Frank Coco, SJ, and his clarinet: inseparable partners

Jesuit Frank Coco's musical career started and ended at a young age--or so it seemed. Born in 1920 in Helena, Arkansas, a Mississippi River town south of Memphis, his early fascination with jazz was nurtured by listening to dance band music drifting across the water from the riverboats passing through from New Orleans.

Live From St. Louis: Fr. Frank Coco, SJ, and In a Closer Walk With Three: Fr. Frank Coco, SJ & the Ronnie Kole Trio are available on CD for $12 each, $20 for both (includes postage) from the Sacred Heart Program, 3900 Westminster Place, St. Louis, MO 63108 or toll-free (888) 726-6822. For more information about the Sacred Heart Program, visit www.sacredheartprogram.org

At age 11 he began playing the clarinet; two years later he was playing in his older brother's dance band. His musical career was put on hold in 1938 when at age 17 he joined the Jesuits.

After ordination in 1951 Fr. Coco would play only informally with other Jesuit musicians, just for fun. It was after Vatican II that he decided to play publicly once again, inspired by the renewal of the Church.

“I'm grateful to Pope John XXIII who opened some windows to let fresh air into the Church, through one of which I crawled into the jazz public,” he states in the liner notes of his '79 recording with the Ronnie Kole Trio.

Fr. Coco, who plays tenor sax in addition to clarinet, has retained his love of jazz throughout his 65 years as a Jesuit. He's sat in with jazz notables Pete Fountain, Al Hirt, Ronnie Kole, and other New Orleans jazz bands. Over the years he's developed a personal relationship with Fountain.

“I met Pete at his club after Mardi Gras in 1965,” explains Fr. Coco, “and I was invited to be the chaplain of his Half-Fast Walking Club,” a perennial fixture of Mardi Gras in New Orleans since 1960. “I've been with them ever since.”

Fr. Frank Coco, SJ, started with the clarinet in the early '30s. He took some time off when he first joined the Jesuits, but it wasn't long before he was playing Dixieland jazz again, at times with Pete Fountain's Half-Fast Walking Club during Mardi Gras. Lately he's been wrapping up retreats with some tunes; here he performs at a concert for the Sacred Heart Program in St. Louis.

His typical concert repertoire features traditional jazz classics like “Summertime” and “When the Saints Go Marching In” as well as tunes made famous by jazz notables like Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, and other big bands of the 30's and 40's. Fr. Coco sees his musical interests as a ministry: “I always wear my Roman collar at public ap-pearances. It's opened some doors for counseling people who were hurting in one way or another.”

After many years as a high school teacher of speech and English, he works these days as a retreat director at Our Lady of the Oaks Retreat House in Grand Coteau, Louisiana. Each of his retreats concludes with solo clarinet tunes for the retreatants, with songs like “A Closer Walk With Thee” and “Amazing Grace” as well as some jazz standards.

About three years ago, I stumbled upon a gem among the record albums in the archives of the Sacred Heart Program, a broadcast ministry of the Jesuits in St. Louis. Still in its cellophane cover was an album, In A Closer Walk with Three: Fr. Frank Coco, SJ & the Ronnie Kole Trio.

After calling Fr. Coco a number of times and talking about his lifelong love of jazz, I finally got up enough nerve to ask him to perform a benefit concert in St. Louis for the Sacred Heart Program, which has a long history of sponsoring live special events, including lectures by Bishop Sheen in the 60's and concerts by Lawrence Welk in the 70's.

Fr. Coco, delighted with the idea, traveled north last fall for the concert, recorded in a supper-club setting in the College Church ballroom at Saint Louis University. The resulting CD,Live From St. Louis: Father Frank Coco, SJ: An Evening of Jesuit Jazz, features an ensemble that includes the smooth piano work of Pat Joyce, the syncopated rhythms of John Becker on banjo, the deep bottom sound of Stephen Larmore on bass, a guest appearance by Fr. George Kennard, SJ, on trumpet, and the fluid style of Fr. Coco on clarinet. This latest recording has rekindled the public's interest in this longtime professional jazz musician and has given Fr. Coco a renewed appreciation of his own unique gift of music and ministry.

Gary Kolarcik, from New Jersey, has worked in programming at commercial and noncommercial radio stations for more than 30 years and has taught courses in broadcasting.