Who's Almost Who In Knickerbocker Village History: Si Zentner

Si went to Thomas Jefferson High School. It was from there that

Si Zentner's first instrument was an Olds which he bought for twelve dollars but soon discarded in favor of his High School's bass trombone on which he won the Guggenheim Foundation's Philharmonic Scholarship. Asked to play the F major scale, he started on pedal F and continued up for four octaves.

Living at 409 Belmont Avenue it's possible he crossed paths with Sue Sider Schumer who lived about a half mile away at 99 Williams Avenue.
Comments written by Si Zentner appreciators on a trombone history site:

am just about 60, and went to see Si (sounds like Mel Blanc...) at a place in the Bronx, it was an Amusement Park, actually, called (as I remember it) Freedom Land. Yes, it was pretty big and had a band shell and did summer weekend concerts, and the one I went to (being about a Soph in High School at PCHS, Port Chester High School) was The Everly Bros. and Si Zentner's Big Band. Oh yeah, I wasn't there for Sy, but actually, having grown up with Duke, Count and King (both of them, BB, Nat Cole and King Pleasure to name a few) was ready to enjoy the sounds of a live big band. IT WAS GREAT. Si was a consummate showman, and many "older" couples (not the kids there for the Bros.) got up and cut the asphalt down front near the band. They were doing the numbers from this LP, since some of it was Bossa Nova, and of course, the folks tried to do that, but hey, nobody really KNEW how to Bossa Nova Dance, so it was fake it time. The band performed maybe 45 minutes, and did an encore, which make the teens get a little hootie and antsy, but it was a beautiful summer day, and the concert was FREE with admission, and besides, the EVERLY BROS. were next. A guy came onstage and had a big pompadour and the girls started to scream tentatively, and the guy plugged in his electric guitar, hey, he was only the guitar player!!!! The guys wouldn't fall for that, and waited with arms folded and looked cool. It was a great show, the Everlys did perfect harmony (which they continued to do for another what , 15 or 20 years...) and the girls got to scream on Wake Up Little Suzie... Nice day at the amusement park in the Bronx. circa 63 or 64, I'm thinking.
Hey, it had to be before '64, since it opened in '60 and closed in '64!
Yeah, Freedomland.
I just turned 60...doesn't seem like that many years. I played trombone in a big-band we had in high school in Dayton, Ohio and the guys and myself went to see Si whenever he was in town or nearby. I remember well seeing his band at "Coney Island" park in Cincinnati in the pavilion. We also sneaked into "The Living Room" (underage) to hear Si, Kenton and Basie when they were there. "Desafinado" was my favorite Si album. I almost wore it out playing it. Then one of my friends "borrowed" all of my Zentner LP's for a weekend... and moved with his parents to Michigan and I never saw them again. Oy! I'd love to see all the old stuff re-released on digital media, but only some small selections are currently available. Thanks for posting this.
The thing that was fantastic about the Zentner band was mostly the Bob Florence arrangements. He would take an old tune and not only make it swing, but make it fresh again like it was just written.

Si Zentner: Desafinado

While the world is listening to the Beatles I'm listening to Si Zentner? This was one of his big hits. I had around five or six of his albums.

Although he started learning the violin at the age of 4, Zentner switched to trombone and won a college scholarship for his playing ability. In the beginning, he was a classical musician, but he moved into more commercial music after playing on a session with Andre Kostelanetz. He joined Les Brown's big band in 1940, then moved on to work with Harry James and Jimmy Dorsey.
He settled in Los Angeles during the war to raise his family and worked in the studio system. From 1949 to 1955, he was on the staff of MGM, working on such films as "Singing in the Rain" and "A Star is Born." He wanted to lead his own band, though, and he got a contract with Liberty Records in 1959. At a time when most big bands had withered up and died, Zentner staffed a full-sized swing ensemble and took it on the road. Working colleges as well as the usual ballrooms and clbus, the band succeeded in keeping a steady stream of gigs going. At one point during this period, he claimed to have played 178 one-night stands in a row.
Zentner not only made a go of his enterprise, but garnered both commercial and critical awards. His band won 13 straight Downbeat polls as best big band and Zentner himself was picked as the top trombonist in Playboy's Jazz Reader's Poll. In 1961, a Bob Florence-arranged twist version of Hoagy Carmichael's "Up a Lazy River" reached the top 40 pop charts, won the Grammy Award as Best Instrumental Number, and became his signature tune. The next year, he and Florence collaborated with Martin Denny on Exotica Suite, a big band setting of Les Baxter compositions. He switched labels briefly, releasing three albums on RCA in 1965, but returned to Liberty soon thereafter.
Even Zentner couldn't fight the odds against a touring big band, though, and in 1965, he moved to Las Vegas and was hired to open the Tropicana Hotel's 500-seat lounge, the Blue Room, playing behind Mel Torme. In 1968, he began the musical director for the "Folies Bergere," one of Vegas' longest-running floor shows. Once again, though, he couldn't resist the lure of the road, and he formed another touring group, this time working cruise ships and retirement communities in addition to colleges, clubs, and casinos. You can hear this band in action on the 1996 CD, Road Band. "While trombonists were not known much for their longevity in the business, Si was an exception," recalled Las Vegas Sun columnist Joe Delaney. "He was even playing well to the end of his career." Although battling leukemia the last two years of his life, Zentner stayed active, performing up to six months before his death.