The beat goes on as Paragon owner plays to future

The sale was sealed with a handshake more than 40 years ago.

With a pledge for a $500 down payment, Dick Rumore became owner of a small music shop. He had met the shop's owner, Angelo Guida, at the Palma Ceia Country Club.

Guida entertained as a one-man band on the accordion. For years he sold musical instruments, primarily accordions, and taught accordion lessons at his studio. Rumore was then a young saxophonist, also performing at the club.

"I think he just liked me," said Rumore. "Those days of handshakes are gone forever."

Rumore's music emporium – Paragon Music Center – has grown from that small shop into the current 10,000-square-foot building at 2119 W. Hillsborough Ave. It replaced a motel that was torn down.

On another handshake deal Rumore bought a bar next door. "The owner immediately walked into the bar and told everyone to leave," he said.

The bar became headquarters for the Paragon Rock School. He initially teamed with the Boys & Girls Clubs of Tampa in the mid-1990s for a music program for youngsters who skipped boring lessons and went straight to playing in a band. The program later moved to the Patel Conservatory at the David A. Straz Jr. Center for the Performing Arts.

The "rock school" sits vacant. And on the other side of Paragon, Guida's small shop also is empty.

But change is on the way.

Rumore, 65, plans to tear down the old shop and the former school and build new additions to Paragon that could add several thousand square feet. He wants to restart a rock school onsite, and offer rental spaces for new businesses, hopefully music-related.

"Our purpose is to improve the area," said Rumore. "It's gotten kind of run-down."

The project is awaiting review by city officials, including a requested rezoning of Guida's old shop. Construction could be months away.

Music, from rock 'n' roll to jazz, has defined Rumore's life.

As a young man, from about age 17 to 20, he played baritone saxophone with The Mystics, the house band at the Clearwater Auditorium. He and his bandmates toured with the likes of Roy Orbison, Solomon Burke, Gary U.S. Bonds and Neil Sedaka.

Music companies sent their stars out on their own, and picked up local talent to bolster a tour. "You'd rehearse with the group and make a tour with them through the state," Rumore said.

Nowadays performers show up with 18-wheelers loaded with equipment and pyrotechnics. "It was simpler and better [in the old days]," Rumore said. "It was kind of a proving ground."

From The Mystics, Rumore on went on to join The Paragons, the band that provided him with the name of his music store.

In the 1990s he operated the Jazz Cellar in Ybor City. The club now is closed but jazz goes on with the Jazz Cellar Underground Orchestra, which plays local venues such as Skipper's Smokehouse.

Rumore and his brother, Randy, designed and sold their own Dakota brand of guitars. Dick Rumore patented the Rumore saxophones, inventing devices to brighten the sound. He added flash to the instrument with colored chrome in reds, greens and blues.

He saw a lot of children and teens excited by the rock school, including singer Aaron Carter. "They went through our school," he said.

Four decades after his handshake with Guida, Paragon Music Center is looking toward the next few decades.

On a recent morning one customer dropped off a clarinet for repair. Another came in to have his guitar tuned. Rumore conferred about a sound system upgrade being installed at The Columbia Restaurant in Ybor City.

Todd Mattes and his 16-year-old son, Christopher, stopped by to pick up a repaired Biscayne guitar. The younger Mattes is part of a garage band.

Store clerk Wade Hayes was a guitarist with the '80s metal band Roxx Gang. He likes the sound from the Biscayne's built-in amplifier. "It's awesome," he said. "It kind of sounds old-fashioned, like a '60s tone."

The loyal base of clients keeps walking through the door.

"We see kids of the kids," Rumore said.