big bands, he wasn't trying to toot his own horn.
The Euclid great-grandfather, who died Jan. 20 at age 85, dropped names of famous musicians, singers and actors to amuse his listeners.
"He was not talking about himself," said Harry Hershey, whose orchestra - including Anelli - put on the "The stories he told me were about other people."
He laughed, when he related a 1948 incident in which a the Eddy Duchin Orchestra and Perry Como, who needed a band for a 15-minute show on the fledgling medium of television.
Assigned to Duchin's band, Anelli believed he got a job that would last longer than the Como gig.
Instead, Como became a perennial star, and Duchin died two years later of Sodja Music, when the store was on East 185th Street in "Things to stay away from, things that happen, things you shouldn't do," said his former trombone student Paul Hungerford. "Good advice about how to Anelli was born in Manhattan, N.Y.
, the son of Italian immigrants. His father - a composer and opera conductor - made sure his children were musically trained.
Anelli, who played piano at a young age, took up trumpet playing as a junior in high school, because he wanted to join the marching band.
"He wanted to be the guy in the spotlight," his son Bob said. "You can't march with a piano.
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