I had the privilege and honor of studying music, for five years, with a true genius by the name of Vincent Geraci. Geraci was a student of the accordion teacher, Andy Rizzo Sr., who taught other notable students such as Art Van Damme and Sam Porfirio. In 1943 he entered the Armed Services and became affiliated with the 81st Army Airforce Band at Mitchell Field, Long Island, New York. His talent soon earned him a position as Music Director. Upon leaving the service, Geraci entered the Mahattan School of Music where he studied under such illustrious teachers as Dr, Vittorio Gianinni and Dr. Feliz Deo of Julliard and graduated in composition.
Geraci, winner of the “Arthur Godfrey Talent Scout Show,” also accompanied such stars as Jimmy Durante, Frank Sinatra, Marilyn Maxwell, The Andrew Sisters, Vivian Della Chiesa, and Ethel Merman. He was staff accordionist at CBS radio and TV for many years, and performed in many radio and TV commercial recording sessions – plus countless recordings for Pop music stars.
Geraci had a music school in Chicago where he taught composition, arranging and modern improvisation as well as Classical music. My lessons with him, however, always took place at his home where he could spend 3 to 4 hours at a time teaching me all of those subjects. I don’t know if he treated any of his other students with the same privileged attention; perhaps he did, as he was a very generous man.
Geraci played the accordion and the piano, but his accordion was not of the usual design. Frustrated with the typical folk accordion limitations of left hand bass buttons that only span one octave, and chord buttons limited to those of the major, minor, diminished and augmented quality, he invented his own accordion. On the left hand side of his accordion were three rows of black and white keys – smaller than those of the single bank for the right hand. Each row began the interval of a 5th higher than the next, so that he could play a scale by staying on one row, or by crossing over from one row to the next in the way that a violinist crosses over from one string to the next. He could form chords in the way that a violinist, violist or cellist can by using one finger on each miniature keyboard, or by using all four fingers and thumb dispersed among all three keyboards. Vince could play many opera scores from memory on that accordion, and leave none of the complex, contrapuntal embellishments out. He could play the entire score of Porgy and Bess, and transpose it to any key one might ask for, with all of its intricate harmonies and informal counterpoints. Actually, I do not know what his limitations were, or if he even had any.
Geraci taught traditional harmony, cantus firmus, formal counterpoint, modern harmony, Jazz harmony, improvisation, modern counterpoint, polytonality, serial composition, and atonal composition. There was not a genre, style, era, or nationality of music of which he was not a master. He was an accomplished symphonic composer as well as Jazz musician, and he excelled in those and everything in between. I recall bringing him ten examples of eight bar phrases, each of which would be suitable as the beginning, expositional bars of a fugue. With them, right before my very ears, he proceeded to extemporize ten complete fugues that were perfect in every way, with no pauses, fumbles, or hint of “what should I do next?” in his output. He was, by far, the most gifted and knowledgeable instrumentalist, composer and teacher of music that I have ever known. At times, I thought that he might be a visitor from some other galaxy, but he looked too Italian to be an alien.
Geraci was a real Renaissance man, and was as much an inventor as he was a musician. His idol was Leonardo Da Vinci, and that almost says it all. Geraci took synthesizers apart and modified their circuitry to make them produce sounds that their manufacturers didn’t even know could be possible with their own products. He solved the “delay” problems that made the tandem connection of multiple synthesizer keyboards, using their MIDI through capabilities, frustrating by having 7 or more synthesizers driven by MIDI instructions recorded on a SONY Beta tape, instead.
I remember so fondly the years I spent teaching guitar at his music school, my lessons with him at his home, and the lunches that I often shared there with him – all prepared by his beautiful, sincere and dedicated wife, Karmen.