Tony Cennamo (September 30, 1933 – June 8, 2010 ) was for 25 years a

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

disc jockey A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include Radio personality, radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at a nightclub or music f ...

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original campu ...

WBUR WBUR-FM (90.9 FM) is a public radio station located in Boston, Massachusetts, owned by Boston University. It is the largest of three NPR member stations in Boston, along with WGBH and WUMB-FM and produces several nationally distributed program ...

. Tony Cennamo retired Jazz Dj 25yrs @ Wbur, Boston - Jazz Bulletin Board
/ref> When he had a morning show in the 1970s and 1980s he began his show with

Oliver Nelson Oliver Edward Nelson (June 4, 1932 – October 28, 1975) was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, arranger, composer, and bandleader. His 1961 Impulse! album '' The Blues and the Abstract Truth'' (1961) is regarded as one of the most signifi ...

's '' Stolen Moments or "Blues In A Minute" by the Thad Jones / Mel Lewis Orchestra.'' Cennamo was born in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

, the firstborn to Louis Cennamo and Marie (Esposito) Cennamo. Cennamo started his commercial radio career as producer of a talk radio show at WCBS. He was also the program director at the old WCAS (AM). In the early 1960s Tony worked as a disc Jockey at KOIL-FM in Omaha, Nebraska. On weekends he headed up a popular Omaha jazz quartet known as 'Tony Cennamo and the Jazz-All-Stars.' In 1972 the City of Somerville MA hired Tony t
renegotiate the city's cable TV license
with Warner Cable TV. His groundbreaking public advocacy work led to the creation of

In 1986 he represented the city of Boston in an exchange program with

Melbourne, Australia Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a metropol ...

to lecture about jazz history and appear on radio programs (''Emerson Beacon,'' Winter 1989). A tribute was given to him at

Berklee Performance Center The Berklee Performance Center is a 1,215-seat theatre located on Massachusetts Ave. in the Back Bay area of Boston, Massachusetts.Hazell, Ed, ''Berklee: The First 50 Years'' (Berklee Press Publications, 1995), p.155 It is the largest theatre space ...

in September 1997 to honor his quarter century at WBUR. Sissy Smith, James Williams, Tony Zano, Phil Wilson, and Rebecca Parris were the headliners at this event. (''Boston Herald,'' Thursday, September 25, 1997. Arts and Lifestyles.) In 1977 Cennamo received the Boston Jazz Society's Man of the Year. He also taught Jazz History at

Emerson College Emerson College is a private college with its main campus in Boston, Massachusetts. It also maintains campuses in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California and Well, Limburg, Netherlands ( Kasteel Well). Founded in 1880 by Charles Wesley Emerson as a ...

. In 1986 Cennamo suffered a

stroke A stroke is a medical condition in which poor blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and hemorrhagic, due to bleeding. Both cause parts of the brain to stop functionin ...

. After an absence of a few months he was back on the air (WBUR) for another eleven years, with his son James producing and engineering. Tony helped a lot of Boston Jazz musicians, always ready to offer them support and airplay. Cennamo died on June 8, 2010, at the Glen Ridge Nursing Care Center in Malden,

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

External links

Tony Cennamo's Jazz Space

Tony Cennamo: Jazz Lover, Teacher and Mentor

References

1933 births 2010 deaths American radio DJs Boston University people Emerson College faculty Radio personalities from Boston {{US-radio-bio-stub

See also

External links

References