Joe “Mouse” Bonati was arguably one of jazz history’s most-underrated alto saxophone players. Today his name remains unknown tomany and is completely ignored by jazz dictionaries and encyclopedias.

This skilled musician was born Joseph J. Bonati on June 14, 1930, in Buffalo, NY. He was a thin boy with large eyes and was often seen running around his hometown, which earned him the nickname “Mouse”. Due to problems at home, he had a fairly difficult adolescence, and this affected his personality somewhat. He enjoyed listening to jazz from an early age and started learning the alto saxophone at the age of 14 began. He taught himself to play and learned quickly. By the age of 16 he was playing in local bands. An instinctively antisocial young man, Mouse soon became involved in drugs, which led to himbeing arrested more than once.

Things rarely went well for him, and his introverted personality often prevented him from getting gigs. Finally, at the age of 22, frustrated and repulsed by the state he found himself in, Mouse went to New Orleans in search of warmer climes and paid work. He began playing with some other young fellows in the city as well as in the clubs. He rapidly earned a name for himself, and his playing became the talk of the town, at least among musicians. It was never Mouse’s intention to get famous and the only thing he really wanted was to get the chance to play. Sadly, he was arrested and convicted of drug possession and his personal problems temporarily put a stop to his promising career.

After he was released, he decided to leave New Orleans and went to the touristy city of Biloxi, on the Mississippi Gulf coast, with the hope of finding work. He got a few jobs as a replacement and the occasional gig. It was here that he fell in love with and married a woman named Ronda B. Adler.

Around the beginning of 1954, Mouse got a steady job with drummer Rudy Balius, the leader of a quartet playing in a strip joint on the Gulf coast. It was then that pianist Frank Strazzeri, another upstate New Yorker, arrived in Biloxi with his wife Jo Ann from their hometown of Rochester, looking for a job. Frank knew the area as he had been stationed there for about two years while serving in the U.S. Air Force. He heard that Balius was on the lookout for a new pianist for his band and Frank got the job. He and Mouse quickly became very good friends and, later that year, Mouse and Ronda, Frank and Jo Ann all went to live in New Orleans. Mouse played at some strip clubs on Bourbon Street, while Frank played with Sharkey Bonano and his Kings of Dixieland and also occasionally with trumpeter Al Hirt. When their work was done for the day, Mouse and Frank would get together for after-hours jam sessions from 1:00-4:00 am.

New Orleans’ modern jazz scene was enjoying a boom amidst the French Quarter's bohemian scene, thanks to a group of hungry young musicians who defied Louisiana's segregation laws by playing underground sessions with black modernists like pianist Ed Frank, bassist Richard Payne and drummers Earl Palmer and Ed Blackwell among others. One of those imaginative and talented musicians was multi-instrumentalist Jack Martin. He played an important role in the recordings included in this CD, not just for his instrumental dexterity on the French horn and bass but also for the more vital facets of composition and scoring. The first tune on this compilation, “Scherzo”, belongs to the fourth movement of a suite that Martin wrote called “Jazz Suite de Camera”, in which Mouse played a supporting role and was even featured with a solo, which is a gas to hear. The group here is labeled as an “octette” and the composition contains several contrapuntal elements that flavor the jazz feeling.

The recording was produced by Tom Hicks, the program manager of New Orleans TV station WDSU. Strazzeri was the pianist on the date, but shortly after the recording, the Strazzeris went back to Rochester and Frank was unable to be part of Hick’s next session, which would be under the leadership of Mouse.

Mouse’s debut leader recording was a sextet date with trumpeter Benny Clements, Chick Powers on tenor sax, Ed Frank on piano, Jimmy Johnson on bass, and Earl Palmer on drums. They recorded five tracks, three of them were composed by Jack Martin, “One Blind Mouse”, “Mouse’s House”, and “Improvisation”, one by Bonati, “Back”, and another, the standard “What a Difference a Day Made”.

Eager to publish these recordings and others by local artists, Tom Hicks created a new label, Patio Records, as a division of the WDSU Broadcasting Corporation. In April 1956, the label’s inaugural releases included singles cut by pop singer John Gary, Cajun Sal Vance, and one by Mouse Bonati, including “Mouse’s House”, and “What a Difference A Day Made”.

The company’s first 10-inch, Tom Hicks Presents: New Sounds from New Orleans, would be released a few weeks later. The album presented the Martin’s “Jazz Suite de Camera” on one side and the Mouse Bonati Sextet in the other, where we can enjoy Mouse’s fiery passionate bebop alto sax style, fluent in the Bird tradition, and his tasteful and relaxed –but no less intense– groove on the ballads. With the exception of “Improvisation”, the session speaks rather eloquently for itself and provides a multi-faceted showcase for Mouse’s unusual alto-sax artistry.

For its part, “Improvisation…” explained Tom Hicks, “…is an experiment utilizing a ‘multiple’ technique which has been used principally in choral and so-called ‘gimmick’ recordings. By electronically constructing one layer of sound upon another, we arrived at an end-product consisting of an alto sax solo, (Mouse), accompanied by an ensemble composed of bass, drums, French horn, bass clarinet (all played by Jack Martin), piano, tenor sax and ensemble alto sax (all played by Mouse Bonati). What a better way to present our two guiding forces than a performance by only them?”

Mouse’s reputation was blooming, but as soon as things seemed to be going well, he was again arrested after a drug bust, which resulted in him serving nine months at East Baton Rouge Parish Prison.

A new door seemed to open for Mouse when, in late 1956, lead altoist Ernie Henry of Dizzy Gillespie’s band fell ill and Dizzy, having heard good things about Mouse, asked him to join the band. Unfortunately, the authorities in Louisiana did not allow Mouse to play as he was on probation. Finally, another promising young player, Phil Woods, took the spot.

Mouse traveled to New York but was unable to play there because his criminal record prevented him from obtaining a cabaret card. The same thing happened to other well-known jazzmen like Charlie Parker and Chet Baker. He decided to try San Francisco and he and Ronda found a place to live in the Haight-Ashbury district.

Sometime in 1957, the Bonatis and their new baby daughter received a visit from their old friends the Strazzeris, who were planning to stay a month in the Bay Area. Frank was searching for work but found out that the San Francisco clubs only paid $5-6 per night so he chose to leave for Las Vegas a few days later. Frank found steady work there as a member of Woody Herman’s band. He called Mouse because there were a lot of show bands to play in, so Mouse and Ronda flew to Las Vegas. It was there that the couple separated due to an affair that Mouse had with their babysitter, who later died tragically in a motel fire.

The Strazzeris moved to Los Angeles towards the end of 1959 and soon Frank started working and recording with groups lead by Terry Gibbs, Herb Ellis, Red Mitchell, Curtis Amy, and Carmell Jones. By the fall of 1962, he suspected that his friend Mouse was having problems again, so he invited him to visit. Mouse was a newcomer in town, and Frank offered him the chance to join the quintet hewas organizing along with trumpeter Carmell Jones, bassist Red Mitchell, and drummer Nick Martinis. After some rehearsals and a couple of gigs the group was ready to record.

Frank had made a few records as sideman with Pacific Jazz by then, so he convinced producer Dick Bock to let him lead a recording of his own. The session took place on November 27 & 28 at Pacific Jazz studio at 8715 West Third Street. The first day, the quintet recorded four tunes: “Lope In”, “You Betcha”, “Kids Delight”, and “New Orleans”.

The next day, with the addition of Joe Pass on guitar, four more tracks were recorded: “Indian Joe”, “Effusion”, “4:20 PM”, and “Passe”. The recordings turned out well but for some reason Dick Bock disliked Mouse and he decided not to release the recording. According to what Frank told me many years later, this was a personal matter, not a musical one. Whatever the reason, in an unusual and somewhat surprising move, Dick asked Frank to re-record the session after the Christmas break using tenor Hadley Caliman instead of Mouse.

In the process of finding an appropriate date for a second recording, the quintet (still featuring Mouse but with Bob Whitlock replacing Red Mitchell on bass) made an appearance on the well-known weekly television show Frankly Jazz. The show took up where Bobby Troup’s ABC-TV series Stars of Jazz had left off in 1958 and premiered on Los Angeles’ KTLA Channel 5 in 1962, emceed by noted disc jockey Frank Evans. The quintet played three Strazzeri originals, “Kid’s Delight”, “Injun Joe”, and “Lope In”, plus the Hoagy Carmichael standard “New Orleans”. The recording of this program, currently remains the only known-recorded performance to exist of the original Frank Strazzeri Quintet. The main reason for this is that the Pacific Jazz tapes with Mouse on were lost or probably destroyed by Dick Bock.

Curiously, the second LP (with Hadley Caliman), recorded early in January 1963, also remained unreleased because Bock sold the company shortly after the recording and went to live for a short time in India. Mosaic Records rescued the session from oblivion in 2003 and included it on a compilation-box set dedicated to Carmell Jones.

Frustrated after being omitted from the recording date with Frank Strazzeri, Mouse left Los Angeles for Reno, NV. In late 1962, he appeared in the Sunday jam sessions held at the ‘International Room’ of the popular New China Club on Lake Street. He later returned to Las Vegas, where he continued to play in all kinds of show bands. He was in good shape, and no longer took drugs. On one occasion, Frank Strazzeri invited him to play a gig at Shelly’s Manne-Hole in Hollywood, along with another great altoist, Joe Maini, and a rhythm section of Strazzeri on piano, Red Mitchell on bass, and Shelly Manne on drums.

Saxophonist Anthony Ortega recalled playing alongside Mouse in fall 1964: “For a little while I worked with Billy Eckstine’s group. He had a small band. I was playing tenor, and he had a guy named Joe Bonati, who was out of the Las Vegas area, playing alto and baritone sax… I did some gigs with him in Harrah’s Tahoe Stateline lounge. It was pretty nice.”

Mouse’s residencies as a jazz soloist and section musician would take him from Lake Tahoe in the mid-60s at Harrod’s Resort to the Bahamas in the late-60s at Paradise Island, and then back to Lake Tahoe around 1970. His longest engagement would come after settling once again in Las Vegas, where he lived from 1972 onwards. He was offered a steady residency as part of the Lido showat Caesar’s, as well as jazz gigs at venues like the Tropicana Ballroom and Dusty’s Playland.

The last few years Mouse spent in Las Vegas were musically very poor. A lack of recognition forced him to abandon the alto and concentrate instead on playing tenor sax. With that instrument, he once visited Los Angeles around late 1979 or early 1980 to join a group made up of Las Vegas musicians to play at Carmelo’s Jazz Club in Sherman Oaks. This was likely his last appearance on the Californian coast.

In late 1980, he joined the new Dan Terry Big Big Band. In February 1981, the band, which played Gene Roland arrangements in collaboration with Terry, recorded a self-titled studio album in Las Vegas. Mouse was one of the main soloists on tenor and soprano sax. Produced by Terry and issued on his own label, the Metronome Record Company, these performances would be Mouse’s final recordings.

A short while later, Mouse fell ill and was diagnosed with cancer. He passed away on August 12, 1983, at the age of 53. He was laid to rest at the Woodlawn Cemetery in Las Vegas with a headstone that bears the epitaph “My Baby Mouse”.

Unfortunately, he remains almost unknown to the worldwide jazz community but not to his friends and the musicians who knew him well. All of those who still remember him say he was a nice guy and a great musician. For many of them, he had a good sense of humor and a gentle personality. He was not an opportunist, he just liked to play; he was a legendary but unfairly forgotten jazz hero and musician.

Sadly, no further recordings of Mouse on alto sax have been found. While scarce, those that do exist provide an eloquent sample of his talent. The recordings with the Dan Terry Big Big Band are ideal complements to his limited discography.

I hope this release will give Joe “Mouse” Bonati some of the recognition he deserved as one of the great alto saxophonists in modern jazz history.

—Jordi Pujol (Taken from the inside liner-notes of FSRCD 1121)