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Jack DeSalvo
“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.” – Caden
About Me
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.
My Jazz Story
I love jazz because... I was first exposed to jazz... I met [musician name]... The best show I ever attended was... The first jazz record I bought was... My advice to new listeners... Or whatever else you have in mind.