PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A man who touched the lives of generations of Philadelphia musicians died on Sunday.
Musician, producer and voiceover artist Joel Gibbs said he met Benito "Benny" Cintioli, owner of Cintioli Music on Rising Sun Avenue in Northeast Philadelphia, when Gibbs was 13 or 14.
Mark Rosenbaum of Richboro met Cintioli and bought his first guitar when he was about 14.
"I have a Gibson Les Paul custom that I bought from Benny back in 1971. He's the kind of guy that could have got rich, very easily, but he loved the people who came in. He was always 35-to-40 percent off list price, which was unheard of. He made sure you got the instrument that brightened your day."
Rosenbaum still has that guitar and has never forgotten the man. He went back to the shop about 10 years ago.
"I walked in that day, and my guitar was about 30-some years old," Rosenbaum recalled. "And he says, 'You still got the geetar?' It was not a guitar, it was a 'geetar.' And I said, 'Yeah,' and I opened the case. And he says, 'I buy it back.' And he started pointing at the wall, saying, 'I'll give you that one, that one, that one and that one.'"
Because it was "vintage" and worth as much as three or four new guitars.
Gibbs said Cintioli was known for his generosity, which sometimes worked against him.
"I don't know if I could give you a specific list, but I can absolutely guarantee you that some of the most well known musicians in the city now, and over the years who went on to stardom, at some point, hung out at Bennie's," he said.
There is no word yet on a memorial service for Cintioli, but Gibbs knows there are countless stories about him in circulation.
"When you consider how many people, and the diversity of the people who would show up for this, all of whom have their hundreds of stories, I would have to think something like this would be funnier than any roast you could watch on television."
Cintioli was in his mid-80s.
