Jazz guitar player Ian Cruickshank has established himself as one of the foremost advocates of the gipsy jazz guitar style of Django Reinhardt and the many followers of this style. He started to play the jazz guitar at the age of sixteen. Self taught without any formal jazz guitar lessons, he started playing professionally, mainly in rhythm and blues bands, in 1969. It was not until 1977 that he first began to study the recordings of Django Reinhardt. Since that time he has established himself as one of the leading promoters of the gipsy jazz guitar improvisation style of Django Reinhardt and the many contemporary gipsy jazz guitar stylists.
As well as leading his own ‘Hot Club’ style group called ‘Gypsy Jazz’, Ian Cruickshank has gained wide recognition by touring extensively with Belgian gipsy jazz guitarist, Fapy Lafertin. Also his books and videos on the gipsy jazz guitar style have enjoyed good international sales. Cruickshank was also co-producer and music co-ordinator for the Channel 4 television documentary ‘The Django Legacy’.
In recent times Ian Cruickshank has gained recognition as the first promoter of jazz guitarist Gary Potter and has appeared on several of his recordings. Cruickshank has now extended his jazz interest into other styles. In particular the great swing and bebop instrumentalists and jazz guitarists Wes Montgomery and Lenny Breau. Cruickshank has also been involved in teaching often conducting weekend workshops on both Django style and jazz guitar in general.
Jazz guitar player Pierre Cullaz was born into a musical family. His father was a well known music critic. As a child, because of World War II, Cullaz moved to the Haute-Savoie region of France. Here, with the encouragement of his parents, he studied music and the piano. On his return to Paris, at the end of the war, he took up the jazz guitar. He was attracted to jazz music initially through hearing Al Casey’s jazz guitar work on his parents’ Fats Waller recordings. He also enjoyed studying and playing classical guitar and flamenco guitar music.
Pierre Cullaz started his professional career as a jazz guitarist playing in various jazz clubs in Paris. Over the years he played with many important jazz artists including Art Simmons, Michel Gaudry, Eddy Louiss, Martial Solal, Claude Bolling, Quincy Jones, Sarah Vaughan and Michel Hausser. He was instrumental in founding the excellent jazz guitar quintet “The Guitars Unlimited”, with Francis Lemaguer, Raymond Gimenez, Victor Apicella and Tony Rallo. They recorded for the ‘Barclay’ record label.
Pierre Cullaz worked for many years as a studio guitarist but in recent years has maintained an active interest in playing jazz guitar in France. An excellent cellist, Cullaz is also a prolific writer and arranger for the jazz guitar. His articles have appeared over a period of many years in French jazz music magazines.