Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Hugh Ferguson was born on March 26, 1958 in Boston, Massachusetts and began playing at six years old. Starting on the drums in grade school and taking lessons from his Catholic school nuns, by age eleven he was influenced to play guitar by his two older brothers who played the instrument. Inspired by James Taylor and Simon & Garfunkel he started on the acoustic guitar, then switched to electric when he heard Duane Allman, Jeff Beck and Carlos Santana.

Being self-taught he had very little music knowledge, but listening to records he was able to learn stuff by ear. He developed scale patterns.As a composer he would create a chord melody mostly on his guitar. Playing by intuition he has created his own phrasing and added space to his solos.

In the 70s the fusion wave hit with John McLaughlin, Billy Cobham and Tony Williams and Hugh got into the fusion jazz-rock music. 1978 saw him living and playing in Phoenix, Arizona before moving to Los Angeles, California in 1986.

As a contemporary guitarist he worked on musical projects that incorporated the music of Led Zeppelin, Eminem, Sting, Don Henley along jazz fusion lines. He opened for Larry Carlton, Al Dimeola and Hiroshima.

Guitarist Hugh Ferguson, who led a fusion jazz trio with bassist Brian Wright and drummer Roger Carter,  died on March 21, 2012.