It was a Monday morning in June 2005 when one of Josh Baty’s friends called him at his office and told him the plan: They were going to drive down to Atlantic City, have dinner and gamble a little bit, and then come back in time for work the next morning.
“I go, ‘that’s crazy, it’s Monday. You’re out of your mind!’” said Josh, who is originally from Washington Township, and lives there now.
But sure enough, more friends kept calling him, and soon Josh had no choice but to go on the field trip. It was a good thing he did, because if not, he most likely would not have met his future wife, Liza, and the duo of Josh and Liza that you see every Thursday at The Brick House in Wycoff, and on Friday and Saturday at Sanzari’s New Bridge Inn, in New Milford may never have come to be.
The now defunct Tiffany Lounge, which seated about 200 people in the Tropicana, would be their rendezvous point. Two female singers performed in front of The Marinos, the live band at the Tiffany Lounge, and one of them happened to be Liza Moran.
“I hadn’t met her before,” said Josh. “She was fantastic.”
Gradually more of Josh’s friends showed up. The guys stayed in the lounge for a while, had a few drinks, and then Liza took her cordless microphone and went out into the sea of people.
Then she found him.
Liza always did a bit where she would tease a group of guys in the crowd. She saw her target—the group of suits sitting together at a banquette. As fate would have it, she grabbed the wrong guy.
“I misjudged and I thought I was grabbing the older guy in the group so it would be funnier,” said Liza. “And I wound up grabbing Josh.”
Josh’s friends immediately saw a connection.
“She was busting my chops a little bit in front of all these people, and my friends were like ‘Wow, she’s great! Oh, you got to give her your phone number,’” said Josh.
He wasn’t convinced. Liza did this every night, and he thought that he was just Monday night’s fool.
Or maybe he wasn’t. For Liza, Josh was more than just some guy she was picking on.
“I’ve had people have heart attacks in the crowd, and I’ve still kept singing. I’ve had chairs fall, lighting fall; nothing stops me. But this, I really don’t remember if I sang the right words after that. It was one of those moments where everything stops and I just remember seeing his eyes,” said Liza of her first encounter with the man who would later become her husband.
Dozens of songs in the duo’s expansive repertoire could be used as a soundtrack to this fateful encounter, but perhaps Frankie Valli’s “I Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You,” is the most appropriate. It’s a standard for Josh, and he has sung it to Liza on many occasions.
After the show, Josh gathered up the courage to give Liza his number written on a cocktail napkin. He told her that he was in for the night with his friends, and that they should meet up later for dinner.
The two met up later that night at a restaurant. For Josh and Liza, there was really no looking back.
“We immediately had a connection, and I think the fact that I was involved in music it got to awaken a part of him that he had missed for a long time,” said Liza. “That’s where it started, and then we fell in love.”
Soon Josh would drive down to Atlantic City every Friday evening to spend time with Liza and to watch her sing at the Tropicana. That lasted for several months, until it got to a point where Josh decided he needed to find a way to get Liza to come to Bergen County.
It would be a pivotal moment in her musical career, and eventually it would involve Josh.
Liza had been singing since she was a baby growing up in Brigantine Island in Atlantic County. Her parents would always play records in the house, and she naturally picked up the tunes. Liza’s mother realized her daughter had a talent.
“She noticed that I was on key singing ‘I Write the Songs,’ by Barry Manilow,’ so she thought that it was kind of bizarre that this little two-year-old girl was singing right on pitch and really doing a nice job,” said Liza.
Soon Liza was performing in talent shows. She appeared for several years on Al Alberts Showcase, a talent show that appeared on local television affiliated in the Philadelphia area.
Liza’s talents as a little girl led her to plays in high school and other performances. When she was 23, she lived in Monaco for three months where she performed at the Monte Carlo.
Prince Albert’s company ran the show, and for Liza, it was an exhilarating experience. “It was just very surreal and fantastic,” she noted.
Her career has taken her all over the country. After living in Manhattan, she moved to Los Angeles for four years and performed at famous Sunset Strip venues such as the Roxy and the Viper Room. But eventually the East Coast called her back. She returned to take care of her ailing father, and started the gig in Atlantic City, a place where she had performed for years. That led her to the encounter with Josh.
When it got to the point where Liza needed to move to Bergen County, Josh had to come up with a system that would showcase Liza’s voice. He used instrumental recordings that would be playing from a laptop, which, in turn, would be supplemented by Liza’s live singing. What was more important was landing Liza a gig. She was already playing six nights a week with The Marinos. In the entertainment industry, a regular gig like that is quite the accomplishment.
In 2006, a friend of Josh’s introduced them to the manager at Sanzari’s, and they were able to book Liza her first gig in Bergen County.
But Liza got a surprise call before her first performance at the restaurant. The owner, Joe Sanzari, wanted live entertainment for a private party, and thought that Liza would be great. Josh was still at work, so Liza packed up this new system by herself and played the party.
“She hooked it all up, and she did this private party,” said Josh. “And she killed it!”
Sanzari’s became Liza’s new home, but Josh still wasn’t a mainstay in the performance yet.
Josh would go to every performance at Sanzari’s. After they were married in April 2007, she would call him up every now and then to do a number by Frank Sinatra or Dean Martin. Sometimes they would do Dean and Natalie Cole’s version of “Unforgettable.”
Josh had always been involved in stage and performing, but soon he would really need to step it up.
While a student at Westwood High, Josh and some friends asked the town of Westwood if they could borrow the gazebo to put on a rock concert, which was the first time he had ever sung in front of an audience. He loved acting, and earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from a conservatory program at Marymount Manhattan College. He worked for a theater company in New York after graduating from college in 1996, but as he approached his mid 20s, he decided he didn’t want to go after commercial work, so he found a steadier job working sales in the financial industry.
However, Josh never really lost his natural talent and ability. A good thing as he would need it after Liza became pregnant.
A few months after their marriage in 2007, Liza became pregnant with their son Aiden (who may become the next star to come out of Bergen County).
Singing became more and more difficult for her, so Josh would need to pick up the slack. Eventually he was singing almost every other song, and they became a duet. The spectators at dinner loved it. He had to really work at his voice so he wouldn’t let Liza down.
“She can sing the phone book and it sounds great,” said Josh. “Me on the other hand, I really have to work at it.”
After she gave birth, Josh actually did a few gigs by himself. When Liza returned, the duo was a mainstay.
“It just seemed to work from the get-go,” said Liza. “It’s kind of like why didn’t we think of this before?”
They’ve gotten better with each performance, and play tons of private parties for many friends and relatives of people who come to see them each week. They can handle almost any request these days, from Adele and Lady Antebellum to Cee Lo Green and Al Green. Their library has grown tremendously, and they’re constantly learning new requests. “Legs” by ZZ Top or “Stray Cat Strut,” by the Stray Cats? You got it.
Being close to Manhattan has benefitted Liza’s career as well. In August, she sang with Norm Hathaway’s Big Band at the famous Iridium Jazz Club where Les Paul would do weekly performances. Before year’s end, she is scheduled to perform again with the group.
Bergen County is a special place for the couple. There is no greater satisfaction than when their friends and neighbors tell them how much they enjoy the music.
“I love when people say we’re going to be back and we’re bringing friends,” said Josh, a Jersey Boy through and through. “It’s really fulfilling.”
His wife feels exactly the same way.
“We’ve struck a nice harmony of our family life and our professional life and we get to do that all in Bergen County.
And who knows, maybe it will soon grow into a trio. After all, three-year-old Aiden has come up for performances before.
Justin Davidson, a graduate of New York University, is a frequent contributor to BC THE MAG.
