Craig Sharmat - Outside In (2010)

Funky and smooth grooves along with classic retro feeling pieces and etheral orchestral composition. The album uses mostly live players with a steller list of proven Jazz All Stars including...Rick Braun, Rayford Griffin, Gregg Karukas, and many more....

Craig Sharmat may be new to many as a solo jazz artist but his career as a guitarist/composer is accomplished. His debut album "So Cal Drivin" had the single of the same name place in the Billboard top 30 for seventeen weeks. An Impressive start out of the gate. His 2nd album "Outside In" is his Innervision Records debut.

Early in Craig's journey he found inspiration from Guitarist's like Larry Carlton, Pat Metheny and George Benson. Assimilating some of these styles and adding his own touch Craig soon found himself touring with jazz legends Randy Crawford and Ronnie Laws. After a few years on the road it became evident to Craig that if he wanted a stable home life he needed to actually be home and pursued being a composer as his main profession. This was something he considered early on in his studies as a probability. Craig landed his first major scoring gig which lasted 3 years as the composer for Disney's "Kids Incorporated". While doing this he continued doing some local session work and gigs in L.A. on guitar but his career path was now set. For the next twenty years his resume looks like a who's who of television series with some movies sprinkled in. Some highlights include the opening for The MTV Movie Awards,14 years as composer for America's Most Wanted (still active), Theme and background music to "The Real housewives of New Jersey", numerous animation, many trailers include for example "Ghost Rider,King Kong, Live Free Die Hard, ads for Disney, Universal, ABC,etc etc. Being an accomplished guitarist Craig took advantage of that talent, and his guitar work can he heard on thousands of TV, Movies and Ad cues on his own work and for the many other composers who recognized he not only can play well but posses a composers sensibility when recording.

Over the last few years Craig has had a renewed interest in following his original career path, that of being a pop jazz guitarist. As an arranger Craig had already placed arrangements for Rick Braun and Peter White's Christmas album with Rick and Mindy Abair, but now it was finally time to strike out on his own. After the success of his first album Craig is anxious to share what he feels is his best cumulative work to date "Outside In".