Nick Colionne, who spent his childhood listening to Wes Montgomery, Jimi Hendrix, and George Benson, never planned to play the guitar. “My stepfather played the guitar, but we were never allowed to touch it. He caught me banging on it one day, and he said, “You want to learn how to play?’ I was too afraid to say no.”
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At the age of nine Colionne started performing at parties, then at schools in his west-side neighborhood. The more he played the more he loved it. By the time he was 14 he was playing with grown men and getting paid $30 a night. “I always played with older guys, because I knew how to play jazz. That’s what my parents listened to at home. Most people in my age group played R & B and rock.”
Colionne met his manager, Carol Ray, at a Cotton Club show, and she encouraged him to go for it. They put out his first album, It’s My Turn, in February. “The title is because it’s time for me to step out of the background,” he says. “I was always writing songs the whole time I was playing with other people.”
Colionne’s now working on his second album. He already has a title: Arrival.
