Greg Ruby: Seattle’s Syncopated Classic

When I contacted Seattle based guitarist Greg Ruby to let him know he'd be on our cover part of his reply was: "Earlier this summer, when I was in New York and sat in with Vince Giordano, he asked me on stage, “ARE YOU IN THE SYNCOPATED TIMES?”  I replied, "not yet…” He literally threw me a copy." Little did he know then that we already had him marked on our calendar. In addition to Giordano, Ruby’s guitar playing and projects have come to the attention of top musicians and jazz fans nationwide. Over the past 20 years, Greg Ruby has become a gem of the Pacific Northwest Jazz scene as a guitarist, composer, band-leader and music historian. His most recent record, Syncopated Classic, unearthed the lost compositions of 1920’s Seattle jazz composer, Frank D. Waldron and in 2017 earned the “Northwest jazz recording of the year” award by Seattle’s Earshot jazz magazine. Ruby began playing jazz guitar in his early 20’s after hearing a record of Django Reinhardt. Obsessed with Reinhardt’s sound and inimitable technique, Ruby spent endless hours learning Django’s music and soon caught the attention of pioneering jazz manouche ensemble, Pearl Django.  At the time, the group was one of the few bands in the U.S. dedicated to playing Django’s music and Ruby was asked to join. During his tenure with the band (2002-2007), he played on several of their record