About the Artist

Hey Nonny has presented internationally known musicians and Hey Nonny has presented talented local residents, but on January 11, we welcome gypsy jazz guitarist Alfonso Ponticelli, who is both internationally famous and an Arlington Heights resident. Finally! Ponticelli will appear with his well-known Swing Gitan ensemble, which has been a Wednesday night mainstay at Chicago’s Green Mill for over 20 years. A musical polymath, Ponticelli won the National Mountain Dulcimer Championship. That same year, he began studying flamenco guitar – in Spain with Rafael Riqueni and Manolo Sanlucar, and in New Mexico with Pedro Cortes and Chuscales. During his first of many visits to the Festival Django Reinhardt in Samois-sur-Seine, France in 1996, he camped next to, and soon was being schooled by Babik Reinhardt and many other legendary gypsy players. Thus, a gypsy jazz career was born, and soon enough Alfonso Ponticelli & Swing Gitan were playing jazz festivals all over the world. In addition to touring and playing the Green Mill, Ponticelli teaches at the Old Town School of Folk Music and produces the annual Chicago Gypsy Jazz Festival.