TONY DAGRADI

Tony Dagradi has always been leading the way to higher dimensions, whether as an educator at the renowned Loyola School of Music in New Orleans, or as the originator of the city's most revered contemporary jazz group, Astral Project. The saxophonist has always kept good company, whether with his compatriots in Astral Project, or the many fine musicians with whom he has played. Professor Longhair, Ellis Marsalis, James Booker, Dr. John, Johnny Adams, Larry Coryell, and Nat Adderley are just some of the…Read more

Astral Project first played New Orleans Jazz Fest in 1978. And this savvy, virtuosic quartet has been bringing its well-honed modern jazz ideas to the Fair Grounds ever since. On Friday at the Jazz Tent, the quartet showed that the young lions of decades past haven't lost their roar, their teeth, or the feline grace of their improvisations.

Reedman Tony Dagradi still runs harmonic mazes with aplomb. (On tenor, Dagradi is virile and fleet, on soprano he's a pastoral piper - take your pick).

Guitarist Steve…Read more

Saxophonist and Astral Project founder Tony Dagradi grew up in Summit, New Jersey. By high school he knew what he wanted to do: play jazz.

“It was almost as if I didn’t have a choice,” he says. “I didn’t think about, well, how much money am I going to make or how do I get a gig. I was just — all I wanted to do was play.”

After a couple of years at the Berklee School of Music in Boston, Dagradi entered an intense period of jazz rehearsal and listening.

“That was it for me. When I started listening to Coltrane I…Read more

November/December 2012 Vol. 37, No. 2

New Saxophone Publications by David Demsey

Sax Solos Over Jazz Standards: Book-CD set
Recommended for: musicians who already have some knowledge of jazz theory, but are struggling to unlock their own “true voice” as a composer or improviser   Tony Dagradi has a long reputation as a major-league modernist tenor player. He has for years been on the faculty of Loyola University in New Orleans, and has played with the best of that city’s legendary musicians as well as Carla… Read more

Today, I would like to introduce “Sax Solos Over Jazz Standards,” a new book and play along CD which was just released by Jamey Aebersold’s Jazz Books. My goal in producing this music was to present sophisticated and balanced melodic statements based on standard changes which could serve as superior models for practice and study. While these solos are carefully and painstakingly ‘composed,’ each is designed to evoke the spirit of an improvised performance.
At the core of any investigation into the art of…Read more

Astral Project is often called the best contemporary jazz band in New Orleans, with good reason. They play with the cohesion of a band that’s been together fordecades, andthe passion of youngsters. Their music is at times outside, inside, funkified, and even a bit sanctified.
Tony Dagradi is the leader of the group. Playing a number of saxophones, he can surprise a jaded listener by taking the soprano sax places smooth jazzers have never dreamed about.

I had a chance to talk with Dagradi by phone from his New…Read more

On March 5, 2009, in Roussell Hall at Loyola University in New Orleans, the Tony Dagradi Sextet featuring Jamelle Williams on trumpet, Rex Gregory on alto, Michael Pellera on piano, Roland Guerin on bass and Troy Davis on drums re-created the music from Miles Davis' landmark recording, "Kind Of Blue."

Click here to see a Vimeo recording of the event.


Tony Dagradi’s Sextet opened the show on Thursday, March 5th, at Loyola’s beautiful Roussel Performance Hall. The sextet performed the music of Miles Davis’…Read more

It’d be tough for anyone to possibly enjoy playing their instrument more than drummer Simon Lott does. Watch Lott a few times and you’ll notice that a distinct full-body grinignites even as he approaches the kit. By the time he plays the first note, his face is aglow with rapturous delight that infects all those around him–players and listeners alike.
Tonight’s lucky subjects included duo-mate Brian Coogan(organ) and Astral Project’s Tony Dagradi(tenor and soprano sax). The last two times this trio performed…Read more

Here is a very accurate transcription of INVITATION - the YouTube clip on the Home Page.  

This was initially made available at Saxopedia.com - Visit the site to check out hundreds of other great sax solo transcriptions.