Jazz Guitarist Gray Sargent Keeps Tony Bennett Swingin'

JAZZ GUITARIST GRAY SARGENT KEEPS TONY BENNETT SWINGIN'

—Yamaha AEX 1500 Guitar Featured on Cover of Bennett's New CD—

BUENA PARK, CA (October 29, 2001)—The cover of Tony Bennett's new album, Playin' With My Friends: Bennett Sings the Blues [Sony] in stores early November, depicts the legendary singer surrounded by an array of vintage instruments—and a single modern classic, a Yamaha AEX1500. The eye-catching jazz archtop guitar looks right at home with its venerable counterparts, but it's the way it sounds in the hands of artist Gray Sargent during solos like New York State of Mind featuring Bennett and Billy Joel on vocals that really stands out.

As a kid, Gray Sargent listened to his mother's Tony Bennett albums. Now he's a core member of the star's band, The Ralph Sharon Quartet.

Sargent, a Boston-based talent who backs up Bennett on all his tours and recordings, has counted on Yamaha guitars since he first tried them in 1999. "The sound is always right up there," he explains. "It has to play right, it has to feel nice. The neck on this guitar has a great feel to it." He also uses a Yamaha LLX500C handcrafted acoustic-electric.

Sargent just wrapped a summer tour with Bennett (who does over 200 dates per year), and Playin' With My Friends is the third Bennett recording on which he's featured. Solo projects include 1993's Shades of Gray and 1988's No More Ouzo for Puzo with the Dave McKenna Quartet.

An established worldwide touring artist before he hooked up with Bennett in 1997, Sargent's association with Bennett grew from a series of chance encounters during the stint with the McKenna Quartet in and around Boston. "A singer, Donna Byrne, would perform with us," he related. "Tony had heard her at a party on the Cape and loved her singing, so whenever he was around Boston, or if she was down in New York, he'd come by, and I was always playing with her. He was very complimentary. Two years after that, his road manager called me out of the blue." That was July 1997, and Sargent has been part of Bennett's inner circle ever since.

Gray Sargent's Yamaha AEX1500 looks right at home surrounded by classic vintage instruments in this publicity shot for Toney Bennett's new CD, Playin' With My Friends: Bennett Sings the Blues [Sony].

Ralph Sharon, Bennett's pianist for four decades, is enthusiastic in his praise for Sargent. "Tony heard him playing in a club and told me about him: 'You should really listen to this guy,'" he recalls. "We booked him to do a couple of engagements with us and he just fit right in. He's one of the greatest players I've heard."

"We get along great," Sargent says of Bennett. "He's totally down to earth, loves the music and loves jazz musicians. We're both huge old movie fans, so we talk movies a lot, too."

The AEX1500 Sargent plays was designed by Yamaha in collaboration with jazz guitar legend Martin Taylor, and exemplifies Yamaha's vintage-meets-visionary philosophy. It looks, feels and sounds like a vintage jazz archtop, with a Sycamore top, Maple back and sides, floating bone-on-Ebony bridge, and neck-mounted Johnny Smith-style mini-humbucker that summon just the right combination of mellowness and edge, but also has modern touches like a top-mounted three-band EQ with sweepable midrange—the secret to finding the perfect "sweet spots."

Sargent's Yamaha LLX500C also blends tradition and technology. It features a solid Spruce top, a cutaway body for extended reach, and state-of-the-art electronics. Rosewood in the back, neck and sides compliments the Ebony fingerboard and gold tuners, while a piezo and soundhole condenser microphone combination gives the artist a full range of expression.

A Massachusetts native who spent his early childhood in New Jersey, Sargent took up the guitar in the Garden State but says he didn't flourish as an artist until his family moved back to Boston while he was in high school. "I just started meeting people, went out to hear the local guys play, and started joining in," he says. "I began with pop and rock tunes, but my mother had a lot of records that influenced me toward jazz—Count Basie, for example, and yes, Tony Bennett. I'm sure I was hearing Tony before I can remember."

For more information on Yamaha guitars, write Yamaha Corporation of America, Pro Audio & Combo Division, Guitar Products, P.O. Box 6600, Buena Park, CA 90622; telephone (714) 522-9011; e-mail infostation@yamaha.com; or visit www.yamaha.com.

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