Fingerboard Mastery, Scales and Arpeggios (Usc/Thornton School of Music Guitar Instructional Series)
Capri recording artist Frank Potenza is a protégé of the legendary jazz guitarist Joe Pass. He was born in Providence, Rhode Island and relocated to Los Angeles in 1980. Frank holds a Bachelors degree from Boston's Berklee College of Music and a Masters degree from California State University at Los Angeles. He is an active educator, composer, arranger, author, and performer with eight solo albums to his credit. In addition to his extensive freelance recording career, he has performed in concert with Dizzy Gillespie, Joe Pass, George Van Eps, Mundell Lowe, Joe Diorio, John Clayton, Bud Shank, Mose Allison, James Moody, Harry "Sweets" Edison, Rob McConnell, Brother Jack McDuff, Jimmy Smith, Bill Watrous, Harold Land, Joe Sample, Benny Green, Ernie Andrews, Eddie Harris, Marvin "Smitty" Smith, Dr. Lonnie Smith, and a host of other jazz luminaries. From 1996 through 1999 Frank toured as a member of the Gene Harris Quartet, performing with the Grammy award-winning pianist at jazz festivals such as the Fujitsu Concord Jazz Festival, the San Jose Jazz Festival, and prestigious jazz clubs such as the Blue Note in New York and Jazz Showcase in Chicago. He is a featured soloist on Alley Cats, Harris' final recording for Concord Records. Frank has performed with his own groups at venues such as the Orange County Performing Arts Center, KSDS Live in San Diego, and the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts. He currently tours in support of his latest recording project entitled Old, New, Borrowed & Blue on Capri Records Ltd., which debuted on the JazzWeek jazz chart at #37. His previous releases on Azica Records were First Takes, a duo project with pianist Shelly Berg and The Legacy, which is dedicated to the memory of the late pianist Gene Harris. It features pianist Larry Fuller (formerly of the Ray Brown Trio and currently with John Pizzarelli), bassist Luther Hughes and drummer Paul Kreibich, both former members of the Gene Harris Quartet. He is a Full Professor and Chair of the Studio/Jazz Guitar Department at the USC Thornton School of Music in Los Angeles. He is also currently serving as a member of the Jazz Education Network's Ask An Expert Team.  Nick Stoubis has been performing and touring professionally since his early teens. Early in his career, he played on bills throughout Canada with artists including: Nazareth, Bachman-Turner-Overdrive (B.T.O.), Trooper, Prism, Barney Bental, and Lee Aaron. Upon moving to Los Angeles in the early nineties, he attended the Musicians Institute, where he graduated with top honors and was a nominee for "Outstanding Graduate." Nick continued his studies at the University of Southern California, where he completed his bachelor of music and master of music degrees. Alongside his numerous academic honors, Nick was recipient of the "Outstanding Undergraduate and Graduate" awards at the conclusion of both his degrees.  Currently Nick keeps an active professional career as a performer, composer, session-player, transcriber, author and educator. He is a senior full-time lecturer at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, CA and a senior instructor in the degree program at the Musicians Institute in Hollywood, CA. He has coauthored a guitar instructional book and just completed a solo instrumental Greek music recording for Aegis Infinity Records. Nick has also been writing an extensive lesson library for an online guitar website and has also written compositions that will be featured on a CBS movie of the week as well other network and cable television programs.