George Rossi Shuffles His Hungarians Back On To Stage
It’s been some time since Georgie hit the stage in the way he really wants to hit the stage.
But, he’s been busy. He’s been in his space – which he refers to as the “Womb Room.” It’s a space with a decor emphasis highlighted by the color lavender, a lot of candles; and subtle flourishes that might look like Marie Laveau had a hand in it. It’s fortified with the musical instruments and the technology to develop, record, rehearse and produce his music. Songs, videos, channels…
Now he’s got a gig. Sold Out. And your Syracuse legend is back. Ladies and gents:
Little Georgie and the Shuffling Hungarians makes its comeback performance on November 28, 8pm at the Center for the Arts of Homer. And here’s George Rossi to talk about it.
Chuck Schiele: Hey Georgie! Good to see you. Thank you for visiting with us here at Sounds of Syracuse.
George Rossi: Glad and always grateful to be asked, Chuck. Thanks for inviting me into your space.
CS: So! It’s alive.
GR: That’s a bit of a stretch. I like to call it, “momentarily rematerializing.” My advice at times such as this? “Don’t Blink.”
CS: It’s been a long time since you and your Hungarians have done any shuffling. Bring us up to speed on what you’ve been up to all this time.
GR: I finally moved back to Syracuse in 2016 after taking a hiatus from music and pursuing alternate career options. Back in the City of Salt, I very tentatively started to explore the possibility of reviving The Hungarian Operation. It became readily apparent to me that the old business model for a band (and business) that size was no longer viable. The market wouldn’t support it for a host of reasons. So, out of necessity, I had to pivot and create a new model and infrastructure where I could still write and record internationally competitive product, and now add a critical video and content production platform into the mix.
I went out and borrowed a bunch of money and built The Womb Room of Hungaria above my garage. It’s basically a content production studio for The Shuffling Hungarians, operating through my media distribution company QUEEN BEE BRAND WMG. Basically, with a large band, it’s more feasible to learn one song at a time, and usher the song through all the phases it has to go through (writing, demoing, rehearsing, recording, post-production, and marketing – all while shooting video of every aspect of that process), than trying to learn an entire book of original material and playing it LIVE.
CS: So how does it feel for you to bring it out of the lab and into the Spotlight?
GR: Alternately exciting, terrifying, a true blessing to be grateful for, and a complete PITA. Thing is, in a continuing isolationist world, I still really love making music with people I love. That has never changed. We had a vocal rehearsal last night and I gave Miss Jackie, who I hadn’t seen in awhile, a real big hug that lasted a real long time. Nothing can replace that kind of feeling. Nothing can replace that kind of history, or that kind of love.
I don’t do this for the money, because there really isn’t any at the end of the day. Its about the actual work, and the fundamental connections you make with friends along the way creating it.
CS: You’ve been very active and present via social media per your activity in the womb room. Please tell us about the culture of that…and how it relates to taking it live.
GR: The Shuffling Hungarian’s current “business” model is admittedly unorthodox. Our aging back-end-of-the-baby-boom fan base has had a hard time embracing the social networking “sharing economy” and the-digital-delivery-of-a-15-piece-band-right- into-your-living-room patronage concept. Coupled with that, the rapidly shifting sands of social media – how it has evolved into a pay-for-visibility platform that feeds on all the human qualities I clearly don’t embrace or endorse (rage baiting, outrageous or manipulative behavior intended to curry clicks, views, and engagement, outright spiritual ugliness in the form of hate and racism, eating laundry detergent pods on TikTok, etc.) – has made social platforms a real spiritual and ethical challenge for me.
Twenty years ago, Facebook had all kinds of great possibilities. Now its just a glorified form of user generated incendiary talk radio that sells ad space.
I’m really the “anti-social networking” guy. I don’t seek millions of streams, clicks or views with the content I create. I don’t ascribe to the McDonald’s “Over a Billion of (questionable mystery meat sammich burgers) Sold” marketing strategy. Big metric numbers don’t impress me at this stage in my life. I DO seek hundreds of them however, generated by loyal peeparoos who want to really create an alliance with The Hungarians; those that value what we do as recording artists, and want to contribute to our ongoing ability to continue to create music and video. We have used social media to build a subscribing support network that enables us to continue creating content that will hopefully stand the test of time and address our legacy (whatever that may turn out to be). But the winds of change clearly indicate that a shift is brewing, and its just a logical direction to start to develop a LIVE show, even if it only turns out as a prototype.
The time has come to deliver the message to church and to the Shuffling Horde Congregation. Literally, The Center For The Arts of Homer is a former church, replete with stained glass windows. I can’t think of a more appropriate venue.
CS: In your own words, characterize your music.
GR: It’s respectful of certain genres of American Roots music and their origins, without tacking too hard and fast to tradition. A lifetime of the love of all kinds of music, all boiled down to a singular vision. You’ll hear echos of what has transpired in the past, and some pretty future forward stuff as well. It’s all boiling down in the Gumbo Pot; from Jazz, Rhythm and Blues, Rock and Roll, Soul, Funk and Gospel; from Mardi Gras Indian street chants to Broadway Show Tunes to traditional 18th-century orchestral music. The music I write is just the sum total of the music that I love, profoundly influenced me, and subsequently absorbed into the very fiber of my being. You never really know how it might manifest at any given time.
Then throw it to 15 other fellow musicians! You never know what will come boomeranging back at you. And as a creator and builder of platforms? That’s where all the fun resides.
CS: You have a Rich history. The first time I saw you, you were playing in the Works. Please tell us a little bit about your background as a musician. How you started.
GR: How did I start? I picked up an instrument because I was a teenaged nerd and I wanted to pick up girls!
I grew up in Skaneateles surrounded by a very vibrant rock and roll environment. In the mid 1960’s, Peter, John, Berto and Tom Dean, Holly Gregg and Joe Whiting all lived at the top of my street, and I used to crash their rehearsals in the Dean family garage when they were “The Ridgewoods.” The Dean Brothers Band and Jukin’ Bone were a REALLY big deal to the entire community, and a HUGE deal to me. I never wanted to be anything else than a rock and roller. I wanted to join THAT circus as quickly as I possibly could.
I’ve had many picaresque adventures along the way. I came up through the ranks slowly for several years, eventually riding the “record deal rollercoaster” with The Works, The Masters Of Reality, and The Bogeymen. Successfully started “The Hungarians” and created a record label. Moved to New Orleans to produce records and to live among, hang with, and create work with my musical heroes. Played in a piano bar for tips. Got waylaid on The Island Of Calypso. Toured all over the world. Got dashed upon the rocks by a siren calling my name. Fought a Cyclops. Lived in a Trojan Horse. Fought a bunch of wars. Got wiped out by a Hurricane. I guess “The Ulysses of The Syracuse Music Scene” characterizes me pretty accurately.
CS: Please share with us a couple of your more memorable highlights along the way.
GR: The most memorable aren’t suitable for print, Chuck. I’ve never recognized “highlights” because when they manifest, it was the result of brutally hard work. By the time a “highlight” happens, I’m too busy to notice and I’m already twenty miles down the road past it seeking the next “Next.”
CS: So, tell us a bit about what we can expect at the show?
GR: Remember the Bugs Bunny- Daffy Duck cartoon where they’re trying to outdo each other on a Vaudeville-Variety show type stage? The audience wildly approves of Bug’s rather mediocre offerings, whereas Daffy’s amazing performances are met with the sound of crickets.
Finally Daffy, dressed in a Dare Devil costume, takes the stage. He drinks a gallon of nitroglycerin (“Girls, hang on to your boyfriends”) along with various combustible and radioactive materials, and then eats a lit match. He explodes, and the crowd goes WILD!!!! Bugs runs out on the stage to implore Daffy to take a bow and do an encore, but unfortunately, Daffy is now ethereally floating up heavenward and tells Bugs, “That’s the problem with that act… I can only do it once.”
A typical Shuffling Hungarians show always has that element baked into it, which is half the fun. Its a bare footed highwire act without a net, but there are 220 volts of live electricity running through the wire. Frankly, it’s the reason why LIVE performances are so infrequent for me these days. Even Evil Knievel needed recovery time between stunts. Mine is about 20 years between each stunt, so at my age? This is probably it for me.
But that doesn’t mean you have to manage or lower your expectations. You’re going to see and hear the very best that all the musicians on that stage have to offer, Guaranteed. And there will definitely be a few curveballs and surprises.
CS: The Hungarians. Who will we be seeing as part of your crackerjack band?
GR: The core rhythm section personnel of The Shuffling Hungarians ensemble are Lenny Milano (drums), Chris Colobello (Bass) Will Pegg (Guitar) George Newton (Pedal and Lap Steel Guitar), Julius Williams (Percussion) and myself. The Hungarian Horns are comprised of section leader and arranger Jeff Stockham (Trumpets, Valve Trombone, and French Horns), Don “Diego” Williams (Tenor and Alto Sax), Tony Greene (Bari and Tenor Sax) and Joey “Fishes” Columbo on trombone.
The George-O-Lettes will be represented by originals Gail Sampson and Jackie Clark- McMullin, along with new recruit Viesha Kye (who’s Jackie’s daughter…it’s a family affair, after all)
CS: And then, I believe there’s an album to go along with the whole thing. How will this music be available?
GR: Yes, we’re hoping to scrape enough together to manufacture “The Compendium Of Unruly Caterwauling” and have it available at the show.
But ultimately, I haven’t quite decided yet, Chuck. I’m kind of a “sell rekkids out of the trunk of my car” guy. Probably through our store front on our website and maybe a few local retail outlets like Soundgarden.
CS: What happens when the show is over? Any future plans brewing?
GR: Slide back into the ether of cultural irrelevance again, I guess. I’m much more interested in pursuing my original agenda of continuing to write, arrange and record my songs and shoot exclusive, singular, finished hybrid LIVE videos for our loyal subscriber base and community. But if an opportunity arises that’s worth pursuing on the LIVE front? We’ll now have a show and the personnel to answer that call.
CS: Please share with us how we can stay in touch with you and your music.
GR: Well the easiest way is to follow our pages (George Rossi, Little Georgie and The Shuffling Hungarians, and The Womb Room Of Hungaria) on Facebook and Instagram, but there are better conduits that afford you even more direct access to me, and what’s transpiring in The Mythic Land Of Hungaria, in particular by pledging a subscription support on the patronage platform BUY ME A COFFEE. Subscribing even at the most modest level gets tons of exclusive, unpublished content – both new and archival –delivered to your inbox in the form of recordings, behind-the-scenes photos, and blogs. Upper support tiers unlock password-protected access to “Little Georgie’s Video Vault” (where all the completely, unposted on YouTube, finished video work is stored), and also member rewards like free CDs, Free T-shirts, visits to The Womb Room Of Hungaria on video shoots, production credits on videos and upcoming recordings, and even free piano lessons from yours truly.
That said? Throughout my long career, I’ve always been a (more than normally) approachable guy. Those who remember know that I maintained an internationally accessible 1-800 phone number in the pre internet days. I always personally answer all incoming email. No AI bots for me. I really do enjoy developing personal relationships with all of our friends, fans and supporters. It’s one of the better aspects of being “Little Georgie.”
Here’s a pretty concise link directory that can take you to a few critical connection points on “The Map Of Shuffling Hungaria”: https://linktr.ee/littlegeorgie88
CS: Thank you, George. It’s been good talking with you.
GR: Always a pleasure to hop on a few tables with you, Chuck.
