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And to my left here is an image of Rob Pizapio aka MR. RT. SLINGER - the best bass guitar student I had in the world of bass guitar students. He is a very diligent bassist and is able to easily take on the job of supplying excellent bass lines to a variety of styles of music. In other words, he's a professional bassist.
As a student he was always open to taking on the task of tackling something new and different. Whenever he reached the ability to easily play that which was currently being covered I would ask him to get ready to move on to the next phase and he couldn't wait to get started. He took on the challenge, obtained whatever materials were needed to get ready (books, recordings, sheet music, etc) and went to work on moving forward and increasing his set of skills as a bassist. That confidence led him into being the man who would lay down an excellent "bottom line" as the foundation for any band, I.E. the bassist. After completing seven years (1971 to 1977) of practicing and taking lessons at Muscara Music in Belleville, NJ he hit the road during the 80's as a bassist and had a very successful career on the road as a musician. He currently is a local musician in the NY, NJ area with a very talented group of musicians under the name of The PhonenixBand. Their web address is www.phoenixband.org. |
The PhoenixBand includes from left to right Rob Pizapio aka Mr. RT Slinger on bass guitar, John Bowden (Johnny 6 String) on lead guitar and vocals, the unbelievable vocal ability of Cliff Ladosz (Lefty) on guitar and lead vocals, Bobby Palino (Dr. Bobby Pepper) on drums and Ted* Malin (Ted Phoenix) on keyboards and vocals.
Rob when he was getting started In his career as a professional musician on bass guitar.
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Rob has a grand total of 13 different bass guitars in his collection. |
Here is a more recent photo of Rob on a bass solo for "Flight of Phoenix". As Rob says, The PhoenixBand is not a traditional cover band - they are a tribute to rock music. |
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The first photo is the original Muscara Music where Rob was my bass guitar student. Directly above is another Muscara Music that opened up across the street from the original one. It handled the sales of all musical instruments except acoustic pianos and organs which remained in the original store along with music lessons.
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The Dream Plays On
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BELOW YOU'LL FIND THE RESULTS FOR THE PHOENIXBAND AS THE BEST NEW JERSEY BAND AND FOR ROB PIZAPIO AKA MR. RT SLINGER AS THE BEST NEW JERSEY BASSIST. |
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Here is a comment I received from Rob regarding this web page |
Ralph you are the reason I got to that level. You are my mentor I looked up to you, you took the time to teach me and I am forever grateful.I am humbled by this page and turn all and any of my success as a bassist to you. Thank you for being part of my life, though we went our separate ways you are forever a part of me
Your lifelong friend Rob Pizapio |