Tony Motola

[Mickey]

Have any of you guys ever seen anyone making a video emulating or illustrating a Tony Motola song and do you know what type guitar he used most? He is a real difficult guy to find out about....seems everyone plays JS, but don't see much Motola.

[rob taft]

Its Mottola. Try searching in the Players section of this website.

Tony Mottola

[WilliamScott]

One of my favorite players when I was a kid. His name is spelled Mottola, though. Might get more search results with two t's.

[Danny W.]

Tony Mottola frequently played a Gibson custom ES-355.

Danny W.

[Greentone]

Mottola did use a semi, however he was also a big user of the L5. I believe his had a CC pickup.

[grahambop]

Here he is with the ES355.

[Greentone]

Here it is

[FredC]

I own one of his recordings on CD. The brother knew some chords.

[rob taft]

For a professional musician like Tony Mottola, the guitar was a tool to make music and an income. If you really want to hear T.M, check out this series of interviews.


Tony Mottola | Television Academy Interviews

[floatingpickup]

Tony played L5’s too. Here’s a pic.
Keith

[Skip Ellis]

One of my all time favorites - had a bunch of his albums back in the 60's. Great player!

[Mickey]

Has anyone been courageous enough to try to play any of his songs on utube?

[Max405]

I think Yesterday’s is worth taking a stab at.
Maybe in a couple of weeks..
Joe D

[zdub]

Why is the headstock logo of his guitar obscured?

[Steven Herron]

I always thought that Tony Mottola's solo guitar arrangements were on the same level as Johnny Smith's.

Tony was very good at weaving open string notes into his chord voicings thereby getting more sing and sustain out of his chords while at the same time creating unique chords - just like Johnny often did.

I transcribed "My Favorite Things, Bewitched Bothered & Bewildered, and Stella By Starlight" by Tony Mottola and they are outstanding solo guitar arrangements!

[rob taft]

I think Yesterday’s is worth taking a stab at.
Maybe in a couple of weeks..
Joe D

That is a good one.

[deacon Mark]

I like the youtube video of him performing with Sinatra live and then Frank gives Tony the stage to play Manha de Carnaval solo. Tony sits down with this little classcial gut string and rips off the coolest solo playing with all the drama. Frank gives him real credit and Tony is like watching Hank Aaron show up in his prime for a home run derby and dust everyone..................

frank sinatra en argentina manana de carnaval & segun pasan los anos - YouTube

[pilotony]

Why is the headstock logo of his guitar obscured?

To avoid giving Gibson a free plug; or in the alternative, to avoid trademark issues. Sometimes you still see this done on TV or in movies.

Tony D.

[Max405]

I think that's an ES 350 right?

By the way, Steve Herron - I went on your website, (which is a TREASURE TROVE of great stuff for Jazz Guitar enthusiasts) and I clicked on the Tony Mottola "Christmas Song" link. Wow! He really was great. And he was born and died 15 miles from where I sit right now. What a great player he was. Certainly on similar level as Johnny. God, I wish I could come up with stuff like these guys did. Just incredible.
JD

[lawson-stone]

To avoid giving Gibson a free plug; or in the alternative, to avoid trademark issues. Sometimes you still see this done on TV or in movies.

Tony D.

Maybe but I don't think this is a Gibson guitar. The cutaway doesn't look like a Gibson. Maybe that was the problem, he didn't want to be plugging a non-gibbon?

[sgosnell]

I've seen guitarists hide the logo on guitars they don't endorse. Howard Alden played a Sadowski with the logo taped over for awhile, while he was endorsing Benedetto. And Barney Kessel is the best-known obscurer, of course.

[lawson-stone]

Still puzzling over the guitar. Here's another picture I found that doesn't help a ton unless some you really eagle-eye observers can spot a tell. I'm also not sure the logo is "obscured" so much as maybe covered by a string-damper in the "up" position?

[floatingpickup]

Definitely an ES-350. I’m not sure what is on the headstock, but there is no question about what the guitar is. Here’s a picture of an early single pickup ES-350, just like Tony was playing (except this one is missing the pickguard).
Keith

[Greentone]

Those 1949 ES-350 guitars had a shallower cutaway than the early 50s did. The ones from the 50s have the cutaway that we are more familiar with. The cutaway on the '49 examples always looked just a bit more D'A, to me.

Mottola's guitar is a '49 single P90 ES-350, like Barney Kessel's modified sunburst example. Those are some of the very finest electric archtops ever made by anyone, IMO. (Listen to Kessel, Mottola, or early Tal Farlow.)

[lawson-stone]

Those 1949 ES-350 guitars had a shallower cutaway than the early 50s did. The ones from the 50s have the cutaway that we are more familiar with. The cutaway on the '49 examples always looked just a bit more D'A, to me.

Mottola's guitar is a '49 single P90 ES-350, like Barney Kessel's modified sunburst example. Those are some of the very finest electric archtops ever made by anyone, IMO. (Listen to Kessel, Mottola, or early Tal Farlow.)

Sounds reasonable. I also saw some other Gibsons with that "different" cutaway. What is going on with the headstock? I can't make out the Gibson open-book shape.