As a teenager, John Scatena was part of the Quadells, a doo-wop singing group that managed to score a contract with 20th Century Fox Records. The members went on to open for a few bigger acts before disbanding and going on to jobs and college.
Decades later, when the chance came for Scatena to buy a jazz venue in metro Atlanta, he jumped at it. And he treated the staff, musicians and customers at Café 290 in Sandy Springs like an extension of his large Italian family — with love and respect.
“It was his pride and joy and the love of his life,” says Jim Scatena, John’s first cousin. “I never saw him happier than when he was in Café 290. No one was ever a stranger to him.”
One of four children of John and Jessie Scatena, John S. Scatena was born Oct. 15, 1941, and grew up in Fredericktown, Pennsylvania. He died Nov. 15 in Atlanta from heart failure, surrounded by his family. He was 83. The Sandy Springs business he bought in 1993 closed in 2021, a victim of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Almost all the musicians in Atlanta knew him,” says trumpeter and singer Joe Gransden. Gransden’s big band — 17 pieces — played at Café 290 on the first and third Monday of every month for 11 years. “He would give everyone a shot. Thank God, he gave me one.”
Scatena also formed a record company, Café 290 Records, and produced records for Gransden, and he used his contacts in the entertainment industry to help advance Gransden’s career. One of Gransden’s children used to say, “Phen-nom-men-all!” the same way Scatena did, drawing out the word.
Everyone seemed to come to his Sandy Springs club, celebrities, athletes and regular customers from across the metro area. Patrons of the Punch Line comedy club, which was next door, would wander into the Café after a show. Movie producer Tyler Perry met Ronnie Garrett there and then made him his music director.
Credit: HANDOUT
Credit: HANDOUT
One side of the building Scatena’s club was in was a sports bar and restaurant; the other side was strictly jazz, all kinds of jazz, and a bar. The staff didn’t change often: bartenders knew the names and the drinks of regular customers.
“John was so important to the fabric of the place,” said Adrianne Murchison, who tended bar at Café 290 from 2000 until 2004. “He was as much a celebrity as any of the famous people who came in. I know that people from all over Atlanta have milestone memories from Café 290.”
Jim Scatena tells the story of how, in the late 1950s and early 1960s, John and his friends started singing at church events in Fredericktown and became the Quadells. Even then, Jim said, his cousin could get along with anyone, with a fast smile and easy manner.
“He was so cool,” said Jim.
The community eventually raised enough money to send the young men to New York City to find a record company. They returned home with a contract, but they realized after a while that opening for other acts wasn’t the life they wanted, Jim says.
After earning a college degree, John took a job with GE Credit Corporation in Cleveland. Wanting to do something else, he found a business broker, bought a small hotel in Athens and moved South. He brought his love of music with him and hosted a quartet in the lounge of the hotel. When the chance to buy the club and work full-time in music came to him, he took it.
“He always wanted to be an entrepreneur,” Jim Scatena says.
He is survived by daughters Renee’ McDonnell (Rich Carney), Johnna Deering (Michael), sister Linda Pritts (Jim) and brother Jeff Scatena; grandchildren and other family.
A date for a celebration of John’s life has not been set.
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