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Charlie Apicella

In 2014 Charlie Apicella was invited by Pat Martino to study improvisation, composition, and Pat’s unique method for learning the mechanics of the guitar.

He has performed concerts and recorded with jazz legends Dave Holland, Sonny Fortune, and John Blake, Jr.

Charlie began his music training in 1999 at the University of Massachusetts studying composition and improvisation with Yusef Lateef and music history with Archie Shepp.

In 2005 he began studying under Dave Stryker who produced the Iron City records Sparks (2009) and The Business (2011).

Awards

Charlie Apicella is an Eastman Guitars Featured Artist a Guild Guitars Sponsored Artist and a ZT Amplifiers Official Artist. He teaches an online TrueFire guitar school, Charlie Apicella’s Solid Guitar and is a regular contributor to Vintage Guitar Magazine’s YouTube channel. Charlie Apicella has published two DownBeat Woodshed masterclass lessons and a lesson for Just Jazz Guitar magazine.

Gear

Eastman 805 CE Uptown guitar 1966 Guild T100 guitar ZT Amplifiers Jazz Club amp


Tags

2
Album Review

Charlie Apicella and Iron City Meet the Griots Speak: Destiny Calling

Read "Destiny Calling" reviewed by Troy Dostert


Since the early 2000s, guitarist Charlie Apicella's Iron City trio has devoted itself to maintaining the tradition of soulful, organ-based jazz. The aptly-titled Groove Machine (OA2 Records, 2019) preceded Destiny Calling, the group's 2023 album. And the latest one is quite a change-up. For this outing, Apicella has teamed up with The Griots Speak, an all-star assemblage of veterans who trace their roots to the halcyon days of the New York loft scene of the 1970s: multi-instrumentalist Daniel Carter, percussionist ...

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Album Review

Charlie Apicella & Iron City: The Griots Speak: Destiny Calling

Read "The Griots Speak: Destiny Calling" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian


Guitarist Charlie Apicella and his organ trio Iron City are solidly based in the hard-bop mainstream. However, some of their releases are flavored with other motifs, partially by virtue of the guest artists. For instance, the tribute to legendary guitarist B.B. King, Payin' the Cost To Be the Boss (CArlo, Music, 2016), with an augmented sextet, was aptly bluesy. Meanwhile Classic Guitar (Zoho, 2020), with tenor saxophonist Stephen Riley, was an intimate interpretation of the Great American Songbook.

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Album Review

Charlie Apicella: Groove Machine

Read "Groove Machine" reviewed by Don Phipps


On Groove Machine, Charlie Apicalla & Iron City serves up a gumbo of styles that run from New Orleans blues and Chicago funk to Motown and New York bop. The combination makes for a “groovy" listening experience—road music that will keep the head nodding and the mind trucking. Apicella penned five of the eight numbers on the album. The other three writing credits go to Lou Donaldson, organist Radam Schwartz, and Willis Jackson. Apicella's standout guitar work glides ...

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Album Review

Charlie Apicella & Iron City: Big Boss

Read "Big Boss" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky


Thank god for groove music. In an era when needless complexity often dominates, it's nice to encounter a throwback record that's built on feel-good rhythms and soulful declarations. That's what Big Boss is all about. Sparks (Carlo, 2009) set things in motion for this band, as guitarist-leader Charlie Apicella planted his flag in soul jazz territory by delivering direct-and-honest originals and covering the music of organist Dr. Lonnie Smith, guitarist Grant Green, and saxophonist Lou Donaldson; The ...

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Album Review

Charlie Apicella & Iron City: The Business

Read "The Business" reviewed by Edward Blanco


Guitarist Charlie Apicella & Iron City get down to the gritty business of delivering variations of funk and soul jazz on The Business, a well-crafted, vibrant grind of guitar-organ sounds supported by percussion and saxophone voices in an exciting quintet format. Though Apicella's playing style has been compared to that of Wes Montgomery, he also has an affinity for the music of Grant Green, featuring one of the late guitarist's compositions on The Business. Produced by veteran jazz guitarist Dave ...

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Album Review

Iron City: The Business

Read "The Business" reviewed by Glenn Astarita


Guitarist Charlie Apicella and his band mates mix it up nicely with these originals and jazz standards, disavowing a rough-hewn presence and sporting a piquant mode of execution. The artists morph a somewhat traditional blue collar approach to the classic organ-combo into a contemporized product. The band may not 't reinvent the genre, but the diverse and largely up-tempo track mix rounds out a balanced approach, spanning blues, funk, Latin and swing. One of the album highlights is ...

205
Album Review

Charlie Apicella & Iron City: The Business

Read "The Business" reviewed by Greg Simmons


Charlie Apicella and Iron City have funk, groove, and insistent swing on The Business. Nominally a guitar/organ/drums trio, this date adds the tenor saxophonist Stephen Riley and conguero Mayra Casales, to fill out the sound. Apicella exhibits a sturdy competence on guitar, with an emphasis on getting all the basics right--never resorting to flame-throwing arpeggios, and with a great sound. This record owes a lot to some of the great proto-funk and soul bands of the 1960s. In ...

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Recording

Charlie Apicella and Iron City - The Business (2011)

Charlie Apicella and Iron City - The Business (2011)

Source: Something Else!

There's an irresistible swagger to old-fashioned, grease-popping soul jazz records, something so far removed in this hidebound era of button-down classicists. Everything about it—the left-hand blasts of organ, the scrappy guitar riffs, the flame-kissed sax retorts—just says: Party. Charlie Apicella and Iron City's The Business, newly issued by CArlo Records, is no different. From the initial title-track romp, with guitarist Apicella and organist Dave Mattock doing their best Dynamic Duo-era Wes Montgomery and Jimmy Smith, to the friendly rhythmic joys ...

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Recording

Charlie Apicella & Iron City Release New Album Sparks in March 2010

Charlie Apicella & Iron City Release New Album Sparks in March 2010

Source: Jim Eigo, Jazz Promo Services

New York, New York -- After the success of the 2009 release Put The Flavor On It you would think guitarist and band leader Charlie Apicella would be hard pressed to duplicate such an outstanding recording. With Sparks due to drop in March, listeners and critics alike will be heaping the praise upon the Iron City ensemble as if they were the second coming of the great funky organ bands such as Booker T. and the MGs This is a ...

"I think you will find that "Sparks" will light the artistic fires of the soul and intellect." Heartfully, YUSEF LATEEF.

"Apicella is a no-nonsense player of unquestioned chops and whose soul drips from each note... This is "organic" music, and Apicella is an exciting young player." JOHN HEIDT, Vintage Guitar Magazine

"Charlie Apicella & IRON CITY are modern day stewards of trippy blues and psychedelic jazz... The body language in the trio’s music flexes with an array of trippy blues swirls and acid jazz vibrations that draw from the psychedelic era of the ‘60s, but the band infuses it with a modern draft that keeps it fresh...and speak in a dialect that modern blues fans can relate to and find engaging." Susan Frances, JAZZ TIMES

Primary Instrument

Guitar

Location

New York City

Willing to teach

Intermediate to advanced

Credentials/Background

http://www.ironcity.nyc/lessons.html Charlie teaches via Skype and Facetime and in person in New York City on the faculty of the New York Jazz Workshop. https://newyorkjazzworkshop.com/faculty/charlie-apicella/ Check out the TrueFire Channel Charlie Apicella's Solid Guitar for Charlie's full video curriculum complete with PDF materials, interactive lessons, and more. https://truefire.com/channels/solid-guitar/l3255 Charlie Apicella has performed concerts and recorded with jazz legends Dave Holland, Sonny Fortune, John Blake, Jr

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Photos

Concerts

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Destiny Calling

OA2 Records
2023

buy

Groove Machine

OA2 Records
2019

buy

One Night Only: a...

CArlo Music Records
2017

buy

Payin' The Cost To Be...

CArlo Music Records
2016

buy

Big Boss

Zoho Music
2014

buy

The Business

Carlo Music
2011

buy

Titan vs. Sphinx

From: Destiny Calling
By Charlie Apicella

Videos

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