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Carmine La Rosa arrived in
Winnipeg in 1954 at age 10. “My
parents were already here, so they sent
for me to come over by boat all alone,” he
recalls. Within weeks, he was
singing at popular Pembina Highway
restaurant Mama Trossi’s.
“They would bring me at 6 p.m. for the
dinner crowd, then I would sleep in the
back of the restaurant until about 2 a.m.,
when they would wake me up to sing for the
late-night crowd after Rancho Don Carlos
closed. I was taking home $35 to $40
a week, which was more than my mother made
working in a factory for 60 hours a week.”
He remembers the night he performed at the
Royal Alexandra Hotel on Main Street and
took home $70.
A friend of the family offered to take
young La Rosa to Chicago to sing in
restaurants and clubs.
“He would make sure I went to school and
send my parents $200 a month,” La Rosa
remembers. “They said no. I
had only been reunited with my family for
six months.”
La Rosa later hooked up with friends from
Churchill High School to form the
Thunderstorms. The band was a
popular attraction at community clubs,
later graduating to bars throughout the
city, including Chan’s Moon Room, the St.
Charles Hotel, the Town ’n’ Country’s Gold
Coach Lounge and the Black Night.
“We did six months at the Black Night,” La
Rosa says. “I used to perform with
the band in the pub until it closed at 11,
then go sing with the guitar player in the
lounge until midnight.”
La Rosa crossed paths with Neil Young in
1961 when the budding musician played bass
with the Thunderstorms for a couple of
gigs. “Neil was a bit of an odd
individual back then,” recalls La
Rosa. “Kind of anti-social,
withdrawn and introverted, more reserved
than the rest of us.”
Like the D-Drifters, the Thunderstorms
courted broader appeal. “We were
more versatile than just a rock ’n’ roll
band,” says La Rosa. “I sang the
Italian songs like Volare, and we
did Trini Lopez songs and country and
western. We also played weddings and
socials for the Italian community.”
The La Rosa Trio +1 (La Rosa, Gary Rogers,
Mike Sambork and Ted Hicks) released a
couple of singles and two albums on
V-Records, Italian Songs and A
Party-Italian Style.
“We were an experiment for V-Records,” La
Rosa says. “The Ukrainians over here
didn’t have access to music from home, so
there was an existing market here.
Alex tried to do the same with the Italian
community here, but Italians were able to
get records from Italy. You could go
to Nucci’s Records and buy the latest
Italian records from home. You
didn’t need a cover band to play those
songs.”
La Rosa says the French community ended up
buying more of his records than the
Italian community.
John Einarson
Excerpt adapted from CULTURAL
CROSSOVER: LABEL TAPPED INTO DEMAND
FOR UKRAINIAN MUSIC
published in The Winnipeg Free Press,
July 18, 2015
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L-R
(seated between two models): Carmine
La Rosa (vocals/rhythm guitar), Mike
Sambork (lead guitar/bass), Garry Rogers
(drums)
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The La Rosa Trio
In 1966 while attending the University of
Manitoba, I met Garry Rogers who was in
the Faculty of Education and was an avid
drummer with various groups including
Carmine La Rosa. Upon invitation, I
joined and we three became The La Rosa
Trio and subsequently played such venues
as the Town and Country Nightclub’s Gold
Coach Lounge, Chan’s Moon Room as a
lounge/dance band. Two LP’s were
produced with Italian song flavour as well
as a single 45 in 1967 celebrating
Canada’s Centennial “All Right OK, You
Win”/” Era Qui “.
Other musicians contributed to the group
on events and recording; Brian Hillman
drums, Ted Hicks accordion, Barkley
Johnson sax, Mike Ficzere (Fischer) piano
and Bill Ostap cordavox. The La Rosa
Trio moved into the pub scene in the later
part of 1960’s / early 1970’s and
performed throughout Winnipeg opening up
such new hotels/pubs as the Village Inn in
Westwood, Winnipeg.
Because of the versatility and especially
Carmine La Rosa, many weddings (mostly
Italian) and special events were performed
by The La Rosa Trio. The group
spanned more than a decade and was very
active in the Winnipeg music scene, and
anyone who frequented the pubs and
nightclubs in Winnipeg during that period
of time surely heard The La Rosa Trio
perform.
Mike Sambork
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The La Rosa Trio commentary,
newspaper clippings, and City of
Winnipeg Visitors Guide contributed by
Mike Sambork.
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Carmine
La Rosa performing at Assiniboine Park in
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
July 2012
Photo credit:
Paul Newsome
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