Vignette du Village: Lowertown’s Graziadei Orchestra
By Nancy Miller Chenier
When a young Italian musician called Rocco Antonio Graziadei settled with his wife, Maria Carmelia Nicolini, on St. Andrew Street in the 1880s, Lowertown’s celebrated one-family dance orchestra was launched. Rocco was already skilled at playing the harp, the flute, the cello and the violin and each of his ten children – five boys and five girls – eventually learned a musical instrument.
Lorraine Graziadei Laflamme, whose father Michael was the youngest child in this family, shared some memories about her illustrious family from her Clarence Street home. Her grandparents, Rocco and Carmelia, decided to reside permanently in Lowertown and their children grew up in the community, with some staying to raise their own families.
Lorraine remembers that the Graziadei orchestra was prominent from the 1890s, playing at multiple functions in the Capital – under the central rotunda of the Russell House Hotel, in the ballroom of the Chateau Laurier, at Rideau Hall and other venues in and around Ottawa. Through the 1920s and 30s, the family dance band adapted their earlier classical repertoire to the era of jazz and swing. When the band numbers dwindled, four sons continued as a quartet. In 2008, a Bytown Museum exhibition featuring the Ottawa Italian community displayed a magnificent harp used by this early Ottawa music group.
Grandfather Rocco promoted his family orchestra by hanging a sign on the St Andrew Street house indicating that their musical talent was available for “Balls, Parties, and Receptions”. In addition, he co-owned a small grocery store on Dalhousie Street known as “Sardo and Graziadei” where, among other items, he sold olive oil imported from Italy. He also conducted a loan and travel service for new Italian immigrants at “Banco Graziadei” on George Street.
Lorraine’s father, Michael, continued to live on St. Andrew Street after marriage – working by day at the post office and playing his saxophone by night. From this family enclave replete with cousins her own age, Lorraine could roam to nearby parks at Major’s Hill, Nepean Point and Bingham Park. Unlike many of her francophone neighbours, Lorraine’s family preferred movies at the Rideau Theatre rather than the Théâtre français on Dalhousie Street.
Her family attended church services every Sunday at St. Brigid’s Church and after mass, went for a special treat at a Dalhousie Street restaurant popular for its delicious hamburgers and fries. As a pupil at Our Lady’s School on Cumberland, Lorraine remembers coal-heated furnaces, where the charred ashes would be thrown on the playground and cause cut knees for the girls at recess. After further education at Immaculata, a private Catholic secondary school for girls, she secured a government position at the Employment Insurance Commission.
While marriage took Lorraine away from Lowertown, she is now back in the neighbourhood to share the story of this early Lowertown family that chose to move from Laurenzana, Italy to Canada’s capital. And our community has a compelling narrative about a legendary musical group that spanned two centuries of change in Ottawa.