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David Tronzo

"I specialize in a specific technical area of guitar playing known as slide or bottleneck guitar. When I first started to play, I figured out how to advance this area of guitar playing, particularly the technical aspect, to bring it into different kinds of music. I ended up developing systematic innovations in the technical repertoire."

"When I was 11, I heard a live band and it was kind of an epiphany. I couldn't believe the effect the music was having on my surroundings, not just on me. And I thought, 'I have got to explore this.' I'd had no music training at that point, but by the time I was 13 I figured out that I wanted to play guitar. I was completely self-taught. By the age of 15, I was playing five nights a week, though I really just had three good notes and five good chords."

"I started playing gigs even before I felt I was ready. But that's the beauty of the music business—there's so much on-the-job development. The constant discomfort from taking on things before you're ready can be corrosive, though—you need to be able to manage it. The balancing factor is when the task itself is exciting and inspiring, and you know it's right. Then it just becomes a question of how much approval you need, and in what form."

"A lot of the experiences I've had on the job are what I call 'threshold experiences,' meaning that I'm on a threshold I cannot cross over myself; someone on the other side has to pull me across. When I do cross over, my music is verifiably different."

"Each student I work with at Berklee is an individual whose life is following a certain trajectory. I'm seeing just one short segment of that path during one brief period in their time with me. I don't have a view of what came before, and just the barest instinct about the future of that path. My goal is to try to help students during that small window in a way that will actually fuel them to go on. To do that, I stress the craft of playing, which is both concept and technique. Because without craft development, even the greatest ideas remain unheard."

Wayne Horvitz: Live Forever Vol. 1: The President - New York in the '80s

Read "Live Forever Vol. 1: The President - New York in the '80s" reviewed by Vic Albani

by Vic Albani
March 15, 2021

«Numero 1 della Live Forever Series: una collezione di spettacoli dal vivo curata da Wayne Horvitz e Toby Dodds. Il volume 1 contiene un imperversante set dal vivo al CBGBs nel 1987, con un “who's who" della scena downtown NY degli anni '80. Altre tracce includono quattro demo, materiale mai pubblicato dalle sessioni al Power Station per l'album Bring Yr Camera, precedenti demo in studio del 1984, e materiale da due spettacoli dal vivo, sempre al CBGBs, nel ...

Radio & Podcasts

20 Bands You Didn't Know You Can't Live Without

by Ludovico Granvassu
July 23, 2019

There is a treasure-trove of jazz gems away from the usual labels, venues, websites... one has just to look around and search for it. This week we feature bands whose quality may have not been matched by their international commercial success... but that's often the curse of excellent music that goes off the beaten path. Since we only care about the beauty of the music, here are twenty bands which you didn't know you cannot live without: Rootless, Slow Poke, ...

202

Album Review

Slow Poke: At Home

Read "At Home" reviewed by Donald Elfman

by Donald Elfman
January 15, 2008

Formed at the home of bassist Tony Scherr, Slow Poke--David Tronzo, Michael Blake, Scherr and Kenny Wollesen--play everything slower and funkier. It's an extraordinary idea for a jam band--bring the groove way down and somehow the vibe and energy go way up thanks to the new focus. It certainly helps that all of these guys are virtuosos and truly care about the aesthetics of sound. This debut disc caught the attention of Paul Simon and producer Lee Townsend, and has ...

374

Album Review

Slow Poke: At Home

Read "At Home" reviewed by Ralph A. Miriello

by Ralph A. Miriello
December 13, 2007

This re-mastered recording of Tony Scherr's 1998 basement record, Slow Poke At Home , is a joy for those who can appreciate the slow cooked, steamy sound of master musicians plying their trade in a gutsy, simmering, sweetly rhythmic stew of sounds. The label, Palmetto Records, should be applauded for taking a now defunct band and reissuing the material as a testament to just how good the music was and still is.

Slow Poke was one ...

254

Album Review

Slow Poke: At Home

by Troy Collins
October 28, 2007

Slow Poke was a unique band, even among the fertile late nineties Downtown (New York) scene. Gradually warming to neo-classical formalism, various Downtown line-ups began incorporating traditional elements into their compositions, progressively moving beyond their No Wave roots by embracing a more traditional aesthetic. Blending accessible tunefulness with adventurous improvisation, ensembles like Ballin' The Jack, The Jazz Passengers and Sex Mob all embraced various aspects of the mainstream, but none with as much melodic assuredness as Slow Poke. ...