Jimmy Mazz performs ’50s, ’60s hits at Majestic Theater

WEST SPRINGFIELD — Popular vocalist and entertainer Jimmy Mazz returns to the Majestic Theater’s summer lineup of entertainment with two shows on Saturday, July 19, offering memories for music lovers of different generations.

At an afternoon matinee at 2 p.m., Mazz will go “Cruisin’ Through the Fifties” with remembered artists like Jerry Lee Lewis, Fats Domino, Chubby Checker, Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, and Bill Haley, not forgetting the king of all of them, Elvis Presley. Hit songs will include “The Tennessee Waltz,” “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me” and “Shaboom, Shaboom.”

Then at 7:30 p.m., Mazz returns for those who want to relive the 1960s with “Swingin’ Through the Sixties.” Appearing for this show with his live band, Mazz will take the audience through the most musically expressive and innovative decade in history including The Beach Boys, Van Morrison’s “Brown Eyed Girl,” Dion’s “Runaround Sue” and “The Wanderer,” The Righteous Brothers’ “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling,” and many more epic songs from The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Herman’s Hermits and many others.

“This year marks 20 years for me as a full-time entertainer,” Mazz said.

Mazz is no stranger to the area, having grown up in Ludlow.

“My best friend’s father was a guitar teacher in the early 1970s. I couldn’t afford lessons, and he would come home and teach me what his father taught him. I didn’t really start to play guitar until the age of 15 while a junior in high school. At about that time, friends in school had a group and were losing their singer and asked me to fill in. I wasn’t a singer, but I said, ‘Sure, I’ll do it.’ I vividly remember my first live show with them at the Ludlow Boys and Girls Club. I sang ‘Smoke on the Water’ by Deep Purple with my hands in my pockets and staring down at the stage because I was too shy to look into the audience. And that got the ball rolling for me, and I continued playing in bands throughout high school,” Mazz said.

Over the years, he would go on to play in many bands, but it was when Mazz joined the wedding band Breezin’ in 1993 that changed his direction dramatically from just playing rock ‘n’ roll in the clubs. That wedding band experience taught him to actually entertain an audience and molded him into the entertainer he is today.

“After the wedding band retired, I met a bunch of guys from Springfield and Wilbraham who were doing originals and covers, and they asked me to join as their bass player. Once again, I said, ‘Sure, I can do it.’ We wrote a ton of music and toured all over including New York and Florida,” Mazz said.

One day out of the blue, he received a phone call to do a wedding, but he had been out of the wedding business for a while and at first was not sure he could do it.

“Once again, I said, ‘Sure, I can do it,’” Mazz said.

Learning a one-hour set of Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin songs for the cocktail hour sparked the entertainer audiences see today. After multiple compliments and requests to do more weddings, upscale events and private parties, Mazz took his performing knowledge plus his love for a wide variety of music — Motown, polka, swing, rock and roll, the British invasion and more — and went full time as a crooner singer and entertainer.

Yet another big break was about to knock at his door.

“I was performing in Boston when a lady came up to me at the end and asked me if I performed in Florda. She lived in a community down there and gave me an agent’s phone number to see if he would hire me but cautioned that they were already hiring for 2009 and it would probably be 2010 before I could get any work,” Mazz said.

He had to fly down on his own dime and perform a short set for a bunch of people, and before he knew it, he had 19 contracts for 2009 and another 42 lined up for 2010, much to his surprise.

“Contracts are usually for gated communities where they have a clubhouse with a stage and bring shows in during snowbird season, which is usually January through Easter. I worked the entire winter down in Florida in 2009 and ended up buying a house in 2010 because I was spending so much time down there. But in the summer months bookings dry up, and I found myself flying back to New England to continue to make a living here while renting an apartment. So, I was going back and forth each season. Then, in 2017, the market changed, and it was cheaper to buy a home than rent, so I bought a house in Southwick,” Mazz said.

Mazz doesn’t consider himself an impersonator or tribute artist, but he does have the uncanny ability to capture the sound of other people’s voices.

“I’m an impressionist and can sing in the voices of about 20 different stars like Johnny Cash, Elvis, Garth Brooks, Neil Diamond, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and many others. I might do short little bit of Elvis in the middle of singing his song, but that’s it, it’s not an entire performance. And I may do some in Springfield,” he said.

Tickets for either the matinee or evening show are $30 and available online at majestictheater.com.