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Frank Vignola
Frank Vignola (born December 30, 1965) is an American jazz guitarist. He has played in the genres of swing, fusion, gypsy jazz, classical, and pop. Career Vignola grew up on Long Island, New York. His father played accordion and banjo and his brother plays trumpet. When he was five, he picked up the guitar, learning from his father and from records by Django Reinhardt, Bucky Pizzarelli, Joe Pass, and Johnny Smith. At 12 he started on the banjo, and two years later he won a national championship in Canada. On Long Island, he studied guitar at the Cultural Arts Center. Early in his career, he went to used record stores to buy albums by musicians whose work he didn't know, so that he could study their music. In 1987, when he was 23, he formed the Hot Club Quintet, named after the Quintette du Hot Club de France. In the early 1990s, he was in New York City, playing in groups with Max Morath, Andy Stein, Herman Foster, Joe Ascione, and tuba player Sam Pilafian. He formed the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
West Islip, New York
West Islip is a hamlet and CDP founded roughly in 1683, located in the Town of Islip in Suffolk County, New York, United States. Situated on the South Shore of Long Island, the population of the CDP was 27,048 at the time of the 2020 census. Geography West Islip is located at (40.715008, -73.297746). According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of , of which is land and , or 6.46%, is water. Great South Bay, Jones Beach Island and Fire Island lie to the south. Babylon and North Babylon form the western border. Bay Shore lies to the east, and in the north West Islip borders on Deer Park and Brentwood. West Islip is east of Manhattan and west of Southampton, New York. West Islip's western boundary is a natural one formed by Sampawams Creek, Hawley's Lake, and the Guggenheim Lakes. Demographics History The first people to settle in the area were the Secatogue Indians. The unearthing of an Indian burial ground north of West Islip beach enabled ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pop Music
Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom. The terms ''popular music'' and ''pop music'' are often used interchangeably, although the former describes all music that is popular and includes many disparate styles. During the 1950s and 1960s, pop music encompassed rock and roll and the youth-oriented styles it influenced. ''Rock'' and ''pop'' music remained roughly synonymous until the late 1960s, after which ''pop'' became associated with music that was more commercial, ephemeral, and accessible. Although much of the music that appears on record charts is considered to be pop music, the genre is distinguished from chart music. Identifying factors usually include repeated choruses and hooks, short to medium-length songs written in a basic format (often the verse-chorus structure), and rhythms or tempos that can be easily danced to. Much pop music also borrows elements from other styles ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sam Pilafian
James Samuel Pilafian (October 25, 1949 – April 5, 2019) was an American tuba player and educator. Biography Pilafian participated in the National Music Camp in Interlochen, MI and was the second tuba player to win the concerto competition. Via his performance at Interlochen, he was awarded scholarships to study at both Dartmouth College and the Tanglewood Music Center. Leonard Bernstein chose Pilafian to perform in the world premier of Bernstein's ''Mass'' at the opening of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. He earned his bachelor's degree in music at the University of Miami in 1972. Since then, Pilafian performed numerous times in international concerts and recordings. He founded the '' Empire Brass'' and performed in the Broadway Musicals ''Doctor Jazz'' and ''Much Ado About Nothing.'' He also played with ''Boston Brass'' from 2013–2019 Pilafian was also active in the jazz scene, having played with the Duke Ellington Orchestra and, since 1991, in the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Herman Foster
Herman Foster (April 26, 1928 – April 3, 1999) was an American bebop jazz pianist. He was blinded during childbirth through the carelessness of a doctor. He began his musical career early playing the violin, clarinet, saxophone, and piano. He became a self-taught pianist. His family moved from Philadelphia to New York City in 1947 where he began to attend jam sessions and then played with Eric Dixon, Dick Carter and the big band of Herb Jones. Then he met Lou Donaldson and they played together from 1953 to 1966. He also worked with King Curtis, Bill English, and Seldon Powell in the 1950s, and with Al Casey and Gloria Lynne in the 1960s, in addition to playing with his own trio. He returned to work in Donaldson's quartet in the 1980s. In 1996 he married Hisayo Tominaga, a jazz vocalist. Discography As leader As sideman *1957: Lou Donaldson: Wailing with Lou (Blue Note) *1957: Lou Donaldson: Swing and Soul (Blue Note) *1958: Lou Donaldson: Blues Walk (Blue Note) *1958 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Andy Stein
Andy Stein is an American saxophone and violin player. He is a member of The Guys All-Star Shoe Band on the radio show ''A Prairie Home Companion'' and the movie. He was a founding member of the country rock band Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen. Stein attended the University of Michigan as a contemporary of George Frayne ("Commander Cody"). He has also written a number of film scores, including the soundtracks for ''Hollywood Boulevard'' (1976), '' Thunder and Lightning'' (1977), ''Deathsport'' (1978) and ''National Lampoon's Movie Madness'' (1983). He plays the violin in the Ken Burns documentaries '' The War'' (2007) and ''The West'' (1996). Andy Stein made arrangements of classical pieces by Franz Schubert and Ludwig van Beethoven: He reworked the String Quartet No. 14, D.810, nicknamed ''Death and the Maiden'', into a symphony for full orchestra (with winds & Timp.), the Fantasia in F minor (Schubert) for piano four-hands Piano four hands (french: À quatre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Max Morath
Max Morath (born October 1, 1926) is an American ragtime pianist, composer, actor, and author. He is best known for his piano playing and is referred to as "Mr. Ragtime". He has been a touring performer as well as being variously a composer, recording artist, actor, playwright, and radio and television presenter. Rudi Blesh billed Morath as a "one-man ragtime army". Early life and education Morath was born in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He studied piano and harmony as a child and was exposed to the rudiments of ragtime piano by his mother, a schooled pianist who had spent several years playing for silent films. He received a Bachelor's degree in English from Colorado College in 1948, before embarking on a career that included jobs in radio and television, jazz, and theater. In the midst of this, Morath earned a master's degree from Columbia University in 1996 in American Studies. Career Early years His appearances as pianist and musical director with melodrama companies in Crip ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Quintette Du Hot Club De France
The Quintette du Hot Club de France ("The Quintet of the Hot Club of France"), often abbreviated "QdHCdF" or "QHCF", was a jazz group founded in France in 1934 by guitarist Django Reinhardt and violinist Stéphane Grappelli and active in one form or another until 1948. One of the earliest and most significant continental jazz groups in Europe, the Quintette was described by critic Thom Jurek as "one of the most original bands in the history of recorded jazz." Their most famous lineup featured Reinhardt, Grappelli, bassist Louis Vola, and rhythm guitarists Roger Chaput and Joseph Reinhardt (Django's brother) who filled out the ensemble's sound and added occasional percussion. History According to Grappelli, the group evolved from a series of backstage jams originated by Django Reinhardt, with Stephane Grappelli, at the Hotel Claridge in Paris, where the two were engaged as members of a band led by bassist Louis Vola. After a series of informal jam sessions at the Hotel Claridge, c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by total area. Its southern and western border with the United States, stretching , is the world's longest binational land border. Canada's capital is Ottawa, and its three largest metropolitan areas are Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver. Indigenous peoples have continuously inhabited what is now Canada for thousands of years. Beginning in the 16th century, British and French expeditions explored and later settled along the Atlantic coast. As a consequence of various armed conflicts, France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America in 1763. In 1867, with the union of three British North American colonies through Confederation, Canada was formed as a federal dominion of four provinces. This began an accretion of provinces an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Johnny Smith
Johnny Henry Smith II (June 25, 1922 – June 11, 2013) was an American cool jazz and mainstream jazz guitarist. He wrote "Walk, Don't Run" in 1954. In 1984, Smith was inducted into the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame. Early life During the Great Depression, Smith's family moved from Birmingham, Alabama, where Smith was born, through several cities, ending up in Portland, Maine. Smith taught himself to play guitar in pawnshops, which let him play in exchange for keeping the guitars in tune. At thirteen years of age he was teaching others to play the guitar. One of Smith's students bought a new guitar and gave him his old guitar, which became the first guitar Smith owned. Smith joined Uncle Lem and the Mountain Boys, a local hillbilly band that travelled around Maine, performing at dances, fairs, and similar venues. Smith earned four dollars a night. He dropped out of high school to accommodate this enterprise. Having become increasingly interested in the jazz bands that he heard on ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joe Pass
Joe Pass (born Joseph Anthony Jacobi Passalaqua; January 13, 1929 – May 23, 1994) was an American jazz guitarist. Pass is well known for his work stemming from numerous collaborations with pianist Oscar Peterson and vocalist Ella Fitzgerald, and is often heralded as one of the most unique and notable jazz guitarists of the 20th century. Early life Pass was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, New Brunswick, New Jersey, on January 13, 1929. His father, Mariano Passalaqua, was a steel mill worker who was born in Sicily. The family later moved to Johnstown, Pennsylvania. Pass became interested in the guitar after he saw Gene Autry on television. He got his first guitar when he was nine. He took guitar lessons every Sunday with a local teacher for 6-8 months and also practiced for many hours each day. Pass found work as a performer as early as age 14. He played with bands led by Tony Pastor (bandleader), Tony Pastor and Charlie Barnet, honing his guitar skills while learning the ro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Django Reinhardt
Jean Reinhardt (23 January 1910 – 16 May 1953), known by his Romani nickname Django ( or ), was a Romani-French jazz guitarist and composer. He was one of the first major jazz talents to emerge in Europe and has been hailed as one of its most significant exponents. With violinist Stéphane Grappelli, Reinhardt formed the Paris-based Quintette du Hot Club de France in 1934. The group was among the first to play jazz that featured the guitar as a lead instrument. Reinhardt recorded in France with many visiting American musicians, including Coleman Hawkins and Benny Carter, and briefly toured the United States with Duke Ellington's orchestra in 1946. He died suddenly of a stroke in 1953 at the age of 43. Reinhardt's most popular compositions have become standards within gypsy jazz, including " Minor Swing", "Daphne", "Belleville", "Djangology", "Swing '42", and "Nuages". Jazz guitarist Frank Vignola says that nearly every major popular-music guitarist in the world has been influe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trumpet
The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard B or C trumpet. Trumpet-like instruments have historically been used as signaling devices in battle or hunting, with examples dating back to at least 1500 BC. They began to be used as musical instruments only in the late 14th or early 15th century. Trumpets are used in art music styles, for instance in orchestras, concert bands, and jazz ensembles, as well as in popular music. They are played by blowing air through nearly-closed lips (called the player's embouchure), producing a "buzzing" sound that starts a standing wave vibration in the air column inside the instrument. Since the late 15th century, trumpets have primarily been constructed of brass tubing, usually bent twice into a rounded rectangular shape. There are many distinc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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