Biography

Swing—one word really describes this new recording by John Colianni, his fourth for Patuxent. Swing, the style of jazz exemplified by Duke Ellington and Count Basie. Swing, that essential, almost indescribable, element of jazz that Ellington described as “ that part of rhythm that causes a bouncing, buoyant terpsichorean urge.”

The music on this album swings because it is performed by musicians who are steeped in the tradition of how to swing. John Colianni has certainly lived a life immersed in swing from the time his parents took him to see Duke Ellington perform at Georgetown University in 1974 and he managed to get back stage and have Duke sign his copy of Music Is My Mistress. His early influences were Art Tatum, Teddy Wilson, Oscar Peterson, George Shearing and Count Basie.