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Not many clips of Tony around. An always impeccable guitarist who elevated the music he played be it swing, pop or easy listening. Cool to see him in action here.
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11-01-2023 03:23 PM
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I love it! He was one of my earliest inspirations - I have several very early recordings plus all of his Command vinyl. I wonder why there appears to be a black shroud over the headstock of what I think is his 350.
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there's a bunch of videos of televison shows that have logos blacked out, probably due to the producers not wanting companies like Gibson being advertised gratis
Originally Posted by nevershouldhavesoldit
took me a second to figure out the intro because so many of Diz and Birds compostions are hard to remember by name but I think it's Dizzy Atmoshere.
p.s. check out the early duo recordings of Tony as a youngster w/ his mentor/teacher Carl Kress, they're pretty cool.
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First time I’ve seen him. Thank you! They say people are drawn to confidence, energy and enthousiasm. He’s got all of that, in spades. His picking technique is incredible BTW. You barely see movement. Great economy of motion there.
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You’ve heard him and didn’t know it. He was a popular sideman on many shows and recordings for top performers, eg he was on Herb Alpert’s This Guy’s In Love With You. He played for some great vocalists like Sinatra, and he was a regular player in NBC’s Tonight Show band from the late ‘50s to the early ‘70s. He also wrote and arranged, and as I recall one of his TV scores won an Emmy. Originally Posted by Oscar67
He drifted a bit away from jazz fairly early in his career, but I’m sure he could bop with the best of them until the end.
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He did all the music and sound effects for a TV show called 'Danger' back in the 50s. I had a book of the arrangements once upon a time. He'd put paper under the strings, pick with a comb, and pull the 5th string under the 6th to get a snare drum effect. I think it was on in the early to mid 50s and Yul Brynner had something to do with it. Before my time as a player but really enjoyed Tony when I finally got around to playing - I think he was regular guitarist for The Tonight Show band when it was in New York. Originally Posted by nevershouldhavesoldit
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He was the main Tonight Show guitarist from about 1957 or 8 until the early '70s. He played with both Skitch Henderson and Doc Severinsen, and I was lucky enough to get to see him do it live once while I was in college. I got tickets to a taping in either 1966 or '67 and dragged my girlfriend from Boston to NYC and back the same day for it. I don't know what it's like at those shows now - but back then, the band was a major part of the Tonight Show production. They played before the show as well as during commercials and other breaks, and the audience loved it. Originally Posted by Skip Ellis
I was always amazed at how well they backed the hits of the stars who sang with them on the show. I assume they either had the original charts or had someone who could do perfect transcriptions, because they were totally convincing on most of them. Every player was stellar.
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My father was a contemporary of TM, and he never stopped raving about how he used to listen to a late night show on the radio from NJ that featured TM in a group that he led called "The Blue Blazers".
From his description of the BBs, they sounded like a version of the Hot Club of France, but I don't know if they ever recorded.
TM went on to become the studio king of NYC's Radio orchestras and later on with his label Command Records. Billy Bauer used to play record dates with TM and his gang of fellow guitarists, and in his book "Sideman", he described how he'd show up early and shed all the charts they had to play, while TM and his gang would come to the studio early and just look over the charts for a minute or so, and then go outside and have a smoke and joke around with each other.
The studio head would call them in when they were ready to record, and the guys would march in together and sight read the session perfectly, while Bauer struggled to get through the session.
Bauer was in awe of TM and his friends.
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This Command Lp has incredible stereo spread sound anchored by great arranging and Tony's superb playing. It really highlights the craftsmanship and fine musicianship behind what many would deride as "Easy Listening" music.
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I have this book in PDF. Hit me up if you'd like a copy. Originally Posted by Skip Ellis
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That technique you describe is an old flamenco trick of crossing the 2 bottom strings to get a snare drum effect minus the paper you described.Seeing Tony on Ed Sullivan was what got me started on my guitar quest. Originally Posted by Skip Ellis
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Yes! I was the only 10 year old in the world who watched the Perry Como show, and it was for the same reason. The "sing to me Mr C" segment often featured TM as Perry Como's sole accompanist. I know I wasn't the only 10 year old watching the Lawrence Welk show, given the popularity of polka in the northern climes of the midwest. But I was probably the only one on the east coast. It was worth suffering through the lovely Lennon Sisters to watch and hear Buddy Merrill and Neil Levang. And then there was James Burton in Ricky Nelson's band on Ozzie and Harriet. Originally Posted by nyc chaz
...and our parents were afraid that TV would rot our minds!
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On my 36 year steady gig (which ended abruptly when a young jerk took over management), I used to play "Send in the Clowns" unaccompanied with a Sinatra imitator. Thank God I was able to find the video of Sinatra doing it with TM.
I copied every note TM played, and because the guy sang it the same way as FS, it went perfectly every time. TM was a great rubato accompanist.
A guitar player I knew, scheduled a meeting with TM in his office to try and get into the guitar 'mafia' Tony led, that had players like Al Casamente, Bucky Pizzarelli. Don Arnone, and Vinnie Bell, but he was informed that entrance to that group was closed.
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Many moons ago I was visiting my good friend [and great player/teacher] Howard Krive in central Jersey and brought my vinyl copy of ‘Fun On The Frets’, a compilation of early acoustic jazz guitarists like Eddie Lang, Dick McDonough, Carl Kress w his student Tony Mottola among others. I left the record w/ him and the next time I drove up Howard was jamming w/ his friend, an elderly gentleman named Andy Mingione when I arrived. Howard handed me the record and it was personalized to me by Andy’s good friend Tony Mottola.
Howard had a huge guitar collection including 31 [!] made by the late Sam Koontz and Andy was a longtime guitarist/bandleader who was commemorated by luthier Tom Ribbeke w/ his ‘Blue Mingione’ model, part of the famous Chinery ‘Blue Guitars’ collection. Howard, Andy and of course Tony are no longer w/ us but I still have the record. I’m not a big autograph guy but that was a cool gesture and the record holds some memories for me.
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When I was 12 years old and got my first guitar, my first guitar book was by Tony MottolaTM's Tenderly has always stayed with me.
called "Play the Guitar in 30 minutes". Now 60 years later, I'm still
trying... I must be a slow learner! I remember my parents had some easy listening
compilation album and one cut was Tony Mottola playing Tenderly and it was just beautiful.
It was unusual because my folks listened mostly to country & western type music.
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