“Over the past 20 years, Greg Ruby has become a gem of the Pacific Northwest Jazz scene as a guitarist, composer, band-leader and music historian.”
Greg Ruby is a guitarist, composer, author, bandleader and music educator living in Seattle, WA. His most recent record, Syncopated Classic, was named Northwest Jazz Recording of the Year by Earshot Jazz Magazine.
Greg tours and performs at swing dances, concert halls and festivals that have included: Lindy Focus, the French Quarter Festival, DjangoFest and the NW Balboa Festival. Greg’s most recent band, the Greg Ruby 6 performs the compositions and arrangements of swing guitar legend Oscar Alemán. Greg also leads The Greg Ruby Quartet, a Hot Club jazz group dedicated to all-original compositions; collaborates with New York and New Orleans musicians in The Rhythm Runners, a Prohibition-era dance band; and plays Valse musette and European café jazz with the Bric-a-brac Trio. During his tenure with the venerable Hot Club ensemble Pearl Django, he performed at the Django Reinhardt Festival in Samois-sur-seine, France.
Greg’s compositions have been heard on radio, television and documentaries including NBC’s Parks and Recreation and the podcast Freakanomics. His 2010 CD, Look Both Ways, features all original compositions and reached #1 on the Roots Music Review jazz chart. Greg has authored the Pearl Django Play-Along Book, Frank D. Waldron: Seattle’s Syncopated Classicand the Oscar Alemán Play-Along Book. As a sought-after music instructor, Greg shares his love of vintage jazz guitar at schools, clinics and camps and he is the Swannanoa Gathering Guitar Week coordinator at Warren Wilson College.