the competition

The North American Rock Guitar Competition celebrated its 6th anniversary in 2006 and is an electric crowd pleaser that has grown by leaps and bounds since its inception in 2001. With the winning combination of tremendous judges serving on the panel, a rockin’ host and some of the best unsigned rock guitarists in the country competing for the coveted Tommy Tedesco award, the Competition has become a “not-to-be-missed” event and the crown jewel of the Buffalo Niagara Guitar Festival.

Five finalists are chosen by industry representatives and musicians from hundreds of entries submitted from all over the United State and Canada.  These five are brought to Buffalo in June to compete before a live audience and our judges at University at Buffalo’s Center for the Arts.  Each contestant plays a ten-minute set with accompaniment from our House Band.  Contestants are judged on the following criteria: technique and accuracy, range and variety of material choice, melodic and rhythmic creativity and originality, and the guitarist’s overall artistry, musical expression and audience rapport.

Panels comprised of music educators, musicians and industry representatives conduct blind tape/CD judging culminating in a chance for five finalists to compete on at the University at Buffalo’s Center for the Arts before music industry judges and a live audience.   Past judges have included:

Vernon Reid, lead guitarist of Living Colour
Brett Scallions, lead singer of Fuel
Kat Dyson, lead guitarist for Prince and Cyndi Lauper
Rik Emmett, Canadian guitar virtuoso and former lead singer and guitarist of the band Triumph
Sid McGinnis, lead guitarist for Late Show with David Letterman
Robby Takac, bass player for the Goo Goo Dolls
David Berryman, president of Gibson Guitars
Tom Calderone, executive vice president for Music and Talent Programming, MTV
Regi Wooten, renowned funk guitarist
Jude Gold, associate editor of Guitar Player magazine

About the North American Rock Guitar Competition’s
House Band

The 3 members of The North American Rock Guitar Competition House Band have been a constant for all five years of the event.  These musicians serve as the stabilizing force for our contestants and provide electrifying performances for our audience each and every year!

Band musical director and accompanying guitarist Tony Scozzaro is no stranger to the Western New York rock guitar scene.  He attended Villa Maria College where he earned an Associates in Arts Degree in Music and the Guitar Institute of Technology where he received an award for Outstanding Player of the Year.  Buffalo’s Music Awards voted him Buffalo’s Top Guitarist in 1992, 1993 and 1994 and he was later inducted in the Buffalo Music Hall of Fame.  Tony has played with some of the area’s top bands including Anthracite and Gamalon and is currently working with The Zone and The Press.   Tony is proud to have opened for Mike Stern, Albert Collins and one of tonight’s judges, Vernon Reid, to name just a few.  Tony is a professional national guitar teacher and three of his students have been seen on this very stage as contestants in the Competition each having made it to the Top Five.  With plans to relocate to Florida in September, you can keep up on all of Tony’s happenings at TonyScozzaro.com.

Bassist Jack Kulp is a Berklee graduate with over 25 years experience performing and teaching all styles on the electric bass.  Jack has toured both locally and internationally and his recent projects include The Zone with fellow House Band members Tony Scozzaro and Jim Linsner in addition to Jay Willis.  Jack also plays with The Last Word featuring Alex Acuna, Kenwood Dennart and Othello Molineaux.

Jim Linsner earned his degree in music performance from the State University of NY at Buffalo in 1987.  Since then he has become one of the most in demand drumset players in Western NY.  He can be seen around town with JJ Swing, Group Therapy, The Pyramid Big Band, the Tony Scozzaro Trio, and many others. This month he’s performing in the hit musical “Zooma, Zooma” at Studio Arena.  Jim is also a dedicated drumming instructor. He teaches 40 private students each week and published two drum books entitled “Groovezilla” and “Rhythm” which are used by drum teachers throughout the United States. 

The Legendary Tommy Tedesco

The North American Rock Guitar Competition is very proud to name our 1st place trophy in honor of the legendary Tommy Tedesco. 

Called “the most recorded guitarist in history” by Guitar Player magazine, the late Tommy Tedesco was Hollywood’s first-call guitarist for over 35 years.  Some of his best-known guitar licks in television can be heard in the themes of Bonanza, Batman, Green Acres, M*A*S*H and Three’s Company.  In the 60’s and 70’s he recorded everything from the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds to Frank Sinatra’s Stranger’s in the Night; from Elvis’ Memories to Zappa’s Lumpy Gravy. 

Tommy worked on hundreds of films over the years.  His first film was Around the World in 80 Days and his last was Schindler’s List.  In between these two films his guitar graced other film soundtracks including Field of Dreams, Bonnie and Clyde, Cool Hand Luke, The Deer Hunter, Cocoon and the Godfather movies to name just a few. 

Tedesco was also an active proponent of the craft of guitar playing.  For many years he wrote a column, “Studio Log”, for Guitar Player and he regularly taught workshops around the country and Europe. 

Tommy’s lovely wife Carmie has joined us in the audience for the past four years and has graciously awarded our 1st place winners with the trophy named in honor of her husband.