In a simple, late-at-night kind of way, I'd like to begin these profiles close to home and write a little something about a great New Orleans Italian musician who I always thought was underrated in a colossal way. I don't just say this because he was my uncle; Roy Liberto was a truly proficient New Orleans musician in every way.
Where might I begin? For starters he was--according to one of his old vinyl albums--a regular on the Mike Douglas and Ed Sullivan shows way back when being on television was a huge deal. He was a main character in a movie that played at (I think it was) the Globe Theater on Canal Street. If you went to New York you might have seen him on a billboard with Gene Krupa. One time I visited his home in Arabi I found pictures of him on stage with some of the biggest celebrities of his time..and on and on and on. He played Dixieland music. He was the real thing. It's really incredible to think that he was my uncle.
One time Al Hirt told me that the only difference between him and Roy Liberto was a good manager.
If you click on the link below, it will show how credible he was being on a lable like United Artists. That speaks for itself. If you look closely at the picture, you will see that he was about as good looking as any man could get.
Vince Liberto
http://www.google.com/imgres?q=Roy+Liberto&um=1&hl=en&sa=N&biw=866&bih=545&tbm=isch&tbnid=VFh4U9wNWPep8M:&imgrefurl=http://www.thewaxfactor.com/index.php%3Fmain_page%3Dindex%26record_company_id%3D8%26typefilter%3Drecord_company%26sort%3D20a%26page%3D5&docid=YrTOaXA3o2V-jM&w=810&h=768&ei=odBVTtv2H4jh0QHflr3UDA&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=128&page=1&tbnh=126&tbnw=133&start=0&ndsp=12&ved=1t:429,r:2,s:0&tx=70&ty=23
