John Bianculli
saxophones

jpb71692@verizon.net
Home: (518) 743-1570
Cell: (518) 470-5366

I was born and  raised  in Brooklyn NY. My Father worked at a place called the Brooklyn Children's Museum and it became a Black Cultural Center in Bedford Stuyvesant. Many greats like Reggie Workman, Bill Baron, and many others would come together there to do concerts and to teach the kids of the neighborhood the instrument they played. One of those alumni was a man by the name of Bobbie Watson. I got to study with Bill Baron which was a wonderful experience for me. I was going to a technical school at the time for electrical engineering and wanted to continue with my musical studies.

When I graduated form the technical school, I was drafted and decided to go into the Navy. I spent 6 years in the Navy as an electronics technician and got out with a rank of E-5. When I got out of the Navy I went to San Diego Mesa Colllege and studied comprehensive musicianship with Mr. Robert Henninger. I learned from him what it took to understand and love music. I had the good fortune to have studied saxophone with a local Jazz musician named Joe Marillo, and then went on to study with Phil Sobel at the Dick Grove Studios in LA for a while.

In July 1978 a friend and I decided to get back to NY to play music and to try to get into the music scene there. We drove across country with a car that we were driving back to New Jersey for someone with all of our possessions and $150.00. We made it back and  rented a house in Long Beach Long Island and had sessions and we just played all the time. Luckily my electronics background came in handy. I had the good fortune to study with Eddie Daniels, Warne Marsh, Al Regni and others and wound up playing many jazz gigs and what are referred to as Club Dates. I worked for many of  the booking offices in the New York, New Jersey and Connecticut areas. I have worked for Steven Scott, Wayne Marshal, Stan Cabot and many others.

A friend Ray Alexander, who I knew from Long Island, asked me to come up and play with him at the Sagamore in Bolton Landing. That's when I met my wife, Maggie. She was the manager of Van Winkle’s Club at the time. After that, I got a job as a field service technician for Symbol Technologies.  I continued to play music and do a day- gig.

In 1997 we decided that we wanted to move to a healthier environment for our children, so we moved  to Queensbury. I still worked for Symbol until 2003 and was laid off due to a reduction in force. I got a job with IGT in October of 2003 as a Slot Machine Technician. I work at the Saratoga Racing and Gaming facility in Saratoga Springs NY for IGT. I met Jimmie Adinolfi at Saratoga Racing and Gaming and he said he had a band. I asked him if he would mind if I could sit in with him and he said yes. I became one of Skippy and the Pistons. I met Dave Perotta and Peter Van Keuran on one of the Skippy and the pistons gigs and they asked me if I would like to join High Definition and I said yes. I’ve also worked with Jim Wright of the Funk Merchants.

Music has been an important part of my life. I learned that the truly great musicians and artists are very generous with their knowledge. The truly great artists are looking to advance the art and  not necessarily themselves. They look at the art as bigger than  themselves. I believe that John Coltrane did not see himself as a great man but a man who was striving to be part of something greater than he could be. All the good things in my life came from being involved  in music. It has been my friend when I needed a friend and it has been my joy. It has been a gift that I am very grateful to have, and I hope that through it I can make people's lives seem a little more colorful and less tedious. I believe that music is a gift that touches people in ways that we can’t explain but it would be very hard for us all to live without it.