Jack Gillen is a London-based guitarist, composer and bandleader whose distinctive playing style blends the expressiveness of blues, the improvisational flair of jazz and the melodic sensibility of singer songwriters. Current projects include his own guitar trio which he composes for, gigging/recording/touring the UK & Ireland with contemporary jazz trio Aspyrian and a brand new organ trio project featuring two of the most in demand jazz musicians in the UK, Jamie Safir (organ) and Luke Tomlinson (drums) where they explore a shared love for groove based, blues influenced music and legendary songwriters such as Bob Dylan, The Beatles, and Jimi Hendrix. 

 

Starting on classical guitar at age 7, Jack instantly fell in love with the instrument and immersed him self in it. His next musical leap was discovering Hendrix at age 15 and getting obsessed with blues guitar, before studying jazz at Leeds College of Music. Returning to his home town of London after graduating, Jack cut his teeth as a session guitarist/ co-writer/ musical director/ producer, working with different artists in various musical settings, meanwhile learning a lot about the nuances of songwriting and music making. 

 

After an influential guitar lesson with UK guitar legend Mike Walker (The Impossible Gentlemen), Jack decided to start creating his own original music, the first evidence of this being his  guitar trio EP ‘The Long Way Down’ and more recently his debut album ‘No Home But Here’ which features close collaborators bassist Phil Donnelly & drummer Darren Beckett on drums (Aaron Parks, Madeleine Peyroux, Kurt Rosenwinkel). When composing, Jack draws influence from the likes of Nick Drake, Wes Montgomery, Jimi Hendrix and Frederic Chopin, as well as modern guitarists such as Julian Lage and John Scofield, guided by a deeply introspective leaning and focus on emotional potency.

 

His debut album has received over 100,000 streams and been hailed as ‘emotionally powerful’ (Le Soir).

 

‘A real storyteller’ – Adam Levy (Norah Jones, Joey Baron, Larry Grenadier, Larry Goldings)