Who exactly is Chris Standring?

Chris Standring is one of the most prolific and successful artists on the contemporary urban jazz scene. As We Think is his 15th CD as a leader and follows his 2022 release Simple Things and 2021's Wonderful World, of which critic Travis Rogers said, “Wonderful World propels Chris Standring’s reputation—indeed, fame—as masterful guitar artist and savvy arranger. Standring’s ability to pare down standards and classics, while never losing the lush quality of the orchestra, is brilliant. Whether it is his composing, his arranging, or his performing, Chris Standring is deserving of careful attention.”

Standring, a native of England, has had 13 Billboard Top 10 singles and singles that reached number one on the chart. Although he spent his childhood on a farm, driving tractors and feeding sheep, he began studying classical guitar when he was just six years old. He listened to a lot of West Coast American jazz growing up and became a serious jazz musician when he attended the London College of Music. Many of his fellow students were aspiring jazz musicians and hard-core, straight-ahead aficionados, and Standring soon found himself listening to the great bebop players and learning new approaches to harmony and rhythm.

Standring had visited the United States several times in the 1980s and loved the West Coast vibe. He moved to Los Angeles in 1991 and quickly became part of the local jazz scene, playing the top L.A. venues with A-list musicians. He soon caught the attention of many top music acts, and his contemporary guitar sound can be heard on recordings by Bebe and Cece Winans, Jody Watley and Rick Braun and many others.

Standring released his first album, Velvet, in 1998 on Instinct Records, a label out of New York City. A prolific composer, he has written or co-written over 200 compositions and produced a new album for a variety of labels every year or two. Standring is focused and intense about his work. He writes nearly every day and never married until recently because he did not want any distractions. He says that “just 1% of my output is from inspiration and 99% is from dedication to my craft.”

Besides working on As We Think, he has been producing music for other artists and now presents additional artists on his label, Ultimate Vibe Recordings. Besides playing guitar and composing all his songs Standring also plays keyboards and programs various synth sounds and loops.

Standring is a superb guitarist and composer with an innate feel for funky, bluesy jazz. For him, music should be emotionally authentic rather than an intellectual exercise or a demonstration of a musician’s proficiency. As Standring says, he is a sucker for a beautiful melody, which is quite apparent on all his albums.

- Holly Cooper/Mouthpiece Music.