Joe Ascione

The Bix Centennial All-Stars: Celebrating Bix!

by Nicholas F. Mondello
September 21, 2023

Cornetist Leon Bismark “Bix" Beiderbecke, while certainly heavily influenced by Louis Armstrong, developed his own highly stylized way of playing and improvising jazz. One wonders what musical highlights might have been accomplished had he lived beyond his 28 years. Celebrating Bix!, originally released in 2003 as a single CD album, adds selections which, due to size constraints, did not make the original release, but they all certainly “make it" here as a double CD and vinyl release. What ...

The Bix Centennial All Stars: Celebrating Bix!

by Jack Bowers
September 14, 2023

Here's a new album by the Bix Centennial All Stars honoring the legacy of the renowned cornetist Bix Beiderbecke. Sort of. Actually, most of the music on Celebrating Bix! was recorded and released in March 2003, the actual centenary of Beiderbecke's birth in Davenport, Iowa. This expanded twentieth anniversary edition includes a trio of songs not released at that time owing to limited space, and has been reissued on two CDs instead of one. Having said that, ...

Joe Ascione and His Brave New World

by Dr. Judith Schlesinger
March 16, 2016

Author's Note: All About Jazz is sad to report the passing of spirited drummer Joe Ascione who battled Multiple Sclerosis for 20 years. In this encore presentation of a 2004 interview, Joe talks about the challenges of his new reality and shows his courageous determination to fight through them. Joe Ascione is a first-call, universally-respected drummer who has been on about 70 records to date. In one of their frequent bizarre choices, the All Music Guide to Jazz ...

Joe Ascione Quartet: Movin' Up

by Dr. Judith Schlesinger
September 20, 2008

Movin' Up is the perfect CD for those who like their jazz straight up and swinging, as well as both traditional and imaginative at the same time. These adjectives also describe uberdrummer Joe Ascione, the versatile, first-call sideman who's been on hundreds of other people's CDs. Recorded in October of 2007, this is only his third album as leader, and it's a corker from beginning to end.

To be more specific: Movin' Up begins with the infectious title ...

The Bix Beiderbecke Centennial All-Stars: Celebrating Bix!

by Jack Bowers
May 3, 2003

Cornetist Bix Beiderbecke, who considered himself a failure and died (primarily from alcohol abuse) in 1931 at age twenty-eight, would no doubt have been astonished to learn that a group of world- class musicians was assembling to record an album celebrating the hundredth anniversary of his birth. But if Bix was unable to recognize his own genius, others were--and now, seventy-two years onward, he rests comfortably in the pantheon raised to honor such legendary jazz pioneers as Louis Armstrong, King ...

Various: The International Allstars Play Benny Goodman, Volume Two

by Dave Nathan
January 1, 2002

This is the other shoe dropping on the International Allstars tribute to Benny Goodman and the various small groups he headed. This album comes from the same live concert in Hamburg that produced Volume 1 released in 2000. Obviously there was enough for two CDs and why they weren't packaged as a 2 CD set is puzzling. But no one can point the finger at Nagel Heyer claiming that they were trying to get 2 CDs where one would suffice. ...

Joe Ascione Octet: My Buddy

by Jack Bowers
September 1, 1999

Joe Ascione’s “buddy” is surnamed Rich, and this Nagel–Heyer release is Ascione’s enthusiastic and colorful salute to the drumming wizardry of one of his heroes and role models, Bernard “Buddy” Rich. Ascione, 35 years old when this recording was made (in November ’96), first encountered Rich via recordings in the early ’70s, an experience he recalls with wide–eyed amazement: “I could not believe what I was hearing! . . . I imagined myself listening to several drummers rolled up into ...

Feb. 26 Houston Person, Wycliffe Gordon, Joe Ascione, John Cocuzzi in Sacramento, CA

Source: All About Jazz
February 8, 2008

Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2008 at 7 pm in Sacramento, CA NEW ORLEANS JAZZ with EAST COAST CLASS at a concert fundraiser for the annual Trad. Jazz Youth Band Festival (TJYBF). The Sacramento Traditional Jazz Society and Nelmar Construction present Ed Polcer's East Coast All-Stars at a fundraiser for the annual Trad. Jazz Youth Band Festival. The “Long Live JAZZ" concert features nationally-known musicians Wycliffe Gordon (of the Lincoln Center Orch.) and saxophonist Houston Person as part of a sextet performing ...
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Frank Vignola and Joe Ascione Release New CD Submarine Bus

Source: All About Jazz
May 31, 2006

The Frank & Joe Show

Ever seeking the ever changing, jazz guitarist extraordinaire Frank Vignola and his pal drum legend Joe Ascione celebrate 20 years of musical partnership by launching their electric gypsy jam vessel into uncharted musical waters with the release of Submarine Bus on Venture Music Inc/ Barn Burner Music.

Submarine Bus is a hilarious and refreshing romp in the hayfields of free-form electric gypsy jazz, intricately doused with explosive homages to Hendrix, exploratory Zappa lyricism and trademark ...
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The Frank & Joe Show (featuring Frank Vignola & Joe Ascione) To Release "66 2/3"

Source: All About Jazz
April 27, 2005

New York, NY - The Frank & Joe Show (featuring virtuoso guitarist Frank Vignola and world class percussionist Joe Ascione) return on May 10, 2005 with their brand new album entitled, 66 2/3, on HYENA Records. The group, which is currently a sextet, also includes rhythm guitarist Ken Smith, bassist Gary Mazzaroppi and percussionists Chuck Ferruggia and Rich Zukor. A 13-track collection, 66 2/3 is The Frank & Joe Show's second album to date and features defining performances of songs ...
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The Frank & Joe Show (featuring Frank Vignola & Joe Ascione)

Source: All About Jazz
April 24, 2004

THE FRANK & JOE SHOW To Release Debut Album “33 1/3" May 11th On HYENA

Featuring guitarist Frank Vignola and percussionist Joe Ascione, with special guests Dr. John, Jane Monheit and Janis Siegel

On May 11th, 2004 HYENA Records will release, “33 1/3," the debut recording from The Frank & Joe Show, featuring virtuoso guitarist Frank Vignola and master percussionist Joe Ascione. The record is an irresistible melting pot of musical dialects so seamlessly integrated as to create its own ...
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