Vic Carmen Sonne

Sammy tips his hand by calling his acoustic album Lite Roast, the very title suggesting that these low-key renditions of old tunes are designed for smooth consumption at a coffeehouse. And he's not wrong! Strumming a 12-string while accompanied by Wabos guitarist Vic Johnson, Hagar approximates the kind of intimate atmosphere that can be found anywhere there's an open mike…

Jazz fusion from a man who has performed live and/or on recordings with jazz guitar legend Pat Martino, Dave Fiuczynski, Allan Holdsworth, Andreas Oberg, Scott McGill, David Torn, and more.

One of the prototypical Italian-American crooners, Vic Damone parlayed a smooth, mellow baritone into big-time pop stardom during the '40s and '50s. Early in his career, his inflection and phrasing were clearly indebted to Frank Sinatra, who once famously called him "the best set of pipes in the business." Overall, though, Damone's style was softer than Sinatra's and owed less to the elasticity of jazz, especially since he was a solo performer who never served an apprenticeship with a swing orchestra.