Frank Celenza's family has been playing music as far back as his family tree can be traced (both sides of his mom's family were musicians & his father's mom's family were opera singers). Frank's first musical influence was his Uncle John, a jazz guitarist.
At 12 years of age, Frank started playing music with his brothers Donnie & Paul. He started on electric guitar, then switched to bass about a year later.
After taking private lessons through HS, he went to the State University of Old Westbury, where he played standup bass & studied Afro-American music with Ken McIntyre. He also took private classical lessons on double bass, and played in numerous bands (country blues, blues, rock, jazz).
From the 1970's to present, Frank played pop music and oldies in clubs with his brother, Paul and in rock-blues bands with his brother Donnie through the 70's & early 80's. In 1986, Frank played with Cloud William, who he was with for 11 years. He also played with various blues artists in NYC, including 2 years with Bob Gaddy (keyboardist for Sonny Terry & Brownie McGee).
In June of 1996, his brother, Donnie came to Frank & said, "I just jammed with this guitar player that plays the style of music you love..." Frank went to jam with that guitar player, who turned out to be Kerry Kearney & has been with him ever since. Frank says of KKB... "I've never had so much fun & so much good music."
In additon to KKB, Frank's been enjoying playing music with his sons, Anthony & Jesse, both musicians and writers, each playing various instruments. Recently, Anthony 's been doing show productions for bands and also produced a compilation CD for LI Blues Artists.
