Guitar, With Love (Joe Negri)
Artist: Joe Negri
Date:
Format: LP
Label: True Image Recordings
Catalog: SLP 392
Track List
Side 1
- Lazy Day (Fischoff & Powers)
- The Boy (Girl) Next Door (Blane & Martin)
- Spring in Manhattan (Scibetta & Reach)
- Harlequin (Joe Negri)
- Django (John Lewis)
- A Felicidada (Jobim & DeMoraes)
Side 2
- The Tin Whistle (Joe Negri)
- A Time For Love (Mandel & Webster)
- Serenata (Anderson & Parish)
- 'Round Midnight (Hanighen & Williams & Monk)
- Watch What Happens (LeGrand & Gimbel)
- After Today (Leslie Bricusse)
Liner Notes
After being on "the road" for some time with a musical group, Joe Negri asked the leader if he could return home to celebrate Mother's Day with his Mother and his new bride. The leader uttered the immortal words: "Listen, kid, there's no Mother's Day in show business."
He didn't get the day off and he hasn'a had many days off in his musical life which goes back to the age of four when his father handed him and instructed him on the ukelele. The natural in-born sense of music was apparent then and the musically-inclined family kept him going on to the guitar at 10 years of age and some duo work with his younger brother Bobby at 12.
While still in his teens, he played with the "big bands" of Woody Herman and Shep Fields. He has also accompanied such well-known singers as Andy Williams, Tony Bennett, and Tommy Leonetti and was a featured guitarist on tour with The Three Suns.
He has recorded "Pittsburgh Pops in Concert," performing "The Best of Gershwin" and "Flight of the Bumble Bee," in solo performances which were critically-acclaimed. He is also a featured performer with Dr. William Steinberg and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, recording "Porgy and Bess" and "American in Paris."
The natural musical ability has been well-augumented with the study of composition at Carnegie Tech (now Carnegie-Mellon) School of Music.
As a result, he has used this knowledge to good advantage as composer and arranger of several intimate musical revues in the Pittsburgh area and currently is Musical Director of WTAE-TV in Pittsburgh where he has composed and arranged original scores for many locally-produced programs. He has also became a featured Pittsburgh TV personality, hosting his own weekly show.
Two of the songs in this album, "Tin Whistle" and "Harlequin" are originals and all the arrangements in the album were done by Joe Negri.
The "new sound" of this album is the latest approach by Joe Negri to keep busy, to keep contemporary, and to utilize all his musical ability to prove he truly expresses: "Guitar, with Love."
Credits
Album Credits: David Crantz, WTAE-TV
Jacket Design: Sawchak & Associates
Cover Photo: Ed Vrabel