gregory harry gregg karukas born may 18 1956 is a grammy winning smooth jazz keyboardist producer composer and pianist originally from the washington dcbowie maryland area he experimented with drums guitar trumpet and keyboards as a child but it was not until his teens that he pursued music professionally as a pianist having played with the award winning bowie high school starliners big bandhe was an early synthesizer proponent at age 16 owning one of the first minimoogs and cofounded the fusion group east coast offering with former air force airmen of note saxophonist tim eyermann becoming dcs top original jazzrock band he then went on to form natural bridge with shannon ford carl cable and wink robinson later members included michael manring gerry kunkel joe dougherty and steve bloom on percussion gradually since moving to los angeles in 1982 he developed a melodic and soulful style of music that made him a mainstay on smooth jazz and radio circuitkarukas is known to write music that evokes strong emotions gregg has received multiple best keyboardist nominations at the oasis and national smooth jazz awards two of his bestknown singles girl in the red dress and nightshift reflect a style familiar to his fans karukas has collaborated with brazilian composer dori caymmi and ricardo silveira on several projects and produced arranged engineered and cowrote 2 cds with omar akram whose echoes of love cd won the grammy for best new age album in 2013 gregg also cowrote sax star jessy js 1 hit tropical rain with eleven solo albums and many sessions and tours with prominent jazz artists gregg karukas has established himself as one of the leading composers and musicians of the format gregg was an original member of the rippingtons recording their 1987 moonlighting cd and he has toured through the years with superstars boney james sergio mendes melissa manchester and larry carlton gregg continues to record and tour the world with peter white and rick braun and was musical director for the dave koz and friends cruise to europe 20112013 featuring international stars such as michael bolton shelia e michael mcdonald and jeffrey osbornegregg owns and distributes most of his music on his nightowl records labelhe has a wife named yvonne and two sons named stevie and alex stevie is a drummer and alex is an actor singer songwriter and musician