Vessella's Italian Band is a name found on many discs made by the Victor Talking Machine Company from 1911 until 1916. <br /><br />In the 1920s, Brunswick issued recordings made by the ensemle.<br /><br />The ensemble was led by Oreste Vessella, who was born in Alife, Italy in 1877. <br /><br />He was the nephew of a successful bandleader named Alessandro Vessella (1860-1929), who led the Band of Rome. <br /><br />Oreste trained as a clarinetist in Naples and also studied music in Genoa. <br /><br />By 1903 the bandleader was pleasing crowds at the Atlantic City Steel Pier. (Vincenso Callimo, a clarinetist in the Royal Italian Band, drowned while attempting to swim around the 1,500 ft long Steel Pier.) <br /><br />In December 1904, Vessella's name was in newspapers due to a breach of promise lawsuit brought against him by a former lover in Italy. The young woman, Gaetanina Lombari, sought $25,000 in damages. <br /><br />His bride was Edna Egan, daughter of a millionaire, a Cincinnati businessman named Thomas P. Egan. She had been married for only a few months when news of this scandal broke in October 1904.<br /><br />The breach of promise case reached a judgement in April 1905. It went against Vessella, who was ordered to pay $10,000 to Signorina Lombari. <br /><br />The lawsuit added strain to Vessella's marriage. In 1910 he divorced Edna. At that time she was 25 years old, and Oreste was age 33. <br /><br />In the summer of 1906 Oreste Vessella went to Chicago as guest conductor of another Italian band, the Banda Roma, which was on the bill for the Sans Souci amusement park. <br /><br />He and the bandsmen had some artistic differences. In July a dispute arose with the Chicago musicians union which found fault with Vessella's contract and fined him $500 and each of his musicians $50. <br /><br />Then in August he expressed some abusive words towards a musician during a concert and a fracas ensued between him and the players, frightening the audience, and only stopped when police intervened.<br /><br />In late August, 1906, Vessela returned to Atlantic City to finish the summer season with his regular band at the Steel Pier.<br /><br />In April 1907 Vessella was arrested on a charge of threatening a musician with a pistol. The bandsman, Francesca Certaglia, contended that he and Vessella got into an argument over money. Vessella claimed it was over a mistake in the playing of the musician. After a hearing in magistrate court, Oreste was acquitted and released.<br /><br />Oreste's younger brother, Marco Vessella, was engaged to play the summer season at Atlantic City at Young's Pier. One could probably hear Marco's band and Oreste's band at the same time.<br /><br />Oreste Vessella died in Atlantic City on June 21, 1963. He was 86.
