- Tracy Isley
- FOCUSED ON HIS GUITAR: Tony DeCaprio
Jazz guitarist Tony DeCaprio isn't starving, but he can probably see both the truth and the irony in those statements. DeCaprio, who has lived in Atlanta for two years, may be the most accomplished jazz guitarist you've never heard play. He hasn't recorded under his own name, but he's performed with Elvis Presley, Tom Jones and Diana Ross, to name a few. He rarely gigs locally. His last notable date here was at the National Academy of Recording Artists' "Guitars In The Round" event at the Cotton Club in April, where he performed with fellow jazz guitarist Earl Klugh.
Why the low profile? For jazz players, Atlanta is ripe with modest opportunities in restaurants or small clubs. Often, though, performers invent these gigs through hustle and chutzpah. At 53, DeCaprio is beyond that.
"If somebody calls me and says, 'Tony, I've got a gig for you,' I'll probably take it," DeCaprio says. "But I can't go out there like a Viking anymore, knocking down doors and creating gigs that aren't there to begin with to make 50 bucks, 100 bucks if I'm lucky."
Instead, DeCaprio has turned his attention to jazz guitar instruction. His book, Gateway to Guitar Improvisation: A Guitarist's Guide to the Revolutionary 'Fourth Note' Principle (Hal Leonard, 2003), is endorsed by famed jazz guitarists Jim Hall and Lee Ritenour, among others, and has earned largely positive notices in national guitar media. In addition to writing, DeCaprio gives clinics and workshops on an international level.
DeCaprio took a scenic route to his current state as a jazz guitarist and teacher. In 1965, at age 15, the New York native began performing with such R&B acts as the Shirelles and Little Anthony & the Imperials. He also studied jazz, most notably with Jimmy Raney, as well as flamenco and classical guitar. Word of his talent got around and he soon got a call to join Tom Jones' band at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.
After a short stint with Jones, DeCaprio hooked up with the Las Vegas Hilton Orchestra, backing Elvis from 1974 until Presley's death in 1977. Afterward, he played jazz "after hours" with the likes of James Moody, Carl Fontana and Sam Noto. He toured with Diana Ross and Ann Margaret, and worked with Mel Torme, B.B. King, Natalie Cole, Tina Turner and others. He played New York's Radio City Music Hall, the London Palladium and the White House -- where he performed for then-President Jimmy Carter.
By the mid-'80s, however, he gave up the pop concert circuit and decided to focus solely on jazz guitar as both performer and teacher. "I didn't want to be 65 years old and just playing Chuck Berry licks," DeCaprio says. "I wanted to get back into the guitar. I got out of the commercial [music] business, and I started studying."
DeCaprio studied with Joe Isgro and with Dennis Sandole, who also taught John Coltrane. DeCaprio played gigs in New York and in Europe, and gave lessons. In 1997 he moved to Paris and lived there for four years, performing frequently in France, England and Italy before moving to Atlanta in 2001. Now based in New York, he remains committed to jazz guitar.
"Jazz is formidable," DeCaprio says. "You've got to devote all of your time to it. And once you start doing it, you're hooked. It's like an opiate. [When I began studying jazz again in the '80s], I should have had income coming in, and a lot of times I didn't and I didn't care. Whatever I had to do to adjust to that -- teach lessons, sleep on the floor -- I did it, because I wanted to reach that ultimate goal that when I was a certain age, I could say, 'OK, I can play, I did it.'"
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