We work & hope for a peaceful, healthy, prosperous & enlightened world & pray that this is not just wishful thinking...><Greetings & happy wishes for a beautiful holiday season to my many friends, & thank you all for your on going support of my musical endeavours, & those of the entire jazz community. Jazz is our only true American art form & is being kept alive by those of us 'out there in the trenches', playing for the love of the music, & you the listener who makes us relevant. The corporate jazz moguls have certainly left us behind, but we continue to find new pathways through the jazz music maze. For this I am deeply grateful...Please continue to support live jazz & independent jazz CD projects>< I now have 24 performance videos waiting for your perusal on YouTube - www.youtube.com/joegig . My new CD "Sound Scape", a duo recording with saxophonist Jimmy Halperin has just been released. Our CD Release Party/Performance in December was a huge success-thanks to all who came out to contribute their energy to our music! This collaboration has resulted in perhaps the finest music of my thirty year jazz odyssey. Jimmy and I began playing together over twenty years ago, but had not made music together in quite some time. From the first note of our reunion it was apparent that our musical rapport and telepathy was guiding us. Happily, our saxophone - guitar duo is a positive example of the 'less is more' concept. I toyed with the idea of titling this CD "Small Big Band", because while we benefit from the musical intimacy of a duo, we create a lot of sound, & make use of textures & spatial relationships to create from a broad palette.
About the music...We improvise - we de-construct & re-build harmonic structures from the Great American Songbook...we generally do not state the melodies, but instead allow our deep awareness & knowledge of those very melodies to inform our improvising from within. Please note that on 'Round Midnight we play not only the brilliant Thelonious Monk melody, but the classic intro & outro associated with this tune.
We are both improvising at all times - when I accompany Jimmy's solos, I am improvising the background, & reacting to, & commenting on what he is saying. When I am soloing I can feel his acute listening, & know that what I am playing will impact his next statement. We play simultaneous improvised lines...this is perhaps my favorite aspect of playing together & is the fullest realization of spontaneous musical discussion. "Sound Scape" is available throught this site, and also at www.cdbaby.com and www.itunes.com ><The November '07 issue of "Just Jazz Guitar" magazine features my composition "Famous Standard Tune". A number of excellent reviews of "3 Spirits" & "Clairvoyant Avenue"my two CD releases from late 2006 appear in "Jazz Times"; "Just Jazz Guitar"; "20th Century Guitar"; "All About Jazz"; and other fine music publications. These CDs are available for purchase through this website, at live performances & as downloads from www.apple.com/itunes/store/><About these two CDs...“3 Spirits” came about as a result of my on going duo performances with violinist Rob Thomas and bassist Ron McClure, over the past few years. We had attempted to schedule some trio gigs but three busy schedules made it a bit difficult. It was not until November of 2005 that we finally played together as a trio. From the first note of the first tune it was as I knew it would be, telepathic. We decided that night to make this recording. The program is a mix of standards, originals & boppers, featuring Rob Thomas-violin; Ron McClure-bass; & Joe Giglio-guitar/vocals/composition. Making music with these great artists is a joy><“Clairvoyant Avenue” by Threedom is of a somewhat different stripe. We are a collective ensemble dedicated to creating music in the moment. A good portion of our repertoire is devoted to spontaneous performances/compositions which sound surprisingly structured in light of their genesis. The group consists of bassist David Shaich, drummer Tyrone Govan, & guitarist Joe Giglio. We also play compositions from the individual members, & occasionally use the harmonic structures of standard tunes as a taking off point for our improvisations. The music is exciting, & emanates from a deep place. If the stars line up just so, you may be transported to some new dimensions. We can only hope...><My previous CD, “Inside Out” is currently in print & available on Zinnia Records, and “Flashback Premonition” is available as a download on my site on myspace.com (see below)><My Forshage guitars are as ever, deftly & accurately representing my musical ideas, as played on the legendary LaBella strings - spoken through the eloquent DiMarzio pickups which adorn their lovely faces & beautifully re-produced through the awesome JazzKat amp><I have recently developed two myspace sites – www.myspace.com/joegiglioandfriends & www.myspace.com/threedomnyc - featuring new & downloadable original music, photos & some interesting blogs in which I share my ever-evolving view of the world, both musical & non-musical. It has been quite an interesting & rewarding experience with a rapidly widening group of musical friends, & hopefully a narrowing of the schism that seems to keep us all from collaborating on improving the world, both musical & non-musical...><Friday night jazz at 107WEST is happening regularly on the first Friday of the month. We will also be performing at some new venues here in NYC...
Pace e amore-ci vediamo al presto...
