Pete Gitlin

Official Biography (courtesy of Pete Gitlin)

Pete Gitlin is a guitar player, bassist and composer who is creating a new kind of jazz…part smooth, part contemporary, part funk, part rock…call it alt jazz. With such varied influences as Pat Metheny and Miles Davis, Lee Ritenour and Larry Carlton, the Beatles and Steely Dan, Pete looks beyond the labels attached to musical styles while searching for the passion and melody behind his own unique music. Having played in rock, fusion, and funk bands in his teens and twenties, Pete took a break from his musical career to raise his family, achieving high levels of success in the technology world as a Vice President at a Fortune 500 company. But in April of 2007 he decided to take the plunge and devote 100% of his time to writing and performing. Through a series of magical events he met drummer and producer John Herrera from the legendary Phoenix band Turning Point. John heard the potential in Pete’s music, and a collaborative effort began. The result of this partnership is “Full Circle and the Great Temptation” – featuring Pete’s stellar guitar work ably supported by respected jazz musicians Jeff Kashiwa from the Grammy award-winning smooth jazz band The Rippingtons on sax, Mel Brown (Wayman Tisdale and Eric Darius) on bass, Michael Broening (Grammy award winner with George Benson and Al Jarreau) on keyboards, Dominic Amato on sax, and of course John Herrera on drums and percussion. Also participating in the project are vocalist and pianist Rachel Eckroth on the adult contemporary radio ready “Golden Love Light” and vocalist Jodi Light on the smooth and refreshing “Sunshine Days”, as well as pedal steel guitar maestro Mike Smith on the brilliant “Sunrise”.

In 2012 his second release,  “Amplify”, was met with international acclaim, being played on over 200 terrestrial and streaming audio stations around the world, and spawning the hit single “Lucky in Love”. The CD features guest appearances from Cindy Bradley, Jeff Kashiwa, Dominic Amato and former Count Basie vocalist Dennis Rowland, and has been called “the Sgt. Pepper of smooth jazz” for its eclectic yet cohesive songs. Again produced by John Herrera, “Amplify” broke new ground with such great songs as “Soul Connection” with its neo-soul beat and EWI (electronic wind instrument) vocoder sounds, “Until the Morning Comes” with a Philly-soul feel, and the title song, with inspirational lyrics and amazing sax from Kashiwa.

Pete is currently working on new songs, and building a music library business, designed to place music from his catalog and those of other independent artists in film, tv, commercial and video applications.