Johnny “Blue Horn” Moriconi has been down for a while but he certainly isn’t out. Last spring, Boston’s hugely popular blues musician Moriconi noticed that the hearing in his right ear was getting poorer. When he had it checked out he discovered he had a benign brain tumor in the back of his head. He’s now recovering from radiosurgery he had three weeks ago. The good news is that he’s already back to sitting in on some gigs, as a singer and playing his trademark Holton MF Admiral blue-lacquer trumpet.
“It didn’t need to be removed. But, it was pressing against the nerve in my brain stem that affects your hearing,” Moriconi said. “So what they did was something called radiosurgery where they didn’t have to cut me open. They just put radiation directly onto the tumor to kill the cells from the inside.”
Moriconi’s doctors do not want him to drive for another six months, due to the combination of him being tired and having some mild seizures resulting from the radiosurgery. Working for a transportation company that shuttles rental cars from place to place, Moriconi has been out of work for six months. His wife just started a job this week.
“We’re just doing the best we can,” he said. Moriconi and his wife Julia had married back in October, and she’s been his biggest help. “She’s my rock,” he continued. “She’s the best thing for me, right now.”
To help Moriconi and his wife make ends meet while his revenue stream is suspended, a fundraiser will be held at JJ’s Sports Bar in Northboro, Massachusetts on Sunday, February 21. The musical event will feature popular local artists such as Wilbur And The Dukes, Ricky King Russell, Eddie Scheer, Anthony Geraci, Johnny Juxo, Diane Blue & Friends, Tony Soul Project, Philip Pemberton, Michelle Willson, Toni Lynn Washington, Willie J. Laws, Back Seat Boogie, Mission Of Blues, Big Jack Ward, Jim Perry, Jimmy 2 Suits Capone, Bobby Breeze, Scott Shetler, Myanna, Doc Channonhouse, and many more.
JJ’s Sports Bar is located at 380 SW Cutoff in Northboro. The event begins at 2:00 p.m.
Moriconi has some more tests to undergo, to be certain that the tumors he had treated actually shrank away and died. This a process that takes place after the patient undergoes radiosurgery. “It’s going to take a few months for that to happen, for that process to complete itself, so that has to be monitored,” the trumpet player said. “They prescribed a medication for me too, so that has to be monitored to make sure it’s working as well.”
There have been plenty of shiny moments of good news. Moriconi can still sing and play. He sat in on a couple of other bands’ gigs last weekend. It has been left up to him by his doctors how to go about returning to live performance and the number of gigs he can play. “I have no pain. I have no problem doing what I used to do before,” he said. “The only problem I have right now is stamina, and that I think I’ll slowly rebuild back up.”
The trumpet player does have some issues with dizziness, co-ordination, and memory, but he believes these are only temporary effects that will come to pass. “I’m hoping that they will,” he said.
A four year veteran of the air force, serving right after he graduated from high school, Moriconi has had his entire medical process covered financially through the VA system. “That’s all been taken care of,” he said.
Moriconi had been playing right up until his radiosurgery three weeks ago, but to him three weeks was a long time away from his beloved music scene. Listening to music has been a form of therapy for him while he recovered. “It’s given me a chance to build up my repertoire and invest a little time into what I want to do as a main feature performer and to catch up on listening to other people’s performances, too. That I’ve been neglecting, rushing from gig to gig to gig,” he said. “It’s been a chance to catch up on listening.”
Mainly, Moriconi has been overwhelmed with the vast amount of support he’s received from family and friends, especially those from his greater-Boston music scene. “I can’t express enough how appreciative I am to everyone who’s been helping me out along the way here,” he said. “It’s really been a blessing. It’s been enlightening to put it mildly, and I’m just overwhelmed with the support I’ve received.”
When asked if playing a gig now gives him an exhilarating feeling, he said “It’s just nice to be out there. It hasn’t been that long, but yet it has been that long. It’s hard to put into words. The responses have been wonderful, and I’m just appreciating it more that I’m able to do what I do and I certainly intend to do it for a much longer period of time. So, it’s all good. The blue horn is in business.”
What Moriconi likes most about his local music scene is the audiences. “They come out and they’re very appreciative,” he said. “They know what’s good, and they really appreciate a heart felt performances, so that’s what I try to give them.”
The trumpet player-vocalist has been performing in this area for 30 years, having started out in the rock scene until he felt a calling, around 1992, to go over to blues side, and he’s been playing blues ever since. He stuck with it for personal reasons.
“There’s a strong bond between all the performers,” he said. “They really band together and help one another out when it’s needed.”
Moriconi learned to play trumpet through private lessons as a child, which helped build his technical facility. “I pretty much learned through listening and performing,” he said.
His upcoming fundraising event has been organized by singer Diane Blue, who is like a sister to Moriconi, and, Mission Of Blues bass player Paul Spagnolia. Moriconi was in M.O.B. for 11 years. The singer-trumpet player is overwhelmed by the number of artists Blue and Spagnolia have enlisted to participate in the upcoming fundraiser.
“If I wasn’t a musician and if this wasn’t for me, if I was just a fan of the music, I’d want to go to this and drop 20 bucks just to see all of these people perform,” Moriconi said. “It’s really an incredible bill. It starts at two ‘clock and it runs until I guess they throw us out,” he quipped.
Moriconi said he will likely get up on stage a few times throughout the event. “I haven’t been feeling terribly bad at all lately,” he said. “Catching up on my rest is important, but, like I said before: physically I’m not limited. I just want to stress how grateful I am, not only me but me and my wife both are very, very grateful to everyone who’s been so supportive, and so loving, and caring while we’ve gone through this. That’s been the most important thing to me and to us.”
https://www.facebook.com/events/900135800116796/
