Gene Bertoncini
Gene Bertoncini ( born April 6, 1937 in the Bronx, New York City ) is an American jazz guitarist ( acoustic guitar) and composer.
Bertoncini played from the age of nine guitar and has a degree in architecture from the University of Notre Dame. He was a member of the band in the "Tonight Show" with Johnny Carson, in the TV bands of Merv Griffin and Skitch Henderson, and worked extensively as a studio musician. He played among other things with Benny Goodman, Buddy Rich ( his band in the 1960s ), Wayne Shorter, Hubert Laws, Clark Terry, Mike Mainieri, Paul Desmond, accompanied Tony Bennett, Lena Horne, Vic Damone, and Eydie Gorme and Nancy Wilson was even at a concert already accompanied by the orchestra of the Metropolitan Opera. He has performed solo and played for many years in a duo with bassist Michael Moore, with whom he from 1982 to 1989 every Sunday in " Zinno " occurred in Greenwich Village, before Moore moved to India. Bertoncini playing on acoustic guitar ( with nylon strings ) and rarely used an amplifier. In addition to jazz standards and classical adaptations he improvises a lot about South American compositions, especially by Antonio Carlos Jobim. He has released several CDs, including the solo albums Someone to Light Up My Life, Acoustic Romance, Quiet Now, and with Kenny Poole, the duo album East Meets West. Bertoncini teaches at the Eastman School of Music and at the William Patterson University. From 1990 to 2008 he played regularly on Mondays and Thursday at New York's La Madeleine ( in the 43rd Street ). In 2008 he joined inter alia with Bucky Pizzarelli on as a duo. In 2003, he was on tour in Germany with the guitarist Mundell Lowe and John Pisano.