Tony Mottola

Scoredog · September 12

I see a few other older guitarist's get some run here besides Django.

I have not seen Tony Mottola mentioned here. Tony was born in 1918 and was heavily influenced by Django, his first band being a takeoff of the HCQ with another soon to be acclaimed guitarist Al Caiola. You can still find both of these artists on "Beautiful" music stations. Tony was possibly America's first top guitarist heavily influenced by Django.

Here is Coquette...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JrwplnT6T0&list=RD-JrwplnT6T0&start_radio=1

voutoreenie · September 12

Wow, thx Scoredog - I do know of Tony but primarily from his work with Carl Kress like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_ihI42QEVE

Really cool to hear him ripping on electric and now I'm gonna have to spend some time listening to more Mottola!

littlemark · September 13

He has some very mediocre albums later in his career.

Russell Letson · September 13

A lot of the late-50s/early-60s material from studio guys like Mottola is like that "Coquette" track--not unlike the pop-style recordings that made Les Paul famous. (Not that there's anything wrong with broad-appeal pop or easy-listening stuff.) But like mid-1940s Paul, Mottola could turn out standard jazz, as in this clip from what looks like a 50s TV show:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAZ1DRlgDOc

Guys like Mottola, Caiola, and Bucky had careers that depended on playing whatever the studio gig required, and had chops to execute it, kinda like the Wrecking Crew. Fortunately for us, Bucky never abandoned jazz-as-jazz, so we have a wonderful late-career stretch of recordings with all manner of great musicians--Grappelli, Goodman, Zoot Sims, Buddy Rich, Ruby Braff, Scott Hamilton, George Barnes, Howard Alden, Frank Vignola, and his own kids. Among many others.

Jangle_Jamie · September 13

That version of coquette has a wonderful little break in it - start it at 1:20 and it builds nicely to a very satisfying sequence of chords - ooooh, lovely! I will try to work out what they are and get them into my solo!!!

adrian · September 14

He had a great touch on the instrument! I love his playing.

Check out the recordings he made with the Tony Mottola Four in 1947. It includes an older version of Coquette, which is different from the one posted above and a bit more similar in aesthetic to Django:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqO15eX22WA

Final fun fact about Tony Mottola...he taught Johnny Carson how to play guitar:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bP0nNitZlM

Adrian

pdg · September 14

He played guitar one at least one Burl Ives album. I heard it as a kid, listening to "folk music." Long before I listened to jazz.

Buco · September 14

His right hand does have a slightly arched wrist and he does that thumb dance that you see people do sometime. He mentions Django here

https://youtu.be/OH6HMS5jhKs?

He was a great player and I never heard of him. I wonder how many others are out there.

Buco · September 14

Another name that I came across by pure chance is Remo Palmier. I was browsing used records store in Lakeview, Chicago, back when almost everything was $2 (early 2000s), and I saw a record called Windflower. I was like "oh cool, here's a record with Herb Ellis and... who's this... Remo something..." Come home to find out Remo was an amazing guitar player and this album is one of my favorite jazz records ever.

Not only is the playing awesome, it's so well recorded. Perfectly engineered jazz guitar duo, both guitars have a great jazz box tone, with the rhythm section of drums and an upright. An upright bass especially is an example of a well recorded acoustic bass.

Noto · September 15

Remo Palmier also had a recording of his own on Concord in 1979.

He played a beautiful version of "Stardust" with Joe Puma accompanying him at Tal Farlow's 75th Birthday party in NYC. Remo had said he greatly admired Tony Mottola and played the same semi-hollowbody as Tony.