Mel Bay Swing to Bop: The Music of Charlie Christian
After recording "The Smoke" album for Capitol Records and traveling on the road with The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band (Reprise Records), Stan Ayeroff studied composition at the California Institute of the Arts and classical guitar at California State University Northridge. During that time he played guitar with the group Delbert and Glen, legendary Texas R&B; pioneer Delbert McClinton (he taught John Lennon to play harmonica) and Glen Clark (Kris Kristofferson, Bonnie Raitt).In 1971 Stan was a founding member of The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo (later shortened to Oingo Boingo and then to Boingo). He started performing the music of Django Reinhardt with this surrealistic theatre group.Pursuing his interest in jazz of the 30's and 40's, Stan became the leader of an eleven-piece new swing band called "Dr. Jazz" and wrote books on pioneer guitarists Django Reinhardt and Charlie Christian as well as clarinetist Benny Goodman for the Jazz Masters series published by the Music Sales Corporation. Later Stan became a specialist in solo guitar playing and wrote 6 books for Warner Bros. Publications. Among them are Play It Again, Stan, Cavatina & 20 Movie Themes For Solo Guitar and The Best of Gershwin, contributing to the solo guitar repertoire.Stan served as Orchestral Supervisor for Rod Stewart's 1993-94 World Tour and The Page/Plant (Led Zeppelin) 1994-95 World Tour and conducted Heart's concert video The Road Back Home on Capitol Records. Recently he was musical director for a project featuring Roger Daltry of The Who.Stan continue to freelance as an arranger, composer and guitarist. He is married to Leslie Lashinsky, a bassoonist and multi-media artist. Their greatest production is Zander Raphael Ayeroff, born January 29, 1996.