Frank Vignola

Sometimes you need to listen to new things - to new music - new artists.

The CD Blues For A Gypsy was such a new thing. It is played by the guitar player Frank Vignola, born in 1965 in Long Island (NY).

When he was a kid he grew up with the music of Django Reinhardt, Charlie Christian and Wes Montgomery.

When he was 14 he won a price in a Canadian banjo contest and got a place in the New York Banjo Ensemble. At the age of 20 he had his own string band, the Hot Club. The group contained three guitars, one violin and an acoustic bass. It played, as the name suggests, the music of the Hot Club du France.
The five-piece band was rather succesfull as it was booked for several month at Michael's Pub in New York City and performed at the 1988 Newport Festival.

During his carreer Frank Vignola played with all kinds of famous musicians, from Leon Redbone to Milt Hinton and toured through Europe.


On Blues For a Gypsy Frank Vignola playes the guitar - it's a solo album. His style of guitar playing is charaterized as a combination of blazing right-hand strumming, blues-tinged single-note choruses and chordal improvisations.

Click on the title bar to listen to a fragment of Donna Lee, the first track. Enjoy it.

Thanks Jo for pointing me to this record. It's great.