About Jack DeSalvo

Jacksite

JACK DeSALVO, born in New York City, developed his extraordinary guitar style from a deep immersion into modern jazz, classical guitar and his own prolific compositional output. He has been compared to artists as diverse as Ralph Towner and John McLaughlin and has studied guitar with Bill Connors and Leonid Bolotine, composition with Ariada Mikéshina (herself a student of Richard Strauss) and at Berklee College of Music as well as with composer and theorist George Russell. DeSalvo performs mainly with his own trio and quartet and the group Quintrepid, which includes Jack on guitar, Matt Lambiase on flugelhorn, Chris Forbes on piano, double-bassist Dmitry Ishenko and drummer Tom Cabrera. All About Jazz calls Quintrepid “ a swinging collective with a fresh sound”.

His duet album Lumens with German/Swiss saxophonist Nicole Johänntgen received praise on both sides of the Atlantic, “I have been completely bowled over by this album since it arrived for review a few weeks ago.” – Nick Lea, Jazz Views, “Nicole Johänntgen and Jack DeSalvo pulled out all the stops at the recording session for “Lumens”. Guitar and saxophone play almost hands-free with the themes and find the perfect balance in terms of sound.” – Georg Wassmuth, SWR2, “(DeSalvo’s) conception is pure jazz, comping, accenting and prodding Johänntgen’s watery lines on alto and soprano.” – Downbeat

Hailed in THE WIRE magazine as “masterful”, Jack DeSalvo has performed on over 100 albums with over 30 under his name. He is featured on numerous classic jazz albums, including Ronald Shannon Jackson’s Red Warrior, Spontaneous Combustion by the group D3, Transparencies with Karl Berger, and Anthony Cox, and Liquide Stones in duo with Arthur Lipner. He has performed worldwide, including at jazz festivals and clubs in Europe.

“When you listen to Jack DeSalvo, it’s immediately apparent that he has an enormous musical vocabulary. Renaissance classical, garage rock, straight-ahead jazz, downtown skronk and traditional mandolin melodies are all part of his musical DNA. But when you hear DeSalvo improvise on classical guitar, you’re hearing the music of that precise moment. He has many influences (and there are as many poets, philosophers, and thinkers as there are musicians)…” – Mitch Goldman, WKCR

Jack DeSalvo is a founder of, and producer for Unseen Rain Records and also a multi-instrumentalist playing (besides classical, steel-string, 12-string and electric guitars) cello, mandolin, banjo, keyboards, etc.

 

 

 

Extended Bio

JACK DeSALVO is a jazz and classical guitarist, composer, multi-instrumenalist (besides guitar he also performs on cello, mandolin, mandola, banjo and piano) record producer and educator. 

Hailed in THE WIRE magazine as “masterful”,  Jack DeSalvo has performed on over 100 albums with nearly 30 under his own name. Besides his releases on Unseen Rain Records, he is featured on numerous classic new jazz albums, including Ronald Shannon Jackson’s Red Warrior, Spontaneous Combustion by the group D3, Transparencies with Karl Berger and Anthony Cox and Liquide Stones in duo with Arthur Lipner. He currently performs with several quartets and trios as well as solo under his own name, with the bands Quintrepid  and Sumari, in bands led Chris Kelsey, Julie Lyon and others, in Matt Lavelle’s 12 Houses Orchestra and in duos with Nicole Johänntgen, Tom Cabrera and Dom Minasi.  He has performed worldwide, including at jazz festivals and clubs in Europe. 

“When you listen to Jack DeSalvo, it’s immediately apparent that he has an enormous musical vocabulary. Renaissance classical, garage rock, straight ahead jazz, downtown skronk and traditional mandolin melodies are all part of his musical DNA. But when you hear DeSalvo improvise on classical guitar, you’re hearing music of that precise moment. He has many influences (and there are as many poets, philosophers and thinkers as there are musicians)…” – Mitch Goldman, WKCR

Jack began guitar lessons at age eight. By his early teens he was rehearsing and performing with local rock groups. The first transformation from interest in pop music to other forms occurred when he bought an LP based on its cover when he was 11. The record, already a classic by that time, was Fresh Cream. Hearing the track Sleepy Time Time inspired his early research into the Blues, including BB King’s Live at the Regal and recordings by Albert King and others. By 15 DeSalvo had picked up harmonica and mandolin and started to use a bottle-neck slide after seeing Johnny Winter and Duane Allman perform.

While trying to commandeer his teen-aged garage band’s repertoire to more blues oriented material, his friend Steve Aprahamian (now an eminent composer) played him Birds of Fire by the Mahavishnu Orchestra. This changed everything. Exposure followed to the music of Coltrane, Miles and early jazz. DeSalvo’s sketching and painting, which were the center of his activities from early childhood began taking a back seat to music, though he always felt they emanated from the same impulse.

Jack began studying classical guitar with his jazz teacher Al Faraldi. Al sent Jack to NYC to his teacher, Leonid Bolotine. A violinist with Toscanini’s NBC Orchestra, Bolotine had initiated the guitar department at Mannes College of Music and established the American Institute of the Guitar. At Bolotine’s urging, DeSalvo began to study theory and harmony and eventually composition with Ariada Mikéshina, who was formerly a student of Richard Strauss.

During his classical studies Jack continued to pursue jazz and improvisation, playing in ensembles with drummer and eventual recording engineer Tom Tedesco and the late Chapman Stick innovator Frank Jolliffe. Forming a group with Tedesco, trumpeter Charlie Monte and bassist Joe Buonomo, DeSalvo performed at clubs in NYC and New Jersey playing a repertoire that ranged from old standards to Wayne Shorter tunes and free improvisation.

DeSalvo accepted into Juilliard’s composition department but instead went to Boston to attend Berklee College of Music. He also studied George Russell’s Lydian Chromatic Concept. It was at this time that he began his process of waking up every morning and writing music, encouraged by poet William Stafford’s practice of writing a poem every day. Though Jack has written long forms, symphonic works and chamber music, it is music written for small jazz bands that became the core of his writing. He feels these pieces, accessible to musicians through the jazz chart, are analogous to free-verse poetry, another art-form that has enriched DeSalvo’s sensibilities and informs his work.

Moving to lower Manhattan to immerse himself in the downtown music scene, his apartment was at the corner of Mott St. and Prince St. which was was then a nexus for a number of musical genres and related arts, down the block from the original Knitting Factory, around the corner from Lunch for Your Ears and near Todd’s Copy Shop-Gallery. It was in this milieu that DeSalvo developed his writing, which he termed Composing for Improvisers, while continuing to work on himself as an improviser.

He kept his jazz guitar and classical guitar techniques separate until he started to study with Bill Connors, the first guitarist with Return To Forever who had already recorded his landmark ECM recordings. Connors encouraged DeSalvo to break the dichotomy between plectrum-oriented jazz playing and right-hand classical technique. This was liberating and eventually led to Jack’s pianistic independence of moving voices while developing a flamenco-like fluidity with his right-hand fingers to match the plectrum technique he developed early on.

DeSalvo’s performances at this time were centered on his own compositions. and he performed concerts at Inroads, the Open Center and played at clubs including Seventh Avenue South and the Inner Circle. He made the first recording of his own music, Moments Of, with a group consisting of himself on guitar, Rick Jesse on tenor saxophone, Scott Butterfield on bass and Chris Braun on drums.

With drummer Chris Braun and bass player Mike Bocchicchio, both a few years his senior, he began regular extended sessions playing mostly jazz standards, music by Coltrane, Sonny Rollins and some of Chris Braun’s music. It was during this period and because of these two masterful players, Bocchcchio and Braun, that DeSalvo learned the meaning of swing and its powerful essence at the heart of jazz. They made a single recording of Braun’s music, engineered by Tom Tedesco, pre-Tedesco studio.

The next project, produced by the late David Baker was DeSalvo’s album Falls Home with Allen Farnham on piano, Drew Gress on bass and Tom Tedesco on drums, featuring DeSalvo’s compositions with quartet performances and solo guitar pieces.

Throughout DeSalvo’s early NYC experience he played numerous gigs with bass player Tony DeCicco whom he had known at Berklee. At one performance in a gallery on the Lower East Side they played in an ensemble that included saxophonist and composer Trish Burgess, who introduced them to her husband Bruce Ditmas. Tony and Jack knew who Ditmas was – a veteran of the Gil Evans Orchestra and The Paul Bley Quartet. A session was set up. Not a word was said and the playing commenced. It became obvious that the trio could improvise full pieces with a shared sense of compositional structure and yet with a feeling of total abandon. The result was such that they immediately became a band which was known from then on as D3.

D3 hit the downtown scene with their powerful interplay, performing regularly at the Knitting Factory and First on First. A recording was made at Joe Pedoto’s Omni-Mix Studio. Bassist Melvin Gibbs, who knew that Ronald Shannon Jackson was looking for a guitar player for his band The Decoding Society, played the recording for Jackson who then hired DeSalvo.

Several European and American tours with Ronald Shannon Jackson followed with what was to be the horn-less version of the Decoding Society, a band that included bassists Ramon Pooser and Conrad Mathieu and guitarists DeSalvo and the late Jef Lee Johnson. While in Europe DeSalvo met and played with many European and American musicians including Peter Brötzmann in Wuppertal and with Miles’ then current band at Club Rémont in Warsaw.

DeSalvo is featured on Jackson’s legendary recording Red Warrior (Knit Classics KCR-3032/orig. Axiom) with Jack playing electric and slide guitar as well as playing mandolin on the bonus track Harmolodic Christmas.

Soon after came Transparencies (Bellaphon CDLR-45057) with Karl Berger on vibes, piano and balafon, Jack on electric, 12-string and classical guitars, Anthony Cox on double-bass and Tom Tedesco on drums and percussion.

The first album from D3, Spontaneous Combustion (Enja/Tutu CD-888126), with Jack on electric guitar, Tony DeCicco on double-bass and Bruce Ditmas on drums, now a classic, was the very first recording at the then barely completed Tedesco Studio, engineered by David Baker and produced by Peter Wiessmüller.

Arthur Lipner and DeSalvo’s duo performances featuring Arthur’s vibes and marimba and Jack’s classical and electric guitars led to the recording Liquide Stones (Enja/Tutu CD-888132), which received enthusiastic reviews on both sides of the Atlantic: “Using both acoustic and electric instruments, DeSalvo demonstrates technique, intelligence and imagination with a broad streak of lyricism and passion in what amounts to one of the better guitar voices to be heard in improvised music these days.” – Cadence “Guitar and vibraphones in a thrilling duo recital with timeless, inflammable ideas. Thus warm ballads burgeon beside provoking, avant-garde sound plasma, forming their own integrated musical system of co-ordination.” -Rainer Guerich, CD Tips, Germany.

Arthur recorded DeSalvo’s composition Pramantha on his own album In Any Language that included Vic Juris on guitar.

DeSalvo performed with various ensembles at the Knitting Factory and elsewhere, including Pat Hall’s Quintet and his own groups including a trio with bassist Jeff Carney and Bruce Ditmas and a quartet with saxophonist Chris Kelsey, bassist Peter Herbert and Ditmas. This quartet eventually recorded DeSalvo’s album Sudden Moves (UR9989).

The album Stutches (UR9996), with Jack on banjo, mandolin and various guitars, Chris Kelsey on soprano saxophone and Tom Tedesco on tabla, percussion and drums was recorded at Tedesco Studio by engineer Jon Rosenberg.

Not long after, the long-time duo of DeSalvo and percussionist Tom Cabrera recorded their first album Tales of Coming Home (UR9986) with Cabrera on frame drums and percussion and DeSalvo on steel-string acoustic six and 12-string and slide guitars and mandolin.

All through this time DeSalvo was improvising on classical guitar. In his liner notes to his solo guitar record Jubilant Rain (UR9987) he says, “I discovered improvised music little by little as a teenager, studying classical guitar and playing in garage bands. It was, however, the solo recordings of Keith Jarrett that intimated a process that was perhaps even more paradigm shattering than the astonishing jazz that I was listening to at that time. Jarrett wasn’t simply improvising over the harmonies inherent in a composed song.

“He was making the whole thing up.

“…I was determined to search for, if not the same process, a process that would necessitate moving myself out of the way and allowing music that clearly already exists in some other world, some other dimension, some parallel universe beyond myself, to flow through my instrument, the guitar.”

A chamber group version of DeSalvo’s piece The Guest was commissioned by the Institute for Contemporary Art in Philadelphia and performed by Anthony Scafide’s chamber ensemble.

He continued to perform his own music in New York at various spots including performances at The Internet Cafe arranged by and featuring saxophonist Tony Malaby with a quintet that also included trumpeter Dave Ballou, bassist John Hébert and drummer Ed Ware followed by a quartet with Ron Horton on trumpet, Hébert and Tony Moreno on drums. 

This period turned into a time of intense self-reflection and focus on classical guitar repertoire from renaissance lute music, through Bach to modern works including Britten’s Nocturnal and transcriptions of Ginastera’s piano music.

DeSalvo premiered composer Sean Hickey’s classical guitar piece Tango Grotesco, which was dedicated to the guitarist, at the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music.

A return to Omni-Mix Studio for a different type of solo guitar record, Pramantha (UR9988), with steel-string acoustic guitars and his own compositions, that, like predecessor recordings My Goals Beyond by John McLaughlin and Bill Connors’ Theme To The Guardian on ECM and even Bill Evans’ Conversations With Myself, renders a most personal album.

DeSalvo’s relationship with UNSEEN RAIN Records and producer-engineers Gene Gaudette and Jim DeSalvo has created an artistic home for DeSalvo’s work as a recording artist and as a producer, bringing in artists he respects and admires and offering a catalog of over 120 recordings, many audiophile. 

Following Jack’s brother Jim’s untimely and tragic death in 2019, Jack and Gaudette merged Unseen Rain with Woodshedd Records  uniting with partners Tom Cabrera, Julie Lyon and recording engineer Larry Hutter.

Selected DeSalvo Discography on Unseen Rain Records

 

Album Group or Leader
Bookendless Chris Kelsey
Wood’s edge Jack DeSalvo
Numinous Jack DeSalvo
Jhana Jhana
Sótano Sótano
Bare Trees Jack DeSalvo
Live At Scholes Street Jack DeSalvo
Sumari IV Sumari
Quintrepid Quintrepid
Whisper of Dreams Julie Lyon
Ramsey Sumari
Before Testo Sumari
Zone II Zone
So Many Roads Jack DeSalvo and Joel Shapira
Aurguri Jack DeSalvo and Tom Cabrera
Minerals Jack DeSalvo
Nevica Jack DeSalvo
Poemas del Hogar Julie Lyon
Lumens Nicole Johanntgen and Jack DeSalvo
Zone Zone
Sumari III Sumari
End Times 12 Houses
Sumari III Sumari
Soldano Dieci Anni Dom Minasi and Jack DeSalvo
Chris Kelsey Quintet Chris Kelsey
Connoisseurs of Chaos VII Connoisseurs of Chaos
Connoisseurs of Chaos VI Connoisseurs of Chaos
While We Sleep Jack DeSalvo and Tom Cabrera
Moonflow Julie Lyon
The Crossing Jack DeSalvo
D3+1.1 D3
D3+1.0 D3
Julie Julie Lyon
Solidarity 12 Houses
The Face of the Change of the Century to Come Chris Kelsey
Sumari Sumari
Inherence Joel Shapira
1Up1Down Chris Kelsey
Juniper Jack DeSalvo and Tom Cabrera
Cydonia Tom Cabera
Connoisseurs of Chaos II Connoisseurs of Chaos
Libra Moon Jack DeSalvo and Tom Cabrera
Lion Hearted Jack DeSalvo
Westbury Converge Joel Shapira
K3rnelPAN1c Pat Hall
Tales of coming Home Jack DeSalvo and Tom Cabrera
Jubilant Rain Jack DeSalvo
Pramantha Jack DeSalvo
Sudden Moves Jack DeSalvo
Starlight Jack DeSalvo
Heliconia Jack DeSalvo
River Road River Road
Stutches Chris Kelsey

As Producer, etc…

Artist Title UR Cat# DeSalvo’s Role
Nicole Johäntgen, Jack DeSalvo UR9925 classical guitar, producer
Zone Zone UR9927 guitar, producer
Guilermo Bazzola, Risto Vuolane, Fernando Lamas Kotka UR9928 executive producer
Sumari Live at Scholes St. Studio UR9929 guitar, banjo, producer
Sumari Sumari III UR9930 guitar, bass ukelele, producer
Pat Hall’s Time Remembered Organ Group Live at Shapeshiter Lab UR9931 producer
Matt Lavelle’s 12 Houses Roulette Concert UR9932 guitar, banjo, bass ukelele, producer
Matt Lavelle’s 12 Houses End Times UR9933 banjo, producer
Matt Lavelle Quartet Matt Lavelle Quartet UR9934 producer
Tom Cabrera Trio with Bob Rodriguez, Mark Hagan What I’ve Found UR9935 producer
Joel Shapira Bottomless Pit UR9936 executive producer
Rich Rosenthal Quartet Live at Quinn’s UR9937 executive producer
Sumari Sumari II UR9938 guitar, producer
Lewis Porter Plays Jack DeSalvo UR9939 producer
Dom Minasi, Jack DeSalvo Soldano Dieci Anni UR9940 guitar, producer
Chris Kelsey Chris Kelsey Quintet UR9941 guitar, producer
Bob Rodriguez, Lee Marvin, Krestin Osgood RMO UR9942 producer
Happy House Happy House Plays Ornette UR9943 producer
Blaise Siwula with Dmitry Ishenko, Dave Miller Remolina UR9944 producer
Matt Lavelle’s 12 Houses End Times UR9945 banjo, producer
Jack DeSalvo with Tom Cabrera While We Sleep UR9946 acoustic and classical guitars, cello, mandola, bass ukelele, producer
Rocco John Quartet Embrace The Change UR9947 producer
Julie Lyon Moonflower UR9948 guitar. mandola, producer
Fulminate Trio: Michael Evans, Ken Filiano, Anders Nilsson Triangulation UR9949 producer
Jack DeSalvo, Arthur Lipner, Bob Rodriguez, Todd Urban, Jon Berger The Crossing UR9950 electric and classical guitars, producer
Matt Lavelle’s 12 Houses Solidarity UR9951 banjo, producer
Joris Teepe, Josh Evans, Adam Kolker, Jon Davis, Mike Clark Workaholic UR9952 producer
Matt Lavelle and John Pietaro: Harmolodic Monk Harmolodic Monk UR9953 producer
Julie Lyon Quintet Julie UR9957 guitar, producer
Pat Hall, Bill Evans, Greg “Organ Monk” Lewis, Marvin Sewell, Mike Campenni Time Remembered UR9960 producer
Chris Kelsey with Lewis Porter piano, Jack DeSalvo cello, Joe Gallant bass, Dave Miller drums The Change of The Face of The Century of Jazz To Come UR9961 cello, producer
Lavelle, DeSalvo, Cabrera Sumari UR9962 cello, mandola, guitar, producer
Joel Shapira, Jack DeSalvo Inherence UR9963 guitar, producer
Lewis Porter Trio Trio Solo UR9964 producer
Lewis Porter, Jack DeSalvo, Joe Gallant, Alan Lerner One Up One Down Live From Nowhere UR9965 guitar, producer
Cabrera and DeSalvo Juniper UR9966 mandola, cello, classical, electric, and 12-string slide guitars, producer
Steve Cohn, Matt Lavelle, Jack DeSalvo, Michael Evans Cohn, Lavelle, DeSalvo, Evans UR9970 cello, mandola, alto guitar, producer
D3 plus Matt Lavelle Offworld UR9972 guitar, producer
Rob Reich, Gandharva Earl Sauls, Jerrold Kavanagh These Moments UR9974 producer
Bob Rodriguez, Lee Marvin, Bruce Ditmas Things I Meant To Say UR9975 producer
Steve Cohn Round The World UR9977 producer
DeSalvo, Cabrera Libra Moon UR9978 mandola, cello, acoustic guitar
Matt Lavelle, Ras Moshe, Tom Zlabinger, Tom DeSteno Send Out Signals UR9979 producer
Herb Kloss, Jack DeSalvo, Tom Cabrera Lion Hearted UR9980 classical guitar, cello
Bob Rodriguez, Lee Marvin, Krestin Osgood Fish Cannot Leave Deep Water UR9981 producer
John Korchok, Frank Jolliffe, Bob Siebert, Steve Orbach Artcrime UR9982 producer
Steve Cohn Anspruchsvoll UR9983 producer
Pat Hall K3rnelPaN1c UR9985 guitar, slide guitar, producer
Jack DeSalvo Tales of Coming Home UR9986 acoustic guitar, mandolin, producer
Jack DeSalvo Jubilant Rain UR9987 classical guitar, producer
Jack DeSalvo Pramantha UR9988 acoustic and 12-string guitars
Jack DeSalvo, Chris Kelsey, Peter Herbert, Bruce Ditmas Sudden Moves UR9989 guitar, producer
D3 Starlight UR9990 guitar, producer
Jack DeSalvo Heliconia UR9991 guitar, producer
Jack DeSalvo, Dan Willis, Lee Marvin, Jon Berger River Road UR9994 guitar, mandola, mandolin, producer
Sam Morrison and D3 Over the Edge UR9995 guitar, producer
Kelsey, Tedesco, DeSalvo Stutches UR9996 banjo, mandolin,electric and classical guitars, co-producer
Tom DeSteno, Jack DeSalvo, Mark Hagan Coriolis Sky UR9999 guitar, co-producer

Jack DeSalvo lives near NYC and in addition to recording and performing on acoustic, electric, archtop, classical, alto, slide and-lap steel guitars, cello, mandola, mandolin, banjo, harmonica and other instruments he spends his time composing and teaching.

Copyright © 2013, 2022 Jack DeSalvo Music

Comments

  1. Leave a Reply

    Frances Paul (Paricio)
    March 15, 2013

    You have certainly made good use of the last 30-odd years. 😉

  2. Leave a Reply

    David DeFilippo
    August 23, 2014

    Well done, Well done.

  3. Leave a Reply

    Don Volenik
    April 25, 2017

    Love your music. This from a musician who has gone from playing all kinds of gigs over the years to now playing no gigs unless it’s new and creative music. Hopefully we can hear you sometime soon in the Cleveland/northeast Ohio region.

    • Leave a Reply

      admin
      January 12, 2018

      Hey Frank – yes we could be related! I will check out your soundcloud link.

      Jack

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