Vignola, Frank

Vignola, Frank, jazz guitarist and banjoist; b. Islip, N.Y, Dec. 30, 1965. He grew up in a musical environment. His father played banjo in a group with other banjoists, and Frank started playing guitar when he was five. His father bought him records by Django Reinhardt, Joe Pass, and Bucky Pizzarelli. For the next seven years he got Joe Pass records for Christmas. These were the only records he listened to until age 12, when he took up the banjo, playing it so well that at 14 he won the Grand National Banjo Championship in Canada and recorded an album. As a teenager he heard and played rock and roll, but continued to explore jazz. He also studied during this period at the Cultural Art Center of Long Island, which broadened his outlook. He has played on the Tonight Show (with Johnny Carson), on PBS with ragtime pianist Max Morath, at the Blue Note and Michael’s Pub in N.Y., at jazz festivals in the U.S. and Europe,and on recordings and gigs with Leon Redbone, Milt Hinton, Billy Mitchell, and Ringo Starr. He performed and recorded as leader of his own Hot Club, a group dedicated to Django Reinhardt. Hehas been a guest lecturer and teacher at Boston Univ., and the Univ. of Pittsburgh, among others. Vignola also heads the Jazz Guitar department at Ariz. State Univ.; co- leads a group withSam Pilafian, Travelin’ Light, and joined with Howard Alden and Jimmy Bruno to form the Concord Jazz Guitar Collective.

Discography

Appel Direct (1993); Let It Happen (1994); Look Right, Jog Left (1995); Deja Vu (1999).

—Lewis Porter