D'Aquisto's Last Guitar - Silvan Joray

Silvan Joray plays "Isfahan" by Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn

Silvan Joray is a Swiss jazz guitarist and composer currently based in New York City. He has gained recognition in the jazz community, having won special prizes at the UNISA International Strings Competition in South Africa 2022 and the Smietana Jazz Guitar Competition 2019 in Poland. He has performed at prestigious jazz festivals including the Krakow Summer Jazz Festival, Offbeat Jazzfestival Basel, and International Jazz Festival Bern, and has toured in Germany, Norway, Poland, Spain, and Israel.

Joray's latest album, "Updraft", showcases his forward-thinking original style characterized by a transparent tone, crispy articulation, creative rhythmic ideas and extended techniques like quarter tones and „tapping“ which are not traditionally associated with jazz guitar playing. Joray embraces both the openness of European as well as the rootedness and swing of American jazz. While the music on "Updraft“ is clearly influenced by the American jazz tradition, it doesn’t pretend to be something it’s not and is totally content with being in its own category.
Renowned jazz bassist Larry Grenadier states: "Silvan along with Nadav and Jeff have made a musical statement together that has at its core a sense of history and at the same time moves the music towards the future with bold playing and fresh compositions. Sonically beautiful and captivating music.“

@silvanjoray
https://www.silvanjoray.com/
  / silvan.joray  
https://orcd.co/geqyqoq

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1994 D'Aquisto "Centura"

James "Jimmy" D'Aquisto apprenticed under master luthier John D'Angelico in New York City starting in 1952, and eventually came to be considered one of the greatest archtop builders of our time. His guitars have been owned by Jim Hall, Grant Green, Joe Pass, and George Benson, among many others. Now his guitars are coveted by players and collectors all over the world, with two of them even residing in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

This guitar, one of his “Centura” models, was the last guitar that D’Aquisto ever built, finished in 1994. The instrument was commissioned by a client of D’Aquisto, who wanted a 7 string guitar. However, by the time he got to building the instrument, he had forgotten this information and built a 6 string instead. D’Aquisto assured the client that he would fix the problem after an imminent trip to California but sadly, he died before he returned home.

This video series invites a handful of New York based musicians to come and explore the instrument, connecting the rich history of Jimmy D’Aquisto’s luthiery to the future of jazz guitar.

The instrument is now under the care of The Blue Guitars/Archtop Foundation, an organization that maintains a very special collection of archtop guitars.

@theblueguitars
https://theblueguitars.com/
  / theblueguitars  

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Filmed, engineered, mixed and edited by David Blake
https://www.davidblakemusic.com
  / itsmedavidrighthereonyourphone