Features

Unchained melodies float free and constant in the azure air off Telegraph Avenue in South Berkeley’s The Village while boys and girls from age 13 to 70 drift into James Casella’s second floor Blue Note Music-storefront searching for their “Holy Grail.” 

Some are seduced by a $12,000 Blonde Gibson L-5 from 1948. Others intend to possess one of Mark Campellone’s exquisite, custom handmade $5,000 archtop guitars. Most frequently these searchers yearn to strum and own a beautiful new Martin, Gibson or Fender Custom Shop recreation of the classic guitars of the Golden Age, an age that depends more on the guitarist than the guitar. James and Jennifer Liu sell dreams — dreams of what once was to folks settled into their fifties, or dreams of what might be to folks in their teens and twenties.  

Wandering into The Village is like stepping into a time warp to the 1970s. A crazy quilt brick walk covers the floor, and staircases ascend and descend almost randomly around the enclosed former warehouse.  

“Obviously stoned out hippies built this place,” said Casella, 47. “They were literally smoking weed while they were putting this together. It has a vibe. It’s quirky. It’s unusual and it’s not a mall.” 

Donnie Mucker, a local gray-haired, dread-locked professional musician visits the 10-year-old shop regularly.  

“It’s like the old neighborhood barbershop,” Mucker said. “You can practice your licks, see your friends and play guitars that make you want to keep on playing.” 

Another customer concurred. Strumming a $3,500 Gibson L-5 he contemplated buying to celebrate his own 50th birthday, he recalled that his brother had purchased a new motorcycle as he approached 50. “I don’t want to die on a motorcycle,” he said. “I’d rather have a beautiful guitar.” 

“My major customer is a plus or minus 50-year-old man looking for expensive guitars,” Casella said. “People who typically — when they were between 15 and 25 — went to a store and saw the ‘Holy Grail’ — the blonde L-5 or the ‘58 Les Paul or the ‘56 Strat and said, ‘Some day I’m going to have that.’ That’s who buys the lion’s share, 60 to 70 percent of the higher end jazz guitars, the higher end acoustic guitars and the custom shop solid body stuff.” 

Over 30 years ago, Casella was a student at The School Without Walls in Rochester, New York. 

“There was a rock band in my area called Rain and I loved the guitar player in that band,” he said. “His name was Helmut Ghetto. I was 14, 15. Finally I met him and asked him where he learned to play. He was taking lessons from an old jazz guy, Dick Longale, who basically taught everybody in Rochester how to play. Because my favorite guitar player studied with him, I thought I was going to learn rock ‘n’ roll, but he taught me jazz instead. It was not my intention, but after you learn to play it you start developing an ear for it and you start listening and then the bug catches you. I started saying, ‘Hey. This is cool shit.’  

“We had to do a senior project, kind of a thesis. It really didn’t need to be related to anything else you were doing so I got an apprenticeship at a guitar shop and built my first guitar.” 

Following high school, a stint as a student in the music department at State University of New York at Brockport didn’t last long. “I stopped going to school when they hired me as an instructor,” Casella said. 

Casella left college for an upstate ashram which eventually led, 23 years ago, to UC Berkeley and a double major in religious studies and philosophy.  

“While I was a student at UC I was also a local jazz musician playing in jazz groups,” he said. “I never stopped being a jazz player. I’m still playing. Ten years ago I was out of school and needed money. There was a music store here, Tweed Music, that closed. When he went out of business I rented a little tiny space upstairs and started Blue Note.  

“If my success is attributable to anything,” said Casella, “it’s that I have knowledge from two sides. I was a guitar builder and repairman so I literally understand the instrument inside and out. I know how they work. I understand the materials and the history. And I’m a musician. I’ve been a performing musician. I’ve done that and I’ve done it for a long time. So I see both sides.” 

Blue Note Music is located at 2556 Telegraph Ave. (hidden upstairs in The Village). The phone number is 510-644-2583.