Before the lights of Los Angeles and the smooth rhythms of contemporary jazz shaped his destiny, Gregg Karukas was a kid from Baltimore sitting close to a jukebox in his father’s roadside tavern. Absorbing the 1960s tapestry of The Beatles and Motown, he felt an early connection to music. After trying trumpet, guitar, and drums, the keys claimed his heart. Discovering Dave Brubeck’s Take Five and Stan Getz’s Jazz Samba ignited a lifelong passion for jazz.

By sixteen, Karukas joined Maryland’s Starliners big band and acquired a revolutionary Minimoog synthesizer, an instrument that informed his signature aesthetic. Cut on the fertile Washington, D.C. club circuit, he spent five years honing his craft alongside saxophonist Tim Eyermann in East Coast Offering before founding Natural Bridge, opening for heavyweights like Larry Carlton and Jeff Lorber.

In 1983, Karukas relocated to Los Angeles as a freelance keyboardist. Within two weeks, he was backing Shelby Flint at the iconic L.A. jazz venue Dante’s. By November 1985, he entered the studio as a founding member of The Rippingtons, helping shape their genre-defining debut album, Moonlighting. Crucially, Karukas suggested a then-undiscovered saxophonist named Dave Koz join the recording—a recommendation that altered smooth jazz history.

Starting with his 1987 debut, The Nightowl, Karukas launched a multi-decade run of sophisticated contemporary jazz. His compositions yielded Top 20 Billboard placements for albums like Blue Touch, Looking Up, and GK, alongside chart-topping hits like “Elegant Nights,” “Rio Drive,” and “Nightshift.” Dave Koz later praised Karukas’s funky, nuanced style as the epitome of class. Karukas also served as an elite musical director, leading superstar lineups for the Dave Koz and Friends at Sea Cruises and writing hits like “Tropical Rain” for Jessy J. In 2013, his production and co-writing work with Omar Akram earned a Grammy Award for Best New Age Album (Echoes of Love).

True evolution, however, grew from profound personal loss. Following the death of his wife, Yvonne, from brain cancer, Karukas navigated grief and pandemic isolation by looking inward. Rediscovering a vintage cassette of his 1990s live performances with Brazilian masters Dori Caymmi and Ricardo Silveira, he sat alone at his piano to translate those memories into his 2021 solo piano release, Serenata. Romantic and intimate, Serenata stands as a powerful testament to healing, proving a true master needs only eighty-eight keys to express raw human emotion.

Performing Thursday, October 15th. 

Article written by Middle C Jazz Marketing Support, Scott Homewood