Award winning instrumental guitarist
Fiery Rumba Flamenco, Pop Classics and Latin Jazz From the Gipsy Kings to Carlos Santana
John has dedicated himself to a fiery, world beat fusion of Rumba Flamenco and Latin Jazz.This Westcoast Music Award Nominee has toured throughout North America and Japan. Performance highlights include representing Canada at Japan's 2005 Expo, performing at Canada's 2010 Winter Olympics and performing for Canada's former Prime Minister Jean Chretien. John's recordings have been used for radio, documentaries, TV and film in North America, Japan, Ireland and the UK.
In 1995, John won "Best Acoustic Guitar Performance" in the Music West Star Frets Competition. He won Vancouver's Unplugged Competition in 1996, in 1997 he became a finalist in Vancouver's Global Star Quest and in 2009 competed at the Montreal Jazz Festival winning the Grand Prize at the BOSS Loop Station 2009 Championship National Finals.
As an electric and acoustic 'guitarist for hire', John performed with the Vancouver Playhouse, Hinder, Jimmy D.Lane, Ben Woods, Tomas Michaud, Itamar Erez, Radio Europe, Alyssa Nielsen, Gypsalero and opened for such notable artists as Cirque du Soleil, Mae Moore, and acoustic guitar masters Strunz and Farah.
"John Gilliat doesn't hail from sunny Spain but he plays a mean flamenco guitar"
Janice Foster - The Langley Times
“The style is called "nouveau flamenco" and Langley acoustic guitarist John Gilliat is blazingly good at it. Light a candle, pour some camomile and don't wonder how he moves his hands so fast or you'll just stress.
John P. McLaughlin - The Vancouver Province
The John Gilliat Group is:
John Gilliat - guitar John continues to offer new direction and contemporary expression to Flamenco, Nouveau Flamenco and Flamenco Rumba, touring festivals and headlining concerts with his quartet. John has old over 10,000 copies of his CD worldwide. His CD Peace was nominated for a 2002 West Coast Music Award. His latest CD Beyond Boundaries was recently released in Japan. John has toured Japan three times and is working towards a repeat visit in the near future.
Brent Gubbles - bass
Brent studied music at Capilano College and took private lessons with Rene Worst, Tam Hazlitt and David Brown. A versatile performer to say the least, Brent has performed folk, roots, jazz and Latin music with artists such as James Keelaghan, Susan Crowe, Sandy Scofield, Lowry Olafson, Miles Black, Brad Turner, Gypsalero, George McFetidge, The Hard Rubber Orchestra, Tony Wilson, Chris Getrin, Daryl Jahnke, Oscar Lopez, Fantazea and many others. Since 1992, he has toured North America and Europe extensively and played a variety of international jazz and folk festivals. Brent Gubbles’ fantastic work can be heard on Juno nominated recordings by Oscar Lopez and James Keelaghan, Susan Crowe, and Compadres.
Nicholas Apivor – percussion
Nick is known throughout Vancouver as the multi-instrumentalist. He specializes in the Vibraphone and Marimba. Nick received a Bachelor of Music Degree at the University of Victoria, studying with Sal Ferreras. Over the years he has also studied with such noted musicians as Glen Velez, Trichy Sankaran, Louise Rose, Paul Horn and Hugh Fraser. His performing experience has been wide ranging: from the Victoria Symphony, to avant garde big band the N.O.W. Orchestra, to the legendary Iranian singer Dariush. Nick was the percussionist for the Vancouver Playhouse Production of Guys and Dolls and The Music Man. Aside from performing with John Gilliat, Nick also plays with the high-action group, Ache Brazil and Rumba Calzada. His playing can be heard on many albums including Rumba Calzada’s Juno nominated CD entitled Volume 3, and Grammy nominated composer Paul Dolden’s L’ivresse de la Vitesse.
CARUMBA
John Gilliat is also available as the duo Carumba with guitarist and Carribean Steel Drummer Rossi Tsonkov
