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Jazz guitarist Alex Ciavarelli pays tribute to pianist Oscar Peterson
“I had to extract the elements that spoke to me and realize them on my instrument”
For Alex Ciavarelli, it all started with Guitar Hero.
Video:
BLURT: Jazz guitarist Alex Ciavarelli pays tribute to pianist Oscar Peterson
Alex Ciavarelli’s first instrument was the violin, but he stopped playing by the time he was ten. “My parents said they would give me some time to think about a new instrument,” he recalls. “During that time, I got into rock music and there was game called Guitar Hero that was out. I really liked the game. I thought if I was going to do another instrument, guitar was definitely the instrument that interested me, so I went with guitar.” Ciavarelli’s father was a jazz pianist, and he encouraged Alex to check out jazz guitarists. “One of them was Joe Pass. I would say, even to this day, that he is probably my biggest jazz guitar influence. He was the one who got me into playing jazz. It was his solo album, Virtuoso.”
It turned out that Ciavarelli was just beginning a deep dive into the genre. “I basically just dropped rock. I got so into it. All I would listen to was, basically, Joe Pass and Oscar Peterson. I feel like, especially these days, to really get into jazz you have to go through an era of just immersing yourself into it, because it’s not a harmonic and melodic language that is pervasive in music nowadays. A lot of these musical concepts aren’t naturally internalized by people. Back in the swing era, a lot of these musical elements were internalized by people, because it was the music that everybody was listening to and it was sort of a shared, collected musical intelligence.”
He says he became “a bit of a hermit” at this stage of his life due to his dedication to practicing the guitar. He would spend his school lunches practicing, and continue to do so once he got home. He was playing in jazz trios and quartets by the time he was in high school, but even that time was cut short so he could — you guessed it — spend more time with his guitar. “I graduated two years early so I could practice more,” he says. “You can take the California High School Proficiency Exam, basically just like a GED, and test out of it. At the time, I realized that the guitar technique I was using was very inefficient for playing fast and accurately. I realized if I was going to change it, that was going to be a really massive endeavor. So, I graduated early to basically stay at home for two years and just work on figuring out what my new technique was going to be. I was locked in. I was willing to do basically anything to get better.”
The two years of perfecting his guitar technique took a toll on his social life. He opted to attend San Diego State so he could not only study music but also be immersed in a sea of people who were not “autistically locked into music” the way he was. It was during his SDSU years that he also began to take part in some light touring, “Go up to LA or San Francisco and play a couple of gigs,” he says. He started to learn about playing on the road and everything that comes along with it.
These days, he can be found playing solo guitar at Sbicca in Del Mar on Sundays, Cardiff Seaside Market on Saturdays, and some weeknights at the Lodge at Torrey Pines. “I’ve always loved solo playing,” he says. “For me, I would honestly say it’s my specialty. It pays more. I enjoy doing it. I don’t have to play with people who annoy me. I have no problem doing stuff like that. Then doing the stuff that musically fulfills me here and there.”
Regarding the latter: Ciavarelli recently released his first album, Oscar Peterson on Guitar, a fitting tribute to one of his jazz heroes, even though he was a pianist. “I used to listen to his Live in Montreux DVD religiously in high school. That was like my musical bible. Eventually, I started to imagine what the equivalent performance would be like on guitar, either literally on in spirit. At first, I tried transcribing and playing Oscar Peterson solos as-is, but it felt too contrived to me. It didn’t feel like that was what I was going for. I realized I had to extract the elements of Oscar’s playing that spoke to me and realize them on my instrument.”
Also on the album front, look for a potential collection of originals featuring Ciavarelli and his father next year.
Here's something you might be interested in.
Jazz guitarist Alex Ciavarelli pays tribute to pianist Oscar Peterson
“I had to extract the elements that spoke to me and realize them on my instrument”
Jazz guitarist Alex Ciavarelli pays tribute to pianist Oscar Peterson
“I had to extract the elements that spoke to me and realize them on my instrument”
For Alex Ciavarelli, it all started with Guitar Hero.
Video:
BLURT: Jazz guitarist Alex Ciavarelli pays tribute to pianist Oscar Peterson
Alex Ciavarelli’s first instrument was the violin, but he stopped playing by the time he was ten. “My parents said they would give me some time to think about a new instrument,” he recalls. “During that time, I got into rock music and there was game called Guitar Hero that was out. I really liked the game. I thought if I was going to do another instrument, guitar was definitely the instrument that interested me, so I went with guitar.” Ciavarelli’s father was a jazz pianist, and he encouraged Alex to check out jazz guitarists. “One of them was Joe Pass. I would say, even to this day, that he is probably my biggest jazz guitar influence. He was the one who got me into playing jazz. It was his solo album, Virtuoso.”
It turned out that Ciavarelli was just beginning a deep dive into the genre. “I basically just dropped rock. I got so into it. All I would listen to was, basically, Joe Pass and Oscar Peterson. I feel like, especially these days, to really get into jazz you have to go through an era of just immersing yourself into it, because it’s not a harmonic and melodic language that is pervasive in music nowadays. A lot of these musical concepts aren’t naturally internalized by people. Back in the swing era, a lot of these musical elements were internalized by people, because it was the music that everybody was listening to and it was sort of a shared, collected musical intelligence.”
He says he became “a bit of a hermit” at this stage of his life due to his dedication to practicing the guitar. He would spend his school lunches practicing, and continue to do so once he got home. He was playing in jazz trios and quartets by the time he was in high school, but even that time was cut short so he could — you guessed it — spend more time with his guitar. “I graduated two years early so I could practice more,” he says. “You can take the California High School Proficiency Exam, basically just like a GED, and test out of it. At the time, I realized that the guitar technique I was using was very inefficient for playing fast and accurately. I realized if I was going to change it, that was going to be a really massive endeavor. So, I graduated early to basically stay at home for two years and just work on figuring out what my new technique was going to be. I was locked in. I was willing to do basically anything to get better.”
The two years of perfecting his guitar technique took a toll on his social life. He opted to attend San Diego State so he could not only study music but also be immersed in a sea of people who were not “autistically locked into music” the way he was. It was during his SDSU years that he also began to take part in some light touring, “Go up to LA or San Francisco and play a couple of gigs,” he says. He started to learn about playing on the road and everything that comes along with it.
These days, he can be found playing solo guitar at Sbicca in Del Mar on Sundays, Cardiff Seaside Market on Saturdays, and some weeknights at the Lodge at Torrey Pines. “I’ve always loved solo playing,” he says. “For me, I would honestly say it’s my specialty. It pays more. I enjoy doing it. I don’t have to play with people who annoy me. I have no problem doing stuff like that. Then doing the stuff that musically fulfills me here and there.”
Regarding the latter: Ciavarelli recently released his first album, Oscar Peterson on Guitar, a fitting tribute to one of his jazz heroes, even though he was a pianist. “I used to listen to his Live in Montreux DVD religiously in high school. That was like my musical bible. Eventually, I started to imagine what the equivalent performance would be like on guitar, either literally on in spirit. At first, I tried transcribing and playing Oscar Peterson solos as-is, but it felt too contrived to me. It didn’t feel like that was what I was going for. I realized I had to extract the elements of Oscar’s playing that spoke to me and realize them on my instrument.”
Also on the album front, look for a potential collection of originals featuring Ciavarelli and his father next year.
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