White Hot Summer Grooves featuring Peter White and Euge Groove

Over the years, Peter White has maintained a reputation as one of the most versatile and prolific acoustic guitarists on the contemporary jazz landscape. Armed with an unparalleled combination of lyricism and energy, White combines elements of jazz, pop and classical guitar to create a sound that is singular and at the same time accessible to a broad audience.

Born in 1954 in Luton, a small town north of London, White and his family moved to nearby Letchworth shortly after he was born. As a child, he learned to play several musical instruments, including the clarinet, trombone, violin and piano but gravitated toward the guitar. He learned his first chords on an acoustic guitar, then bought his first electric guitar in his early teens and studied the recordings of the reigning guitar gods of the day – Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page. However, his electric guitar was soon thereafter destroyed in an accidental fire. Forced to go acoustic, White’s interests shifted more toward the music of acoustic artists like Crosby, Stills and Nash, James Taylor and Joni Mitchell. Plugged or unplugged, White decided by his late teens that music was his calling and his first professional gig was at a holiday resort in England when he was 19 years old. Barely a year later, White was invited to join Al Stewart’s touring band as the keyboardist in 1975. In addition to opening for artists like Linda Ronstadt, Billy Joel and Queen, White worked with Stewart in the studio in the making of Year of the Cat, which became a huge hit for Stewart in 1976. The tour and the album marked the beginning of a 20-year association with Stewart.

After 15 years as a backup musician and a session player, White launched his solo recording career with the 1990 release of Reveillez-Vous (French for “Wake up,” a title chosen by White in honor of his French mother). The album included several unused songs that White had written for Stewart, and it became a favorite among contemporary jazz radio stations. White followed with a slew of record releases throughout the ‘90s and beyond including Caravan of Dreams (1996), A Peter White Christmas (2007), Good Day (2009), Here We Go (2012), Smile (2014) and most recently Groovin’ (2016)