James Chirillo

James Chirillo

James Louis Chirillo (* 2. May 1953 in Waltham (Massachusetts) ) is an American jazz - guitarist , banjo player , arranger and composer .

Live and act

James Chirillo grew up in Bellevue, Washington and had classes in his hometown and in Seattle ; In the mid-1970s he studied music (composition and guitar) at the University of North Texas and in New York with John Carisi , Bill Finegan (arrangement and composition) and with Remo Palmier (guitar). During this time he performed a. a. as accompanist for the singer Vic Damone . During his military service he was 1979-82 member of the US Military Academy Band at West Point . After his discharge from the Army, he moved to New York City in 1982 . There he had lessons with Tiny Grimes , with whom he also performed. 1985/86 he was a member of Benny Goodman's last band; From 1987 to 1991 he played in the Buck Clayton Orchestra, with whom he toured Europe in 1991. He appeared with Claude Williams at the inauguration ceremony of US President Clinton . He has also worked with Ken Peplowski , Loren Schoenberg , Bob Wilber and the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band , Benny Carter , the Lincoln Center Jazz Band under the direction of Wynton Marsalis . From 1992 to 1999 he was a member of the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra , which was directed by Gunther Schuller and David Baker . In 2011 he worked on Ryan Truesdells Centennial - Newly Discovered Works of Gil Evans . In 2000 his album Sultry Serenade was released on the Nagel-Heyer label . Chirillo has lived in Teaneck since 1993 .

Chirillo has also appeared as a musician in two Woody Allen films, guitarist and banjo player in Everyone Says I Love You in 1996 and rhythm guitarist on the 1999 Sweet and Lowdown soundtrack for the standard " Sweet Georgia Brown ".

Compositions

• Grainger Suite '(2002)
• Prelude To A Minor Insensitivity (a tribute to Bill Finegan)
• Valse Prismatique
• Homage Concerto for Clarinet and Jazz Orchestra (1996) ( National Endowment for the Arts , 1995 Jazz Composition Grant), written for Ken Peplowski and the Loren Schoenberg Jazz Orchestra.
• Manhattan Work Song (1993)

swell

• Richard Cook , Brian Morton : The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings . 8th edition. Penguin, London 2006, ISBN 0-14-102327-9 .
• Leonard Feather , Ira Gitler : The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz. Oxford University Press, New York 1999, ISBN 0-19-532000-X .