Fondmemories of the manwho kept big-band era alive inMarin
How do you keep the music playing? No, it isn’t just the title of one of Frank Sinatra’s classics. It’s a question to be asked following the death of Joe Agro.
Who was Mr. Agro? He’s the man who kept bigband era, swing dancing and themusic of the 1930s and ’ 40s alive for themodern era in Marin County.
A New York transplant, Mr. Agro worked his way through college and graduate school on the East Coast playing the saxophone before going on to a successful career with IBM and a host of other electronic and software companies.
Despite success in those industries, he never lost his love for music. Relocating to Marin in the mid1990s, he quickly resumed his first love by picking up the saxophone and establishing a dance band.
His dreambecame a reality. In no time, he and three other sax players formed an 18-piece aggregation of top local musicians dubbed the Starduster Orchestra. Before long, they were featured at street fairs in Larkspur, Jazz by the Bay in Sausalito, the Sausalito Art Festival, the Senior Fair and monthly at the Mill Valley Community Center. Itwas inMill Valley where ballroom dancers took advantage of a venuewhere they could really strut their stuff.
I loved working with
Mr. Agro because it kept a tradition alive. As a kid in San Francisco, I found that each big hotel had its own house band — Anson Weeks at theMarkHopkins and Ernie Heckscher at the Fairmont. Then there was the Del Courtney Band at the ballpark for Giants games. Sal Carson played the proms and Walt Tolleson (with whom I sang for 10 years) played the cotillions, country clubs and society weddings.
My decadelong stint with Mr. Agro was different. For him, money was not a driver. He would play a Valentine’s Day gig each year at the Marin Primary and Middle School in Larkspur simply as a thank you for allowing rehearsals there. Many Belvedere youngsters remember the cotillions Mr. Agro played there each year.
We once played an NAACP benefit with former Dancing with the Stars featured dancer Cheryl Burke.
Mr. Agro would help out at the Monterey Jazz Festival and was themusic director on Radio Sausalito. He even co-authored a book on Tony Bennett’s drummer Harold Jones entitled “Harold Jones: The Drummers’ Drummer.”
When coming off the road, Jones, who lives in Woodacre, would call on Mr. Agro to assemble the area’s best players and band singers. On a given Sunday afternoon for a nominal fee, you could hear and dance to them play the songs of Duke Ellington, Tommy Dorsey and Count Basie at the now-defunct San Geronimo Golf Course.
As if that all wasn’t enough, he was part of the Saxy Old Men of Marin, the West County Winds, the College of Marin and St. Helena Community bands. Mr. Agro played with the Sonoma State Woodwind Ensemble and the SSU concert band. He also served on the boards of the Mountain Play and the American Institute of Wine and Food.
What I remember best about Mr. Agro was pairing with himto bring his big band to theHerbst Theater in San Francisco to celebrate Sinatra at 100. The only venues honoring the Chairman of the Board were hosted at small cabaret sites and clubs. Mr. Agro came in at a fee to make it possible to honor Sinatra the way “the city that knows how” should.
We filled the nearly 1,000 seat venue. You could tell Mr. Agro’s love for his fellow Italian American by the playlist which always featured a string of Sinatra standards topped off by, of course, “New York, New York.”
Mr. Agro is survived by his wife Maggie, two daughters and several grandchildren. But he also leaves behind legions of big-band era fans whose music he single handedly kept alive by aggregating some ofMarin’s best players.
We’ll miss him, but most of all, the music.