Craig Lynden Sharmat (born October 8, 1957) is an American musician. He composes music for television and film and is an accomplished guitarist whose work has been noticed in the

smooth jazz Smooth jazz is commercially oriented crossover jazz music. Although often described as a "genre", it is a debatable and highly controversial subject in jazz music circles. As a radio format, however, smooth jazz radio became the successor to e ...

charts. He has scored a wide variety of

reality Reality is the sum or aggregate of everything in existence; everything that is not imagination, imaginary. Different Culture, cultures and Academic discipline, academic disciplines conceptualize it in various ways. Philosophical questions abo ...

shows,

animation Animation is a filmmaking technique whereby still images are manipulated to create moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Animati ...

, television commercials, and documentary movies. He has also played guitar on thousands of cues and

backed up ''Backed Up'' is the second album by the Canadian singer-songwriter Ferron, accompanied by a backing band. Produced by Ferron and Keith Maillard and released in 1978 by her own independent label Lucy Records, it includes early versions of several ...

a number of commercial artists as guitarist and or arranger. He released his first jazz single in 2009, "So Cal Drivin"; the album of the same name was released later that year. His second album, ''Outside In'', contains the song "Ease Up", which reached number two on the

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

Smooth Jazz chart.

Biography

Born in New York City, Sharmat attended

Syracuse University Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York, United States. It was established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church but has been nonsectarian since 1920 ...

as a music major. He transferred to The

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it ...

, finishing his studies at G.I.T. (now called

Musicians Institute Musicians Institute (MI) is a private for-profit music school in Los Angeles, California. MI students can earn Certificates and – with transfer of coursework taken at Los Angeles City College – Associate of Arts Degrees, as well as Bachelor ...

). Sharmat's early professional years were filled playing gigs and occasional sessions, moving to Las Vegas to play showroom gigs by 1983. Craig returned to Los Angeles in 1985, where he quickly landed the role of guitarist for saxman

Ronnie Laws Ronald Wayne Laws (born October 3, 1950) is an American jazz and smooth jazz saxophonist, and singer. He is the younger brother of jazz flutist Hubert Laws, jazz vocalist Eloise Laws and the older brother of Debra Laws. Biography Born and rai ...

. A tour with singer

Randy Crawford Veronica "Randy" Crawford (born February 18, 1952) is an American retired jazz and R&B singer. She has been more successful in Europe than in the United States, where she has not entered the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 as a solo artist. However, sh ...

soon followed, though Sharmat later moved away from touring to score his first TV series,

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...

's ''

Kids Incorporated ''Kids Incorporated'' (also known as ''Kids Inc.'') is an American children's television program that began production in the mid-1980s and continued airing into the mid-1990s. It was largely a youth-oriented program with musical performances as ...

'', arranging and composing the final 3 years of the series. During the same time frame, Sharmat scored the background music to the American TV series ''

Xuxa Maria da Graça Xuxa Meneghel ( , ; born Maria da Graça Meneghel on 27 March 1963) is a Brazilian TV host, actress, singer, and businesswoman. Nicknamed "The Queen of Children", Xuxa built the largest Latin and South American children's ente ...

''. Since 1995, Sharmat has written music for ''

America's Most Wanted ''America's Most Wanted'' (often abbreviated as ''AMW'') is an American television program whose first run was produced by 20th Television, and second run is under the Fox Entertainment#Fox Alternative Entertainment, Fox Alternative Entertain ...

''. This show led to his finding work with Sirens Media, for which he has written the main titles and background music for ''

The Real Housewives of New Jersey ''The Real Housewives of New Jersey'', abbreviated ''RHONJ'', is an American reality television series that premiered on May 12, 2009, on Bravo. Developed as the fourth installment of ''The Real Housewives'' franchise, it has aired fourteen sea ...

'' among many other shows. He also wrote the opening for the 2007

MTV Movie Awards The MTV Movie & TV Awards is a film and television awards show previously presented annually on MTV. It began as the MTV Movie Awards in 1992, when its 1992 MTV Movie Awards, first edition was held, and adopted its current name in 2017, beginnin ...

featuring

Sarah Silverman Sarah Kate Silverman (born December 1, 1970) is an American stand-up comedian, actress, and writer. She first rose to prominence for her brief stint as a writer and cast member on the NBC sketch comedy series ''Saturday Night Live'' during its ...

. In 2008, Sharmat scored the movie ''

Gotta Dance ''Gotta Dance'' is a 2008 documentary film and Tribeca Film Festival Audience Award Finalist directed by Dori Berinstein. The film "chronicles the debut of the New Jersey Nets' first-ever senior hip-hop dance team, 12 women and 1 man - all dance t ...

'', and in 2011 scored the film ''Carol Channing Larger Than Life'', which was produced and directed by Tony award winner Dori Berinstein. Sharmat is a graduate of

Spud Murphy Miko Stephanovic (August 19, 1908 – August 5, 2005), better known as Lyle 'Spud' Murphy, was an American jazz multi-instrumentalist, bandleader, and arranger. He studied clarinet and trumpet, and has been recorded playing the oboe, among other ...

's "Equal Interval System" (EIS) music composition course. Sharmat also runs Scoredog Music, a music library company that has furnished music to a multitude of TV shows. Craig has written a significant amount of music for

Warner/Chappell Music Warner Chappell Music, Inc. is an American music publishing company and a subsidiary of the Warner Music Group. Warner Chappell Music's catalog consists of over 1.4 million compositions and 150,000 composers, with offices in over 40 countries. ...

, a major music library based in

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...

. Sharmat is the son of Marjorie Weinman Sharmat, a prolific children's writer who is best known for

Nate the Great ''Nate the Great'' is a series of 31 children's detective stories written by Marjorie W. Sharmat and featuring the boy detective Nate the Great. Sharmat and the illustrator Marc Simont inaugurated the series in 1972 with ''Nate the Great'', a 6 ...

, the boy detective featured in a long-running series of

picture books A picture book combines visual and verbal narratives in a book format, most often aimed at young children. With the narrative told primarily through text, they are distinct from comics, which do so primarily through sequential images. The ima ...

(1972 to present). His father Mitchell Sharmat created Nate's cousin, the girl detective Olivia Sharp, who debuted in 1989. During the 1990s Craig Sharmat and his mother wrote three 40-page

books together. All three were illustrated by Nate's co-creator

Marc Simont Marc Simont (November 23, 1915 – July 13, 2013) was a Paris-born American artist, political cartoonist, and illustrator of more than a hundred children's books. Inspired by his father, Spanish painter Joseph Simont, he began drawing at an earl ...

(1915–2013). * ''Nate the Great and the Musical Note'' (

Coward-McCann G. P. Putnam's Sons is an American book publisher based in New York City, New York (state), New York. Since 1996, it has been an Imprint (trade name), imprint of the Penguin Group. History The company began as Wiley & Putnam with the 1838 part ...

, 1990) * ''Nate the Great and the Tardy Tortoise'' (

Delacorte Press Dell Publishing Company, Inc. is an American publisher of books, magazines and comic books, that was founded in 1921 by George T. Delacorte Jr. with $10,000 (approx. $145,000 in 2021), two employees and one magazine title, ''I Confess'', and ...

, 1995) * ''Nate the Great and the Crunchy Christmas'' (Delacorte, 1996)

Discography

* ''So Cal Drivin (2009) * ''Outside In'' (2010) * ''Bleu Horizons'' (2013) * ''Nouveau'' (2019)

References

External links

*
''Gotta Dance'' (film)

Equal Interval System musical composition course
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sharmat, Craig Linden 1957 births Living people American music arrangers American film score composers American male film score composers American television composers American children's writers Smooth jazz guitarists American male jazz musicians