Friday, Jan. 10, 2025
10:00 am - 12:00 pm
Dr. Dan Puccio takes an in-depth look at the lives and careers of the singer-songwriters whose catalogs are featured in this year’s concert season! We’ll get to hear some of the inside stories and legends surrounding Neil Diamond, America, Billy Joel, Elton John, and Lyle Lovett, along with guided listening example to some of their greatest songs. Along the way, we’ll try to answer some of the great Rock & Roll mysteries like “Why didn’t they name the horse?”, “Was Billy Joel really that angry as a young man?”, and “Can you really ride a pony on a boat?” (Honestly, it depends on the size of the boat, and how rough the seas are.)
One of the greatest pianists in Rock history, Billy Joel’s career as a singer songwriter has spanned nearly seven decades—starting in the mid 1960’s. Few artists have had the longevity and consistency of hits, ranging from his most famous hits of the 1970’s like “She’s Always A Woman”, “Only the Good Die Young”, “My Life”, and the legendary title track from his 1973 album Piano Man, to his blockbuster songs of the 1980’s including “The Longest Time”, “You May Be Right”. “Tell Her About It”, and “We Didn’t Start the Fire”. We’ll discuss his record number of performances at Madison Square Garden—a friendly competition that he has going with the band Phish, and the financial challenges that he faced during the mid 1980’s, too. Since it’s early, you can hold off on your bottle of red, or bottle of white, but join in the fun to find out just who is the “Uptown Girl”, and if his “Famous Last Words” were indeed the last words he would ever write.
Getting Here
Music Alive! Studio
7950 E. Thompson Peak Parkway
Scottsdale, AZ 85255
7950 East Thompson Peak Parkway
7950 East Thompson Peak Parkway, Scottsdale, AZ, USA
Instructor
Dr. Dan Puccio
Dr. Daniel Puccio is a Phoenix based composer/arranger, multi-instrumentalist and educator. A musician comfortable in multiple genres, he has performed with such notable artists as the Temptations, the Four Tops, Chris Potter, Dave Holland, Jerry Lewis, Bernard Purdie, Jay and the Americans, The Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, and The Doo Wop Project. He is one of the original members of the Bobby Streng Saxomble, and is a prominently featured soloist on the group’s premier recording, “Live At The Firefly”. Most recently, Dr. Puccio was a featured performer at the 2019 Amigos de Jazz festival in Santiago de Cuba. He is the founder of the Positivity Project—a series of mixed media collaborations using music, live video and dance. Additionally, Dr. Puccio has taken part in several shows at Phoenix Theatre, most notably performing on Tenor Banjo for 2017’s production of The Scottsboro Boys.
As an educator, he has served as Faculty Instructor of Saxophone at the Interlochen Arts Camp, and as a clinician for the University of Michigan Jazz Festival, the Highland Jazz Festival and the Crystal City Jazz Festival in Corning, NY. He has also been a featured guest artist and clinician with the University of Richmond’s Cuban music ensemble and was recently invited to give a guest lecture Arizona MusicFest’s series, “Music Alive in Suite A-5” on the history of the banjo.
Dr. Puccio is currently a member of the music faculty at both Mesa and Chandler-Gilbert Community Colleges, and teaches privately at Desert Ridge Music Academy in Phoenix, AZ. He has previously served as the director of Sound and Recording for the Arizona State University School of Music, instructor of Woodwinds with Arizona State University’s Sun Devil Marching Band, and was the Director of the widely acclaimed ASU Dixie Devils.
He holds degrees in Improvisation, Music Education, and Saxophone Performance from SUNY Potsdam’s Crane School of Music, the University of Michigan, and Arizona State University.
Dr. Puccio exclusively plays Deering Banjos, Shubb Capos, and Kazoobie Kazoos