Three Guitars, a collaboration between master jazz guitarists Bucky Pizzarelli, Howard Alden and Jimmy Bruno comes to the Mainstay and only the Mainstay in Rock Hall, MD on Saturday April 6 at 8:00 p.m. Admission is $25. As this concert is expected to sell out, reservations are a must. For information and reservations call the Mainstay at 410-639-9133. Information is also available at the Mainstay’s website https://www.mainstayrockhall.org. This concert is part of the David Pike Memorial concert series at the Mainstay.
If you put together a short list of the world’s great jazz guitarists (as did Downbeat Magazine in 2009), Bucky Pizzarelli, Howard Alden and Jimmy Bruno would all be on it. This is a very rare opportunity to see all three masters of the jazz guitar on stage together. Their styles are varied yet complementary. Each is a skilled ensemble player as well as a brilliant soloist. Together they will dazzle the audience and both challenge and support each other as they climb to new musical heights.
This concert was assembled by the Mainstay. Mainstay Founder and Executive Director, Tom McHugh said, “We have wanted to do a concert with three jazz guitar legends for some time. The wheels for this were really set in motion after Bucky appeared at the Mainstay in 2011. At the time he said he would be interested in doing a concert with us in this format if we could work out the details. These are three master guitarists with active solo careers. It took a number of our contacts and friends to make it happen. It is a tremendous honor for us to present three guitarists of this stature our stage.”
“In a way the concert also honors the Charlie Byrd legacy as Charlie made some notable recordings and memorable concerts with Barney Kessel and Herb Ellis as “The Great Guitars.” Charlie Byrd was an early supporter of the Mainstay and helped expand the Mainstay’s reputation as a premier venue for jazz.”
In speaking of the Great Guitars collaboration as inspiration for this concert, Becky Byrd, the President of the Mainstay Board of Directors said, “This type of concert does not happen often due to the artists’ schedules, and the expense for three solo master guitarists. The really exciting part of these trio concerts is that they all love to play together; they challenge each other and bring out the best in each other and produce some fantastic electricity on stage.”
Bucky Pizzarelli has performed and recorded with a veritable Who’s Who of Jazz since the early 1950s. He played and toured with Benny Goodman, Zoot Sims, Bud Freeman, and Stephane Grappelli, and later, recorded with George Van Eps, Carl Kress and George Barnes. He plays a seven-string electric guitar; the extra string (tuned to A) allows him to play a bass line to his own solos. He is known not only for his exceptional solo performances on the electric instrument but for his solid, swinging rhythm and single string solos in an ensemble setting.
Howard Alden has been called the finest jazz guitarist of his generation. He emerged as one of the young Turks of the swing movement of the 1980s. Like Pizzarelli and one of his early influences, George Van Eps, he also plays a seven-string guitar. Alden has worked with many great veterans such as Ruby Braff, Kenny Davern, Woody Herman, Benny Carter, Monty Alexander, Flip Phillips, and George Van Eps as well as contemporaries like Dan Barrett, Warren Vaché, and Ken Peplowski. His many recording for Concord have received high praise from the critics.
After a highly successful twenty-year career as a commercial guitarist and session musician which included joining the Buddy Rich Orchestra at 19 and then playing guitar in orchestras for Frank Sinatra, Anthony Newley, Doc Severinsen, Lena Horne, and many other music icons, Jimmy Bruno gave it all up to return to his first love: jazz. Paying his dues by playing blistering guitar in the small clubs and venues in his hometown Philadelphia in the 1980’s, his reputation as one of the hottest guitar players in jazz grew. Since then he has made a number of recordings for Concord, played at major jazz festivals around the world and shared the stage with a who’s who of legendary and highly regarded musicians. His dazzling virtuoso technique gives him the drive and swing to create superb lyrical improvisations.
These three stellar jazz guitarists will be backed by Chuck Redd on drums and Tommy Cecil on bass.
Chuck Redd is an accomplished performer on both drums and vibraphone. He began performing and recording internationally when he joined the Charlie Byrd Trio at the age of 21. He has toured in Europe and Japan with the Barney Kessel Trio, Ken Peplowski, Terry Gibbs and Conte Candoli, was featured vibraphonist with the Mel Tormé All-Star Jazz Quintet and was artist-in-residence at the Smithsonian Jazz Café for several years.
Jazz bassist Tommy Cecil has been active in the Washington, DC jazz scene since 1976 and has established himself as one of the most in-demand players in the area. He has long associations with many of DC’s favorite jazz sons, including John Eaton, Buck Hill, Charlie Byrd, Dick Morgan, Shirley Horn, Brooks Tegler, and the Redd Brothers. As a freelancer, he has worked with Mose Allison, Tommy Flanagan, Joe Henderson, and well-known artists.
This concert is one of an ongoing series of jazz concerts at the Mainstay in memory of David Pike. David Pike caught the jazz bug early. By high school he had 40 guitar students and was working at after-hours clubs in his home town of Cleveland as well as working at the Cleveland Press. He paid his way through college with journalism and jazz, but ultimately chose journalism as a career becoming a highly respected legal journalist covering the Supreme Court. He kept his guitar handy, also becoming a very knowledgeable jazz fan with an impressive collection of recordings. In retirement, he again took up the guitar, playing for himself, improvising on the guitar while listening to radio or CD. He also had an amazing ability to play and whistle improvisations at the same time and could name every musician he heard on a recording after a few opening bars. He also played at the Open Mike Night at Andy’s in Chestertown.
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