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John Jennings has long maintained a solid international reputation as a producer and multi-instrumentalist. A longtime member of Mary Chapin Carpenter’s band, with whom he’s produced and recorded 11 Top Ten singles and 2 Grammy winning albums. His guitar playing and singing have graced numerous recordings by artists such as Kathy Mattea, George Jones and [...]

What’s different now from when you first got started?

What isn’t different? Everything’s different. First of all, today there’s not as much in common with live people as there was when I got started. You had to make sure that everything was ready to go so that when you played some notes they were going to [...]

What’s the funniest thing that happened to you
while performing in a group?

The funniest thing? You know, I put together a bunch of stories. My wife is going to write a book. There’s so many I wouldn’t know where to begin; the funniest thing? I’d have to really think, there’s been so many funny things. [...]

What led you to where you are today?
When I was a kid, I was really fascinated with the emotional rush of playing music. As a teenager looking for an outlet, I would move from time at the piano, to time at the guitar, to time at the trombone, then I’d go on to write music, [...]

How did you get started?

I got started in music when I was eight or nine. My parents had an upright in the house and encouraged everyone to take piano lessons. For awhile, I was doing some guitar and enjoying that and eventually I started playing some piano reading the guitar symbols on the sheet music [...]

What’s the best advice you ever received?

The best advice I ever received? When I was in high school I was accepted to the Eastman School of Music and one requirement that they said I had to learn was to learn the piano because I had no knowledge of the piano whatsoever. So I found the [...]

With playing credits including Liza Minelli, Debbie Reynolds, Charles Mingus, Bob Mintzer, David Bowie, Roberta Flack, George Benson, and Nancy Wilson…….a better question to ask is who hasn’t Al Regni played with? Al is currently an adjunct professor at Virginia Commonwealth University. It was truly an honor to interview this world- renowned master musician.
How [...]