George Cole

composer, guitarist, vocalist and band leader george cole writes superbly crafted, urbane and melodically sophisticated music that reminds us of the best of george gershwin, johnny mercer, and cole porter, he is also considered by many of his peers to be one of the top "acoustic shred masters". george's lead work as played on his authentic 1940 selmer guitar sounds like a cross between django reinhardt, eddie lang and vintage les paul all filtered through a decidedly modern sensibility. george's crooning vocals evoke the sexy swagger of a young frank sinatra, harry connick jr. or tony bennett. george's songs have a jazz age, swing era, and gypsy jazz rhythm that will make you want to get up on your feet and dance. some of his finest compositions are slow exquisite waltzes, such as "sheila's waltz" and "waltz of the trees." vive le jazz could either suggest a hot sultry evening in a parisian nightclub or the energy of a large rock concert in a stadium. the mix of high energy guitar playing, soaring violin flights, and propulsive "le pompe" rhythm guitar style creates a dynamic musical experience. george's compositions are regarded as some of the most sophisticated and intelligent music being written today. george has performed to sell out crowds the world over, memorable performances include the 2008 show at carnegie hall, the bikini club in barcelona, the beacon theatre, the fillmore and the bill graham civic auditorium in san francisco. george cole and vive le jazz put on a show that is virtuosic, musical, fun and family friendly. george toured the united states and europe with joe walsh of the eagles on the "joe walsh anthology tour", he has recorded guitar, bass and keyboard tracks for legendary producer roy thomas baker (queen, foreigner and paul mccartney). george was lead guitarist for geffen recording artists big blue hearts whose debut album was produced by t-bone burnett (robert plant, alison krauss). big blue hearts had the honor of performing onstage with ringo starr and also recorded with elliot easton and greg hawkes of the cars on their second album for geffen/interscope. george was the lead guitarist for beatnik beatch (atlantic) whose founding members have gone on to record and perform with brian wilson, beck and the jonas brothers. george recorded on chris isaak's multi-platinum "forever blue" album and lee seung hwan's million selling k- pop smash "over easy". george has performed with warren zevon, robert cray, boz skaggs and david johannsen of the new york dolls. you have probably heard george's incendiary guitar playing on commercials for chevy and ford broadcast on nbc, cbs and abc. george was guitar instructor and mentor to billie joe armstrong and mike dirnt of green day for ten years. george has performed on grammy nominated releases,performed for the grammys in 2008 and won a california music award for best new major label artist.