Charles Samuel "Chuck" Loeb (December 7, 1955 – July 31, 2017) was an American jazz guitarist and a member of the groups Steps Ahead, Metro and

Fourplay Fourplay (stylized as fOURPLAY) is a contemporary American smooth jazz quartet. The original members of the group were Bob James (keyboards), Lee Ritenour (guitars), Nathan East (bass), and Harvey Mason (drums). In 1997, Lee Ritenour left the ...

Early years and education

Loeb was born in Nyack, New York, near New York City. At a young age, he listened to

Jimi Hendrix James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942September 18, 1970) was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. Although his mainstream career spanned only four years, he is widely regarded as one of the most ...

Eric Clapton Eric Patrick Clapton (born 1945) is an English rock and blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He is often regarded as one of the most successful and influential guitarists in rock music. Clapton ranked second in ''Rolling Stone''s list o ...

Cream Cream is a dairy product composed of the higher-fat layer skimmed from the top of milk before homogenization. In un-homogenized milk, the fat, which is less dense, eventually rises to the top. In the industrial production of cream, this process ...

Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin were an English rock band formed in London in 1968. The group comprised vocalist Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham. With a heavy, guitar-driven sound, they are ...

The Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...

The Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the gritty, rhythmically dr ...

, and

Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...

. According to a 2005 ''

JazzTimes ''JazzTimes'' is an American magazine devoted to jazz. Published 10 times a year, it was founded in Washington, D.C. in 1970 by Ira Sabin as the newsletter ''Radio Free Jazz'' to complement his record store. Coverage After a decade of growt ...

'' article, the first song he learned on guitar was Dylan's "

Like a Rolling Stone "Like a Rolling Stone" is a song by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on July 20, 1965, by Columbia Records. Its confrontational lyrics originated in an extended piece of verse Dylan wrote in June 1965, when he returned exhausted fro ...

", which he would later play at a guest appearance with Dylan. He discovered jazz when he was sixteen through the music of guitarists

Wes Montgomery John Leslie "Wes" Montgomery (March 6, 1923 – June 15, 1968) was an American jazz guitarist. Montgomery was known for an unusual technique of plucking the strings with the side of his thumb and his extensive use of octaves, which gave him a dist ...

George Benson George Washington Benson (born March 22, 1943) is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He began his professional career at the age of 19 as a jazz guitarist. A former child prodigy, Benson first came to prominence in the 1960s, play ...

, John McLaughlin, and

Pat Martino Pat Martino (born Patrick Carmen Azzara; August 25, 1944 – November 1, 2021) was an American jazz guitarist and composer. Biography Martino was born Patrick Carmen Azzara in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, to father Carmen "Mickey" ...

. At that point, Loeb chose to become a musician and "never thought of doing anything else". He studied with local music teachers, then traveled to Philadelphia and became a student of jazz guitarist

Dennis Sandole Dennis Sandole (29 September 1913 — 30 September 2000) born Dionigi Sandoli, was an American jazz guitarist, composer, and music educator from Philadelphia. He was John Coltrane's mentor from 1946 until the early 1950s, introducing him to musi ...

. In New York City, he learned from Jim Hall. For two years he attended

Berklee College of Music Berklee College of Music is a private music college in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known for the study of jazz and modern American music, it also offers college-level cours ...

in Boston, then left in 1976 to seek professional work in New York City.

Groups

In New York, Loeb played with

Chico Hamilton Foreststorn "Chico" Hamilton (September 20, 1921 – November 25, 2013) was an American jazz drummer and bandleader. He came to prominence as sideman for Lester Young, Gerry Mulligan, Count Basie, and Lena Horne. Hamilton became a bandleader ...

Ray Barreto Raymundo "Ray" Barretto Pagán (April 29, 1929 – February 17, 2006) was an American percussionist and bandleader of Puerto Rican descent. Throughout his career as a percussionist, he played a wide variety of Latin music styles, as well as Lati ...

, and

Hubert Laws Hubert Laws (born November 10, 1939) is an American flutist and saxophonist with a career spanning over 40 years in jazz, classical, and other music genres. Laws is one of the few classical artists who has also mastered jazz, pop, and rhythm- ...

. Starting in 1979, he was a member of

Stan Getz Stanley Getz (February 2, 1927 – June 6, 1991) was an American jazz saxophonist. Playing primarily the tenor saxophone, Getz was known as "The Sound" because of his warm, lyrical tone, with his prime influence being the wispy, mellow timbre ...

's group. Getz later became the best man at his wedding to singer Carmen Cuesta. Loeb and

Mitchel Forman Mitchel Forman (born January 24, 1956) is a jazz and fusion keyboard player. Biography and music career Mitchel Forman began studying classical piano at the age of seven. At 17 he entered the Manhattan School of Music (MSM) for three years of s ...

, who was also in Getz's group, formed the

jazz fusion Jazz fusion (also known as fusion and progressive jazz) is a music genre that developed in the late 1960s when musicians combined jazz harmony and improvisation with rock music, funk, and rhythm and blues. Electric guitars, amplifiers, and ke ...

band Metro (1994). In the 1980s, he was a member of the group Steps Ahead, which included

Michael Brecker Michael Leonard Brecker (March 29, 1949 – January 13, 2007) was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. He was awarded 15 Grammy Awards as both performer and composer. He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Berklee College of M ...

, someone Loeb credits as an influence. He replaced

Larry Carlton Larry Eugene Carlton (born March 2, 1948) is an American guitarist who built his career as a studio musician in the 1970s and 1980s for acts such as Steely Dan and Joni Mitchell. He has participated in thousands of recording sessions, recorded ...

as guitarist in

(2010). Loeb and his wife recorded together, with Cuesta providing vocals on his albums and Loeb playing on Cuesta's albums, and their daughters Lizzy and Christina contributing vocals.

Solo career

Loeb began a solo career in 1988 with his debut album ''My Shining Hour'' on the Japanese record label

Pony Canyon , also known by the shorthand form , is a Japanese mass media publishing company founded on October 1, 1966. The company publishes mainly physical home media on compact discs, including music, films and TV shows and video games. It is affi ...

. He released subsequent albums on DMP Digital Music Products among them ''Life Colors'' (1990). Loeb ultimately achieved commercial success with

Shanachie Records Shanachie Records is an American, New Jersey-based record label, founded in 1975 by Richard Nevins and Dan Collins. The label is named for the Gaelic word '' seanchaí'' (anglicised as shanachie), an Irish storyteller. It was previously distrib ...

on ''The Music Inside'' (1996). The title song from the album held the number one position on the jazz charts for six weeks. Later, he produced ''Moon, the Stars, & the Setting Sun'' (1998), ''Listen'' (1999) ''In a Heartbeat'' (2001), and ''All There Is'' (2002). Loeb's music has appeared on TV shows, commercials, and movie soundtracks, including ''

The Untouchables Untouchables or The Untouchables may refer to: American history * Untouchables (law enforcement), a 1930s American law enforcement unit led by Eliot Ness * ''The Untouchables'' (book), an autobiography by Eliot Ness and Oscar Fraley * ''The U ...

'', ''

You've Got Mail ''You've Got Mail'' is a 1998 American romantic comedy film directed by Nora Ephron and starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. Inspired by the 1937 Hungarian play '' Parfumerie'' by Miklós László (which had earlier been adapted in 1940 as ''The S ...

'', and '' Hitch''. His composition ''Logic of Love'' was nominated for a Grammy in 2015.

Death

Loeb died of cancer on July 31, 2017, at the age of 61.

Discography

Studio albums

With Metro

With the Fantasy Band

With Fourplay

Compilations

Live albums

With

*'' Billy Highstreet Samba'' (

EmArcy EmArcy Records is a jazz record label founded in 1954 by the American Mercury Records. The name is a phonetic spelling of "MRC", the initials for Mercury Record Company. During the 1950s and 1960s, musicians such as Max Roach, Clifford Brown, ...

, 1981 el. 1990

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Loeb, Chuck 1955 births 2017 deaths People from Rockland County, New York Jazz musicians from New York (state) 20th-century American guitarists 21st-century American guitarists American jazz guitarists Smooth jazz guitarists Berklee College of Music alumni Heads Up International artists American male guitarists 20th-century American male musicians 21st-century American male musicians American male jazz musicians Fourplay members Steps Ahead members