Frank Vignola Quintet @ Mel Bay

[Pcocobass]

Hey guys,

Recently I had the great pleasure of visiting the Mel Bay headquarters with the Frank Vignola Quintet. We were in St. Louis for a few days playing at the Jazz Bistro and Mel Bay is located right outside of the city, so we stopped by one afternoon before our gig.

While we were there we gave an impromptu concert for the employees, who were all super nice people by the way.

Please go to http://www.guitarsessions.com/jan08/cover.asp to check out a video of us playing an original tune called "Luke." It is posted on the "Guitar Sessions" website. After we played, we also gave an impromptu interview which is pretty funny, and is linked to the Guitar Sessions homepage, if you'd like to check it out.

The band is:

Frank Vignola, lead guitar
Vinny Raniolo, rhythm guitar
Casey Driessen, fiddle
Rich Zukor, percussion
& myself on bass.

Enjoy!

[fingers]

Awesome stuff Pete. Really great. I've never seen brushes on a dumbec (sp?) before. Swingin' hard.

[Pcocobass]

Originally Posted by fingers

Awesome stuff Pete. Really great. I've never seen brushes on a dumbec (sp?) before. Swingin' hard.

Hey thanks Marc. The drummer is actually playing a djembe. It has a much softer sound than a snare, and it fits well with the vibe of the group. At least we think so....
He uses that djembe on all of our gigs, usually with a few cymbols.

PC

[fingers]

Oops. I meant djembe. I actually have one sitting in front of me right now. Sounds great. I can see how it would have a softer tone. Works well IMHO.

[Sam Sherry]

Pete -- Congrats again as your skill has brought you luck, brother. I got to play with Frank (and Mark O'Connor) for about half an hour once at a clinic. In addition to his very tasty solo work, Frank is an absolute monster playing swing rhythm guitar.

+ + +

I saw Eric Harland playing with Joshua Redman at Newport this summer. Eric was playing drumset with a high tabla instead of the high rack-tom. Fascinating, and very, very musical.

[Pcocobass]

Originally Posted by Sam Sherry

Pete -- Congrats again as your skill has brought you luck, brother. I got to play with Frank (and Mark O'Connor) for about half an hour once at a clinic. In addition to his very tasty solo work, Frank is an absolute monster playing swing rhythm guitar.

+ + +

I saw Eric Harland playing with Joshua Redman at Newport this summer. Eric was playing drumset with a high tabla instead of the high rack-tom. Fascinating, and very, very musical.

Hey Sam, thanks very much. You're totally right about Frank's rhythm playing; when he is comping, I don't miss (and sometimes don't want) a drummer!

Pete