Playbill - Mark O'Connor and the Hot Swing Trio
Contents
Introduction
Mark O'Connor (violinist / fiddler / composer) and the Hot Swing Trio (featuring Frank Vignola, guitar, and Jon Burr, bass)
Saturday, September 18, 2004 - 8:00 p.m.
Tonight's program will be announced by Mr. O'Connor from the stage.
Supported by Nancy Droll and Cantebury Inn and Suites.
COLUMBIA ARTISTS MANAGEMENT INC.
Personal Direction: R. DOUGLAS SHELDON
Managerial Associate: Sharon Ji Kim
165 West 57th Street, New York, NY 10019
www.cami.com
Visit Mark O' Connor on the Internet at www.markoconnor.com.
Mark O'Connor records for SONY Classical and OMAC Records.
Zyex Strings
Tonight's Program
Mark O'Connor's Hot Swing Trio (Frank Vignola, guitar, Jon Burr, bass)
Mark O'Connor's musical love affair with Stephane Grappelli is not one of those overnight situations, or an occasional passion indulged when other inspirations falter or stray. It's been very nearly a lifelong thing between the American violinist and the spirited French master, whose career began in the streets of Paris in the 1920s and sparked brightly in a historic partnership with fabled Gypsy guitarist Django Reinhardt. Though Grappelli would go on to many other things in a professional life that prospered for decades-until his death, at age 89, in 1997-it was his vibrant collaboration with Reinhardt, with whom he formed the Quintette Du Hot Club in 1934, that permanently established his sound.
Introduced to that sound as a childhood string prodigy, O'Connor was tearing up the stage at fiddle competitions-a downhome parallel to the fevered "cutting contests" of mid-century jazz lore-playing music that demanded a fearless verve and velocity. These qualities were not unrelated to the kind of sweetly animated or tartly agitated dance of strings for which the Hot Club was revered. At the age of 13, O'Connor attended a Grappelli concert in Vancouver, British Columbia, and was mesmerized. Almost immediately, the young fiddler began including tunes like "Satin Doll" and "Take the A Train," Ellingtonian staples of Grappelli's set lists, in his live performances.
Four years later, at the age of 17, O'Connor won a spot playing guitar on a Grappelli tour and was invited to perform violin duets as well. Their friendship thrived through subsequent years, as O'Connor matured from teen sensation into an indefatigable session ace, commanding triple-scale fees in Nashville's recording studios as the first-call fiddler in every producer's Rolodex. Fed up with a pace that was fattening his bank account but beggaring his creative ambitions, O'Connor quit taking sideman jobs in 1990 and began to devote himself to a variety of musical pursuits.
Though he would record with Grappelli, as on the 1992 Heroes album of duets, O'Connor felt reluctant to pay explicit homage with an entire program of Grappelli's music while his mentor was still alive. Rather, he aspired to be the responsible student who constantly defined and redefined his own voice on their mutual instrument, venturing freely between classical, jazz, folk and country forms and commonly seeking the sympathetic threads that connected them all.
Once, when he petitioned Grappelli for lessons, O'Connor received the kind of response that constitutes a lesson in itself. "My Dear Mark," the Parisian wrote, "it is so nice of you to want to spend time with me, but, as you know, I do not teach the violin." After Grappelli's death, however, O'Connor felt compelled to celebrate his legacy and formed a trio with guitarist Frank Vignola and bassist Jon Burr, who had performed with Grappelli during the last decade of his life. The group's live recording, Hot Swing! (OMAC Records, 2001), documents an appropriately feisty and tuneful collection of songs associated with Grappelli and the Hot Club era while also emphasizing the contemporary travels of the individual soloists. Together, on pieces such as O'Connor's original "In the Cluster Blues" and "Minor Swing," the musicians tap into a rich motherlode of 20th-century cultural experience, one whose indelible style and fleet audacity add up to the rarest sort of charm.
The trio's second album, In Full Swing (Odyssey/Sony, 2003), continues the journey. With the addition of guests Wynton Marsalis and young vocalist Jane Monheit, O'Connor and friends delve into the past to give such standards as "Honeysuckle Rose," "Misty" and "Tiger Rag" a good, current once-over. New tunes like O'Connor's "Stephane and Django," Vignola's "One Beautiful Evening" and Burr's "3 For All" prove the music of the Quintette Du Hot Club is in good hands, indeed.
© 2002 Columbia Artists Management Inc.
-Steve Dollar
Steve Dollar is a Brooklyn-based freelance writer, and a frequent contributor to Newsday and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He is currently writing Jazz Guide: New York City for the Little Bookroom Press, and can be found on the Web at www.poptexts.com.
Mark O'Connor
Mark O'Connor (violin) absorbed knowledge and influence from the musical styles and genres of Benny Thompson and Stephane Grappelli. His recordings include Appalachia Waltz, a collaboration with Yo-Yo Ma and double bassist Edgar Meyer; Appalachia Journey, which received a Grammy Award in February 2001; Liberty, which features O'Connor's arrangements of a variety of traditional American Music; Midnight on the Water, a live recording of his solo recital; Fanfare for the Volunteer, recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra; The American Seasons, recorded with Metamorphosen Chamber Orchestra; and Hot Swing, a tribute to Stephane Grappelli, recorded live with Jon Burr and Frank Vignola.
In October 2004, O'Connor and the Hot Swing Trio will join Wynton Marsalis to open the new performance space and home of Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York. Among their numerous concerts across the Unites States, the trio will perform at the new Strathmore Hall in Maryland in March 2005 under the auspices of Washington Performing Arts Society. The Hot Swing Trio's most recent recording, In Full Swing with special guests Wynton Marsalis and Jane Monheit, is available on the Sony record label.
In addition to the Hot Swing Trio, O'Connor has a widely recognized orchestral career. During the 2004-05 season, he will appear with several orchestras, including the National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Leonard Slatkin. O'Connor's most recent concerto for violin, Old Brass was commissioned by the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields and given its world premiere at BBC Proms in London in August 2003.
In October 2003, O'Connor recorded his Concerto for Two Violins with the Colorado Symphony with violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg and conductor Marin Alsop on his private OMAC label. His newest concerto, for violin and cello, has been commissioned by a consortium of orchestras and will be premiered by the Grand Rapids Symphony in May 2005.
An active composer, he also tours extensively with his chamber music ensemble, Appalachia Waltz Trio, in a program of music from his Grammy award winning Appalachian Journey project with Yo-Yo Ma and Edgar Meyer. In March 2004, O'Connor's new work for the Eroica Trio was given its world premiere at Villa Montalvo in Saratoga, Calif.
Frank Vignola
Frank Vignola (guitar) began playing the guitar at age five. Only one year later he was playing along with Django Reinhardt, Joe Pass and Johnny Smith records. At 13 he was performing professionally. By the time Vignola graduated from high school he was touring extensively. It was at age 22 he headlined at one of New York's most popular nightclubs, Michael's Pub, in a tribute to Reinhardt's legendary Quintette of the Hot Club. From there he would go on to appear at premier concert halls and major jazz festivals throughout the world. Some of the noteworthy artists he's performed with include Les Paul, Lionel Hampton, John Lewis and Woody Allen. Today Vignola is a much admired and sought after artist on the concert circuit.
Jon Burr
Jon Burr (double bass) has toured and recorded with many great jazz masters, including Stan Getz, Chet Baker, Horace Silver, Hank Jones, Art Farmer, Stephane Grappelli and Buddy Rich. Burr formed his own quartet in 1991, which has performed widely in New York clubs such as Birdland and the Blue Note, specializing in Burr's own compositions. The quartet recorded their first album in April 1993, titled In My Own Words. This was followed by the release of a second recording called 3 For All, featuring Sir Roland Hanna and Bucky Pizzarelli and led by Burr.
Some of his Broadway performances as bass chair include Me and My Girl, Grand Hotel and Gypsy. He has more recently performed at the first two Django Reinhart festivals at New York's Birdland and has performed as a featured guest with the New York Pops Orchestra. Recent performances with Hot Swing have included venues around the United States, including California's Strawberry Festival and a three-night stint at Lincoln Center Jazz in the winter of 2002.
© 2003-2005
The University of Iowa Center for Macular Degeneration
Contact Information