Friday Night Concert Series with Jimmy Fastiggi July 24, 2009

Don't miss Jimmy Fastiggi at the St. Joseph Today Friday Night Concert in the Park Series.

Americana rock and roots is how Jimmy describes the music that he plays. He started playing guitar at age 19 and immediately fell in love with the instrument. He began by teaching himself songs by the Beatles, Bob Dylan and acoustic music of the late 60’s and early 70’s. He soon started to write songs trying to copy those people he admired.

Over the next several years, he played in various types of bands including folk, bluegrass, country and rock and roll. As he began to listen to swing and jazz, he developed more interest in songwriting, especially the music from the American Songbook by Irving Berlin, Cole Porter and the Gershwins. Since then, songwriting has become his passion.

In recent years, Jimmy has fallen back in love with the blues and plays songs by many of the great blues legends such as Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters and Eric Clapton. From simple folk, to Beatles-influenced rock, delta blues, Motown-flavored R&B, country or Swing Jazz, his music reflects elements from all these styles of music.

Jimmy has been fortunate enough to have played with several well-known musicians including Bela Fleck whom he played with in the bluegrass band Wicker’s Creek back in New York in the 1970’s. Another Wicker’s Creek alumni, Ray Chesna, teaches Delta and country blues and performs in the Boston area. Ray’s 2 CDs contain several of Jimmy’s compositions. Jimmy’s only CD to date, “Baby It’s Cold Outside”, is the soundtrack to a small independent film of the same name and demonstrates the diversity in the songwriting. Jimmy has recently had a song, he co-wrote with Nashville songwriter Donna Britton, picked up by an LA film company for possible use in TV or film.

Official Website: http://www.sjtoday.org