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BIOGRAPHY

Guitarist Jeff McLaughlin creates musical soundscapes filled with passion, depth, and a progressive spirit. His playing and composition are both steeped in tradition and focused on new directions in creative music. 

 

He has appeared around the world including the Montreux Jazz Festival, the Banff Jazz Workshop, the Ravinia Festival in Chicago, the Brooklyn Americana Festival, the NAMM Bass Bash, the Indianapolis Jazz Festival, the Jacksonville Jazz Festival, and the Philadelphia Folk Festival. He has performed as a sideman and with his own projects in famed venues such as NYC's Apollo Theater, Jazz at Lincoln Center, 55 Bar, Blue Note, Minton's Playhouse, Bar Next Door, City Winery, and LA's Blue Whale.

 

Jeff has performed with artists such as Ari Hoenig, Drew Gress, Jill Sobule, Tom Kennedy, Rudy Royston, Tina Fabrique, Ralph Alessi, Queen Esther, Jon Cowherd, Shane Endsley, Jonathan Finlayson, Jason Palmer, Michael Attias, Jerome Sabbaugh, Steve Houghton, Rachel Caswell, Chris Coleman, Brent Wallarab, and David Baker.

Jeff McLaughlin’s debut album Blocks reached #1 on the Jazz Week Chart-bound list and #11 on the CMJ Jazz playlist rankings.

 

“Terrific five-piece band, the music will move you.”

 

                                                        - The New York Times

                                                                                            

“To focus on McLaughlin, he favors a dark tone that appears to light up from within. His solos glowed and flashed... an aurora borealis of jazz guitar.”

 

“As a composer, McLaughlin showed signs of staying power; I could well imagine other bands taking up his tunes.”

 

“It’s a feather in a musician’s cap to be able to freshen up the blues form with a catchy tune, as McLaughlin has in “Blues for Myles.”

 

“A fine idea can claim the seal of excellence only when its initial execution is first-rate. That was the case Monday night when guitarist Jeff McLaughlin, the first musician honored in the Owl Studios-Indiana University Emerging Jazz Artist Project, played a brilliant set at the Jazz Kitchen.”

 

                                                        - Indianapolis Star

Jeff also served as an Associate Instructor in the Jazz Studies Department at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music where he directed the Jazz Ensemble IV, coached combos, presented lectures in jazz pedagogy and history, and taught applied jazz guitar lessons. He currently lives in New York City.

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