This past month I have been very lucky to have had the chance to speak at length with both Frank Vignola and Martin Taylor about learning jazz guitar. During our talks I was struck with the common threads that both artists stressed as being important yet neglected. I thought it would be helpful to share [...]
Friday night fingerstyleguitar.ca finished off their Toronto concert season in style. In addition to headliner Tommy Emmanuel, a perennial favourite with guitar fans, there was a stellar “warm-up” show from the Frank Vignola Trio. By the end of the set the Vignola Trio had the audience cheering and calling for more. Tommy came on after [...]
Thank you to Ken for his latest comment, which included a link to this fantastic video of Tommy Emmanuel and Frank Vignola playing live (with Gary Mazzaroppi on bass):
http://128.163.130.14/woodsongs-562.wmv
The show is amazing enough but be sure to stay tuned after they sign off, because Frank and Tommy keep going, finally ending with a version of [...]
Frank Vignola made a big impact in Toronto earlier this month, and while the concert is now a memory a lot of us are still talking about his sound, and specifically his guitars.
Frank’s guitar is his signature atchtop model “FV” made by Ryan Thorell, which Frank endorses. You can see pictures of this beautiful instruments [...]
People can be strange. We can keep asking the same question hoping that we will get a different answer. I saw this most recently at Frank Vignola’s workshop, where he fielded that same basic question over and over: “How do you learn to play that so fast?” Only the “that” kept changing - the answer [...]
Yesterday was an extraordinarily fine one; I was fortunate enough to spend much of it with Frank Vignola. He is one of the world’s great guitarists as well as one of the nicest people you could want to meet.
Fresh from a fantastic performance the night before, he returned to Hugh’s Room in Toronto to give [...]
I admit that I have been slow in writing my latest review, but only because I have had so much fun “preparing” for it. I have been spending a good deal of “quality time” with Frank Vignola’s two-CD set Vamps, Jams and Improvisation. Not only can he play, he’s a mighty fine teacher too. Anyone [...]
I have to hand it to James Jensen of Solid Air Records. In their “Groovemaster” series he has managed to pair up unique and incredible combinations of guitarists. The very first one paired Laurence Juber with Preston Reed, and if you have not heard this CD search it out - it is a real gem.
In [...]
When I reviewed Frank Vignola’s CD Looking Up last summer I included a quote he gave me when we spoke in Nashville: that he did not consider himself a “jazz” guitarist but had a broader view of his musical turf. So how does a CD entitled Standards fit into this non-jazz outlook? Read my review [...]
Frank Vignola is one of the great guitarists playing today. At the age of 43 he has recorded more albums than most musicians can manage in a lifetime, and he shows no signs of slowing down. His latest CD entitled Looking Up is due out very soon, and it is well worth waiting for.
On this [...]