Photo: Bob Barry
by Gerald Miller
John, thanks for taking a few minutes of your time to talk with us.
Well, I’m very happy to talk about my – our – new CD!
Tell us about the John Pisano’s Guitar Night CD.
The project for me has been an ongoing thing as this September, it will be ten years since I started Guitar Night. We’ve been at Spazio [jazz music club and restaurant in Sherman Oaks, CA] now for going on seven years and the success of it has been wonderful. It’s kind of a guitar hang, a brotherhood of guitarists. Guitar players like to hang, you know. We have regulars who come in, and a lot of just regular people too because they like the spontaneity of it. It’s an opportunity to let the musicians let it all hang out, as opposed to going into the studio, where you try a little too hard, you know?
And we’re lucky enough to record a lot of the nights. Through the years Larry Stensvold, our engineer, has always kept up with the latest equipment that he could bring in. Actually, it all sounds great. The newer stuff is even better because technology has advanced considerably. I think it’s the excitement of hearing guys when we’re just tossing ideas around on the stage. We don’t have any rehearsals. Sometimes we’ll call and agree on certain tunes, especially with guitar players who don’t consider themselves to be jazz artists. It kind of puts me in a different setting with each artist. I have blues guys come in, I have guys who are rock and classical, you know- just a complete amalgam coming from different parts of the guitar world.
How long did it take to select the 16 tracks for the two-disc set?
We spent a lot of time on it. Of course, when we first recorded them, we would listen and maybe put a star where the tunes were exceptionally good, if something seemed to happen that week. Then when we got the OK from Mel Bay Publications, we had to sit down and zero in. And that was a hell of a job, because we had a lot of tunes to listen to. And then also, consider the fact that when you’re stretching out like that, a lot of tunes are just very long. If something is really exciting, you can go for 11 or 12 minutes. We did a bit of minor editing but for the most part, the tunes are pretty much the way they were played. We had a choice of so many tracks, and the ones we chose are all just special and exciting. It’s all spur of the moment, and it’s exciting in that sense.
Tell us about the first Guitar Night.
We had George Van Eps. That was so special. He must have played three or four times.
In fact, he opens the CD.
He’s featured on the first track, and with good reason. Also, I point out in the liner notes that it was my idea to have Guitar Night, because Dante’s- a jazz club that is now a parking lot like so many jazz clubs- started the original Guitar Night in the mid 70s. I’m not sure of the exact date. But it was a very successful venture for them. George Van Eps was the first artist to start the thing rolling at Dante’s. So my first thought was to call George and see if he could open the Pisano series. He was very excited about it, came in, and that was the beginning of it. We have people who were there on the first night who are still coming in, faces that you see every week.
One of the things I’m most proud of at this point is that, because of the success and popularity of Guitar Night, it’s kind of gone worldwide. The mailings go out, it’s announced on the website, and now we have the CD. I would have somebody like Ulf Wakenius, who’s with Oscar Peterson’s group; we’d never met, but we communicated through email. So he emailed me and said “Pisano, I’m coming to Los Angeles with Oscar, and we’re going to play the Hollywood Bowl. We’re there on a Thursday, but I would like to come in several days early so I can do the Guitar Night.” Several other guitarists from different parts of the world have called me, and they want to come in and appear. These guys are making some pretty big bucks, but they don’t care about that because this is the place to be.
You’re part of their circuit.
That’s how I get people like Howard Alden, Peter Bernstein, and Anthony Wilson, who’s one of the great new players around. Then there’s Scott Henderson; it goes on and on. When Herb Ellis came in, it was kind of the same thing. Herb could have been on the road, making all kinds of bread, which he did- but he took time out; he wanted to do Guitar Night.
How about Guitar Night players who are more outside the “jazz box”? You mentioned Scott Henderson.
I think Scott was about the farthest outside the box. He’s a very expressive player. It’s maybe a little outside our bebop language, you know, but I love his playing. Not that I would work with that particular sound myself, but I love how expressive it is. It has a great emotion. That’s what jazz is all about. That’s why this album is so great, because the guys have a chance to get into it emotionally instead of technically, like going into a studio. It’s just not the same; this is exceptional.
Let’s talk about your background in music. When did you begin playing guitar?
I can’t remember! (laughter) Actually, I started playing guitar when I was about 13 years old. My dad played guitar – not professionally; he was a mailman. He and his brother Benny had rehearsals once a week and they just played a couple of little bars and places. They just had a ball, even if it was at the house. Benny played banjo. My dad gave me his last guitar, which is a 40s Epiphone, which is kind of famous because Joe Pass did several albums using that guitar when my dad was still alive.
Speaking of Joe, I’m sure if he were around, he would have done several Guitar Nights.
Unfortunately we lost him too early. I did a lot of Guitar Nights with Joe [when it was] at Dante’s. Joe and I go back a long time. I did his first two-guitar venture in 1973 on World Pacific, and I wound up doing well over a dozen albums with him, even a duo album that we did with just the two guitars.
Where did you grow up?
I was born in New York, in Staten Island. I was playing around Staten Island at Italian weddings and parties and functions. I never ventured too far but by the time I was 21, the Korean War was going on, and I was about to be drafted. I joined the Air Force for four years, which was a good move. There wasn’t much room for the guitar in any military band at the time. I was there the first three or four months playing bass fiddle and bass drum, just to be connected with the training band.
All of a sudden I heard of an audition for guitar, and it was the only authorization in the Air Force for guitar where you could actually get a rating. I auditioned and got the gig, so I packed up and went to Washington D.C. with the main Air Force Band and with a small cocktail jazz group. We played all the military party functions. We would work officers’ clubs. We’d play at the Pentagon. I don’t think we did the White House. It was a six-piece band with accordion, clarinet, guitar, bass, and Jim Stack who doubled on vibes and keyboard. It was a great group musically, wonderful musicians.
We actually played a function for Mamie Eisenhower; I think it was Mother’s Day or it might have been her birthday. That was kind of memorable because at the time there was this roving photographer strolling around, and it turned out to be Jacqueline Kennedy, before she was married. And she interviewed me. I have that in my collection.
I was very pleased to be the only authorized guitarist in the Air Force. You immediately go from no stripes to staff sergeant, and you get that pay too, so that was like an immediate jump into another pay zone. And all we did, all we had to do, was rehearse and play. We did a lot of 15-minute radio spots at the time, trying to get people to enlist in the Air Force. So that was four years of my life.
Then I started school in Manhattan. I applied at the Manhattan School of Music and passed the audition. At that time they didn’t accept guitar as a major instrument, but you’d have to do a guitar minor and be able to play piano, too. I was ready to do all that but then I got a call from Chico Hamilton who needed a guitar player, and I came out, auditioned, and wound up staying in California.
With Chico, that was good exposure. Chico had the number-one jazz group in the country, so I got a lot of recognition. I took Jim Hall’s place in Chico’s group. I left Chico in about 1958 and I met Billy Bean and we did a couple of classic albums for Decca. Then I kind of waltzed into doing studio work until the time I worked with Peggy Lee, traveling with her, which was another great experience. I wound up conducting for her, and through her belief in me I actually wound up conducting the Dallas Symphony. And that was a trip, you know. I continued to work with her on and off and did a lot of albums with her.
And then Herb Alpert called me and I had a chance to do some stuff with him. I wasn’t sure about that, because I was doing very well in the studios here and didn’t know whether I wanted to be with a commercial group. But I tried it out for awhile, and found out that I could do some writing [for him]; at the time, that was very lucrative, because all of Herb’s albums were million sellers even before they were released. I had a couple of tunes on most of the albums. That lasted about five years.
So I’m still here; I’m still having a good time, still playing, enjoying it, doing some touring for my guitar company, Eastman. I designed a guitar for them and it’s doing quite well. They send me out to do workshops in different parts of the country, actually different parts of the world. We just got back from Seattle, where we had a very successful tour.
My wife and I perform as The Flying Pisanos; we are going to Wrexham, Wales where they have a guitar show every year. And this year they’re invited me to be presented with a special honor.
What advice do you have for aspiring musicians?
Well, I do a lot of that, because I teach at Cal State, Northridge. I enjoy that thoroughly, [because] the young people who are interested in playing jazz. My advice is to learn as much as you can while you’re young, because that’s the time to do it. I also tell them that in order to be a jazz musician, you have to have a real passion for it and have to want to do it. And you have to make a commitment.
It’s not something to be approached casually.
No, it isn’t. It’s not just a cool thing to do, you know. First of all, I tell them that the education, the training, is very important. There are some great guitar players that can make a living playing jazz, but not everyone going to be able to do that. And times are different now. When I was with Chico, for instance, there were jazz clubs all over the country where you could go and work for maybe a week or two. We would leave L.A. and maybe go to St. Louis and work two weeks there and then go to maybe Pittsburgh or Philadelphia or Minneapolis or Chicago. In New York, at Birdland, you’d work there for two weeks.
Nowadays, it’s like you get a one-nighter, and there aren’t that many clubs out there anymore that pay money. The whole industry, the whole setup in this day and age is different. Jazz clubs really have a hard time surviving. You can’t blame it on them but the pay is not great. So I don’t discourage young people who are interested in it. I just tell them you’ve got to love it, and you’ve got to also get as much education as you can, because you’re going to have to do some teaching, writing, and a lot of other things to survive. I think my writing with Herb- even though I hadn’t even thought about it at the time- kind of set me up for where I am today. I always make the joke that I made that move, so that I could afford to play jazz.
So students need to be diversified and flexible.
Yes, that’s my advice. And work as hard as you can, because there’s a lot of talent out there, and there’s a lot of valuable information available to students today. I grew up trying to figure out what Django Rinehart was playing with a 78-rpm record player. I remember using cactus needles as phonograph needles! And if there was one part that you liked and wanted to repeat, you’d know exactly where it was because you’d see a gray spot on the black vinyl. With the information that’s available today, it makes it a lot easier, and so the players are getting better and better.
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