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Jazz guitarist supreme Frank Vignola and his Trio swing into Greenwich Library's Cole Auditorium Jan. 9, to play some hot musical sets celebrating the late Gypsy jazz guitar innovator Django Reinhardt. Vignola, a guitarist since age 5, is a musical force who composes, teaches and arranges, in addition to his busy performance schedule. Versatile as well as a technical wiz (Jazztimes.com lauded his "beautifully honed technique"), he has performed or recorded with many superstar artists, including Ringo Starr, Madonna, Les Paul, Queen Latifah and Donald Fagen, among others. Raised in France, Django Reinhardt (1910-1953), whom Vignola's website describes as an idol, was a member of a Gypsy family. ("Django" is Romani for "I awake.") His innovative jazz style, fashioned in the early 1930s with French jazz violinist extraordinaire Stephane Grapelli, became a much imitated form known as "Gypsy jazz." The Grove Dictionary of Music describes Reinhardt as "endowed with remarkable sensitivity ...a musician who (continually widened) his expressive scope."
If anyone can bring Reinhardt's musical invention to life, it's probably Vignola, considering The Boston Globe's review. "How versatile is Frank Vignola? He's collaborated with Lionel Hampton and "Madonna, covers Mozart and Black Sabbath on the same record and is one of Les Paul's favorite guitarists." Sounds like Vignola and his Trio -- and Reinhardt -- in concert at Greenwich Library will be a fantastic meeting of musical legends. The event begins at 3:30 p.m. and is free. For more information, visit the Library's website.
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