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Jazz Legend Marsalis Calls On Wellington String Instrument Repair Master Craftsmen For Help.

When jazz legend Wynton Marsalis needed help, he turned to Wellington resident Albert Genduso.

Marsalis’ band was getting ready to play a concert recently at the Fort Pierce Magnet School of the Arts when bass player Carlos Henriquez damaged his string bass at a concert the previous night. Genduso, owner of Alberti’s Violins, a full-service repair and restoration shop, traveled to Fort Pierce to set the instrument’s soundpost and bridge.

“An opportunity to assist one of the great musicians of our time does not come around often,” said Genduso, a master craftsman in woodworking for the past 45 years. “Carlos even joked around to say that the bass sounded better than before I had repaired it.”

Born in New Orleans in 1961, Wynton Marsalis began studying trumpet seriously at age 12. During high school he performed in local marching bands, jazz bands, funk bands and classical orchestras, and at age 18 he moved to New York to attend the Juilliard School of Music. In the summer of 1980, he became a member of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers and that same year signed with Columbia Records. Since his self-titled debut was released in 1982, Marsalis’ numerous jazz and classical recordings for Columbia and Sony Classical have sold nearly five million copies world wide. He has taken his jazz groups to 30 countries on six continents, averaging more than 120 concerts per year for many of the past 16 years. Henriquez has been a part of the band for the past six years.

In 1997, Marsalis became the first jazz musician to win the Pulitzer Prize in music. He has also been awarded eight Grammy awards for his jazz and classical recordings, and created a four-part, Peabody Award-winning TV series “Marsalis on Music,” which introduces young viewers to the adventure of making music. Marsalis was in South Florida to play a concert hosted by the Fort Pierce Jazz Society and Heathcote Botanical Gardens. He found Alberti’s through the internet search engines like Google at their web site, www.albertisviolins.com.

Under the direction of Albert and Nora Genduso, Alberti’s Violins is a licensed, family-owned and operated business based in Wellington. The company restores, repairs and sells violins, violas, cellos and bass instruments. Genduso has completed master level course studies in violin restoration under the tutelage of German master Mittenwald violin maker and restorer Horst Kloss, internationally known for his work on many of the greatest violin collections in the world, including those in the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C.

Genduso recently received a U.S. patent for his C-clamp design, which promises to revolutionize violin repair in the future.

For more information, visit www.albertisviolins.com or call (561) 798-0425.