John Carlini: The Man Behind (and Ahead) of The Music

Being in the recording business and an acoustic guitarist, I have to say that I have met a lot of extraordinary musicians along the way. One of them is composer, arranger/musician John Carlini. His accomplishments are almost unreal, as he’s performed and arranged for some of the most influential music acts in the acoustic music genre that we all listen to.

I met John 30 some odd years ago and heard prior to that he had taught jazz guitar to my bluegrass hero Tony Rice, not to mention he was arranging, composing and performing with The Grisman Quintet. I of course wanted some guitar lessons from him!

Now this video is shot at the Steve Kaufman Guitar Camp which features John and bassist Rusty Holloway – performing the Harry Warren standard “There Will Never Be Another You.” For those of you that don’t know, Steve Kaufman’s camp is a week long learning barrage which features many of the top players in the acoustic guitar world. For the jazz, the logical choice was John, who not only teaches at this camp but gives lessons both private and online.

My professional relationship with John started with an album project I co-produced and recorded entitled “the Game’s Afoot.” Since then, John and I have partnered on many projects including a soon to be release of the “Bach Inventions” which John arranged for mandolin (Carlo Aonso) and guitar (I will let you know when this is available, it is fantastic!).

Here’s a list of John’s accomplishments:

Musical director for the David Grisman Quintet, featuring guitarist, Tony Rice, and fiddle player Darol Anger.

Guitarist, replacing Jerry Garcia, in the Great American Music Band.

arranger for the 1982 release of “Dawg Jazz”, a tune featuring Grisman with Doc Severinsen’s Tonight Show Band

Arranger for Grisman’s “Mondo Mando” recorded by David with the string quartet, Kronos

Arranger for the classic recording, “Back to Back”, featuring swing mandolin legends, Jethro Burns and Tiny Moore, with bassist, Ray Brown, and drummer, Shelly Manne

Guitarist on the Grammy-nominated “Dawg ’90” (Acoustic Disc)

Orchestrator and composer for the Federico DeLaurentiis film, King of the Gypsies, which also found him on camera, performing on guitar with the late, legendary violinist, Stephan Grappelli.

Check out Johncarlini.com for the whole list.. and also go over to Amazon and check out my recording work + John’s many instructional books and other CD’s.