Paul Prestopino

Paul Prestopino (September 20, 1939 – July 16, 2023) was a multi-instrumental musician and an audio engineer from the artist colony in Roosevelt, New Jersey, and the son of artist Gregorio Prestopino.

Paul Prestopino in 2016

Early life and career

Prestopino's family moved from Brooklyn to Roosevelt in 1949.^[1] He graduated in 1956 from Hightstown High School^[2] and attended the University of Wisconsin as a physics student where he also worked as a physics lab technician.^[3][4]

In 1958 to 1959, Prestopino played on Sundays in Washington Square Park in New York City's Greenwich Village with the Greenbriar Boys.^[5] He left the Greenbriar Boys before they became nationally known^[6] to serve as an accompanist for the Chad Mitchell Trio,^[7] and he also played behind Peter, Paul & Mary for at least fifteen years.^[8][9]

Prestopino worked from 1970 until 1989 was as a technician with the Record Plant Remote (the Record Plant's studio-on-wheels), where he served as a sound engineer^[10] for mainstream musicians in several musical genres. Although not a regular studio musician, due to his availability at the venue of many non-studio recordings (where he always brought instruments with him), Prestopino was frequently tapped to add a track or accompaniment whenever certain stringed instruments were desired. He contributed to albums by bands and singers such as Aerosmith, Rick Derringer, Alice Cooper, Pete Seeger, John Denver, Tom Paxton, and Judy Collins^[11] among others On these recordings, he played (mostly) various fretted instruments including guitar, banjo, dobro and mandolin. Prestopino first contributed guitar, autoharp, and mandolin accompaniment to John Denver's Rhymes & Reasons album in 1969, and he also is credited for playing on eight subsequent album releases of works by John Denver, including Take Me to Tomorrow and Aerie.^[11]

Later life

In the second half of his life, Prestopino played frequently in small musical venues within driving range of his home, including the New Jersey Folk Festival and Howell Living History Farm,^[12] where he typically appeared with Jugtown Mountain String Band.^[13][14] Prestopino usually attended the Banjofest reunion of musicians who used to play in the park in the 1950s and ’60s, held annually in Washington Square Park, New York City.^[15] He performed annually for many years at the New England Folk Festival in Boston with his English Country Dance band (called Hold the Mustard). For 37 years, he played annually in the Roosevelt String Band in an always-sold-out concert at the Roosevelt Town Hall that included many accomplished musicians (such as Kai Altair) from the Roosevelt community.^[16] He also played regularly for contra-dances at Princeton Country Dancers (the contra-dance in Princeton, New Jersey) and acted as a sound and maintenance engineer, as well as a musician, for their open bands.

Prestopino could often be found in his off-hours jamming with a wide variety of musicians and composing several tunes for stringed instruments.^[17] In 2019, he recorded a bluegrass album as a member of the Magnolia Street String Band.^[18]

Prestopino died on July 16, 2023.^[19]

Notes

1. "Paul Prestopino". Rooseveltartsproject. Retrieved 2023-11-04.
2. "College Entrants", Asbury Park Press, October 10, 1956. Accessed November 13, 2023, via Newspapers.com. "The following borough residents who were graduated in June from Hightstown High School are attending various colleges this year: ... Paul Prestopino, Carnegie Tech."
3. "Chad Mitchel Trio Is Solid in Entertaining". Wisconsin State Journal. 1962-10-06. p. 15. Retrieved 2023-11-04.
4. Leary, James (2010-11-18). Polkabilly: How the Goose Island Ramblers Redefined American Folk Music. Oxford University Press, USA. pp. 65, 128. ISBN 978-0-19-975696-4.
5. Harris, Craig (2018-04-23). Bluegrass, Newgrass, Old-Time, and Americana Music. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4556-2402-7.
6. Rosenberg, Neil V. (2005). Bluegrass: A History. University of Illinois Press. p. 148. ISBN 978-0-252-07245-1.
7. Paul Prestopino Passes, obituary in Bluegrass Today posted on July 20, 2023 by Richard D. Smith. Last access 7/24/2023.
8. Harrison, Judy (2010-09-21). "Peter and Paul without Mary bittersweet". Bangor Daily News. Retrieved 2023-08-13.
9. "Off-center impact:Prestopino's influence spans 40 years of folk music". Richmond Times-Dispatch. 2005-05-19. pp. D19 and D31. Retrieved 2023-11-04.
10. Presto’s “Imaginative” ADT Chango from the Record Plant Diaries, Jul. 13, 2021, referring to an ingenious rig-up Paul Prestopino created in July of 1971.
11. "Paul Prestopino | Credits". AllMusic. Retrieved 2023-08-13.
12. The Friends of Record Plant NYC FB group announce the passing of longtime Record Plant maintenance tech and master musician Paul “Presto” Prestopino. by The Record Plant Diaries staff on Facebook, July 17, 2023.
13. Barn Dance at Howell Living History Farm on WDVR-FM website, for July 12-13, 2019.
14. Jugtown Mountain String Band to perform at Shippen Manor in Oxford, June 15 on nj.com, 6/9/2014. This lists the members of the band. Last access 8/15/2023.
15. Scoopy's Notebook, Week of Oct. 5, 2017 report on the AM*NY website, Oct. 5, 2017, includes two photographs of Paul Prestopino in Washington Square Park at the Banjofest reunion of musicians who used to play in the park in the 1950s and ’60s.
16. "The Roosevelt String Band-35 Years On..." Roosevelt Arts Project. 2023-01-31.
17. Paul Prestopino, Banjo at State of the Arts, NJ, where Paul Prestopino gave State of the Arts a special mini-concert of one of his own compositions, “Weymann’s March” , in 2020. A tune repository for Princeton Country Dancers contains seven additional dance tunes composed by Prestopino.
18. Wrong Side of the Rain – Magnolia Street String Band review by Lee Zimmerman on Bluegrass today, March 3, 2020. Last access 7/24/2023.
19. Smith, Richard D. (2023-07-20). "Paul Prestopino passes". Bluegrass Today. Retrieved 2023-11-04.

External links

• State of the Arts: Paul Prestopino performing Weymann’s March in 2020