Jul 22, 2026 12:37 PM
In Memoriam: Rodney Holmes, 1966–2026
Drummer Rodney Holmes, a powerful presence behind the kit who emerged as an in-demand player on the New York scene…
Bertoncini was a specialist and advocate for the nylon-string acoustic guitar, turning down high-profile opportunities that were unsuited to the sound and techniques that he used with that instrument.
(Photo: Courtesy the Bertoncini Family)Gene Bertoncini, an esteemed jazz guitarist, composer, arranger and educator, died Aug. 29 at the Lillian Booth Actors Home assisted living center in Englewood, New Jersey. He was 89. His death was confirmed by his niece, Nina Collins, who said that Bertoncini died of natural causes.
Never a household name, Bertoncini was nonetheless a prolific and deeply respected guitarist: a musician’s musician, in high demand both live and as a studio player. He amassed nearly 200 recording credits, including 32 as a leader or co-leader; he appeared on dozens more as an uncredited accompanist (including some albums with vocalist Tony Bennett as well as pop records like the 1969 hit recording of Burt Bachrach’s “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head”). He was also a frequent performer on network television, including with the house band of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson during its New York production tenure.
However, Bertoncini was unswayed by promises of fame and fortune and was not a prominent or outspoken self-promoter, preferring to make great music for its own sake. He was perhaps best known for his duo with bassist Michael Moore, with whom he worked regularly in the 1970s and ’80s and more sporadically for the rest of his life.
In particular, Bertoncini was a specialist and advocate for the nylon-string acoustic guitar, turning down high-profile opportunities — including a gig playing on the debut album by the jazz fusion band Weather Report — that were unsuited to the sound and techniques that he used with that instrument. (These included a unique harmonic concept as well as classical and vernacular Italian flourishes and repertoire.)
Bertoncini was also a committed, lifelong New Yorker, and was uninterested in work that would require him to move away from his hometown. He had no aspiration beyond the small walkup apartment he retained on Manhattan’s East 60th Street for more than 60 years, seeing no need for more; “New York,” he often said, “is my living room.”
That said, he was highly influential as a practitioner and an educator (teaching for five decades at the Eastman School of Music, William Paterson University and the New England Conservatory) on the guitar, with Peter Bernstein, Roni Ben Hur and Paul Meyers among his students and protégés.
Gene Joseph Bertoncini was born April 6, 1937, in the Bronx to Mario Bertoncini, a restaurateur, and Anita, a dressmaker, both immigrants from northern Italy. Mario was an amateur musician, teaching Italian songs to Gene (on guitar) and his older brother, Renny (Renate, on accordion). By the time Gene was 12, he and Renny were good enough to join the cast of the early NBC-TV program The Children’s Hour. It was at NBC studios that Gene first met jazz guitarist Johnny Smith, who became his first teacher and mentor.
Enrolling at Notre Dame University in 1954, Bertoncini studied architecture, playing music (he doubled on clarinet) as an extracurricular activity, briefly moving to Chicago after graduating in 1959 and playing there with singer Carmen McRae. Later that year he moved back to New York and took a job with David Henken’s architecture firm (with whom he worked on Rudy Van Gelder’s recording studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey), but continued studying (with Chuck Wayne, who encouraged him to study classical guitar) and playing music as a sideline until one day, while playing in Richard Maltby’s swing band, he played a wrong note and was so horrified that he decided he needed to wholly devote himself to music. (However, Bertoncini retained his passion for architecture, even designing three homes for his brother’s family.)
Bertoncini found work in the band led by drummer Buddy Rich, then with pianist Monty Alexander at New York’s Playboy Club. He also became a staff musician first for the ABC television network, then NBC, where he joined the Tonight Show band and remaining there until production moved to California in 1972. He toured briefly with Benny Goodman and was a favorite accompanist of singers including Bennett, Lena Horne and Melissa Stylianou. He began taking work as an uncredited studio musician as well, though he also soon gained his first recording credit on pianist Ahmad Jamal’s 1962 album Macanudo. In 1970, Bertoncini met bassist Moore, who became a musical soulmate of sorts.
Bertoncini became a devotee of the guitar-bass duo he started with Moore, later working with bassist Josh Marcum. However, he also developed a solo guitar practice, spending 18 years working as such at the midtown café La Madeleine. He also built a reputation as a classical guitarist, performing with the Metropolitan Opera in 1967 and later with tenor Luciano Pavarotti at Madison Square Garden.
The challenges of old age forced Bertoncini to move to the Actors Home in Englewood in 2022. However, he remained enthusiastically active on the jazz scene, playing regularly at Birdland and Mezzrow and attending gigs there. He was also a frequent performer at the Home itself, and indeed had played a 45-minute set for residents on the day he died.
Bertoncini never married and had no children; he was predeceased by his brother, Renny, who died in 2023. In addition to Collins, he is survived by his nephew, Paul Bertoncini.
The Bertoncini family is planning a celebration of life at Saint Peter’s Church in Manhattan (date and time TBA). DB
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