The Jazz Session #21: Gene Bertoncini

On the new episode of The Jazz Session, Jason Crane interviews guitarist Gene Bertoncini. Raised in the Bronx, Bertoncini began his musical education at an early age, encouraged by his parents. He studied architecture at Notre Dame before deciding on a life of music. That decision was a smart one -- Bertoncini has since performed with the Metropolitan Opera orchestra, the Benny Goodman Sextet, Tony Bennett, Buddy Rich, Wayne Shorter, Burt Bacharach, Michel LeGrand and many others. He's also on the faculty at the Tritone Jazz Camp (tritonejazz.com). All the selections in this show are taken from Bertoncini's recording Acoustic Romance (Sons of Sound, 2003), featuring drummer Akira Tana and bassist Rufus Reid.

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About the show: The Jazz Session

The Jazz Session is a jazz interview podcast featuring conversations with musicians, writers, broadcasters, podcasters and more. The show is hosted by All About Jazz contributor and longtime radio broadcaster Jason Crane. The show is available at thejazzsession.com or in iTunes.

About the host: Jason Crane

Jason Crane was born in 1973 in Lenox, Massachusetts, home of Tanglewood and former home of the famed Music Inn and the Lenox School of Jazz. His professional career has covered a lot of bases -- and a lot of the world. He began as a full-time soprano sax player in jazz, latin jazz and funk bands in Arizona, South Carolina and Pennsylvania. Crane also worked as an on-air host for KUAT (classical) and KUAZ (jazz) in Tucson; as a news announcer for Bloomberg Radio in Tokyo; and as Tokyo business correspondent for NPR's Morning Edition.

From 2001-2004, Crane was station manager and jazz host at Jazz90.1 in Rochester, NY, where he interviewed more than 200 jazz artists, including: Claudia Acuna, Ben Allison, Karrin Allyson, Billy Bang, David Berkman, Gene Bertoncini, Bill Bruford, Jack DeJohnette, Kahil El'Zabar, Marty Erlich, Wycliffe Gordon, Benny Green, Fred Hersch, Bill Holman, Charlie Hunter, Norah Jones, Don Lanphere, Joe Locke, Les McCann, Bobby McFerrin, Ben Monder, Jane Monheit, David “Fathead" Newman, Houston Person, Bobby Previte, David Sanborn, John Scofield, Curtis Steigers, Tierney Sutton, Cuong Vu, Bobby Watson, Fred Wesley, Matt Wilson, and Nancy Wilson.

After leaving Jazz90.1, Crane hosted the radio and podcast versions of The Jason Crane Show, an interview show about the arts and activism.