.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cJan Paderewski?\u201d I said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.<\/strong><\/span> \u00a0His parents were musicians.\u00a0 They played a lot in Little Italy.\u201d<\/p>\n Jan Paderewski\u2019s great, great uncle was the<\/em> <\/em>Jan Paderewski, the renowned Polish pianist and statesman.\u00a0 Jan Paderewski of Cleveland was a stand-up comedian, restaurant owner and pianist.\u00a0 He played light classical and standards. Jan Paderewski of Cleveland died in 2000.<\/p>\n "Donny Mann" 2011<\/p><\/div>\n Donny Mann<\/strong><\/span> attended Berklee in 1961, when Berklee was just one building with a couple hundred students.\u00a0 Donny dropped out.\u00a0 Back then that was the idea: drop out and play gigs.\u00a0 Still is.<\/p>\n Donny Mann’s first pro gig was pre-Berklee, age 16, in his hometown, Erie, Pennsylvania.\u00a0 Don played with the Stardusters\u00a0 (piano, accordion, alto and drums) every Saturday night at the American Legion Hall.\u00a0 Tunes like \u201cPoinciana\u201d and “Moonlight in Vermont.”<\/p>\n \u201cI heard \u2018The House of Blue Lights\u2019 in the late 1950s,\u201d Don said. \u201cThat drove me nuts.\u00a0 I loved it.\u201d<\/p>\n Don worked<\/strong><\/span> in a hat store in Erie.\u00a0 \u201cMy first encounter with retail,\u201d he said. \u00a0\u00a0 Don eventually worked in a men’s clothing store in Cleveland.\u00a0 \u00a0And he listened to jazz — Gene Krupa through Tony Williams. \u00a0\u201cI shied away from rock and roll.\u00a0 It was primitive to me.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI wasn\u2019t crazy about New York,\u201d Don said.\u00a0 \u201cCleveland was the big-time, being from Erie.\u00a0 In the 1950s and 1960s, Cleveland was the big-time — look out, Jimmy Brown!\u00a0 In Erie, I rooted for the Browns, not the Steelers.”<\/p>\n Don worked at Rogers Drums in Cleveland, starting in 1965.\u00a0 He sold drums and musical-accessory chazerai<\/em> to mom-and-pop music stores, and he gigged at night.\u00a0 \u201cEvery other word I said was hip<\/em>.\u00a0 ‘I\u2019m hip, man.’\u00a0 I used that too much.\u00a0 I try not to say it nowadays, but it\u2019s hard.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/home\/yiddis6\/public_html\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/don-friedman-2-20111.jpg\" "\\"don")
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/home\/yiddis6\/public_html\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/theatrical-drumming.jpg\" "\\"theatrical")
<\/a>Don hung<\/strong><\/span> out at the Theatrical Restaurant.\u00a0 “I was never in the section where you ordered the expensive steaks,” Don said.\u00a0 “I sat at the bar.”\u00a0\u00a0 He sat behind the featured drummer, behind the bandstand — the best place to watch the drummers’ hands and feet.\u00a0 He saw Cozy Cole, Papa Jo Jones (“He wore white socks”) and Louie Belson, among others.<\/p>\n