Welcome!

Hello and thanks for visiting here! My name is Jimmy Cruz. I’m an Atlanta-area musician, primarily an electric and acoustic guitarist and instrumental music composer as well as a professional guitar instructor.

You’ll find here a little bit about me, various video performances, music audios and blog posts about some of my compositions or musical happenings. Some of the musical recordings posted here are songs I’ve composed or are recordings of other artists which I have contributed my guitar work.

Original Works and musical Collaborations

A few of my original music can be heard on the Music page. There you’ll find a few of my own compositions, renditions of other’s songs done on both electric and acoustic guitar. There will also be a sampling of work I’ve done with other artists. My personal compositions will contain styles of blues, jazz, rock, acoustic stylings and at times a mix of all of this in a song.

Guitarist for Rock Artist Erin Reilly: Over the last 2 years, I’ve recorded guitar work on 2 albums by Erin Reilly and we’re now working on a 3rd. Erin Reilly is a Virginia-based Christian Rock singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. She graduated with a degree in music education and is a prolific songwriter. Her music covers a wide range of styles containing rock, jazz and classical elements. Early in 2021 she invited me to help her out with a song she was recording where she needed some guitar parts played. Since then I have continued partnering with her adding my guitar work to her recording projects. Her songwriting has a strong gospel-based message and we share a common regard and vision for music and our individual talents. Click Here to see my blog post featuring Erin’s music along with my guitar contributions.

Italian Jazz Violinist/Keyboardist Giorgio Finetti: In late February 2022, I was invited by my friend, Italian Jazz violinist Giorgio Finetti, to play on a funk tune he collaborated on with bassist Steve Lucas called “BumpDeFunker”. It was a fun tune that had a 70’s funk feel. Giorgio played violin & keyboards, Steve played bass, Mark Jensen was on drums, Paul Whitwam played rhythm guitars and I contributed the lead guitar work. You can see the tune video at the bottom of My Music page. I’ve previously worked on a few songs by Giorgio which can also be found on that page.

Gospel Jazz Guitar: Throughout the last couple of years, I’ve worked on a personal project I’ve called The Gospel Jazz Project in which I’ve taken a classic church hymn that has had a special meaning and encouragement to me. I’ve rearranged each into jazz instrumental pieces, some done as solo acoustic guitar pieces and others as a band arrangement. I’ve recorded a handful of these songs in that project with plans on doing others here and there. Those old church hymns are wonderful and replete with strong biblical teaching interwoven in finely composed lyrics. Click Here to go to the song list to give them a listen.