VF Outlet Berks Jazz Fest

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Date: Saturday, April 5

Time: Noon-4 p.m.

Venue:
   Sheraton Reading Hotel
1741 Paper Mill Road
Wyomissing, PA 19610
610-376-3811/main
610-375-7562/fax

String Training Instructors:
    Chuck Loeb
   Pat Martino
   Bob Sabellico

Fee: $80.00

Registration:
   You can register by phone.
   Call Joanne Philipczak at 610-777-2310.
   Or, you can stop by CD Exchange located at Stabon Pond Plaza, 360 E. Wyomissing Ave., Mohnton, PA 19540.

Overview:
    Guitarist Chuck Loeb presents the special guitar workshop/seminar for musicians of all ages and levels that want to pursue the many facets of guitar playing.
   The String Training discussions and classes will address many of the topics and challenges facing today's guitarists including jazz, blues, rock and fusion improvisation; chord structures and accompaniment; sight reading, practice and study habits; tone and sound production both live and in the studio, as well as technical advice on instruments, amps and pedals boards.
   In this second year of String Training, taking place at the world-renowned VF Outlet Berks Jazz Fest, Chuck is honored to be joined by legendary guitarist Pat Martino -- master and innovator of the jazz guitar -- and Bob Sabellico.
   Pat will use his vast knowledge of the instrument and jazz heritage, along with his life-long experience to conduct a master class and forum sure to enlighten all who attend.
   The format will be interactive -- with instruction, discussion, question and answer sessions, student participation and a special presentation by Sabellico on electronic effects, guitar synthesizer and computer/guitar interface.
   So bring your axe, your pick, your strings, and your strap as we prepare you for the new season of guitar at Chuck Loeb’s String Training (cleats not required).

Chuck Loeb
   More than just a jazz guitar player, Chuck Loeb is the consummate musician.
   In a career that spans four decades, he has proven himself to be a versatile composer, arranger and producer in a wide range of musical styles and contexts.
   In addition to crafting a fine discography of his own and producing albums for a number of other high-profile artists, his resume also includes music for commercial jingles and a variety of television programs and motion pictures.
   Whatever your personal tastes in music, media, entertainment or popular culture, chances are good that you have had at least a passing acquaintance with the work of Chuck Loeb.
   Loeb grew up in a suburb of New York City and the perfect environment for a young person with an interest in music. The area was home to many artists who worked in the city, as well as a center for many arts, music and performance education programs. It was there, at the young age of 11, that Loeb decided to make music his life’s work.
   Self taught for several years, he began working with local bands in the area when he was 13, playing dances at the local youth center and eventually throughout the metropolitan area.
   This early teenage period marked Loeb’s first exposure to jazz, and he decided that in order to reach the level of technical skill he’d been striving for, he would need to study music formally.
   Along with local teachers Richie Hart and Hy White, he traveled as far as Philadelphia to study with jazz guru Dennis Sandole, who eventually recommended that he study with the great jazz guitarist Jim Hall in New York.
   After studying with Hall for the last two years of high school, he enrolled at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. Two years of intense study at Berklee greatly strengthened his musicianship –- not only as a guitarist but as a composer and arranger as well –- but the lure of professional work led to his departure from Berklee in 1976.
   Throughout his early years in the Big Apple, Loeb began making a name for himself as a sideman with jazz luminaries such as drummer Chico Hamilton, Latin percussionist and bandleader Ray Barreto, flutist Hubert Laws and various others. He also continued his musical studies with a vengeance, often practicing up to eight hours a day.
   In 1979, jazz luminary Stan Getz invited Loeb to join his band. The gig proved to be a pivotal experience for him, both musically and personally. As a member of Getz’s group, and the composer of much of the band’s repertoire, he had the chance to tour the globe and perform at many of the world’s major festivals, jazz clubs and concert halls.
   Eventually, Loeb became the musical director of the group with his compositions comprising a large portion of the nightly repertoire. It was also during this time that he met and married Carmen Cuesta, a vocalist and songwriter from Madrid, Spain.
   In the years since, Loeb has produced a number of Carmen’s solo recordings, and the two have collaborated on various musical projects.
   After leaving the Getz ensemble, Loeb settled in New York and began to pursue a career as a studio musician. He logged thousands of studio hours recording, composing and producing albums, soundtracks, television show themes and jingles. It was here that he developed his talents as a producer, which would become a major focus of his career in later years.
   In 1985, Loeb joined the group Steps Ahead with Michael Brecker, Michael Mainieri, Peter Erskine and Victor Bailey.
   Returning to the festivals and stages of the jazz world rekindled his desire to focus on his own music. In 1988, after nearly 10 years of intense studio work, he made the decision to develop his own recording career. His first offering as a solo artist was My Shining Hour, released on Jazz City, a Japanese label.
   A year later, he released Magic Fingers on DMP, an audiophile label that was one of the first in the world to release recordings on compact disc.
   After four more releases on DMP, Loeb left to sign with the jazz and world music label Shanachie, where he released The Music Inside in 1996 (the album’s title song held the top position on the contemporary jazz charts for six weeks).
   Concurrent with his solo career, Loeb also recorded with Metro, a four-piece contemporary jazz combo that included keyboardist Mitch Forman, drummer Wolfgang Haffner and a succession of bassists: Anthony Jackson, Victor Bailey and Mel Brown.
   Metro cut four albums on the Lipstick and Hip Bop labels between 1994 and 2002.
   In addition, Loeb played with the Fantasy Band with bassist John Lee, drummer Lionel Cordew and several session players.
   The Fantasy Band recorded three albums on DMP and Shanachie between 1993 and 1997.
   After nine years and seven solo albums, Loeb left Shanachie and joined Heads Up in late 2006.
   Presence, his Heads Up debut, was released in January. The new album celebrates the importance of the human element in the creative process.
   “Nowadays, there’s a lot of music that gets created in a laboratory,” says Loeb. “We all have computers, and we do things long distance. But it never ceases to amaze me how, as soon as you put the live musicians into the equation, it’s their presence that brings the thing to life. That’s the idea behind the album title –- the effect that an individual’s personality has on the music, both in the context of a recording and in a live setting.”
   www.chuckloeb.com

Pat Martino
   When the anesthesia wore off, Pat Martino looked up hazily at his parents and his doctors. and tried to piece together any memory of his life.
   One of the greatest guitarists in jazz. Martino had suffered a severe brain aneurysm and underwent surgery after being told that his condition could be terminal.
   After his operations he could remember almost nothing. He barely recognized his parents. and had no memory of his guitar or his career. He remembers feeling as if he had been "dropped cold, empty, neutral, cleansed...naked."
   In the following months, Martino made a remarkable recovery. Through intensive study of his own historic recordings, and with the help of computer technology, Pat managed to reverse his memory loss and return to form on his instrument. His past recordings eventually became "an old friend, a spiritual experience which remained beautiful and honest."
   This recovery fits in perfectly with Pat's illustrious personal history. Since playing his first notes while still in his pre-teenage years, Martino has been recognized as one of the most exciting and virtuosic guitarists in jazz.
   With a distinctive, fat sound and gut-wrenching performances, he represents the best not just in jazz, but in music. He embodies thoughtful energy and soul.
   Born Pat Azzara in Philadelphia in 1944, ha was first exposed to jazz through his father, Carmen "Mickey" Azzara, who sang in local clubs and briefly studied guitar with Eddie Lang. He took Pat to all the city's hot-spots to hear and meet Wes Montgomery and other musical giants.
   "I have always admired my father and have wanted to impress him. As a result, it forced me to get serious with my creative powers."
   He began playing guitar when he was twelve years old. and left school in tenth grade to devote himself to music. During Visits to his music teacher Dennis Sandole, Pat often ran into another gifted student, John Coltrane, who would treat the youngster to hot chocolate as they talked about music.
   Besides first-hand encounters with Trane and Montgomery, whose album Grooveyard had "an enormous influence" on Martino, he also cites Johnny Smith, a Stan Getz associate, as an early inspiration.
   "He seemed to me, as a child. to understand everything about music," Pat recalls.
   Martino became actively involved with the, early rock scene in Philadelphia, alongside stars like Bobby Rydell, Chubby Checker and Bobby Darin. His first road gig was with jazz organist Charles Earland, a high school friend. His reputation soon spread among other jazz players, and he was recruited by bandleader Lloyd Price to play hits such as Stagger Lee on-stage with musicians like Slide Hampton and Red Holloway.
   Martino moved to Harlem to immerse himself in the "soul jazz" played by Earland and others.
   Previously, he had "heard all of the white man's jazz. I never heard that other part of the culture," he remembers. The organ trio concept had a profound influence on Martino's rhythmic and harmonic approach. and he remained in the idiom as a sideman, gigging with Jack McDuff and Don Patterson.
   An icon before his eighteenth birthday, Pat was signed as a leader for Prestige Records when he was twenty. His seminal albums from this period include classics like Strings!, Desperado, El Hombre and Baiyina (The Clear Evidence), one of jazz's first successful ventures into psychedelia.
   In 1976, Martino began experiencing the excruciating headaches which were eventually diagnosed as symptoms of his aneurysms.
   After his surgery and recovery, he resumed his career when he appeared in1987 in New York, a gig that was released on a CD with an appropriate name, The Return. He then took another hiatus when both of his parents became ill, and he didn't record again until 1994, when he recorded Interchange and then The Maker.
   Today, Martino lives in Philadelphia again and continues to grow as a musician. As the New York Times recently noted: "Mr. Martino, at 50, is back and he is plotting new musical directions, adding more layers to his myth."
   His experiments with guitar synthesizers, begun during his rehabilitation, are taking him in the direction of orchestral arrangements and they promise groundbreaking possibilities.
   Musicians flock to his door for lessons, and he offers not only the benefits of his musical knowledge, but also the philosophical insights of a man who has faced and overcome enormous obstacles.
   "The guitar is of no great importance to me," he muses. "The people it brings to me are what matter. They are what I'm extremely grateful for, because they are alive. The guitar is just an apparatus."
   www.patmartino.com

Bob Sabellico
    Imagine, a very young, remarkably talented guitarist from the outskirts of Philadelphia being plucked from a small nightclub and placed in huge arenas with some of the most famous musicians in the world.
    This is Bob Sabellico and the story is true.
    At 16 he was chosen to replace guitarist Randy Bachman in the Canadian band, “The Guess Who,” at the height of their international fame. This was to be only the beginning of a life long affair with the world of music.
    He eventually left, “The Guess Who” to start his own band and travel the country. Over the years, Bob gained experience and chops from his days as a road warrior. His exposure to varied styles of music gave him a unique perspective on his work, enabling him to experiment and mold his musical history into a sound and style all his own.
    More than just, “smooth,” his music is both rhythmic and lyrical. His mastery of guitar is a gift to listeners yet his greatest surprise is his versatility. He started playing drums and percussion when he was nine and picked up the guitar only when a local band told him they were looking for someone to play lead. Fortunately for his listeners, he never put it down.
    In the early 1980s, he helped to pioneer the use of electronics and synthesizers in both live and recorded music. He is an extraordinary synthesist, a virtual, “MIDI Wizard,” who skillfully mixes his talent on drums, keyboards, and percussion with guitar synth to create multiple layers of sound.
    He also started a sideline career writing music for television and film and has compiled numerous instrumental tracks for international sound libraries. “Funk City” is available on BMG Music Libraries.
    Bob’s musical and technical prowess have made him sought
After by such industry notables as Chet Atkins, Bela Fleck, Phoebe Snow, Victor Wooten, Everett Harp, Steve Wariner, Verdine and Maurice White of Earth, Wind & Fire, Cliff Richards, John Farrar (writer, producer, Olivia Newton-John), Tim Rice (Broadway Lyricist), Elliott Scheiner (producer, engineer, Bruce Hornsby, Don Henley), Steve Cropper and Byron Gallimore (producer, Faith Hill, Tim McGraw) to name a few.
    Never yearning to be a one-man band, Bob really enjoys working with other musicians. He loves the energy that flows from a mixture of different artists and styles. He has the knack of pulling everyone together into one cohesive unit.
    His live performances are a celebration. Even the name of his band sprang from a description of the live gigs he put together around LA. Bob Sabellico’s “Groove Station,” became synonymous with state of the art sound and superior musicianship.
    Audiences love the mix of music and banter that has become characteristic of a Groove Station show.
    The "Groove Station" CD is available on Spare Change Music. Eagerly awaited, it features Bob’s many talents as composer/arranger /producer and performer.
    Bob also has a new CD being released spring 2007 entitled “Child’s Play” and it features guest performances from Chuck Loeb, Andy Snitzer, Gary Willis, and Papa John DeFrancesco.

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