Charles Pecoraro Sr.

Charles Paul Pecoraro was born in New York, New York, on November 29th, 1918, into a Sicilian-American family. His father, George Pecoraro, was a Sicilian mandolin playing, joke-telling, harmonica wizard of a vaudevillian. Pecoraro began to play guitar when he was 7 years old so that he could accompany his father on the Vaudeville stage. Throughout his childhood & adolescent years, Pecoraro played many Sicilian events, as the entertainment on celebrity riddled trains headed to Florida for the season, the private homes of fortune 400 families & in speakeasies throughout New York. In late 1939, Pecoraro was in one of the top rising quartets in the country, The Chordsmen (the original). The Chordsmen signed w/ Decca Records & set out to record an album. The album was cut but shelved after the bass player was drafted after the fall of Pearl Harbor & subsequent American involvement in WWII. Pecoraro played in combos & big bands on troop-transport ships throughout the war during his four-year stint w/ the American Coast Guard. After the war, Charles Pecoraro played w/ top groups like the The Mimi Warren Trio & Jose Melas.