The Serious Stylings of Jazz Guitarist Andy Bianco

It is fitting that I am posting this episode of Talking to Strangers late at night, as that's when I met today's guest, jazz guitarist Andy Bianco. We met at Korzo, a Park Slope restaurant and bar, during one of the late great Konceptions Music Series shows put on by pianist James Carney and his wife Heidi Bayer. He wasn't playing that night, but I would hear him on a number of subsequent occasions, both in bars and in my house, where he began to teach my son.

As much as I try, with this podcast and otherwise, it is hard to exactly explain the feeling of familiarity that comes over you when you meet a stranger who is sure to be in your life in some way. There was something about his voice, and the very serious way in which he placed his words, the care with which he spoke, that made me take Andy's number and follow up with him to see if he gave lessons. Even though he was funny, and made me laugh, I could also see that he took great pride in the knowledge he had about music and the other topics that got raised that night and on subsequent evenings as he came and went from my house, before and after the lessons he gave. Knowledge, and the enthusiasm for it, is a great asset in life, and certainly a phenomenal asset for a musician and teacher. Music moves people. It is a valuable thing, and Andy clearly values it, and loves to share it, in so many ways. Reach out to him for lessons! bianco.andy05@gmail.com

It was so fun to do this podcast with Andy, to really sit down and listen to how he became interested in guitar, to jazz in particular. I had given a bit to the GoFundMe he started for a music scholarship in his late father's name, but hadn't heard as much about his father's life as a musician and how it had inspired Andy. You can learn more about it and donate at http://www.gofundme.com/f/phillip-bianco-music-scholarship. Check out his website http://artistecard.com/andybianco and his new album: https://ffm.to/kpdgkop

I am always blown away by the dedication great musicians have to their craft, and there is almost no better example of that dedication than now, during a time when so much about musicians' lives have come to a grinding halt. Watching Andy take on new projects, new students, new efforts to keep focused on sharing the great mysteries of music is heart-warming and hopeful: music will never die, nor will musicians, whose legacy will live on and on and on through their music, and the people who have the great good fortune to listen to them play.