Ten O'Clock News; North End Italian Band

In Boston's North End, summertime is a time to celebrate. Almost every week in this tiny neighborhood, Italians pay homage to some patron saint for seeing them through another year. And every year, mixed in with the food and the crowd, is ?Guy your offer? and his Italian marching band . [music in background] It's a tradition, you know. How did this tradition start? [music in background] Well this started for years, years, for generation, generation um, and, of course we picked it up, and next generation knows if they will pick it up, I don't know. know. [music in background] They call themselves, The North End Italian Band, but for years they were known as the Roma band and Guy ?Girarofa? was the band leader then. as he is now. [music in background] What do you think of that band? Is that a big part of this tradition? Yes that's right. Why is that? They've gone on for years. ?Old school? the old-- my mother and father. That band is getting kind of old like you said. But here

[no speaking] [overlapping voices] ?Girarofa? joined the Roma Band some 50 years ago. He was a young man then, just back from Sicily where he studied music and played in one of the local bands. At home in Boston where he was born, there were a handful of active bands to choose from when he got back. That's not the case anymore. Don't forget in the North End, about when I came from the old country, there were six, seven bands, you know. And one by one they fall off. Then the Roma was the only one, and the Roma fall off too. What I say. Well what happened? Well there was another intern dissonate. How, as you say. In-fighting? That's right, yeah. . [music in background] At 74, Giarraffa is the oldest member of The North End Italian Band. Stan Pugliese, his friend and manager of the old Roma Band died in April. And another older colleague died just this week. Ever so slowly,

age is ebbing away at this link to the old country. Are a lot of the traditions fading now? A lot of them, yeah, but I hope this one doesn't. It's nice that we have other children to, you know see what their heritage is, really. [music] How long are you going to be doing this? Well, I don't know. Till I live. Till I can't do it, let's put it this way. Cause I love music. Before I used to love woman. And still I love'em, and uh, wine and music. Wine, woman, and song. That's my... yeah. [laugh] My way of living. For the 10 O'Clock News. I'm Marcus Jones. [musical instrument]