Frank Marzano

Are you ready? Then put down that rake, because it’s time for another frankmarzano.com newsletter! 

I’ve been trying to line up gigs, but I’m doing things a little differently this time. Instead of contacting venues that already have live music (and trying to break into Erie’s impregnable music scene), I’ve been talking to venues that don’t have live music, and trying to convince them to have some. Unfortunately, most of these places are content to rely on their jukebox. 

Jukeboxes are the boa constrictors…

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Q: What’s the difference between a rock guitarist and a jazz guitarist? 

A: A rock guitarist knows four chords and plays to 1000 people. A jazz guitarist knows 1000 chords and plays to four people. 

Well, I don’t know 1000 chords, but I did play to four people (cumulatively) during my recent gigs in Waterford and Cambridge Springs last month. One of them was a musician I knew from the Erie music scene. He…

Remember when I took the audio from all my YouTube videos and made an album? 

https://frankmarzano.com/from-the-away-with-words-cd 

Well, I’ve taken the audio from all my YouTube videos since then and assembled another album, Solo Jazz Guitar. It’ll be available for free download on my website starting June 14. 

In order to license the songs for free download, I had to research who wrote them. One thing I was surprised to learn was that, during the Big Band era, music and lyrics were two separate jobs to be…

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Over the course of the pandemic I’ve gotten reacquainted with an old friend: television. These days, however, it’s loaded with sequels, prequels, and reboots (“Sex in the City”, “Fantasy Island”, “Walker Texas Ranger”, etc.). This is understandable. In these uncertain times, people are apt to retreat to the comfort of the familiar. 

One of my favorite reboots is “Name That Tune”, a game show…

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One of the most important things a musician does is play in front of people. In my last newsletter, I discussed how I was acquiring new skills in the area of solo fingerstyle guitar, and recording YouTube videos of various jazz standards. The next step, therefore, was to showcase my newly acquired chops in a live setting. 

This is harder than it sounds. However well you can play a piece…