Video 1: “Lady Be Good / Swing Ambiance” First gig in March 19 at Ireland 32 with Swing Ambiance featuring Joe Medieros on guitar, Dawn Lundsford and Pedro Galindo in guitar and vocals and Frank Petrilli on accordion.
Video 2: Published on Aug 22, 2013. At the Cotati Accordion Festival 2013, Frank Petrilli on accordion, John Chiodini on guitar, Sean Brogan on Bass and Wesley Anderson on drums swinging hard on this great American standard.
Join accordionist Frank Petrilli at Gypsy Jazz Night featuring “Swing Ambiance” on Wednesday, July 3, 2019 at 9:30 PM taking place at Ireland’s 32 in Van Nuys, California. Frank Petrilli is a jazz accordionist based in Los Angeles, California highly active in both the accordion and wider jazz communities on the West Coast, and throughout the US. Excerpts from article on the Cotati Festival: Frank Petrilli was born and still lives in Los Angeles California. Much of his energy has gone into the successful business he owns and operates, Petrilli Concrete Contractors, but his creative musical side has always been a strong drive as well. He started playing the accordion at age 7, and by age 16 was playing professionally. As the popularity of the accordion declined in the U.S., Frank switched to playing Hammond B3 Organ and saxophone for about 15 years. In 2006, he returned to the accordion and started playing with the César Mateus Latin Jazz Band at many jazz venues throughout the Los Angeles area.
In late 2006, Frank began intensive study with the great jazz accordionist, Frank Marocco which quickly evolved into a very close friendship. By virtue of their close relationship and mutual love of jazz, Frank Petrilli became Frank Marocco’s protégé, and Frank Marocco often commented that Frank Petrilli was like the son he never had. Unfortunately, this relationship ended far too soon with Frank Marocco’s untimely passing on March 3rd, 2012.
As Frank Petrilli became known as an excellent player in the jazz community, he began performing frequently in the Los Angeles area with artists such as guitarists’ Patrick Barrogain and John Chiodini at top venues such as the Vibrato Jazz Club. Frank has also performed at many of the major accordion festivals and clubs in the U.S. including the AAA Festival in Charleston 2011, and at the San Francisco Accordion Club on numerous occasions.
In October of 2011, Frank appeared on the TV series Mad Men. In May of 2012, he was invited to play in the spot that Frank Marocco had been scheduled for as a featured performer at the Accordion competition in Kiev, “Accofestival 2012.” He also was one of the judges for the jazz portion of the competition. Immediately following that, he performed at the Frank Marocco Memorial Concert in Castelfidardo, with many other stars of the accordion world.
His debut CD, ”Totally Frank,” was recorded in Italy during this trip. It was produced by Elke Ahrenholz of “Artist Signed Records, ” and includes the playing of three fine Italian musicians; Felice Del Gaudio, Max Ferri, and Fabio Zeppetella. Frank has performed with renowned artists such as guitarist John Chiding at top venues such as “Herb Alpert’s”Vibrato Grill and Jazz.
Frank’s interest and experience with jazz is long and deep. But his study of the Gypsy jazz niche is more recent, starting more or less with his attendance at Django in June in 2017. To hear him tell it, he attended at the encouragement of friends, and especially Dallas Vietty, who has taught there many times. As you will hear, Frank is a very versatile and talented musician.
