Doug Munro

Doug Munro (born July 9, 1953) is an American musician, arranger, producer, composer, author, and educator specializing in jazz, bebop, Brazilian jazz, jazz fusion, and gypsy swing. Since 1986 he has released over fifteen albums as a band leader and has appeared on over 75 recordings as a guitarist, sideman, producer, and arranger. He has been nominated for two Grammy Awards and was the recipient of two NAIRD Awards by the American Association of Independent Music. He has written four books on jazz guitar improvisation techniques for Alfred Music, including Swing to Bebop.

His preferred guitars are the Gibson ES175 Herb Ellis model, Godin Multiac Nylon Duet, Dell'Arte Legend 503, Martin D-35, and the Fender Telecaster. At age 20, Munro broke his back in a gymnastics accident, which ended his career as a drummer. in 1977 at age 24, he underwent a successful back surgery, after which he began playing guitar as a way to pass the time during recovery.

Career as a guitarist After his recovery from spinal surgery, became a guitarist, performing locally and teaching guitar lessons. The album featured Will Lee and Will Calhoun.

Munro divided his career into arranging, performing, teaching, and producing with friend and collaborator Joe Ferry. In 1999 he taught in a study abroad program sponsored by Purchase College. featured Lonnie Smith, David "Fathead" Newman, and Lafrae Olivia Sci.

In 2004 and 2007, respectively, Munro released two Brazilian jazz albums with his group Big Bossa Nova. The first, Big Boss Bossa Nova, featured Ray Vega, Javon Jackson; Richie Morales, and Michael Goetz. Big Boss Bossa Nova 2.0 featured Michael Goetz, Jason Devlin, and Jason Anderson. These would be the last two recordings Munro would do for Chase Music Group.

In 2010, following the appearance of Napster and the easy accessibility of recorded music, he formed his record label GotMusic. In 2010 he released Alone But Not Alone Vol. 1, an album of a solo guitar that used loops. During the next year, he released A Very Gypsy Christmas with his gypsy swing group La Pompe Attack featuring Cyrille Aimée, Howie Bujese, Michael Goetz, Ken Peplowski, and Ernesto Pugliese.

In 2014 he released the enhanced DVD Loop-Mania!, which included six original compositions performed and filmed live using loops. It also included a section where he breaks down what he is playing and how he is using the technology on each song. There are downloadable mp3's of the music and downloadable .pdf files of the charts for each song.

The fourth album on GotMusic was Doug Munro and La Pompe Attack: The Harry Warren Songbook.

Career as arranger and producer In 1991 Munro began arranging and producing with Joe Ferry. Ferry and Munro's first album was We Remember Pastorius, a tribute to jazz bassist Jaco Pastorius. Musicians on the album included Glenn Alexander, Rob Aries, Charles Blenzig, Andy Bloch, Joe Bonadio, Chris Botti, Randy Brecker, Hiram Bullock, Joey Calderazzo, Tommy Cosgrove, Kenwood Dennard, Dr. John, Mark Egan, Alex Foster, Eddie Gómez, Scott Healy, Anthony Jackson, Will Lee, George Mraz, Adam Nussbaum, and Dave Weckl.

In 1992 Munro co-produced and arranged a series of recordings for Shanachie Records called The Soul of R&B (Vol 1, 2, 3). The series culminated in a live album and film recorded at the Lonestar Roadhouse in New York City. Musicians on the album included Cissy Houston, Chuck Jackson, Lani Groves, Johnny Kemp, Billy Vera, Cornell Dupree, Will Lee, Richard Tee, Dave Weckl, and the Uptown Horns.

In 1993 Munro and Ferry did two more tribute albums for Shanachie, People Get Ready: A Tribute to Curtis Mayfield and Back to the Streets: Celebrating the Music of Don Covay.

From 1993 to 1995 Munro continued to work with Joe Ferry as co-producer and arranger for Bluesiana Hot Sauce, and Bluesiana Hurricane which was recorded with Ray Anderson, Joe Bonadio, Michael Brecker, Will Calhoun, Eddie Gómez, Paul Griffin, Chuck St. Troy, Toots Thielemans, and Allen Toussaint. The Bluesiana recordings were the last recordings co-produced and arranged by the Munro/Ferry duo and the last for Shanachie.

In 1994 Munro joined the ska band The Skatalites as co-producer and arranger for 1994's Hi-Bop Ska and 1996's Greetings from Skamania. The albums were produced by Ferry and recorded by the original Skatalites, Lloyd Brevett, Lloyd Knibb, and Tommy McCook, with guest appearances by Nathan Breedlove, Prince Buster, Devon James, David Murray, Bill Smith, Steve Turre, and Bobby Watson. Both albums received Grammy nominations. Munro and Ferry co-wrote the song "Skalloween" from Greetings from Skamania. The year also marked the start of a collaboration with producer and engineer Eric Helmuth. They worked on over 40 recording albums. Munro wrote string arrangements for over 300 songs on 34 different recordings for Vitamin Record's String Quartet Tribute albums. The first album was a tribute to Pink Floyd,