There are a lot more guys out there like Rochester multi-talented multi-instrumentalist Tommy Gravino than you think. You know, extremely talented players that live and love music while its extraneous rewards elude them. You don't hear about cats like this everyday. They're not in the tabloids. They're not in Billboard Magazine. It's the rock star banging the porn star; it's the bling and the cash register cha-ching; it's the parade of charlatans that typically assail us from all sides. That's not to say what they play isn't any good, I just have a better time believing artists that live closer to the ground.

Gravino lives close to the ground - country ground. After a recent break up with his girlfriend of seven years, and after hearing his neighbors bitch and moan about loud music coming from his crib at all hours of the night one too many times, Gravino bid the city adios and moved to a house on a hill in the woods in Bristol. It's his first time living alone in 27 years.

Gravino is hard to pin down stylistically. His music changes from instrument to instrument. And whether he's singing, playing keyboards, or saxophone, or flute, Gravino's style vacillates within those confines as well. He stretches their limits. And he proves it on his new release, "Twenty Years."

"Twenty Years" is all over the map. Jazz, rock, world music, and a sort of mellow contemporary pop seem to dominate, but it's the ethereal mix and atmosphere that ties it all together. Everything seems to float to the listener - or maybe it's the other way around. It lilts and it coaxes. But it's Gravino's voice, the one thing he tries to downplay, that'll hit you, the way it crackles with genuine blue-eyed soul. It doesn't boom or try for the clouds, but it's an impressive, honest tenor. He feels, he sings, you hear, you believe.

While drumming up material for the album, Gravino was looking for a weekend getaway. Abilene owner Danny Deutsch had an idea.

"He suggested I go see Levon Helm down in Woodstock," Gravino says. "Tickets were $200 each, but it was a very intimate show in his studio. It was in this old barn with three tiers and a listening area. Only about 100 to 120 people. They meet you at the driveway and walk you in. Everyone brings a dish to pass."

Gravino fell in love with the studio and the vibe. He tracked down the manager.

"He said, ‘$100 bucks an hour, and if you've got enough dough, Levon will come in and drum for you,'" he says. Starmaker machinery and priorities on Helm's end led to cancellation after cancellation. Gravino gave up on the session and moved it back home to Saxon Studios, with mellow fellow producer Dave Anderson at the wheel. The resulting album is a gentle, jazzy, thoughtful endeavor. It's evocative and still peaceful, like the man himself.

Though he flies solo and conducts himself in a DIY kind of way, Gravino doesn't fiddle with the knobs himself.

"They say, ‘Record at home. Get a home studio,'" he says. "I can't get near it. I can't keep up with it. There's too much to do. I don't care about it. It takes away from the magic. I like to have another set of ears."

Gravino still hustles and is constantly on the prowl for opportunities. He recently honked some raunchy sax on arena rockers the New York Vaults' upcoming release. But between session gigs and guest spots on stage, he's at peace and happy, content to be playing at various weekly gigs with folks like guitarists  Ryan T. Carey and Jack Edward Smith. He's as pleasant and Zen as he is talented. The dude abides.

Gravino is currently working with his ASCAP rep, pitching songs for commercial and film work. A radio hit would be cool, too.

"Yeah, Dolly Parton picking up a tune and making a hit out of it," he says. "That'd be nice." 

Tommy Gravino

Tommygravino.com