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Frank Vignola

Venue: The Half Moon
Town: Putney
Date: 16/10/13
Website: http://frankvignola.com

The celebrated gypsy jazz guitarist Frank Vignola, was joined at the Half Moon in Putney by another wizard guitarist, Vinny Raniolo. Together, they supplied a night of comedy and music.

During the two hour concert, Vignola and Raniolo didn’t just play the standard repertoire associated with gypsy jazz, (although they did cover a fair few like Djanjo Reinhardt’s Nuages). They integrated unexpected pieces of music like the first movement of Beethoven’s fifth symphony and the first movement of Mozart’s fortieth symphony, and classics like Stairway to Heaven, but putting a swing slant on them.

Their playing was none other than virtuoso and the performance that the two put on was to the same high standard. It would be fair to say that they could be called the Eric and Ernie of the Jazz guitar world as they filled a lot of time with one liners and their own unique form of comedic dance. In the second half of the evening members from the audience were invited to come up and sing. This was quite a success with three rather good singers volunteering themselves. After this the audience were asked to request numbers for the musicians to play. Favourites like the Girl of Ipenema and Lullaby of Birdland were suggested, and they flew from their fingertips as if almost in their sleep. There were many encores, (and deservedly so).

Matt Tighe