Berks Jazz Fest recreating a night at New York's Birdland Jazz Club

Mar. 26—The Miller Center for the Arts will be magically transformed into New York's famous Birdland Jazz Club when Boscov's Berks Jazz Fest presents Frank Vignola's Birdland Guitar Night on Friday at 6 p.m. for an evening of classic swing, bebop and more.

First, a bit of history. The original Birdland opened in 1949 on Broadway near 52nd Street, and became the hottest gathering place for artists, celebrities and rubberneckers. It was named after the great alto sax player Charlie "Bird" Parker, who was the headliner in those days, and all the jazz luminaries performed there, from Count Basie and John Coltrane to Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis and on and on.

The club closed in 1965 as jazz was losing popularity in favor of rock 'n' roll, but it re-opened uptown at Broadway and 105th for a decade, where more than 2,000 emerging artists performed. In 1996, the present Birdland Jazz Club opened in midtown again, at 315 W. 44th St., where the best jazz players can be heard, as well as Broadway, burlesque, cabaret and comedy in its theater.

Guitarist Frank Vignola, whose jazz performances and recordings are legendary, started a weekly Wednesday guitar night about a year and a half ago, following a long tradition of guitar residencies by artists including Kenny Burrell, Les Paul and John Pisano.

"The concept is to have a steady, weekly place for us jazz guitar geeks to hang out and perform," Vignola said during a joint Zoom interview with fellow Birdland guitarist Pasquale Grasso. "It's been very well received, even during the pandemic. When we started, there were six or seven people there, but since then the crowds have been great. For me, it's being able to connect and play with guitarists I never would have met, and my favorite has been Pasquale."

Grasso came to the U.S. from his native Campania, Italy, in 2012, and has built an impressive career as a solo and collaborative performer, a recording artist and an educator. When he was 4, his older brother Luigi started playing saxophone, he said, "and I was jealous of him, so I started guitar." (Luigi is now a professional saxophonist who tours globally.)

Influenced by the mid-century jazz and classical music he heard on his parents' record collection, Grasso later found a mentor in American-raised jazz guitarist Agostino di Giorgio. He and Luigi both studied with and assisted bebop pianist Barry Harris in his jazz workshops in Switzerland.

Along the way, Grasso developed a unique style of playing the guitar. He manages to achieve dynamics and fluidity that is strikingly keyboard-like.

Asked how he came to play that way, he broke into a big smile.

"I always loved the sound of the piano," he said. "People like Bud Powell, Thelonious Monk, Duke Ellington; the sound of the piano touched me in a different way. I always wanted to sound like a piano player."

His marvelous custom-made Trenier guitar has extra frets, supplied by his friend Brian Trenier, "because I needed to be able to play this Art Tatum run; I needed more notes," he said.

Grasso has released solo recordings exploring the work of Powell, Monk and Parker, as well as other jazz standards and ballads. His latest album is "Pasquale Plays Duke" (2021), which includes his trio and features vocalists Samara Joy and Sheila Jordan. Last year he recorded two new albums, one solo and one with his trio, which will probably be released toward the end of this year.

Grasso met Joy, the recent winner of two Grammys, who will be performing at Berks Jazz Fest on the final day, when she was a student at SUNY Purchase, where he teaches guitar, and the two began working together on jazz standards. He accompanied her on several of her viral videos, and can be heard on her Grammy-winning album, "Linger Awhile."

Vignola said that prior to the pandemic, "I had not been in one place for more than two weeks since I was 16 or 17. One year I had 300 days of performing. Then all of a sudden, to be home for a year — I found it was kind of nice. I had developed an online teaching business, and that took off. Birdland was a godsend; it kept me playing every week. It was fun to get back to jazz."

Now his schedule is more balanced, with time to teach, perform, record and hang out with his family. Vignola just released a new album, "Jazz Soup," with Birdland regulars Gary Mazzaroppi on bass and Vince Cherico on drums, earlier this year.

For the Berks Jazz Fest concert, Vignola, Grasso, Mazzaroppi and Cherico, will form the core of the performance. Also featured on the program will be guitarist Vinny Raniolo (who performed Gypsy Jazz with Vignola for many years) and the iconic 88-year-old tenor saxophonist Houston Person. Trumpeter Randy Brecker, who is also performing during the festival, will sit in for some numbers.

If you go

Event: Boscov's Berks Jazz Fest presents Frank Vignola's Birdland Guitar Night featuring Pasquale Grasso, Vinny Raniolo, Randy Brecker, Houston Person and more

When: 6 p.m. Friday

Where: Miller Center for the Arts at Reading Area Community College

Tickets: $49

Web: For information about this concert, visit www.berksjazzfest.com, where you can also find complete information on the 2023 Boscov's Berks Jazz Fest, including the full schedule (with artist bios), and purchase tickets through the festival's own system.