Greg Soussan. Guitarist - ProfilesArchive

About Me

Hello Everyone, I am a professional guitarist based in London since 1997. Originaly from France, I first came to beautiful England to study music when I was 19. I loved London soooo much, I am still here. After graduating from music college in 2001, I started working as a freelance musician (which I am still doing today). In 2003 I decided that it was about time to do something with the stuff I had been writing for the past 3 years, so I produced my first album "Home" (you can hear some of it on my website: www.greg-soussan.com) I promoted it for a bit and then a different inspiration came along: I finally went on a trip to NY and there it hit me! All my jazz idols, all that soul, all that energy, all in one place....I ate it, drunk it, inhaled it,etc... I got back sooo inspired I wrote a whole lot of soul jazz material in just 3 weeks, and then decided to make it an album....So I used all my savings again and self-produced a second album "Big Apple". With the help of very very talented musicians, and designer friends, it took no time... the album was finished in April 2005. Since then I 've been promoting it at various venues in/around London. Over the years I have also worked with many musicians, bands, singers, songwriters, agencies... I am currently working alongside Berklee trained Sax virtuoso Vasilis Xenopoulos, Sam Gambarini on Hammond, and Gideon Marcus on Drums, you can now hear a track we recorded last january called "chiltin' con carne". This Year I have also worked a lot with up&coming singer Jo Harrop performing on popworld Channel 4. Other TV performances include collaboration with artist such as Nick latchey, Cortes, etc...on shows such as "loose women"(ITV), "The New Paul 'O Grady Show"(Channel 4). There's always time for something new, I am working at the moment on a third ablum project which I intend to be a songbased record with a collective band, taking various influences from artist such as Sting, Steevie wonder, Dwele, Van Hunt, Corinne Bailey Rae, Roy Hargrove, D'Angelo...so stay tune!!!

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 10/10/2006
Band Website: greg-soussan.com
Influences: My influences are so varied: when I first started playing I obviously got into rock and metal, that influence kind of stopped when I started growing hair though...however I still like the energy of it sometimes...I then started my first original band: our influences were Bob Dylan, U2, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones....My pop influences always stayed with me and gave me that love for catchy melody, I love the epic quality of bands like U2, how a song can suddenly become an Hymn, uplifting 100 of 1000s souls... Then I went to the army, became a bit more introvert for a while and really got into Jazz...I had sooo much time to kill, I could just listen to music and I mean really listen, I could just dive into the music (and you need this to understand jazz)...I remember my first two jazz albums were "Keith Jarrett, Koln concert"(pure poetry)and Miles Davis and Quincy Jones live at Montreux (sophisticated arrangements)....Not exactly the easy listening type of intoduction to jazz, albums....I then went to music College and there I ate jazz, I breathed jazz, I slept jazz (and fusion I admit, but my love always went to acoustic jazz)....I listned to all the great, Parker, Evans, Davis, Cannonbal Adderley, Monk, Ellington, Jim hall, Wes Montgomery, Grant Green, Barney Kessel, Art Blakey....then got more into modern Jazz with, Pat Metheny, John Scofield (especially with Martin Medeski and Wood), Brad Melhdau, Brandford Marsalis, John Patitucci, Joe lovano, kenny wheeler...At the same time I was develloping a passion for funk and groove, with all the obvious, Sly and the Familly, James Brown, The meters,etc... In the past 3 years my influences got much more varied...I love and respect Gypsy music a lot (birelli Lagrene, trio Rosenberg, Django of course)....some ethnic music( I am half Moroccan...and also jewish)....old french songs(only french people will understand me here)....I just love Sylvain Luc's playing....that guy is amazing! In London the guitarist that inspire me the most are Jim Mullen and Mike Outram....these guys are just ....surreal! The list of my influences also includes: Steevie Wonder, Prince, Michael Jackson, Ralf Towner, Soulive, Edith Piaf, Charles Aznavour, Jacques Brel, Dino Saluzzi, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, kenny Burrel, Marvin Gay, al Green, Jill Scott, Erika Badu, Michelle Ngeocello, stephano di Batista, etc, etc...the list is too long
Type of Label: None