BIO
Born into a musical family, I started listening to Jazz at an early age. My father, Joseph Costanzo, began my music education early and taught me to play saxophone when I was in the third grade. My parents played the radio every morning and weekend and we would all try out our crooning abilities to the songs of Frank Sinatra, Jerry Vale, Perry Como, Nat Cole and others. I learned all the classic standards through "osmosis."
After High School, I studied acting at the Herbert Berghoff studio in NYC. My teacher was William Hickey (You may remember him; he went on to be nominated for best supporting actor in the film Prizzi's Honor). While I attended acting school I landed a job working for Al Pacino as his personal aid and chauffeur. I got to rub elbows with a lot of famous people—it was quite an experience.
Around the same time, my father and his buddy trombonist Rich Herzhouser had a great idea to start a Big Band. So, The Memories Of Swing was born. Fortunately there was a resurgence in Big Band and Swing so the band was booked almost every weekend.
Around 1995, I asked my father and Rich if I could play with the band. They said "NO!"—the only way a seat opened up in the band was if somebody died or moved out of state. Plus, I don't think my father thought I could read music well enough. He was probably right; you see, up until then I had only played occasionally with the horn section in a classic rock band and did some singing. Well, that all changed the day when my father asked me if I would like to be a roadie for the band! I said sure, under one condition: "You let me sing." He agreed.