Taylor Roberts is an award-winning 7-string guitarist and music educator now based in Atlanta, Georgia. The love affair began early, which may very well explain how his professional career is well into its third decade. Spanning as wide a range of influences as there are genres of music, Roberts has earned a reputation that is continuously expanding. Although his heart is deeply steeped in jazz, Roberts does not easily fit into any one box. His influences range from R&B to Classic Rock to Pop, and everything in between. While barely out of his teens, Roberts studied jazz at the University of North Florida, where instructors including saxophonist Bunky Green, pianist Keith Javors, and guitarist Barry Greene helped broaden his musical vocabulary — adding Wes Montgomery to an already deeply instilled roster of players like Jimi Hendrix and B.B. King. Those years of intensive study have proven to continually pay off as his career expands.
His reworkings and adaptations of songs old and new entrance established fans while attracting new ones on a nightly basis. Roberts appeared multiple times at the Jacksonville Jazz Festival and has toured internationally with the Christian Tamburr Quintet. He has been hired by the Rolling Stones to play their private events, and his tenure as the primary in-house entertainment at the Ritz-Carlton, Amelia Island from 2014–2023 opened doors to residencies at luxury resorts around the world. In 2023 he was named Jacksonville’s Best Musician by Folio Weekly — a striking achievement for a guitarist whose heart belongs to jazz in a city famous for Lynyrd Skynyrd, 38 Special, and The Allman Brothers.
Roberts has since relocated to Atlanta, where his love for the city’s music scene continues to deepen. He has performed at venues such as Eddie’s Attic in Decatur alongside noted Atlanta players, and has expressed deep admiration for the wealth of talent the city holds.
Committed to music education for over 20 years, Roberts has conducted clinics at colleges, universities, and conservatories across the United States. Roberts’ versatility is evident in his collaborations with Rodney “Darkchild” Jerkins, Marvin “Toneworld” Hemmings, Doug Carn, Charlie Hunter, Keith David, Maria Howell, Andy McKee, Richard Smith, Gareth Pearson, Greg Koch, Dan Wilson, and Ted Ludwig.
Dedicated to using the finest instruments, Roberts endorses Benedetto Guitars, Ribbecke Guitars, Buscarino amplifiers, and Henriksen amplifiers. Likened to Tommy Emmanuel, Russell Malone, Wes Montgomery, Tuck Andress, and Charlie Hunter, Roberts’ masterful playing has begun to etch his name alongside his heroes.
Chris Amelar is a guitarist, educator, and author now based in Savannah, Georgia, bringing with him a career forged in the vibrant and demanding musical world of the New York/New Jersey tri-state area. Amelar holds a Bachelor of Music in Jazz Studies, graduating Magna Cum Laude with Honors from William Paterson University, where he studied with jazz luminaries including Rufus Reid, Vic Juris, Joe Lovano, Dave Samuels, Harold Mabern, Art Farmer, and Percy Heath. That world-class education laid the foundation for a career that has proven as wide-ranging as it is accomplished.
Amelar has performed for President Clinton, and alongside guitarist Andy Timmons, Glen Burtnik of Styx, and Christian music legend Phil Keaggy, as well as at marquee New York venues including BB King’s, The Bitter End, The Blue Note, and The Knitting Factory. His festival credits include NJPAC, the JVC Jazz Festival, and Z100’s Zootopia Concert at the Izod Arena. One of the more remarkable chapters of Amelar’s career came through his collaboration with Dream Theater keyboardist Jordan Rudess. Amelar performed all guitar parts on Rudess’s album Listen, a critically praised release that earned Rudess the Best New Talent award in the 1994 Keyboard Magazine Readers Poll.
In 1999, Amelar co-founded the Latin-Tropical-Soul group 3D Rhythm of Life alongside drummer Michael Tate Bands Near Me, a project that would become one of the most distinctive ensembles in the New York Latin scene. Multicultural, bilingual, and known for blending Funky Latin Pop, Island Grooves, and R&B, the group produced six records and performed throughout the tri-state area for over a decade, sharing stages with the likes of Marc Anthony, Whitney Houston, Kid Creole and the Coconuts, and Jennifer Lopez. The group’s recordings drew praise from JazzTimes and earned a Latin Grammy nomination.
As an educator, Amelar has been equally prolific. In addition to teaching private guitar and bass lessons, he has conducted group classes and clinics around the country for The National Guitar Workshop, and founded the “Jamming for Juniors” preschool music program, used at schools throughout New Jersey. He is also a published author, with a catalog of instructional books and play-along titles covering rock, jazz, blues, funk, country, and beyond. Now rooted in Savannah, Chris Amelar carries the breadth of a New York career into the heart of the Lowcountry — a musician and teacher whose curiosity about the guitar has never stopped driving him forward.
Billy Thornton (bass) was raised in rural South Georgia in a musical family. He originally started on bass because it was needed in his father’s band. As Billy grew to love the electric and upright bass he also fell in love with many styles of music and studied the bass’ role in each of them. He studied jazz in college at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville but never cut himself off from the larger musical world. In addition to performing straight ahead jazz Billy has maintained a schedule playing in bands that specialize in classic rock, reggae, indie-folk, pop, and even Celtic rock.
The jazz standards of yesteryear were pop songs of their time. With this in mind, bassist and vocalist Billy Thornton combines his love of playing in the jazz style with the pop and rock songs he grew up listening to. Billy and his band mates enjoy inventing new harmonic and rhythmic backdrops for songs by artists such as The Beatles, Taylor Swift, Jimi Hendrix, Blondie, and Britney Spears. With the spirit of play and creativity at the forefront, these songs become vehicles for exploration and musical joy.
Billy Thornton is no stranger to jazz lovers in the southeast as a bassist. He is based in Atlanta, Georgia and has been a member of bands in many musical styles from jazz to R&B and from top-40 pop to Celtic Rock. As a vocalist, Billy expresses himself with honesty. He sings songs that he loves and finds something new in each song every night. The spirit of playing jazz music is in group improvisation, and this isn’t limited to songs from a certain era. The Billy Thornton Quartet plays the songs of today knowing they will become jazz standards.
