Stuart Carter-Smith
Shutdown Session for Tetbury Goods Shed
We last saw Stuart at the Shed in January when, with violinist Ben Holder, he put on a dazzling display of swinging Gypsy Jazz numbers evoking the Paris jazz scene of the 1940s as well as modern pop classics played in Holder & Smith’s contagious and energetic style.
Like all the artists in this ‘Shutdown Specials” series, Stuart has freely given his time to set up and beautifully record this session for the Goods Shed audience while he cannot perform or teach. If you can do so, please show your appreciation by clicking the button and making a donation via PayPal.
About Stuart
Facebook: Stuart.CarterSmith
Stuart has a well earned reputation as a top class Gypsy Jazz guitarist.
He started playing the guitar when he was 18 years old – rather late for a gypsy guitarist (most of his peers would have been playing fluently by the age of seven!).
Although Stuart initially studied and performed the classical guitar, he soon fell in love with the music of Django Reinhardt and his post-classical studies took him to work with some of the finest names in that genre both in the UK and overseas.
He has toured across the globe with his acoustic guitar group (Gypsy Fire and Holder and Smith), which he founded in 2010, including playing Main Stage music festivals throughout Europe and the US. his private bookings include Sir Elton John and David Furnish, The Beckhams and Princess Anne.
He also teaches guitar, putting budding musicians on the right road in classrooms from Sir William Romney to the Musicians Institute on Hollywood Boulevard, Los Angeles.
Like many of his contemporaries, Stuart is a consummate improviser and master of pin-point rhythm accuracy. Typical of the genre, Stuart is always searching for new musical challenges and he is constantly developing new techniques.
He experiments with new rhythms and styles of playing, but these are always delivered with the solid underpinning of his first love: the musical style of Django.