John Moriarty

John Moriarty is one of Ireland's foremost jazz guitarists. A dedicated working jazz musician from age 18, John was an early recipient of the Skidmore jazz award which helped him to excel in the Irish jazz scene. In his early 20’s John had the opportunity to play duet concerts with the great Louis Stewart, and in his final years Louis would often call John to substitute for his piano player. John has been fortunes to play with many other greats over the years including US pianist Bill Carrothers, Bobby Watson of ‘Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers’ and sax legend Ronnie Cuber. As guitarist in the Guinness jazz house band in the early 2000s, the band hosted jazz stars such as Chris Potter, Greg Abate & Roy Hargrove. In 2005, John was a finalist at Montreux Jazz Festival’s prestigious ‘International Jazz Guitar Competition’. This was along side Norwegian Bjorn Solli and the acclaimed NYC based guitarist Gilad Hekselman. In recent times John plays regularly with the Richie Buckley Quintet as well as his own quartet and trio projects. Recent collaborations include Spanish musicians Gonzalo Del Val and Anders Bergcrantz. His 2013 release, Echoes (Lyte Records) was critically well received, including ‘album of the week on the RTE-Ten website, and a 4-start review in the US magazine Downbeat.

"A fluid, hard-swinging player...well-crafted and polished...quietly
mesmerising..." – The Irish Times