Robby Zolezzi has been a touring pro guitarist since he was 18 years old, having taken up the instrument at 11, spurred by TV and movie themes played by Al Caiola emanating from the family turntable.

“I remember my older brother playing his records – songs like ‘Magnificent Seven,’ ‘Spanish Harlem,’ ‘Taste of Honey,’ ‘Bonanza,’ ‘Gunsmoke,’ and so many others that Al recorded,” he said.

By 14, Zolezzi was playing in a band with older (high school) guys, making money at school dances and other gigs. The experience left no doubt in his young mind that guitar would be his life path, and he became attuned to the music scene near his home in the San Francisco Bay Area.

“I saw Janis Joplin, The Doors, Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead, Santana, The Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, Steve Miller, Traffic and Moby Grape all before I was 17 years old,” he said.

After high school, he earned a degree in Music from San Jose State University, graduating in 1976. But well before graduating, “Robby Z” had become a touring guitarist who ultimately enjoyed a long career with a variety of acts including Tommy Castro, Coco Montoya, Brad Gillis, Marshall Tucker Band, Susan Tedeschi, and others. He retired in 2012, after 12 years with Shane Dwight, playing 150 to 200 shows worldwide each year.

Along the way, Zolezzi became an ardent guitar collector with a nice selection of vintage Gretsch instruments, and a reputation that one day in 2010 led to taking a call from a man brokering a very special example – a prototype made for Al Caiola.

“I remember thinking, ‘Wow, this guitar is truly one of a kind, made for Al when they were trying to keep him with Gretsch.’ Obviously, I was excited at the chance to get it.”
And get it he did, along with signed copies of Caiola’s Midnight Dance Party and Golden Guitar albums, and a note saying, “To Robby: Take care of my baby.”

Caiola (1920-2016) started playing at age 16, and the following year got an Epiphone Broadway archtop on which he installed an Amperite pickup under the tailpiece, then later added a DeArmond with Volume and Tone controls. His primary influences were Django Reinhardt, Charlie Christian, George Van Eps, Artie Ryerson, Billy Bauer, and Les Paul.

As Dan Forte said in the intro to his July ’04 VG interview with Caiola, the guitarist was beyond prolific to the point of being ubiquitous during a six-decade career as guitarist and arranger.

Caiola kept the Broadway when he enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps in 1941; at the time, the military did not recognize guitar as a band instrument, so he played trumpet until the band at Quantico needed a leader; Caiola got the gig, which let him put aside the trumpet and grab his Broadway. Later, he played it with Bob Crosby’s band, which performed for troops in the Pacific; as that band was preparing to head home in 1943, it was diverted to be part of the invasion of Iwo Jima, where Caiola worked heavy-equipment logistics for the landing party.

Returning stateside in ’46, he spent $400 on a new Epiphone Emperor and enrolled at New Jersey Musical College. With help from New York studio ace Tony Mottola, he scored gigs as a substitute before being hired for the CBS orchestra (and simultaneously becoming an Epiphone endorser). There, he played on countless commercial jingles and hundreds of radio and TV shows including live broadcasts with Ed Sullivan, Jackie Gleason, Arthur Godfrey, and Steve Allen.

An increasing studio workload forced him to leave CBS in ’56, and in the following years, sessions in jazz, country, rock, and pop included work for Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Buddy Holly, and Tony Bennett. That’s his guitar on Bobby Darin’s “Splish-Splash” and “Mack the Knife,” Paul Anka’s “Put Your Head on My Shoulder,” Neil Sedaka’s “Calendar Girl,” Johnny Mathis’ “Chances Are,” and Del Shannon’s “Runaway.” He also recorded other movie and TV themes including “Gunslinger,” “The Rebel,” and “Wagon Train (Wagons Ho).”

Caiola also formed his own band and began to release albums. Though its music was marketed as easy-listening, most of it was high-energy jazz in disguise, often with multi-guitar sections that included New York’s top-tier session cats – Mottola, Bucky Pizzarelli, Art Ryerson, Don Arnone, Al Casamente, Billy Bauer, and George Barnes – playing Caiola’s arrangements. In ’59, that approach carried over to albums by an RCA Records ensemble called Living Guitars, which Caiola did without using his real name because he was under contract with United Artists.

His career continued to gain momentum, and in 1961 he scored hits with title themes for The Magnificent Seven (which reached #35) and his own version of the theme from TV’s “Bonanza” (#19); Tommy Tedesco played on the original. In ’64, Caiola charted with the James Bond theme “From Russia with Love,” and another sessions from that period was for Ben E. King’s “Stand by Me.”

Eventually, he recorded more than 50 albums as band leader and became an influential ambassador for the guitar as an instrument, playing several guitars including the Broadway and followed by a string of Gretsches – a Synchromatic 400, a Duo Jet, and a Country Club (the latter heard on “The Magnificent Seven” and “Bonanza”). Lesser-known was a prototype Gretsch that can be heard on 1962’s Midnight Dance Party and Golden Guitar, as well as tracks from the compilation Bonanza! 1960-1969.

“That was my mock-up with the double cutaway and master Volume on the [treble bout],” Caiola told Forte. “It was the beginning of my breakup with [Gretsch because] they gave that design to Chet Atkins and made it part of his line. Chet had the bigger name, but I felt it was a slap in the face. So, I contacted Epiphone, and they came up with the Al Caiola model.”

A dressy version of Gibson’s ES-335, Epiphone’s Al Caiola Custom Signature model was produced from 1963 to ’70 with no soundholes, seven-ply binding, multi-bound tortoiseshell pickguard, block fretboard markers, mini-humbuckers, and an array of slider switches to alter tone. A Standard version carried P-90s, basic binding, and dot inlays.

Zolezzi says the Gretsch, also based on the 335, plays “like butter” and sounds the way you’d expect – “Great! Just like it did on those records.” He used it many times while recording, “When I wanted that smooth jazz sound,” and still picks it every so often, thinking about Caiola every time. His praise for the late legend flows easily.

“There was such variety to Al’s work,” he said. “He could do soft pop, Italian, Hawaiian, country, jazz, the Western-TV themes, and later, he did ethnic-themed instrumental albums such as In a Spanish Mood. He had an astounding career.”

Caiola was 96 when he died at a nursing home in Allendale, New Jersey.

Jim Carlton’s memorial to Caiola appeared in the February ’17 issue of VG and can be read at www.vintageguitar.com/26173/guitarist-al-caiola-passes/.

This article originally appeared in VG’s November 2023 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.