Frank Vignola is one of the most extraordinary guitarists performing before the public today. His stunning virtuosity has made him the guitarist of choice for many of the world’s top musicians, including Ringo Starr, Madonna, Donald Fagen, Lionel Hampton, Tommy Emmanuel, John Lewis, the Boston Pops, the New York Pops, and guitar legend Les Paul, who named Vignola to his “Five Most Admired Guitarists List” for the Wall Street Journal. In 2020, Frank introduced the Big Jersey Guitar Club offering multiple formats for studying guitar with him online including 10-week Learning Clubs™, and Let’s Practice Sessions, plus Song Intensives and Methods.

Called “the best guitar player I’ve heard in maybe my entire life…”by Pat Metheny, Pasquale Grasso, born in Ariano, Irpino, Italy, began playing guitar at a very young age. Grasso’s principle instruction was with Chuck Wayne’s student and jazz guitar innovator, Agostino Di Giorgio. Another extraordinary influence in Grasso’s career has been bebop piano master and world-renowned jazz educator, Barry Harris. In 2008, Pasquale pursued classical guitar studies in the Music Conservatory of Bologna under Professor Walter Zanetti. In 2012, Grasso moved to New York City and quickly made a name for himself in the city’s vibrant jazz scene. Later that year, Pasquale was named a Jazz Ambassador with the US Embassy, going on to tour extensively across Europe, Kuwait, Kazakstan, Cyprus, Lithuania, and Ukraine, among others.

Despite his young age, Grasso has performed with many leading musicians of the international jazz scene. such as: Barry Harris, Charles Davis, Freddie Redd, Frank Wess, Leroy Wiliams, Ray Drummond, Murray Wall, Steve Grossman, Tardo Hammer, Jimmy Wormworth, John Mosca, Sacha Perry, Ari Roland, Luigi Grasso, Chris Byars, Zaid Nasser, Bucky Pizzarelli, China Moses, Harry Allen Quartet, Grant Stewart, Stepko Gut, Nicolas Dary, Dado Moroni, Agostino di Giorgio, Michel Pastre Big Band, Gianni Basso Big Band, Joe Cohn, Oscar Zenari, Luca Pisani and others.

As a touring guitar musician, performer, and educator, Vinny Raniolo is best known for his accompanying skills and is a very high demand rhythm guitarist. His dynamic playing has brought him to 14 countries on three continents – and still growing – having performed in some of the world’s most illustrious venues, including the Sydney Opera House in Australia, The Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco, New York’s Lincoln Center and the world’s oldest indoor concert hall, Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza, Italy.

While keeping a busy touring schedule in a variety of musical settings, Vinny has also become a familiar figure on Public Television. Featured previously on three popular shows, including the heavily programmed Tommy Emmanuel and Friends, in Frank Vignola’s Four Generations of Guitar as the youngest generation in the lineage of jazz guitarists with veteran Bucky Pizzarelli and in the Music Gone Public series.

Vinny’s recording credits include soundtracks for HBO’s Boardwalk Empire and Woody Allen’s film Café Society, as well as numerous recordings as a featured artist on recordings by many other artists. Look for Vinny’s acclaimed solo release: Air Guitar.

Jonathan Stout is a bandleader and guitarist specializing in pre-bebop jazz guitar. As a guitarist, Jonathan draws from the many and varied styles of pre-bebop jazz guitar, including the rhythm guitar of Freddie Green, the electric single-note style of Charlie Christian, the acoustic block-chord solos of Allan Reuss, and the gypsy-jazz of Django Reinhardt. Jonathan also writes a noted blog on swing guitar. Beside playing in his own bands, Jonathan is a member of the Bonebrake Syncopators (led by DJ Bonebrake of the band X), and has played guitar for Michael Gamble and his Rhythm Serenaders, Josh Collazo's Candy Jacket Jazz Band, Casey MacGill, Dean Mora (Mora's Modern Rhythmists, et. al), the Boilermaker Jazz Band, the Lucky Stars, Jim Ziegler’s Swingsations, Josh Collazo and his Feetwarmers, Bill Elliott, and Johnny Crawford. He played on Jeremy Wakefield's 2005 Album, "Steel Guitar Caviar" (Ecco-Fonic), as well as Michael Gamble and his Rhythm Serenaders' self-titled 2016 debut album.

As a student of the era, Jonathan has also branched out to study swing drumming, based on fourteen years of first-hand observations of the best Swing drummers. Jonathan has played drums for The Careless Lovers, Casey MacGill, Janet Klein, Falty and Friends, Stompy Jones, Dean Mora, Dave Stuckey, and Carl Sonny Leyland, as well as filling-in occasionally in the Campus Five and Orchestra. He most recently played drums on Janet Klein's 2015 CD "It's the Girl", using his 1941 Leedy drum set.

Whether you’ve heard guitarist Dave Stryker leading his own group (with 35 CD’s as a leader to date), or as a featured sideman with Stanley Turrentine, Jack McDuff, and many others, you know why the Village Voice calls him “one of the most distinctive guitarists to come along in recent years.”

Hot House magazine awarded him Best Guitarist – Fans Decision for 2017. He was recently voted once again as one of the top Jazz Guitarists in the 2022 Downbeat Critics and Readers Polls for the 15th time.

“I have followed Dave Stryker‘s playing since his early days in Omaha through his long stay with Stanley Turrentine… and he just gets better and better with one of the most joyous feels around.”

Pat Metheny

Bassist Gary Mazzaroppi is a veteran virtuoso who enjoyed a long-running association with the late great guitar innovator and raconteur Les Paul. Mazzaroppi has accompanied jazz giants from across the spectrum, ranging from vintage greats Lionel Hampton and Clark Terry, Marian McPartland, Red Norvo & Stan Getz, to fusionists Bela Fleck and Chuck Mangione, and, even Willie Nelson, in his songbook excursions. In addition to his busy playing career, Gary is also in the faculty of the Brookdale Community College School of Music, in Lincroft, NJ

Ken Smith was born in Florida, USA and grew up in New Jersey and Abu Dhabi. Ken’s musical education includes a B.M. in Performance from Arizona State University. While living in Arizona, Ken worked as a soloist and ensemble member, playing everything from solo classical guitar to theater productions. Ken also began teaching the guitar at this time, creating a unique approach to applying the language of jazz to the fretboard. Since moving to New York City in 1997, Ken has performed and toured in the US, Asia and Europe, as a side man and leader. Ken is a member of Frank Vignola’s Birdland Guitar Band. Ken is currently developing a suite of educational products that document his unique approach to teaching jazz guitar.