Jazz guitarist Andy Bianco returns home to promote his latest album
Pittsburgh’s jazz scene is heating up. Thanks in large part to Shadyside jazz club Con Alma opening in 2019, a club scene is reemerging and — despite the setback of COVID-19 — gaining steam, providing space for local artists to hone and showcase their skills as well as touring talent.
A homegrown talent who made it big in the Big Apple, guitarist Andy Bianco, a Mt. Lebanon native, returns to his hometown to play sets at Kingfly Spirits in the Strip District on Thursday as well as Con Alma in Shadyside on Friday and the new Con Alma Downtown on Saturday. He’s been on a short tour that also includes Philadelphia and Youngstown, Ohio, to promote his latest album, “NYC Stories,” which was released in 2020. Planned publicity concerts were delayed due to the pandemic.
“Con Alma has such a high volume of music at six nights a week, in the way that New York has,” Bianco said in a phone interview from New York City. “That grows the scene really quick, and now there’s a situation in Pittsburgh for players like me in New York to come through. Other players have said that as well.”
Bianco grew up attending school in Mt. Lebanon, the son of two English teachers. His father, Phillip Bianco, taught at Mt. Lebanon high school for 37 years and also performed as a professional clarinetist and saxophonist. Bianco Sr. founded the school’s jazz ensemble in the ’70s and passed away in 2018.
“We hung out at music stores and music shops, met a lot of characters around town,” Bianco recalled, adding that his father also had a penchant for picking out tunes on guitars.
The son began playing guitar at the age of 14 and encountered one of Pittsburgh’s legends, guitarist Joe Negri, a few short years later at a Duquesne University event. Later, Bianco would study with Negri at the University of Pittsburgh before transferring to the Berklee College of Music in Boston to finish his degree, later making New York City his home base as he built his performing career.
Negri, 95, is known in Pittsburgh for his appearances as “Handyman” Negri on “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,” but he leaves a vast legacy as performer and educator.
“Joe is as legit as it gets; he’s a monumental talent,” Bianco said. “He helped show me that you need to have one foot in the past and one foot in the future in the jazz world, that you have to be rooted in tradition but explore your own voice.”
To that end, Bianco described “NYC Stories,” his latest album, as a document of his time in the city, an exploration of previous collaborations and his personal observations.
It also contains a more personal message: “The album is really about battling demons, substance abuse, mental health issues ... it’s a message to keep striving,” Bianco said. “I think of these things like a skyscraper. As you go higher and push harder the air gets thinner and things get tougher, but the view at the top is worth pushing through.”
While he considers New York his home, Bianco is also determined to remember and give back to his native community as well. After the death of his father, he created the Phillip Bianco Memorial Scholarship fund to help young Pittsburgh musicians pursue their musical studies after high school. His goal is to award $1,100 annually for as long as there is money in the fund, and each year he spends his birthday fundraising for the scholarship.
He’s raised more than $6,000 to date. “Even though I don’t live in Pittsburgh anymore, I still have an obligation to give back to the community,” Bianco said.
“There have been these pockets that pop up with clubs and peter out. [Con Alma] seems like it’s going to last a lot longer.”
Jeremy Reynolds: jreynolds@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1634; twitter: @Reynolds_PG. Mr. Reynolds’ work at the Post-Gazette is supported by a grant from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Getty Foundation and Rubin Institute.