Gregg Karukas

Gregg Karukas plays Middle C Jazz on Thursday, October 15, at 7 PM. He's a Grammy-winning keyboardist, composer, and producer who's been performing since 1987, working across smooth jazz, Brazilian, and R&B/pop. That Grammy came in 2013 for Echoes of Love, which he produced, composed, played keyboards on, arranged, and engineered — the album took home Best New Age Album.

He's put out twelve solo CDs, and a few of them have turned up as chart-topping hits: Elegant Nights, Rio Drive, Nightshift, and Girl in the Red Dress. He was also a founding member of The Rippingtons, and it was Karukas who suggested Dave Koz's EWI sound on the genre-defining Moonlighting CD. Later, he served as musical director for Dave Koz and Friends at Sea.

His touring history reads like a who's who of the smooth jazz and pop worlds. He's played with Boney James, Peter White, Rick Braun, Dave Koz, Melissa Manchester, Larry Carlton, and Sergio Mendes, and he's taken his stage show to festivals around the world, including Java Jazz in Jakarta and the Mallorca Smooth Jazz festival. He's as much a producer and arranger as he is a player, and that background shows in the way he puts a set together.

It's a single-bill night with Karukas as the main feature. The show starts at 7 PM at Middle C Jazz, 300 S Brevard St in Charlotte.