Gene Bertoncini


Gene J. Bertoncini is an American jazz guitarist.

Biography

A native of New York City, Bertoncini grew up in a musical family. His father, Mario Bertoncini, played guitar and harmonica. His brother Renny, played accordion and keyboards. Bertoncini began playing guitar at age seven and by age sixteen was appearing on television. He graduated from high school and attended the University of Notre Dame, where, in 1959, he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Architectural Engineering. He also played clarinet for the Notre Dame marching band. His first guitar teacher was Johnny Smith.
After college he entered the Marines, then moved to Chicago, where he became immersed in the jazz scene, working with Carmen McRae. He returned to New York City and played with vibraphonist Mike Mainieri and then in one of Buddy Rich's ensembles. He was a member the Tonight Show band. He has also worked with Burt Bacharach, Tony Bennett, Paul Desmond, Benny Goodman, Lena Horne, Hubert Laws, Michel Legrand, Norman Paris, Charles McPherson, Wayne Shorter, Clark Terry, and Nancy Wilson. He has performed often with bassist Michael Moore.
Bertoncini was notable in the world of jazz guitar for using a nylon-string guitar in performances and recordings, as Charlie Byrd had done in the 1950s and 1960s. After hearing a Julian Bream album at the advice of his teacher Chuck Wayne, Bertoncini began studying classical guitar and using the instrument for jazz and Latin music styles. Bertoncini discussed his use of the instrument in a 2008 interview:

I started practicing classical guitar just about the time when the bossa nova hit. Joao was borrowing my guitar, I was playing the classical repertoire, and all these things kind of came together. I was doing studio work at the time, and I got a call to play on a big album by Ahmad Jamal; they wanted somebody to play a bossa nova kind of thing.


From 1990 to 2008, Bertoncini played solo guitar on Sunday and Monday evenings at the Bistro La Madeleine on West 43rd Street in New York City. He recorded two albums of solo guitar arrangements and published ten of these arrangements in Gene Bertoncini Plays Jazz Standards.
Bertoncini has been on the faculties of William Paterson University, New York University, Eastman School of Music, New England Conservatory, and the Banff School of Fine Arts in Alberta, Canada. He has been on the staff of the Tritone Jazz Fantasy Camps.

Discography

As leader