John W Penny

Minneapolis MN guitarist, composer, and singer John Penny and his Virtual Band, deliver musical inspiration to audiences with original World Jazz and American Roots music. Penny has performed thousands of gigs including as a band member and in special concerts with Jazz greats Eric Gravatt, Bobby Lyle, Bernard Purdie, Jack McDuff, and others. This solo project calls on Penny’s background as a film score and sound design professional. Cultivated by hundreds of projects in the film, broadcast, and theater composing world, this show utilizes custom backing tracks uniquely designed to interact with the artist’s live guitar and voice. Penny’s guitar explorations introduce a uniquely emotive style, fused from the teachings of John Coltrane, John McLaughlin, Jimi Hendrix, Chick Corea, and many great violin concertos.

Penny’s vocal serenades in the tenor register have echoes of Jazz singer Jon Hendricks. Songs performed in English, Spanish, and Portuguese resonate with Folk cultures from Latin America, Africa, and Europe. The accompanying tracks for this project range from intimate and light, to symphonic and epic. Exotic virtual instruments from around the World provide realistic ornamental character and atmosphere for original songs and classic favorites alike. This is a project from someone who has been asked to dream up new music on very tight schedules. It’s agile and able to evolve with the emotional temperature of the times. John Penny is an award winning orchestral composer, veteran Jazz guitarist, and singer with a playful fondness for translating human emotion down to the micro mood, into song and soundscape. His music is sought out, discovered, and organically crafted with the aim of bringing inspiration to the spirits of all people in a world full of challenges.