Pat Kelley was born in Tulsa Oklahoma and began playing the guitar at the age of five. Moving to California in the seventies, he worked many years as a Los Angeles studio guitarist, while also recording eleven albums as leader and touring the world with artists such as George Benson, Natalie Cole, Hubert Laws, Ronnie Laws, Tom Scott, David Benoit, and many others. Pat also enjoyed twenty-four years as a mainstay in the USC Studio/Guitar Department.
Frank Vignola is one of the most extraordinary guitarists performing before the public today. His stunning virtuosity has made him the guitarist of choice for many of the world’s top musicians, including Ringo Starr, Madonna, Donald Fagen, John Lewis, Lionel Hampton, the Boston Pops, the New York Pops, and guitar legend Les Paul, who named…
The TransAtlantic Guitar Trio brings together three world-class virtuosos from three distinct musical traditions to form one of the most exhilarating acoustic ensembles performing today. Comprising UK fingerstyle guitar champion Richard Smith, German gypsy jazz titan Joscho Stephan, and the extraordinary Nashville-based multi-instrumentalist Rory Hoffman, this acoustic powerhouse seamlessly welds blazing gypsy swing standards, intricate…
Fareed Haque is a modern guitar virtuoso. Steeped in classical and jazz traditions, his unique command of the guitar and different musical styles inspire his musical ventures with tradition and fearless innovation. Haque has toured and recorded with Joe Zawinul, Billy Cobham, Dave Holland, Paquito D’Rivera, Sting, Zakir Hussain, Bob James, Joe Henderson and many…
Born in Italy and now based in New York City, Pasquale Grasso has developed an astounding technique and concept informed not by jazz guitarists so much as by bebop pioneers like Powell, Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie and the classical-guitar tradition. His new digital-only EP series, available beginning in June from Sony Masterworks, showcases Grasso…
Hailed by The New Yorker as “a shining light” among modern jazz guitarists, Austrian virtuoso Wolfgang Muthspiel is widely recognized as one of the most influential and intelligent voices of his generation. Meticulously bridging his rigorous classical roots with the adventurous spirit of contemporary jazz, Muthspiel first gained international acclaim in the late 1980s when…
Swedish guitar virtuoso Ulf Wakenius commands a legendary status in the global jazz landscape, most famously cemented by his decade-long tenure holding down the guitar chair in the final Oscar Peterson Quartet—stepping into a lineage of royalty previously occupied by Barney Kessel, Herb Ellis, and Joe Pass. Boasting an astonishingly fluent technique and deeply expressive,…
