The Jazz Funeral was a folk/Americana/60's pop band from Staten Island, NY, active from 2008-2011.
Our debut EP, "The Jazz Funeral EP" was released in December 2008, while a three-song followup, "A Belly Full O' Gin", was released the following fall.
The band consisted of myself (vocals, guitar, piano), Michael Parascandola (drums), AJ Parascandola (mandolin, lap steel, guitar) , Tom Rudolph (bass), and later David Stagno (piano, organ, guitar, vocals).
"A Belly Full O' Gin" was featured in the short film "Mao" (2010).
"Jolene, of the South Shore" was performed live in-studio and featured on silive.com (Staten Island Advance) in February 2009:
"The Jazz Funeral EP" and "A Belly Full Of Gin" are available for listening or download at thejazzfuneral.bandcamp.com . Here are some reviews of "The Jazz Funeral EP":
“Out of some weird wooded area of Staten Island, The Jazz Funeral marches.
Singer John Biscuti’s alt-country and folk songs, drawn along by acoustic guitars, banjo and familiar chord changes, appear at first well crafted but unremarkable. Then you start to listen to the lyrics, and things get pretty interesting. On “Pulling off The Wings,” a pretty dark love song, Biscuti wavers “went down to the Jersey shore, caught a cancerous tan/ melenoma face brough such a chill/ if the smokes don’t kill me I guess that old sun will.”
The last song mentions New York City master-builder Robert Moses. Good instrumental moments reveal themselves as well on subsequent listens. “Entry-Level Blues,” maybe the best cut of the five musically, starts out as a regular 12-bar tune then busts into some sort of Beatlesesque (or perhaps Dr. Dogesque?) set of harmonies and saloon rock and drunken bop bop bopb badadada-ing. “Jolene of the South Shore,” gets points for the romantic local reference and for the slide guitar solo too, proving The Jazz Funeral just might be one of the most unique new bands on Staten Island.”
“This cd has absolutely nothing to do with jazz and isn’t exactly goth, although it’s relentlessly dark. This is a terrifically intelligent, auspicious debut for these lyrically-driven Staten Island retro rockers. It’s a mix of jangly, 60s inflected songs with smartly understated vocals and excellent, brooding lyrics that contrast with the songs’ catchy, upbeat, frequently country-inflected melodies.
The cd kicks off with Annie’s Kitchen Table, a fast country shuffle with a slightly Blonde on Blonde feel and a bitter, anguished lyric anticipating a breakup, “the summer months coming hard,” the narrator chainsmoking and anticipating the worst. There’s a nice, tastefully bluesy guitar solo that works perfectly with the tone of the song. The next track, Pulling Off the Wings is a haunting, oldtime-flavored backbeat country song with pizzicato mandolin, all tension that refuses to break, “Clocks don’t stop and cars refuse to crash…it’s so plain to see I’ve been so unwell.” The sarcastic, angry Entry-Level Blues starts out fast and bouncy like the Kinks or the early Move but quickly builds to more of a country feel; Jolene, of the South Shore, a rueful ballad slinks along on a beautifully tense melody, chords shifting from major to minor with elegant restraint. The best song on the ep is its closing cut, Goodnight (Is How I Say Goodbye), begining ominous with layers of oldtimey blues guitar, suddenly jumping to a raging, staccato Weimar blues melody and then exploding into fiery janglerock:
If the ghost of Robert Moses came a-haunting you
Would you demolish every brownstone in Bay Ridge
All the ghosts you see are real, would mine change the way you feel?
Walk toward the light but be prepared to say goodnight”