Steve Lopez, a former columnist for The Philadelphia Inquirer, once wrote in his column, “At Jim Dragoni’s performances, the rhythm of the music pulls people in, the melody grabs them, and the improvisation holds them. Nobody asks about his resume. They do ask when he is coming back or where he’s playing next. ... Dragoni’s music is not like anything else they’ve ever heard. Mostly it’s jazz, usually with bass and percussion laying down a low cloud cover, and Jim Dragoni, on his vintage Gibson hollow-body, burning through it with unhurried lightning.”

Dragoni, a Delaware County native who moved to Germantown 46 years ago and has often been called “the Mayor of Germantown Avenue” because of his relentless cheerleading for the community, will perform Friday, Aug. 14, at 1 p.m. in the Martin Culture Tent at the 63rd annual Philadelphia Folk Festival at Old Pool Farm in Collegeville. He will present interpretations of classic blues, ragtime and jazz songs done by Dave Van Ronk, one of the founders of the Greenwich Village Folk Music scene in New York City in the early 1960s and beyond.

Dragoni is a guitarist, composer and vocalist working in multiple genres and has worked with important artists over the years including Mose Allison, Larry Coryell, Roy Book Binder and more. He has performed at New York’s Lincoln Center and multiple venues and festivals on the East Coast.

Why did Dragoni move to Germantown so many years ago? “I was craving a community that was multicultural and had a reputation for being artistically significant,” he told the Local last week. “Through a friend, I discovered that Germantown was the home of Sun Ra, Byard Lancaster, Rufus Harley, Khan Jamal and Monnette Sudler. And I eventually got to play with many of them.

“A friend had several houses here and felt overwhelmed with three kids, so he sold me one of them. It was 1980, and I bought a house next door to the Cunningham Piano Company. I am now in my second house here in Germantown, just one block from the first. A friend of mine once wryly remarked, ‘Jim Dragoni is moving to Chestnut Hill, one block at a time.’”

As a teenager, Dragoni was always playing music at high school dances, wedding receptions, proms and such, but his bandmates all “got serious,” married young and had children, and he became a fish out of water.

His mother was a classically trained cellist, and she tutored him early on while he attempted to learn the guitar and piano from the age of 8. It was in the 1950s, and his parents were certainly music buffs, but it was only encouraged as a hobby.

“They became concerned when they saw that I was seriously called and then chosen to play music as a career,” he said, “but I had to do it, despite the constant warnings and pulls in the opposite direction.”

An opportunity came along, based on a musical Dragoni had co-written, to audition for Capitol Records when it was scouting for new talent after the Beatles broke up. It was a close call, but being 19 years old, Dragoni now admits he wasn’t ready. A local group called Forest Green got the record deal instead.

Dragoni later studied jazz with an acclaimed vibraphonist in Philly named Bill Lewis. He also studied for several years with Dennis Sandole, who taught John Coltrane, Pat Martino and many other jazz luminaries.

“He was not didactic,” Dragoni said. “There was no ‘method,’ just musical literature. A series of densely rich mini-compositions that he created that I absorbed and then recycled into original ideas of my own. His philosophy was not for everyone, but it definitely worked for me.

“My musical education continues as an autodidact, exploring Bach, Beethoven, Debussy, Joe Pass, Thelonious Monk, Mose Allison and many others, mostly on the classical guitar as well as electric and 12-string guitars,” he continued. “In music, there is no there there. There is no end to what you can learn, and if you stop, then you wilt. There will be plenty of time for that after I’m gone.”

Dragoni studied English literature for a few years at West Chester State University and was heavily involved with the unofficial music scene there. He felt that language, lyrics and poetry went hand in hand with music.

In his early 20s, Dragoni studied Indian classical music and sitar at the University of Pennsylvania for two years. A visiting professor, the dean of music from Hindu University in Benares, India, felt that Dragoni had the potential to master the form and suggested that he go to live in India for 10 years.

“While I loved what I had learned about Indian music and could incorporate it into my compositions and improvisations,” Dragoni said, “I was not willing to leave the U.S., not because I was patriotic but because I did not want to forego my own musical culture and influences, and I am happy with that decision. I lived through the golden age of music here, with so many genres available to explore and work through.”

Dragoni has adult children, and for a time he worked in IT in addition to teaching and performing, to make sure the family could survive. “The money was good,” he said, “but it hollowed out my soul, and now I wouldn’t touch it with a 10-foot iPhone charging cable.”

Dragoni has three records: “My Man Mose, the Songs of Mose Allison,” “Waking Dreams,” a record of acoustic guitar originals, and “Gargantua.” All are on streaming platforms. He will also be performing in concert Oct. 11 in a historic Germantown courtyard. For more information, visit dragoni.com.

For tickets and the festival schedule, go to folkfest.org. The festival runs from Aug. 14-16 at Old Pool Farm, 1323 Salford Station Road, Harleysville, and is presented by the Philadelphia Folksong Society.

Len Lear can be reached at lenlear@chestnuthilllocal.com.