Captain Bacardi
Well-Known Member
One of the few pleasures I had visiting L.A. was seeing former TJB guitarist John Pisano at Spazio's (www.spazio.la), where every Tuesday night is "Guitar Night". His guest guitarist was wildman Scott Henderson, who along with Gary Willis fronts the band Tribal Tech (a great band, incidentally). I hooked up with Dr. Bob Bragonier from the 52nd St site, and we got there early to have dinner and see the show. We were right in front of the stage, and it was a great night of jazz.
John came in right after we got to the club and was very friendly and easy to talk to. I told him I came all the way from Texas just to hear him, and he jokingly said he'd better have a good show. I got him to autograph a CD of his called Conversations, which he was more than happy to do. I talked to him a little bit about the Tijuana Brass days and mentioned that I would be seeing Randy Alpert the following day. He told me to tell Randy "hi" for him, being he hadn't seen Randy for quite some time. When I mentioned the upcoming TJB rarities he told me that there were "a few songs of mine that we recorded that have never been released". So he's hoping that they will now be released so he can get more royalty checks.
John is also in the middle of having a signature guitar made by Eastman (www.eastmanguitars.com), and was playing a prototype this particular night. He says they don't quite have it right, and he won't put his name on it until they do. But he liked the guitar that he was playing. He also had this little 8" amp that he was running, and it had a nice little sound. When Scott Henderson got there he brought this monster 23" amp onstage, and all the "size doesn't matter" jokes started popping up.
As for the playing, they basically just played some standards. Every time Pisano has these "Guitar Nights" he has a different rhythm section, so they usually just do standards. This night they had Kenny Ward on acoustic bass and Kendall Kay on drums. Being Bob & I were in the front we got to hear several comments and jokes from the musicians as they were playing. During the second set they were playing "All Blues" and Henderson just played this monster solo, and he was about done when he nodded to Pisano, who then looked at Ward to take a solo. Ward just laughed and said "Oh sure, I have to follow that!". It was that kind of night.
Pisano's playing was terrific as well. No frills, but some very tasty lines. He seems to have a whole encyclopedia of tunes as he could just go from song to song without missing a beat. I highly recommend checking out one of these "Guitar Nights" if you're in the LA area. I guarantee you won't be disappointed!
BTW, I also told him about the Corner, and wrote down the URL for him and gave him my handle. When he saw "Capt. Bacardi" he just laughed, saying that "Captain Bacardi" was one of the few throw-away tunes that Jobim ever did. I invited him to pop in at the Corner and he said he would when he gets a chance!
LA has a newspaper called the LA Jazz Scene, and Pisano was listed in the paper all over the place, playing with a variety of groups. He's a very well respected musician and plays almost every night somewhere in town, and does go on the road once in a while.
Capt. Bacardi
John came in right after we got to the club and was very friendly and easy to talk to. I told him I came all the way from Texas just to hear him, and he jokingly said he'd better have a good show. I got him to autograph a CD of his called Conversations, which he was more than happy to do. I talked to him a little bit about the Tijuana Brass days and mentioned that I would be seeing Randy Alpert the following day. He told me to tell Randy "hi" for him, being he hadn't seen Randy for quite some time. When I mentioned the upcoming TJB rarities he told me that there were "a few songs of mine that we recorded that have never been released". So he's hoping that they will now be released so he can get more royalty checks.
John is also in the middle of having a signature guitar made by Eastman (www.eastmanguitars.com), and was playing a prototype this particular night. He says they don't quite have it right, and he won't put his name on it until they do. But he liked the guitar that he was playing. He also had this little 8" amp that he was running, and it had a nice little sound. When Scott Henderson got there he brought this monster 23" amp onstage, and all the "size doesn't matter" jokes started popping up.
As for the playing, they basically just played some standards. Every time Pisano has these "Guitar Nights" he has a different rhythm section, so they usually just do standards. This night they had Kenny Ward on acoustic bass and Kendall Kay on drums. Being Bob & I were in the front we got to hear several comments and jokes from the musicians as they were playing. During the second set they were playing "All Blues" and Henderson just played this monster solo, and he was about done when he nodded to Pisano, who then looked at Ward to take a solo. Ward just laughed and said "Oh sure, I have to follow that!".
It was that kind of night. Pisano's playing was terrific as well. No frills, but some very tasty lines. He seems to have a whole encyclopedia of tunes as he could just go from song to song without missing a beat. I highly recommend checking out one of these "Guitar Nights" if you're in the LA area. I guarantee you won't be disappointed!
BTW, I also told him about the Corner, and wrote down the URL for him and gave him my handle. When he saw "Capt. Bacardi" he just laughed, saying that "Captain Bacardi" was one of the few throw-away tunes that Jobim ever did. I invited him to pop in at the Corner and he said he would when he gets a chance!
LA has a newspaper called the LA Jazz Scene, and Pisano was listed in the paper all over the place, playing with a variety of groups. He's a very well respected musician and plays almost every night somewhere in town, and does go on the road once in a while.
Capt. Bacardi
