This Saturday! NJJS January Virtual Jazz Social
JANUARY VIRTUAL JAZZ SOCIAL
Frank Vignola & Vinny Raniolo
Saturday, January 16, @ 7 pm
WHEN: Saturday, January 16, from 7-8 p.m.
WHERE: NJ Jazz Society's Facebook page (NJJS)
ADMISSION: free
At the Morristown Jazz
& Blues Festival in August 2019, Frank Vignola
teamed with fellow guitarist Vinny Raniolo
and bassist Gary Mazzaroppi for a dazzling performance that included American
Songbook standards from Irving Berlin and Cole Porter as well as Antonio Carlos
Jobim’s “Girl From Impanema”, Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Flight of the Bumblebee” and
Django Reinhardt’s “Song d’Automne”.
This time, Vignola and Raniolo will team up again from Vignola’s home in
Warwick, NY. They will honor New Jersey guitar greats, such as Bucky Pizzarelli, Lou Pallo, Tony
Mottola, Al Caiola, and Les Paul. “We will play a tune or two for each of
them,” said Vignola. “It will be a special hour.” Pallo died on October 28,
2020, at the age of 86.
In Morristown, Vignola paid tribute to his 94-year-old mentor,
Bucky Pizzarelli, who played with him and Raniolo at several previous
festivals. “Without Bucky Pizzarelli, we would not know jazz guitar as it is
today,” Vignola said. Pizzarelli passed away eight months later (See Jersey
Jazz, May/June 2020).
Vignola and Raniolo have shared the stage on several occasions,
and in 2019 released an album, Melody Magic, on
the Azica label. Mike Joyce, reviewing it for JazzTimes,
pointed out that, “the chemistry they’ve developed over the years is evident on
every track here, from the opening nod to Beethoven’s Fifth to
the rhythmically insinuating closer, Sting’s Walking on the Moon .
. . In Raniolo, Vignola has found a delightful match, a rhythm partner, and
foil, who clearly shares his wide-ranging tastes.”
The 55-year-old Vignola has performed with a wide range of
musical artists — from Ringo Starr and Madonna to Wynton Marsalis to the Boston
and New York Pops orchestras. His PBS Special, Four Generations of Guitar, with
Raniolo, Pizzarelli, and Tommy Emmanuel, aired on public TV stations throughout
the country in 2015.
Raniolo, 36, grew up playing alto saxophone in his school band
“until the guitarist showed me an ‘A’ chord on his acoustic guitar. Then I was
hooked.” He also learned how to play electric bass in college because “a
teacher told me, ‘Every band needs a bass player.’” As a result, Raniolo is one
of the most in-demand rhythm guitarists. His recording credits include the
soundtracks of HBO’s Boardwalk Empire, Woody
Allen’s CafĂ© Society, and Martin Scorsese’s The
Irishman.
Funding for the New Jersey Jazz Society socials has been made possible in part by Morris Arts through the N.J. State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional funding has been provided through a generous gift from Nan Hughes Poole.