StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: The Return of Frank Vignola

Today, let's check out some video clips featuring guitarist Frank Vignola, who's returning to St. Louis next week to perform from Wednesday, May 13 through Saturday, May 16 at Jazz at the Bistro.

The versatile Vignola was last seen here in March 2008, performing at the Sheldon Concert Hall and recording a DVD for release by the St. Louis-based Mel Bay Records. Before that, Vignola also played the Bistro in the fall of 2007.

Vignola's music mixes swing, Gypsy music, bluegrass, modern jazz and more, all delivered with impressive technical facility, as you'll see in today's clips. The first video up above is a promotional clip from the DVD of Vignola's Sheldon show. Though the musical exceprts are short, it does give an idea of Vignola's stylistic range (and for us St. Louisans, it's kind of fun to see the familiar Sheldon stage, too).

Down below, there's a live clip from earlier this year of the guitarist and his band playing a jaunty little tune called "Salad and Donuts," and at the bottom, just for fun, there's a video from 2005 of Vignola's version of "Flight of the Bumblebee," which should serves as an ample demonstration of his speedy picking technique.