Don Aliquo Sr. has performed music with his son. He’s performed music with his granddaughter. But on Thursday, the longtime Pittsburgh jazz musician and Lower Burrell resident will get a chance to take the stage with both of them.
“It will be great, I can’t wait,” said Aliquo, 96, who plays tenor saxophone. He will be joined by fellow sax player Don Aliquo Jr., along with his granddaughter, vocalist Esai Aliquo.
The Aliquo trio will perform from 6 to 9 p.m. Thursday at Uncorked, 703 Main St. in Sharpsburg.
Aliquo Sr. has been playing woodwind instruments since the early 1940s, beginning with clarinet and settling on saxophone.
A music teacher at Highlands School District for nearly four decades, he also has toured the eastern U.S. with jazz bands. Locally, from the former Civic Arena to the city’s current jazz clubs, there aren’t many venues in Pittsburgh he hasn’t played.
Aliquo Jr., 65, lives in Nashville, where he is a professor of jazz music at Middle Tennessee State University and an active performing and recording artist.
In the Aliquo family, music was pretty much mandatory.
“My two brothers, my sister and I all grew up playing music, my dad made sure of that,” Aliquo Jr. said. “They weren’t as interested in sticking with it, but I really took to it. I’ve heard it said that you don’t really choose music, it chooses you. That’s what happened with me.”
Aliquo Jr. (who also started on clarinet and now plays sax) and his niece will sit in at his father’s standing weekly gig at Uncorked in Sharpsburg.
“We’re choosing some standard jazz repertoire that we enjoy,” Aliquo Jr. said. “I want it to be a lot of fun, and not stressful, so we’re picking material we’ve both played. Esai has been sitting in on my dad’s gigs at times, and with some other groups in the greater Pittsburgh area.”
Aliquo Sr. is looking forward to the performance.
“It’s kind of a debut for my granddaughter,” he said. “We just did a recording within the last month, and it’s being mixed and mastered.”
Aliquo Jr. said he loves playing alongside his father.
“He knows hundreds, if not thousands, of songs,” he said. “I give that a lot of credit for helping keep him sharp and lucid. He knows so much music, it’s really impressive.”
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