Greg Skaff

Greg Skaff – Guitar

Ugonna Okegwo – Bass

Jonathan Barber – Drums

From the soulful to the swinging, Greg Skaff has earned a reputation as one of the premiere guitarists in modern jazz. A native of Kansas, the New York-based Skaff got his start with a five-year tenure in sax titan Stanley Turrentine’s band and has gone on to work with many of the music’s most legendary names. His diverse resumé ranges from such past masters as Ruth Brown, Freddie Hubbard, David “Fathead” Newman and Gloria Lynne to current notables including Bobby Watson, Ben Allison, Bruce Barth, Pat Bianchi, Orrin Evans, Joe Farnsworth, David Hazeltine, Mike LeDonne, Victor Lewis, Ralph Peterson Jr., Jim Rotondi, and E. J. Strickland.

On his latest album, Polaris (SMK Jazz), Skaff can be found fronting a trio comprising a pair of jazz icons: bassist Ron Carter and drummer Albert “Tootie” Heath. Significant as the first album in his career with a standard guitar, bass and drums line-up, Polaris quickly establishes itself as an exemplar of the form, featuring three jazz masters delighting in each other’s creativity and ebullient sense of swing. C. Andrew Hovan at All About Jazz called the album “genuinely sublime music that is sure to be remembered as one of 2021’s most memorable releases.”

Skaff’s dive into the deep end of straight-ahead jazz, in tandem with two of the greatest ever to play the music, is reflective not only of his skill and confidence but of the wide-ranging eclecticism of his musical imagination. It was the unexpected follow-up to Soulmation (Zoho), a rock-fueled acceleration of the groovecentric sound he’d long established through his extensive stints in the organ jazz realm, including his own trios with hard-grooving greats like Mike LeDonne and Pat Bianchi.

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