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Gene Bertoncini

Over decades, Gene Bertoncini has firmly established himself as one of the most eloquent and versatile masters of the guitar. With elegance and ease, he bridges jazz, classical, pop, and bossa nova styles, integrating his own spontaneous and tasteful improvisations along the way. He has earned highest critical acclaim for his artistry on both the classical and electric guitar.

Bertoncini’s musical roots go back to his early years in the Bronx where he grew up in a house filled with music. His love affair with the guitar began when he was seven, and by the time he was sixteen, he was appearing on New York television. His career took an unusual turn when he decided to fulfill another long-standing interest, and took a degree in architecture at Notre Dame.

He was quickly swept into the musical scene at the university, and the first thing he did after picking up his degree was to work opposite Carmen McRae in Chicago. He returned to New York to work with vibraphonist Mike Manieri, and then with a quintet led by drummer Buddy Rich. He describes his architectural experience as something which gives his music its finely-wrought form and style.

He wins continual praise for the superb structure of his arrangements and improvisations which serve as a vehicle for his virtuosic technique. Gene Bertoncini has worked with the Metropolitan Opera orchestra, the Benny Goodman Sextet; singers Tony Bennett, Morgana King, Lena Horne, Vic Damone and Edye Gorme; jazzmen Buddy Rich, Wayne Shorter, Hubert Laws, Clark Terry, Paul Desmond, and Paul Winter; and arranger/composers Burt Bacharach, Lalo Schifrin and Michel LeGrand, among others. He performed regularly on the Merve Griffin and Johnny Carson shows, and has been one of the most prolific and popular studio musicians in New York City.

For the past eight years Bertoncini has performed with bassist Michael Moore in a duo which The New York Times describes as “...one of the finest pairings of jazz strings....” Mr. Bertoncini’s teaching credits include the Eastman School of Music where he regularly performs and conducts summer workshops for jazz guitarists, the New England Conservatory, New York University, and the Banff School of Fine Arts. He has been a highly sought-after guest clinician in colleges and universities throughout the country.


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4
Album Review

Maud Hixson: Don't Let A Good Thing Get Away

Read "Don't Let A Good Thing Get Away" reviewed by David Bittinger


This collection of songs by veteran composer Michael Leonard has deep roots but contemporary character. It was laid down in New York's legendary Nola Recording Studio, whose clients have included Duke Ellington and Dizzy Gillespie. The outstanding instrumentalists--cornetist Warren Vache, bassist Steve LaSpina, guitarist Gene Bertoncini, and pianist/arranger Tex Arnold--have worked with such luminaries as Benny Goodman and Stan Getz.In 2008, Twin Cities-based vocalist and music researcher Maud Hixson, working with Arnold, began reviewing the prolific work of ...

409
Album Review

Gene Bertoncini / Roni Ben-Hur: Smile: Jazz Therapy Volume 1

Read "Smile: Jazz Therapy Volume 1" reviewed by J Hunter


In November 2007, Roni Ben-Hur and his bassist Earl May approached Motema Records with a great idea: They would record a duo CD, pro bono, as a fundraiser for the Dizzy Gillespie Memorial Fund, a trust created by Engelwood Hospital and Medical Center to fund health care for jazz musicians who can't afford it (i.e. just about every player not named Wynton Marsalis). May's sudden death the following January could have sent this worthy concept off the rails; instead, Gene ...

310
Album Review

Gene Bertoncini / Roni Ben-Hur: Smile: Jazz Therapy Volume 1

Read "Smile: Jazz Therapy Volume 1" reviewed by Dr. Judith Schlesinger


This is a terrific release for several reasons. For one thing, everyone involved in the CD's creation and promotion donated their services, which funnels all proceeds directly to the Dizzy Gillespie Memorial Fund of the Englewood Hospital and Medical Center in Englewood, New Jersey. According to Jana Herzen, president of Motema Music, Smile:Jazz Therapy Volume 1 is the first of a series that will benefit this and other Jazz Foundation of America projects. As a result, a worthy cause matches ...

285
Album Review

Gene Bertoncini / Roni Ben-Hur: Jazz Therapy, Volume 1: Smile

Read "Jazz Therapy, Volume 1: Smile" reviewed by Karen Hogg


Smile, the inaugural CD from Motema's Jazz Therapy series, comes from guitarists Gene Bertoncini and Roni Ben-Hur and benefits a very worthy cause. The proceeds from the album, the first recorded collaboration between the pair, go to the Dizzy Gillespie Memorial Fund at Englewood Hospital, providing free medical care to jazz musicians in need. The music is beautiful and, dare one say, therapeutic. The guitarists work well together, with Bertoncini's lyrical nylon string work complementing Ben-Hur's more ...

408
Album Review

Gene Bertoncini: Concerti

Read "Concerti" reviewed by Michael P. Gladstone


What could possibly be better than hearing guitarist extraordinaire Gene Bertoncini on Concerti? Simply, being ten feet away from the bandstand and viewing his quicksilver style of playing, astounding an appreciative audience. Bertoncini, over the course of several decades, has become an elder statesman plectrist, working in a number of settings--solo, duet, trio or larger ensembles. On Concierti , Bertoncini works with members of The Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, where he has been ...

185
Album Review

Gene Bertoncini: Concerti

Read "Concerti" reviewed by Laurel Gross


At 70, guitarist Gene Bertoncini continues to make standards and classics breathe and shimmer, inviting listeners to experience them in new ways. On Concerti, his considerable skill at navigating a nylon-stringed guitar are complemented by a group of highly capable string players and clever arrangements, all crucial to this winning endeavor. Engineer Mark Conese deserves mention for the excellent sound quality of this recording, which he co-produced. Allying with strings is more than a gimmick or a ...

318
Album Review

Gene Bertoncini: Concerti

Read "Concerti" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


Concerti is twenty-six strings vibrating: A string quartet--two violins, a viola and a cello--with a bass added on the bottom end, fronted by the nylon-string acoustic guitar of Gene Bertoncini.A top notch guitarist who has taught for forty years at the Eastman School of Music, Bertoncini enlisted some of his colleagues from the school to arrange for the string section. The results are a buoyant and sweet mix of jazz sidling up to the classical side of sound.

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Performance / Tour

Benny Golson and Gene Bertoncini: Jazz Masters Duet, Sunday March 6th

Benny Golson and Gene Bertoncini: Jazz Masters Duet, Sunday March 6th

Source: Greg Thomas

G&J Productions G&J Productions presents A First Time Jazz Masters Duet Featuring Benny Golson and Gene Bertoncini at the Historic Wainwright House, One Performance Only Two senior masters of jazz, tenor saxophonist and composer Benny Golson and guitarist Gene Bertoncini, will play together for the first time on Sunday, March 6th at noon, for a Sunday Jazz Brunch in Rye, New York at Wainwright House, produced by G&J Productions. “The pairing of two giants of jazz in such an intimate ...

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Radio

The Jazz Session #192: Gene Bertoncini

The Jazz Session #192: Gene Bertoncini

Source: AAJ Staff

Here's an interview I recorded in 2007 with guitarist Gene Bertoncini. This is what I said about him back then:

Raised in the Bronx, Bertoncini began his musical education at an early age, encouraged by his parents. He studied architecture at Notre Dame before deciding on a life of music. That decision was a smart one Bertoncini has since performed with the Metropolitan Opera orchestra, the Benny Goodman Sextet, Tony Bennett, Buddy Rich, Wayne Shorter, Burt Bacharach, Michel LeGrand and ...

255

TV / Film

New Jazz It Up! Episode Features: Kenny Garrett, Take 6, Hank Jones and Gene Bertoncini, Vintage Bill Evans and Jazzmobile 45th Anniversary Celebration

New Jazz It Up! Episode Features:  Kenny Garrett, Take 6, Hank Jones and Gene Bertoncini, Vintage Bill Evans and Jazzmobile 45th Anniversary Celebration

Source: Michael Ricci

New York, NY – Saxophonist Kenny Garrett and vocal group Take 6 headline as the featured artists of the latest episode of Jazz it Up! Garrett’s blistering alto sax fronts a high octane ensemble at the Iridium club, while Take 6 offers intense renditions of cuts from Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue. During the second of their two featured numbers, members of Take 6 explain why they finally released a straight-ahead jazz recording, and Garrett discusses his current stage of ...

250

Performance / Tour

Gene Bertoncini and Roni Ben-Hur Duo at the Rubin Museum

Gene Bertoncini and Roni Ben-Hur Duo at the Rubin Museum

Source: Two for the Show Media

Guitarists Gene Bertoncini and Roni Ben-Hur will be performing acoustically together in concert at The Rubin Museum in NYC on April 24th, 2009 at 7:00PM as part of the 2009 Winter/Spring Harlem in the Himalayas Series.

Gene Bertoncini- Guitar Roni Ben-Hur- Guitar

LISTINGS INFORMATION: Gene Bertoncini and Roni Ben-Hur Duo Rubin Museum of Art -150 West 17th Street New York, NY 10011 For Info Call: 212-620-5000 April 24th, 2009 Showtime- ...

158

Music Industry

Gene Bertoncini: The Architecture of Jazz

Gene Bertoncini: The Architecture of Jazz

Source: Rifftides by Doug Ramsey

Old pal Tim Ryan called my attention to an interview Judith Schlesinger, our leading combination jazz writer/psychotheraprist, did with guitarist Gene Bertoncini nearly a year ago. The interview ran on the All About Jazz web site, and I missed it last April. Maybe you missed it, too. It is fascinating for its insights into Bertoncini's musical thinking, his quick wit and his interchanges with Dr. Schlesinger. Verbatim transcribed interviews are far from my favorite form of journalism, but when they ...

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Recording

Motema Music Will Release "Jazz Therapy, Volume 1: Smile" in November

Motema Music Will Release "Jazz Therapy, Volume 1: Smile" in November

Source: GoMedia PR

Debut Duo Recording Featuring Roni Ben-Hur and Gene Bertoncini Will Benefit the Dizzy Gillespie Memorial Fund at the Englewood Hospital and Medical Center in New Jersey Release Event: Nov. 3rd at Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola, Jazz at Lincoln Center This November 11th, Motema Music, the Harlem based record label that is home to Rufus Reid, Marc Cary, Lynne Arriale and Roni Ben-Hur among other top jazz talent, will release the first in their new “Jazz Therapy" series of charitable fund ...

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Interview

Guitarist Gene Bertoncini Interviewed at AAJ

Guitarist Gene Bertoncini Interviewed at AAJ

Source: All About Jazz

Whenever people write about Gene Bertoncini's music, the same words tend to appear: elegant, graceful, versatile. Lyrical. Master. Virtuoso. Writer Gene Lees called him “the Segovia of jazz," the perfect term for one who creates such poetry with the acoustic, nylon-stringed guitar. Still a busy performer, teacher, and clinician, Bertoncini has played in many styles and settings in his five-decade career, and swings in all of them. Following the 2004 release of Quiet Now (Ambient), he has become increasingly admired ...

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Technology

The Jazz Session #21: Gene Bertoncini

The Jazz Session #21: Gene Bertoncini

Source: All About Jazz

On the new episode of The Jazz Session, Jason Crane interviews guitarist Gene Bertoncini. Raised in the Bronx, Bertoncini began his musical education at an early age, encouraged by his parents. He studied architecture at Notre Dame before deciding on a life of music. That decision was a smart one -- Bertoncini has since performed with the Metropolitan Opera orchestra, the Benny Goodman Sextet, Tony Bennett, Buddy Rich, Wayne Shorter, Burt Bacharach, Michel LeGrand and many others. He's also on ...

79

Performance / Tour

Jazz Museum Announces Back-to-Back Dates Olu Dara June 8 + Gene Bertoncini, Guitar, at RMA June 9

Jazz Museum Announces Back-to-Back Dates Olu Dara June 8 + Gene Bertoncini, Guitar, at RMA June 9

Source: All About Jazz

The Jazz Museum in Harlem 104 East 126th Street New York, NY 10035 212 348-8300 http://www.jazzmuseuminharlem.org/

Jazz Museum Announces Back-to-Back Dates

June 8, 2006 Olu Dara discussion for Harlem Speaks

June 9, 2006 Gene Bertoncini, Guitar, at RMA

Join the Jazz Museum in Harlem on Thursday, June 8, 2006 for a free interview uptown, and then come to the Rubin Museum of Art (RMA) in Chelsea on Friday, ...

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Performance / Tour

Frank Vignola & Gene Bertoncini Friday, March 17th 8:00 pm Warwick Valley Winery

Frank Vignola & Gene Bertoncini Friday, March 17th 8:00 pm Warwick Valley Winery

Source: All About Jazz

Sugarloaf Music Series proudly presents Warwick's dynamic jazz guitarist Frank Vignola & Jazz Guitar Legend Gene Bertoncini www.genebertoncini.com Friday, March 17th, 2006 8:00 pm Warwick Valley Winery: 114 Little York Road, Warwick, New York 10990 (845) 258-4858 http://www.wvwinery.com For Reservations: (845) 986-6463 Admission: $20.00 Wine bar available! Upcoming Events: THE MITCH SCHECHTER, MARTY FOGEL, ...

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Don't Let A Good...

Maud Hixson
2013

buy

CTI + RVG

CTI Records
2009

buy

Concerti

Ambient Records
2008

buy

Smile: Jazz Therapy...

Motéma Music
2008

buy

Quiet Now

Ambient Records
2005

buy

Acoustic Romance

Sons of Sound
2003

buy

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