John Basile
Gig Seeker Pro

John Basile

| INDIE

| INDIE
Band Jazz

Calendar

This band has not uploaded any videos
This band has not uploaded any videos

Music

The best kept secret in music

Press


"Time Will Reveal"

Time Will Reveal
John Basile | Underhill Jazz (2007)

By Jeff Winbush
Discuss

Set aside, for a moment, the classic venues like the Montreux Jazz Festival and to truly appreciate jazz you have to understand it's not a form of music that was ever intended to be heard in the great outdoors and in football stadiums. To truly groove on jazz it should be listened to indoors. Preferably, in concert halls with superb acoustics and cozy clubs where the musicians can not only be seen, but heard.
Which is where guys like John Basile comes in.

It's not likely Basile is ever going to fill stadiums with thousands of rabidly enthusiastic fans who have traveled for miles and camped out for days just to hear the Boston-based guitarist play. That kind of mass hysteria is limited to dinosaur rock bands like The Rolling Stones lumbering through “Jumpin' Jack Flash” for the umpteenth time. Jazz thrives in the quiet, not the loud and so does John Basile. He plays in a smaller league where bombast and big sound is neither expected nor enjoyed. Basile is part of the overlooked and unappreciated group of pros going about the serious business of keeping the idiom alive.

Basile's Time Will Reveal is a showcase for his deft and melodic guitar playing as he's supported by a group of savvy sidemen tight as a drumhead and a perfect compliment to his sensitive and supple performance on 11 compositions.

Basile and producer/bassist David Finck selected songs for Time Will Reveal that will instantly be familiar to anyone who listened to AM or FM radio from the '50s through to the '80s. In some ways when a musician covers well-known pop hits like The 5th Dimension's “Up, Up and Away” or The Isley Brothers “For the Love of You” they are opening themselves up to be compared unfavorably to the original. The listener who is familiar with the song being covered comes to the table with a certain anticipation of how faithful to the original the new interpretation should be. Too often producers treat covering pop tunes as an exercise for bored musicians to warm up over before tackling the “serious” music.

Wisely, Finck's production avoids the trap of slavishly trying to recreate, note-by-note, Benny Golson's classic “Killer Joe,” made popular by Quincy Jones and Duke Jordan's “Jordu,” or suffocating the songs under a glob of strings, synthesizers, background vocals or lumbering solos. The music here is traditional jazz with the arrangements featuring acoustic instruments (drums, bass, vibes, piano) and Basile's genial guitar at the center. It's a delight to hear musicians respect the original material instead of trying to radically reinvent it.

Time Will Reveal offers a fine showcase of Basile's facile and flowing guitar style and a tastefully restrained group of musicians playing expressively without embellishment. It's the kind of album that keeps sneaking back into your CD player.

Visit John Basile on the web.
John Basile at All About Jazz.


Track listing: Up Up and Away; Killer Joe; La Samba; Betcha By Golly Wow; Morning; Time Will Reveal; Superstar; Groovin'; Jordu; For the Love of You; Mambo Inn.

Personnel: John Basile: guitars; David Finck: bass; Clint DeGanon: drums; Roger Squitero: percussion; Joe Locke: vibes; Bill O'Connell: piano; Barry Danielian: trumpet; Bob Mallach: tenor saxophone; Byron Olsen: piano (10); Jeff Kievit: trumpet (6).

- All About Jazz


"Allaboutjazz.com"

"...(Very Good Year) is much greater than the sum of its parts, making this release one of the finest of the year." - C. Michael Bailey


"WRRG - Chicago"

" A refreshing new talent returned to the jazz guitar scene...vibrant, exciting, compelling ... and, best of all, swinging! At a time when jazz needed a shot in the arm from a new guitarist, here comes John Basile... just at the right time!" - Tom Macek


"Cadence"

"... Even on the more sprightly tempoed tune , you get the felling that he is caressing the strings as opposed to picking them. Basile never sounds hurried..." - Paul Mathews


"allaboutjazz.com"

Animations

John Basile/John Abercrombie | Underhill Jazz

When done properly, it’s astounding how much music a duet can generate. It is always especially notable when that duet consists of artists performing on the same instrument. In such a setting, the challenge of blending voices while simultaneously creating distinct, personal lines becomes that much more challenging. Guitarists John Basile and John Abercrombie recently recorded just such a duet, rising masterfully to the occasion.

Comprised of eleven tracks including both original compositions and covers, Animations will without doubt appeal to jazz guitar fans, but it offers something as well to those looking for a subtle, intelligent, and gracefully balanced musical outing. Both instrumentalists are quite capable as individuals, and here they show not only a common bond, but also an uncommon ability to converse together fluidly.

Well matched, Basile and Abercrombie integrate their ideas masterfully, gently shifting one another into new territory as they explore each tune. Marked by a certain conservatism, neither player plunges too far toward any one stylistic extreme, relying on shading and delicacy to create a steadfastly reserved, mellow tone throughout the album. This approach works particularly well on such pieces as Horace Silver’s “Peace” and the melancholic “Desert Storm.” This quiet, focused tune stands out as an album highlight, revealing well each musicians capacities.

A very sedate album, Animations covers a subtly executed and decidedly dignified musical terrain.

~ Franz A. Matzner - Franz Matzner


Discography

- Very Early (Seabreeze 2024) w/ Eddie Gomez.
- Quiet Passage (ProJazz 627) w/ Tom Harrell , Joey Baron, and George Mraz.
- Sunnyside Up (ProJazz 641)
- John Basile/Brad terry Duo (MusicMasters 512744A)
- For All Time (Philology 214W103-2)
- Frankly Speaking: A Jazz Portrait of Sinatra (King)
w/ Michael Brecker, John Abercrombie.
- The Desmond Project (Chesky 156)
- It Was A Very Good Year (Underhill Jazz 001)
- Animations ( Underhill Jazz 002)

Photos

Feeling a bit camera shy

Bio

A jazz guitarist for over 25 years, John Basile has performed and recorded throughtout the US and Europe in a variety of formats. Born in Boston, John attended Berklee College of Music and graduated from New England Conservatory of Music in 1979.

John released his first recording as a leader in 1981 (Very Early) with Eddie Gomez and a string orchestra. He has performed live and recorded with George Mraz, Tom Harrel, John Abercrombie, Red Mitchell, Grady Tate, and Sweets Edison, Michael Brecker.

He developed the original jazz guitar program at the New School in NYC, began a series of master classes in jazz improvisation throughout Italy and appeared on the instuctional video Jazz Guitar Improvisation with John Abercrombie on Homespun tapes.

Stylistically John's guitar style uses a finger-style technique that approaches the instrument like a piano. Comping chord fragments and playing melodies simultaneously provides the backdrop for a more open style and conception of improvisation.

John believes the harmonic aspect of the guitar has not been explored to its full potential and strives to explore this area in all live performances and teaching seminars.

John is available for solo,duo,and trio performances as well as educational seminars in jazz guitar performance.