When asked about his most important influences, the first two names he mentions are not other guitar players; Frank Sinatra heads the list and then pianist Bill Evans.

Perhaps this explains why John Basile is one of a select group of jazz instrumentalists who doesn’t sound like everyone else.

Musically, his guitar style utilizes a finger-style technique that approaches the guitar like a piano.

For John, the challenge of comping harmonic chord fragments and playing melodies simultaneously provides a backdrop for a more open style of playing and improvising.

His brand new album, Silent Night (released this past September 23rd, 2019), features a layering of textures arranged, recorded, and performed using midi jazz guitar and digital recording techniques.

Furthermore, nylon and electric guitars were then added “live” to create an engagingly fresh set of treatments to these classic holiday themes that we all know and love, but I can assure you have never heard performed in such a stylized and finitely cultured way before.

1. 'God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen'
2. 'Baby Its Cold Outside'
3. 'Lulladay'
4. 'Silver Bells'
5. 'Silent Night'
6. 'Toyland'
7. 'Oh Tannenbaum'
8. 'What Child It This?'
9. 'A Child Is Born'
10. 'Christmas Time Is Here'
11. 'The First Noel'
12. 'Auld Lang Syne'

Opening with the gentle soul of 'God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen' and backing it up with a cozy 'Baby Its Cold Outside,' the lush original 'Lulladay,' and then both a jubilant 'Silver Bells' and a free flowing 'Silent Night', trust me when I say that this is the only Christmas album you'll need for those quieter moments this holiday season.

A delightful 'Toyland' is next and that's followed by a versed rendition of 'Oh Tannenbaum' (that you might not even recognize, in truth), with an upbeat 'What Child It This?' and a lo-fi 'A Child Is Born' along next.

This quite magnificent, expertly created and formidably precise Christmas album then rounds out with the ornate 'Christmas Time Is Here', a veritably opulent 'The First Noel', and then comes to a close on a rich and sculptured rendition of 'Auld Lang Syne.'

"I like to combine the best elements of current technology with the traditional aspects of using real guitars,' Basile says. "It’s the best of both world’s as you combine the craft of predetermined musical architecture in the midi world with true jazz guitar improvisation."

"I think the integrity of each concept is extremely valid and that comes through clearly on Silent Night."

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