The
Red Hook StarªRevue
APRIL 2017
SOUTH BROOKLYN’S COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER
FREE
The Music Man of Smith Street by Emily Kluver
A
t Wyckoff Street, on the block located between Court and Smith, Mingo Tull spent his early years hanging out with the other kids in the area.
er famous musicians, along with wellknown music producers.
He recalls sitting on the steps of an old brownstone and listening to a late 60’s cover band “The Mudd”, playing out of the home’s living room.
However, Mingo soon married, which was followed shortly after by the birth of his two children. With too many things going on between work, music, and family, something had to go.
“As everyone was playing stickball, I was sitting in this area, mesmerized by this band,” Mingo remembered. “That’s where I got my start loving music.” It was at the age of about 12 or 13, sitting on those steps, that Mingo found his passion and decided what he wanted to do in life - make music. As Mingo grew up, he played bass in various bands and at varying levels of formality. “I wasn’t the ‘starving artist’ type. I couldn’t do that,” Mingo explained. “I needed something stable as well, so I had to learn to balance business with music.” Mingo graduated from college with a degree in accounting and went into banking. He switched to driving trucks for UPS when he realized it paid better and for many years, he lived in this way, working for a variety of shipping companies and earning a stable wage. He balanced his work life with his music life, playing in bands during his spare time. During these early working years, Mingo’s musical career hit peak success and he found himself sharing stages with Jackson 5, James Brown, and oth-
He got to know a lot of people. And for a while, he thought his music career would lead to something big.
Mingo explained, “I gave up music for
“If running three music stores wasn’t enough, Mingo also found the time to run a production company, Metropolis Productions, play in a corporate events and wedding band, and start a music school” a time, but there was this void.” When he could no longer take it, he decided to pick up his instrument once again and throw himself back into music, but it came at the cost of his marriage. Since that time, Mingo has stuck with music through everything. In 1991 he met Rosann Natale, and together they found love and a shared desire to open their own store.
CARROLL GARDENS’ GOOD FRIDAY HISTORY see page 15
Music is Mingo Tull’s life (photo by Emily Kluver)
Musician’s General Store
With Roseann’s knowledge of business and Mingo’s passion for music, they found a space on Amity Street and opened a music shop on October 23, 1993. Roseann designed the store in the style of the Old Western notion of a general store, as the pair hoped their shop would become a sort of communal space. Mingo recalled their first space as being small. Two hundred and fifty square feet small.
With three successful shops running smoothly, Mingo and Roseann had the freedom to open a Mediterranean restaurant on nearby Smith Street that they called Rosina’s Bistro. “That was my dream,” Roseann explained. “I was a pioneer in the neighborhood. People didn’t like Smith Street. It was run down, gated up…”
“We had to use the bathroom as storage. We couldn’t even use it for its intended purpose, it was so full of merchandise,” Mingo laughed.
The restaurant ran well for over two years, but eventually a combination of healthcare struggles and rising rent prices brought their quickly expanding empire tumbling down.
So it was no surprise when in 1996, The Musician’s General Store outgrew the little storefront on Amity and had to find a new home on Court Street.
First, the restaurant closed as Roseann found herself getting sicker and sicker, unable to keep up with the pace of business.
Their new store found great success on Court, so much so that over the next two years, Mingo and Roseann decided to open two more music stores on Court. One focused on orchestral instruments, the second, print music, and the third, guitars, bases, repairs, and lessons.
“We didn’t have insurance at the time, it was so expensive,” Roseann remembered.
If running three music stores wasn’t enough, Mingo also found the time to run a production company, Metropolis Productions, play in a corporate events and wedding band, and start a music school, Rock’Scool, out of his shops. The multiple components of business helped form a delicate balance that kept business lucrative. When
Red Hook Star-Revue
the shopping season died down in the summer, the wedding band picked up more work and vice versa.
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But, without any other options, she bought private insurance the January after the restaurant shut its doors and received treatment. Then in 2001, when the World Trade Centers collapsed, the streets of Carroll Gardens emptied. “There were tumbleweeds in the streets for a while,” Mingo joked. “The streets were dead.” He found that music was not a necessity in the struggling area and business died down as rent prices skyrocketed. (continued on page 10)
April 2017, Page 1