Paul Gargiulo Band

By PHIL SWEETLAND
Music+Radio contributor


NASHVILLE – Like many of his own heroes, Paul Gargiulo is an ideal combination of multiple musical flavors that are rarely seen together in any one artist.
Just as Elvis Presley shifted naturally between country, pop, and R&B, Paul’s a New Jersey guitar virtuoso who often wears Western shirts and is equally comfortable playing and singing his hooky, radio-friendly originals onstage in a smoky Manhattan bar, a tough Jersey Shore club, or one of Music City’s high-profile and high-pressure writers’ nights.
Just as the British guitar icon Jeff Beck integrated funk, jazz, pop, and other genres into his soloes, hit albums, and singles, Gargiulo fuses his own completely unique sound from echoes of Elvis guitarist Scotty Moore and other Retro rockabilly and Bluegrass pioneers, current Alternative and Americana singers and songwriters, jazz and swing cats, and even Latin rhythms Paul Gargiulo:
NJ Guitar Wizard & Singer/Songwriter Whose Radio-Ready Music Presents A Magical Mixture of Styles
.
And just as Brian Setzer and his trio the Stray Cats captured the imagination of millions with the updated rockabilly sounds of the Top 10 Billboard hits “Rock This Town” and “Stray Cat Strut,” Paul Gargiulo and his skin-tight band have the ability to integrate old and modern sounds that are extremely difficult to play into brand-new Paul originals such as “Dance, Sister, Dance,” “Marita,” “Back On Track,” “I See Home Real Soon,” and “She Be My Queen.”
Radio programmers, fans, club owners, and artist managers figure to embrace Paul’s new album enthusiastically in early 2015.
“We’re in the studio now, just finishing recording. It’s all original material,” Paul says in a telephone conversation from his home, about 20 miles west of Manhattan.
“Our last album was done in West Orange, NJ, in a local bar. We sold quite a few of them,” he continues. “Now we’re doing more of a studio production.”
Paul knows exactly where his music began as a kid.
“Elvis is how I got into music,” he says. “I remember his charisma, the way he sang and the way he portrayed his voice. That actually touched me. Now even the young generation thinks Elvis is the coolest.”
While all the other neighborhood kids wore their Aerosmith T-shirts, young Paul proudly sported his Elvis duds. That affection continues today, not just in Gargiulo’s music but in his impressive collection of Presley memorabilia.
And then there was the guitar.
“I was playing since I was a little kid, and right out of the box I was influenced by everyone,” Paul says, smiling. “There was Elvis and rockabilly, Jeff Beck, who I actually got to hang out with and talk to, then there were Jimmy Page and Keith Richards.”
In Jersey, Paul even got to have an unforgettable conversation with Joe Morello, the famous drummer not just for Dave Brubeck but also for Hank Garland, the offbeat Nashville guitar genius whose 1961 jazz album Jazz Winds From A New Direction featured Morello

Decades later, Paul would also begin the unique integration of Nashville and New York sounds into his own, irresistible musical package.
That kind of love Hank Garland showed for music which is a fusion of countless styles in a single recording – even before the word fusion came into the language – is one of many things that separates Paul Gargiulo from the bland, corporate music that radio and fans are too often subjected to today.
And believe me, fans are ready for the kind of new sounds and new charisma Paul is presenting.
Listen, for instance, to “Dance, Sister, Dance,” a club favorite that features Paul’s strong, soulful baritone vocals riding above a guitar line that might remind some of Beck’s Blow By Blow, others of an Eric Clapton, Scotty Moore, or Steve Cropper funk line, and others of a Brian Setzer power solo.
High-energy Paul songs like this ignite the writers’ rounds here in Music City, which usually feature acoustic stylings on country or Bluegrass numbers.
“I’ve been going back and forth to Nashville,” he says. “I’m playing the songwriters’ rounds, jamming out, and meeting lots of people. What I’m doing is a little different.”
He and his band also perform a wide a variety of covers, a real plus in their club work.
Early on, Gargiulo was featured in the bands Dreamer and Face Of Gray. By the time he was 16, he was very serious and began years of guitar lessons with the outstanding NJ-based Northwestern and Berklee graduate Rich Fusco, whose own philosophy of music sounds a great deal like Paul’s: “I have been influenced by the great music and musicians from the Eighth Century A.D. to last week,” Fusco writes.
Paul has also had powerhouse role models for his extremely innovative songwriting. Early influences included Jimmy Webb songs Glen Campbell recorded including “Wichita Lineman” and
blues legends also left a mark, as did the music of pop and country female superstars such as Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris.
Soon, Gargiulo was playing rooms in New York and clubs along the Jersey Shore. Bon Jovi’s keyboard player happened to be in the club one night and told folks he was very impressed with Paul, but in recent years Gargiulo has found it more and more difficult to find club owners either in the City or elsewhere willing to feature the kind of exciting, original music he and his band are playing and singing.
So he took the hugely innovative step, very rare for a New York-area rock and jazz guitar wizard, of coming to Music City USA every few months.
And that’s why the excitement the new album will create, both in New York and Nashville, figures to be such a pleasant turning point in Paul’s career.
Bob Garbo (bass, backup vocals) and drummers/backup vocalists Ken Adessa and Matt Crawford have ably rounded out the Paul Gargiulo Band this year.
“I pretty much do the writing and arranging and producing,” Paul says. “I definitely love producing.”
And Lord knows, the guy also loves creating. Who else but Paul Gargiulo would bring us “Jazzgrass,” for instance, an incredible guitar solo piece which as the name suggests combines Bluegrass and jazz?
And who else would give us “Marita,” a Latin-flavored number that opens a little like an Elvis romantic ballad before breaking into a swing bridge the Stray Cats would be proud of, and then a slow jazzy solo that’s as much Wes Montgomery as Hank Garland – and all pure Paul Gargiulo?
Somehow, Paul makes all these hugely diverse strains and flavors come together and fit like a glove. The new album will feature a rainbow of songs and styles, all of which are well-crafted, radio friendly, and miles ahead of nearly all of the competition. - Phil Sweetland

http://thejerseytomatopress.com/stories/Jersey-Son-jumps-onto-Bigger-Stage,11766 - Diane Lilli