Greg Perkins is a jazz guitarist and long-time performer in northern California. He is a soloist, a member of the Perkins / McLaughlin Jazz Duo, bandleader for the Greg Perkins Quartet, and works with several other jazz groups including the seven piece Swing City jazz band, and the A'Tiempo Latin Jazz Sextet.
He also performs as a recording studio musician.
Greg has been playing and performing on guitar since the age of thirteen. Originally inspired by rock and roll, he was co-leader of the band "The Zones" at age 14. He traveled and performed with various groups in the western United States and was heavily influenced by the blues.
Greg soon became a serious student of music and went on to study jazz improvisation. Some of his musical influences include the late Cannonball Adderly, John Coltrane, Wes Montgomery and Joe Pass.
As a soloist Greg plays a mix of jazz and popular standards. The Perkins / McLaughlin Duo has a musical rapport that allows spontaneity and free musical spirit, whether playing up tempo swing tunes, Latin selections or ballads.
The Greg Perkins quartet has been performing a mix of modern jazz, Latin jazz, jazz standards and original compositions at concerts and special events in Northern California for the past five years.
The quartet is a cohesive musical unit with a wide palette of musical colors reflected into sensitive ballads, funky grooves or driving straight-ahead jazz compositions.
Greg is a strong proponent of private music instruction and school music programs.
He instructs guitar and jazz improvisation at McLaughlin Studios of Music and the Arts in Loomis, CA. He can also be seen working with young jazz musicians in the Music Department of Sierra College in Rocklin, CA. Most recently, he has been composing and working toward developing a repertoire of original music.