I never got to meet Ronnie Zito. He was on my list of drummers I wanted to interview for the podcast, and I never got around to it. I just found out he passed away on Wednesday. He was 87.
Ronnie was the drummer for Chicago on Broadway from the time the revival opened in November 1996. In a 2022 interview, he said he was one of only three original orchestra members still in the band.
He grew up in Utica, New York, in a family of musicians. His father played bass in the Stanley Theater orchestra. His brother Freddie played in big bands, including Stan Kenton’s. His brother Torrie Zito became an arranger who wrote for Tony Bennett.
When Ronnie was 17 or 18, he got a house gig at the Three Rivers Inn in Syracuse, playing for acts like the Mills Brothers and the McGuire Sisters. Bobby Darin asked him to come along for six weeks. He stayed four years, right when “Mack the Knife” was on the radio constantly, and that took him to The Ed Sullivan Show.
He played in Woody Herman’s band and made five albums with Woody. He said he got more calls in New York from being in Woody’s band than from Darin, because musicians and writers had heard those records. He left the band after he got married in 1965. Woody had a concert with Tony Bennett on the wedding day, so Ronnie left his own reception and ran down the aisle to the drums, and Tony introduced his new wife to the audience.
After that he worked in New York studios. He did years of jingle dates for Steve Karmen, including sessions with Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald, and he said he bought his first house with the residuals. He also played several Kennedy Center Honors for music director Elliot Lawrence. Before Chicago, his Broadway credits included Grand Hotel.
Some of the records he played on
He’s the drummer on Barry Manilow’s “Copacabana (At the Copa),” which reached number 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1978. In the interview, he said the song started out as a Latin tune before it was turned into disco.
He also played on Frankie Valli’s “Swearin’ to God,” a number 6 hit in 1975. He said Valli sang along in the booth while the band cut the track.
His other credits include:
Bobby Darin, Darin at the Copa (1960)
Woody Herman, Woody’s Winners (1965) and My Kind of Broadway
Don McLean, Playin’ Favorites (1973)
Roberta Flack, Feel Like Makin’ Love (1975)
Barry Manilow, This One’s for You (1976) and Even Now (1978)
Cher, Take Me Home (1979)
Irene Cara, Anyone Can See (1982)
The interview
Since I never got my own conversation with him, I want to share this one. Monk Rowe and Rick Montalbano interviewed Ronnie in March 2022 for the Fillius Jazz Archive at Hamilton College. It’s very interesting and informative.
He talks about how a show like Chicago gets put together. He rehearsed with a piano player and the conductor, and the full band started rehearsing about five or six days before the first performance. He covered drums, percussion and orchestra bells, and he talks about staying focused through the whole show, because four bars can go by if your mind wanders.
He also tells how Tony Riposo, the bandleader at the Three Rivers Inn, taught him to read by having him sing a rhythm and then pointing to it on the page. And he passes along something his brother Torrie used to tell him: you don’t play the notes, you play the music.
Watch the full interview on YouTube
If you worked with Ronnie or saw him play, I’d like to hear about it in the comments.
Share this with a drummer who should hear his story.