Jack Jezzro

Throughout his long and prosperous path in the music business, Jack Jezzro has balanced roles as both a studio musician and producer, lending his talents to recordings by numerous leading performers while creating his own projects that spotlight his range and skill on guitar. Born December 2, 1957, in Rivesville, West Virginia, he displayed an early passion for music by beginning piano at age three. Absorbing albums by Chet Atkins, he developed his guitar technique independently, and as a teenager he analyzed individual lines in material by Simon & Garfunkel, James Taylor, and the Doobie Brothers. After completing high school, Jezzro enrolled at West Virginia University; although the institution lacked a guitar curriculum, his bass proficiency earned him membership in the Charleston Symphony Orchestra while he was still a student there. He continued his education at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, where noted bassist James VanDemark served as his mentor. As he had at WVU, Jezzro joined the local ensemble, performing with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra on bass while sharpening his abilities as a jazz guitarist. In 1981 he moved to Nashville, Tennessee, and held the bassist position with the Nashville Symphony Orchestra for the next ten years. By the mid-1980s he had entered elite session circles through the Nashville String Machine, whose string contributions regularly appeared on releases by country and pop stars ranging from Garth Brooks and Faith Hill to Bruce Springsteen and Matchbox 20. Jezzro launched his solo career in 1988 with the album Step on It, issued in Japan by Pony Canyon Records; a revised edition later reached American listeners under the title A Day's Journey. Over the subsequent thirty years he maintained a steady output of jazz, country, pop, Latin, and inspirational recordings, most appearing on the Green Hill label and centering on his refined yet masterful guitar work together with his musical exchanges alongside other players. He also sustained an active schedule as a session musician and producer, directing both his own dates and those of fellow Green Hill artists. His accomplishments in these capacities have brought him one Grammy nomination and seven Dove Award nominations thus far. The prolific bassist has performed on or produced more than 300 albums, and in 2017 alone he oversaw By Request: Most Requested Songs for jazz pianist Beegie Adair, released his own Sinatra on Guitar, and introduced Christmas Jazz 2 as a sequel to his 2010 album Christmas Jazz.