artist info

Vivify® Music recording artist and Benedetto guitar artist Brian Nova is considered one of the top jazz guitarists/vocalists in the nation, according to a recent poll in Jazz Improv Magazine. Joe Pass said of Nova: “I feel Brian is one of the finest jazz guitarists on the scene!” He has the distinction of being the only guitarist who was mentored by, and toured with, the two titans of jazz guitar: Herb Ellis and Joe Pass. Rock Icon Steve Miller says: “I’ve met and known a lot of guitarists in my career, and ‘B’ is the best guitarist I’ve ever met.” Nova performs, and records, as a solo artist, with his Trio, Quartet, and his 18-piece Big Band. Brian is on Arturo Sandoval’s Grammy® Award winning CD Dear Diz, which garnered a Grammy and three Latin Grammys in 2013 on Concord Records.

Brian has released latest CD The Brian Nova Collective with Laurence Hobgood, Shelly Berg, Tom Scott and many others. He is also featured on Concord Records latest release, Ella 100 Live At The Apollo. The recording was made at the Iconic Apollo Theater in Harlem for Ella Fitzgerald’s 100th Birthday Celebration along with Liz Wright, Monica Mancini, Patti Austin, Andra Day, Cassandra Wilson, Shelly Berg, Brian Nova and many others.

Nova has toured and performed with many of the Jazz elite including Eddie Harris, Stanley Turrentine, Arturo Sandoval, Dizzy Gillespie, Oscar Peterson, Ray Brown, Red Mitchell, Neils Henning Orsted-Pederson, Jimmy Smith & Brother Jack McDuff, Charlie Byrd, Barney Kessel, Lionel Hampton, Diane Schuur, Joe Williams, Kurt Elling, Steve Tyrell, Andra Day, Patti Austin, Ledesi, Lizz Wright, Stephen Stills, Charlie Musselwhite, Al Jardine (Beach Boys), Billy Gibbons (ZZ Top), Eric Burdon (Animals & War), Dave Mason, Eric Church, Joe Satriani, Mark O’Connor, Clint Black and Rock and Roll icon Steve Miller.

His annual European Tour includes engagements in Sicily, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, France, Spain and Italy. His Pan-Pacific Tour includes China, Taiwan, and a sold-out tour in Japan every December.

From 1990 to 1996, he was the Director of Jazz and Guitar Studies for the Music Program at Seattle University. He continues to mentor the next-generation of professional musicians through his master classes and the clinics he conducts around the world.