Dedicated to Les Paul
New CD featuring Guitarist Tony Taravella
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10% of the proceeds from the sale of this CD will be donated to St. Jude's Hospital.
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Review
Tony Taravella is a veteran jazz guitarist who has a melodic and thoughtful style. In A Sentimental Mood, which was recorded back in 2013, finds the guitarist holding his own with four impressive musicians from San Diego: pianist Mike Wofford, bassist Bob Magnusson, drummer Duncan Moore, and saxophonist Tripp Sprague.
The group performs a dozen familiar standards, mostly taken at relaxed tempos. Taravella is at his best on such numbers as “In A Sentimental Mood,” “Black Orpheus,” “Satin Doll,” and “Take The ‘A’ Train.” Other highlights include his beautiful unaccompanied versions of “Yesterday” and “Over the Rainbow.”
The recent Dedicated To Les Paul has Taravella performing (via overdubbing) on acoustic and electric guitars, bass guitar, and drums. Other than co-producer Vince Lauria contributing a little bit of mandolin, Taravella plays all of the instruments that are heard. His homage to Les Paul pays tribute to both Paul’s repertoire and his mastery of overdubbing.
The tempos are all pretty laidback with Taravella’s guitars often echoing and answering each other’s musical comments while backed by his basic bass and drums. While there are hints of Paul’s hit recordings with Mary Ford, the arrangements are mostly new and fresh with the highpoints including “It’s Been A Long Long Time,” “Limehouse Blues,” “Vaya Con Dios,” “The World Is Waiting For The Sunrise,” and “Brazil.” While Les Paul’s original recordings are impossible to top, Tony Taravella does a fine job of doing justice to the music of one of his idols.
Both CDs are available from www.tonytaravella.com.
Scott Yanow
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Yanow
Tony Taravella has a great respect and love for the electric guitar. Be it jazz or classic rock it shows in everything he’s done from the Beatles and the Ventures, to his fine CD of Jazz standards, to this, his latest, a tribute to guitar legend Les Paul. A dozen classics make up this excellent collection. From Tony’s stunning arrangement of the opener, It’s been a long time, to the closing Latin-flavored Brazil, there’s something for every fan of Les Paul to enjoy, including a couple of my personal favorites: Caravan and The world is waiting for the sunrise.
From his haunting, creative rendition of Caravan, Tony moves effortlessly into the very laid-back, unpretentious It had to be you, and Vaya Con Dios with their very nice guitar harmony and counterpoint. Brazil is sure to have you dancing the samba around your living room before it’s done.
Tony’s musicianship gets more solid and inventive with each recording he does. And here, some of the lead work he does is positively head-turning as he moves smoothly from the melody to improvising.
Tony’s good friend Vince Lauria, joins him on mandolin, and does his usual great job engineering and recording this CD, while Tony plays acoustic and electric guitars, bass guitar, and drums. All in all, another first-class effort and labor of love by this first-rate guitarist.
Joe Falletta, QST Magazine
Tony Taravella: Dedicated To Les Paul - All About Jazz: Review
"With Dedicated To Les Paul, Nevada-based guitarist Tony Taravella takes a tasteful, laid-back trip through Paul's fifty plus years of playing the guitar." DAN MCCLENAGHAN, ALL ABOUT JAZZ
"For listeners who remember and enjoy Les Paul's instrumental work, this is both an informative and fun listen." -The San Diego Troubador
In My Life
CD featuring Guitarist Tony Taravella
The songs on the CD are:
- In My Life
- Yesterday
- And I Love Her
- Michelle
- Ticket to Ride
- Hard Day's Night
- Day Tripper
- This Boy
- Things We Said Today
- If I Fell
- While My Guitar Gently Weeps
- Something
- Let It Be
- Golden Slumbers
10% of the proceeds from the sale of this CD will be donated to St. Jude's Hospital.
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Walk Don't Run
CD featuring Guitarist Tony Taravella
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Personnel
- Tony Taravella- electric guitars, acoustic guitars, bass guitar, guitar synthesizer
- Vince Lauria- drums and percussion, synthesizers, keyboard
- Russell Smith- saxophone
- Recorded Vince Lauria Studios, Las Vegas, NV
- Engineered by Vince Lauria.
- Produced by Vince Lauria and Tony Taravella
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In A Sentimental Mood
Jazz Instrumentals
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The Players
- Tony Taravella- Guitar
- Mike Wofford- Piano
- Bob Magusson- Bass
- Duncan Moore- Drums
- Tripp Sprague- Saxophone
- Engineered and Produced by Peter Sprague
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