Frank Vignola's Guitar Night, an ongoing concert and livestream series

[AllanAllen]

Tonight
17 January 2024
Jocelyn Gould joins Frank Vignola, with Ted Rosenthal (piano), Gary Mazzaroppi (bass) and Vince Cherico (drums).

Oh she’s great. Looking forward to this.

[AllanAllen]

Tonight's stream was cancelled, for unspecified reasons.

They have been specified. From yesterdays live chat.

RadioFreeBirdland?:Sorry for thw last minute cancellation last week. A steam pipe burst and covered our studio in rusty steam. The server crashed and could not be restarted.

[sgosnell]

Last night was good. Jocelyn Gould can play.

[nyc chaz]

Oh she’s great. Looking forward to this.

I really enjoyed Jocelyn Gould.I have to say Vignola playing that Eastman 480 sounds great,i liked the tone better than the Benedetto she was playing.Just shows you don't have to spend a small fortune on a guitar to get a great sound.

[murphybridget837]

Thank you for finding that for me.

[sgosnell]

Every guitar player who appears on the show sounds different from Frank, and Frank sounds pretty much the same regardless of which guitar he's playing, or which amp he's using. Hmmm... very interesting.

[AllanAllen]

Every guitar player who appears on the show sounds different from Frank, and Frank sounds pretty much the same regardless of which guitar he's playing, or which amp he's using. Hmmm... very interesting.

I bought an Eastman and I don't sound like Frank. Disappointing....

Not really, I love the guitar.

[RJVB]

Every guitar player who appears on the show sounds different from Frank, and Frank sounds pretty much the same regardless of which guitar he's playing, or which amp he's using. Hmmm... very interesting.

You're making my point, TBH. The musicianship is great and even for me mostly enjoyable, but I just hear the same kind of electric guitar sounds all the time, and not even the least boring ones. I suppose it'd appreciate it more in what I see of the context - background music while wining & dining (supposing the volume isn't too loud). Here in my kitchen while having my morning coffee it works a lot less well (esp. when one of the players also starts to sing...)

EDIT: all that said, isn't it a something that all really good players do, always sound like themselves no matter what instrument they play on? That's the case for acoustic instruments, I guess it can't be any harder to do it on electric ones too O:^)

[sgosnell]

You're making my point, TBH.

What point was that?

Lots of things don't work well until after I've had my morning coffee.

[RJVB]

What point was that?

Yeah, sorry, a point I'd been making in my head but also made already before on here. I thought it might make the post sound even more negative that I feared it'd be already if I had repeated it. And that it'd be clear enough from the text that followed...

I realise I can't even really imagine how this music would sound/work with acoustic archtops (mic'ed or not)!

[AllanAllen]

You're making my point, TBH. The musicianship is great and even for me mostly enjoyable, but I just hear the same kind of electric guitar sounds all the time, and not even the least boring ones. I suppose it'd appreciate it more in what I see of the context - background music while wining & dining (supposing the volume isn't too loud). Here in my kitchen while having my morning coffee it works a lot less well (esp. when one of the players also starts to sing...)

EDIT: all that said, isn't it a something that all really good players do, always sound like themselves no matter what instrument they play on? That's the case for acoustic instruments, I guess it can't be any harder to do it on electric ones too O:^)

funny, I like it expressly because it’s usually guitars plugged right into amps.

[David B]

Tonight
24 January 2024
Frank Vignola (guitar), Janis Siegel (vocals), Jon-Erik Kellso (trumpet), Gary Mazzaroppi (bass), Vince Cherico (drums)

[sgosnell]

Bruce Forman just showed up and is sitting in. Turning out to be a good night after all. I'm not Janis Siegel's biggest fan.

[AllanAllen]

Bruce Forman just showed up and is sitting in. Turning out to be a good night after all. I'm not Janis Siegel's biggest fan.

Singers aren't my thing. I was going to skip this, thanks for the heads up on Bruce Foreman, that's worth watching for.

[AllanAllen]

John Pizzarelli sits in

[RJVB]

John Pizzarelli sits in

That one was nice! And that jumbo doesn't sound half bad in this repertoire!

I've been noticing and wondering about something. Don't interpret this the wrong way please, but it seems as if almost every American jazz player who's not visibly of Afro-American descent has either an Italian or a jewish name. Is there an explanation for that? I can't think of any traditional non-classical Italian music that has particularly more in common with jazz than other traditional W-European styles.

And on a lighter note ... I thought Italian Americans only talked like that in the movies

[AllanAllen]

That one was nice! And that jumbo doesn't sound half bad in this repertoire!

I've been noticing and wondering about something. Don't interpret this the wrong way please, but it seems as if almost every American jazz player who's not visibly of Afro-American descent has either an Italian or a jewish name. Is there an explanation for that? I can't think of any traditional non-classical Italian music that has particularly more in common with jazz than other traditional W-European styles.

And on a lighter note ... I thought Italian Americans only talked like that in the movies

Well, those movies are generally based in New York City and New Jersey so the accent from the movies is from that region. Frank also plays it up for the live stream. If you watch his youtube channel, he's got an accent, but it's not as exaggerated.

I've never thought about the ethnicity of the players, but I think it also has something to do with the people who live in NYC. Lots of Jewish and Italian guys there, the German/Polish, Scandinavian, and Irish types are more in the Midwest and the music industry left here in the 60's. So they just aren't as visible.

That's my guess at least.

[RJVB]

Well, those movies are generally based in New York City and New Jersey so the accent from the movies is from that region.

True, but you can usually still hear a succinct difference between the accents (or rather, way of speaking) of the Italians and the Irish in those movies

Frank also plays it up for the live stream.

I thought he might, but there's no real reason he'd have any accent other than from the region he comes from, no?

I've never thought about the ethnicity of the players, but I think it also has something to do with the people who live in NYC. Lots of Jewish and Italian guys there

So the west-coast jazz scene would be different in this aspect?

Thinking about it a bit more myself I realise it might not be so surprising after all. Italians and Jews (or more generally, East-Europeans, because AFAICT it's usually Jews from there) are probably proportionally better represented among the better-known classical musicians as well. Must be something in their culture (at least). I think my omission earlier was to think only of non-classical music, while jazz is not just that.

[AllanAllen]

True, but you can usually still hear a succinct difference between the accents (or rather, way of speaking) of the Italians and the Irish in those movies



I thought he might, but there's no real reason he'd have any accent other than from the region he comes from, no?



So the west-coast jazz scene would be different in this aspect?

Thinking about it a bit more myself I realise it might not be so surprising after all. Italians and Jews (or more generally, East-Europeans, because AFAICT it's usually Jews from there) are probably proportionally better represented among the better-known classical musicians as well. Must be something in their culture (at least). I think my omission earlier was to think only of non-classical music, while jazz is not just that.

What west coast jazz scene? You mean in the 1950's? Right now the only national west coast jazzer I know of is Bruce Foreman. Jazz is small.

[RJVB]

Right now the only national west coast jazzer I know of is Bruce Foreman. Jazz is small.

Never heard of Jonathan Stout?

(Caveat emptor: I'm going off the places he plays most, there doesn't appear to be an indication of an actual HQ location on his website.)

[AllanAllen]

Never heard of Jonathan Stout?

(Caveat emptor: I'm going off the places he plays most, there doesn't appear to be an indication of an actual HQ location on his website.)

Jonathan Stout is fantastic and lives in California, but as far as I know he doesn't tour. The logistics of hitting the road with a big band are insane. You could only lose money.

Have you been to the states? I don't think you can really grasp the vastness of it unless you've driven across our country. You're in France right? Your entire country is like... the size of a couple of our states. I'm not trying to brag or something, just give you an idea of how big and disconnected we are here.

[RJVB]

What difference does it make whether he tours with the band or not? It's not like the east-coast jazz scene isn't concentrated in a tiny handful of places along that coast either, is it?!

Have you been to the states? I don't think you can really grasp the vastness of it unless you've driven across our country.

Only to NY, a small place in Connecticut and Fort Lauderdale (yay), but I've taken the CP across Canada (which is just a tad bigger than the US ).
I'm boasting a bit here, we actually flew from Montreal to Calgary, a couple of hours over snowy prairies (long enough ago that I was allowed to spend most of the flight in the cockpit). Also did Québec to the far tip of the Gaspésie and back by train and bus.

[AllanAllen]

What difference does it make whether he tours with the band or not? It's not like the east-coast jazz scene isn't concentrated in a tiny handful of places along that coast either, is it?!

Very true, the point I wanted to make was there is a spotlight on NYC jazz. Everywhere else is, less visible. Somewhere along the way I got sidetracked.

Only to NY, a small place in Connecticut and Fort Lauderdale (yay), but I've taken the CP across Canada (which is just a tad bigger than the US ).
I'm boasting a bit here, we actually flew from Montreal to Calgary, a couple of hours over snowy prairies (long enough ago that I was allowed to spend most of the flight in the cockpit). Also did Québec to the far tip of the Gaspésie and back by train and bus.

I remember going into the cockpit as a kid, we didn't know how good we had it.

[David B]

Tonight
7 February 2024
Sheryl Bailey and Mike Stern join Frank Vignola, Ted Rosenthal, Garry Mazzaroppi and Vince Cherico.

[sgosnell]

I may miss this one. I've tried, really tried, but I just cannot listen to Mike Stern. I'll check the video later and watch the parts without him playing.