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Check this site for the return of Larry Coryell Larry Coryell plays Roller's at Flying Fish At
first glance, it might seem an odd setting for a jazz legend:
The upstairs room of a restaurant with chairs jammed together
and two musicians he had never played with. And, for that
matter, who had never played with each other.But as Friday evening wore on, guitarist Larry Coryell seemed increasingly at home in the first of his two weekend shows at Roller's at Flying Fish in Chestnut Hill. "It's a workshop atmosphere," Coryell said before the show, adding that he is actually less relaxed in a concert setting where he is farther from the audience. He is 66 now, almost four decades past his groundbreaking fusion band the Eleventh House, and he has performed with Chick Corea, Miles Davis, Jimi Hendrix, Charles Mingus . . . actually, the list of whom he hasn't performed with might be shorter. At Roller's, he was joined by two Philadelphia musicians, bassist Craig Thomas and fellow guitarist Jim Dragoni, who also produced the show. "We honor people here who are national treasures," said Dragoni, who previously brought Mose Allison to the restaurant. The emcee was Paul Roller himself, weaving and schmoozing among the crowd of perhaps 50, wearing a T-shirt showing a pig playing a saxophone. The musicians stayed firmly in the mainstream Friday, starting with Milt Jackson's "Bags' Groove" and following with compositions by, among others, Thelonious Monk, Charles Mingus, and Clifford Brown, along with a few standards such as "My Funny Valentine." Coryell's awesome technique never lapsed into sheer pyrotechnics as he sometimes seemed to play on and around the beat in the same chorus. On Mingus' "Nostalgia in Times Square," he played call and response patterns done by two horns in the original 1959 recording. The exchanges with bassist Thomas grew more intense as the evening passed. Dragoni stayed mostly in the lower register but at times one had to watch the two guitarists' fingering to determine who was playing what. In the solo ballads, some of the notes seemed to hang in the air forever. |
Check this site for the return of Mose Allison
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Click here to buy the latest DVD video release by Jim Dragoni--over 50 minutes of high fidelity sound and video recorded at a Comcast affiliate TV studio on the ex-cloosive Main Line of Philadelphia. Joining Jim are Rich Curtis and Webb Thomas. Rich was wearing his new stone washed jeans with special rips. Listen to Fusion to the Third Power as Jim, Webb and Rich tackle Dragoni's incendiary originals and standard examples like Ellington's Nothing But the Blues. Watch the drum stick tips fly as Thomas flies off the handle. We spent a whole day prior to the shoot testing top quality microphones and fooling around with the placement. TV studios are famous for poor sound, but not this time! We got it right. When the director wasn't looking, Jim turned up his Mesa amplifier and the distortion seared the walls and melted the curtains. This was a hot performance, guaranteed to make your pot boil. Check it out.
Review by Karl Stark, October 14, 2007 Philadelphia Inquirer
Gargantua
(jim@dragoni.com ***)
This salty disc from guitarist Jim Dragoni is kind of a rough recording, but the playing startles the synapses.
The Philly guitarist, who studied with jazz sage Dennis Sandole (teacher to John Coltrane and other jazzerati), is a questing soul who can venture inside or outside the chord changes with the grace of a cat burglar.
Working with a series of venerable axes, from a Kubicki Stratocaster to a '43 Epiphone Emperor, Dragoni makes the antiques sound nubile again.
The solo "Night of the Firefly" lives up to its name, giving a kind of Celtic cascade to some fierce playing. The session of mostly originals features a challenging improvised piece, "Circles of Infallibility" with another regional treasure, tenor saxophonist Odean Pope.
Dragoni, who likes occasionally to flex his chops caveman-style, cooks to a driving froth on "Cloud Dance." The bugaboo feel with tenor saxophonist Elliott Levin, drummer Ed Watkins, and bassist Stephen Rossmeisl recalls some old glory. (actual bassist: Dylan Taylor, Rossmeisl played on other cuts)
Jim Dragoni is a composer, guitarist and teacher. His performance areas include blues, jazz and his own fiery original brand of hyrbidized cross genre art-music. His music has received airplay in Europe as well as in the United States. He has been recognized for years on the East Coast as an artist, teacher and performer.
Call 866-450-0826 for info on the Music Studio in Chestnut Hill where Jim practices his art.
Review from Cape May concert, 2005
Past performances include:
Lincoln Center, Mellon Jazz Festival, Cape May Jazz Festival, Odette's, Havana, Academy of Music, Painted Bride Art Center, The Art Alliance, River Blues Festival, West Chester University, WHYY.FM, WRTI.FM, Widener University, Odettes...to name a few.
"Exciting performance...it was a gas!" Jenneth Webster, Program Director, Lincoln Center; reference to performance on 8-20-93
"...his playing is simply brilliant..." Dr. Herb Wong, international jazz critic and record company executive
"One
of Philly's finest"....Karl Stark, Philadelphia Inquirer
"Sometimes it rocks, sometimes it swings, sometimes it is pure
sweet poetry" Steve Lopez of the Philadelphia Inquirer
"Jim's ensemble playing and original compositions are
superb..." Gerry Givnish, the Painted Bride Arts Center
"Music flows from Dragoni's
instrument as smoothly as maple syrup...his compositional skills far surpass
many of his peers" Ed Wismer, Cape May Star and
Wave
"...soulful rhythm with strong guitar riffs and an intense solo
from Jim Dragoni" Steve Randazzo, Germantown Courier,
reference to recording "Worlds" on Gazelle Records
"Check out his technique,
the effortless speed...has thoroughly mastered his instrument...it would
seem there's not much more for him learn about his craft" Jack
Lloyd, in feature article, the Philadelphia Inquirer.
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Top Photo by Jeff Brown
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