Jazz Improv Mixes with Melody Tonight at UpFront
Jack DeSalvo thought he wanted to be a Beatle or Monkee when he was eight, in 1966.
“I fake played tennis rackets,” he said.
But he grew into a different kind of animal. His musical parents, his father an alto sax player, his mother a singer, soon provided him with a real instrument, and he studied classical guitar. From acoustic he graduated to electric with amps--for $27--and by the ‘70’s he was into jazz fusion. In his teens, he studied composition, then went off to Berkelee College of Music and then toured with bands internationally, blending his influences.
“I combined straight ahead jazz with classical technique,” he said.
He brings a version of that to the UpFront Exhibition Space series on Saturday with the Jack DeSalvo Quartet. He played jazz standards with a vocalist in the first group to play in the JazzPort series two years ago, but on Saturday, for Groove-Port, he brings “something more creative.” The quartet of guitar, piano, upright bass and drums will mingle folk, world and classical, with improvisational solos over melody and chords,
The sound will be “layered,” said DeSalvo, with melody and improvisation happening all at once.
Jack DeSalvo Quartet: Saturday, September 25th, 7:00 p.m. Doors open at 6:30. UpFront Exhibition Space, 31 Jersey Ave., Port Jervis. (845) 754-1808. Tickets $20.