Artist Lounge | Greg Mathieson

Greg Mathieson was born February 25th, 1950, in Los Angeles, CA and has been a native of Southern California his whole life. He started piano lessons at the age of 10, and then switched to the trumpet at age 14 so he could participate in school activities. During Junior High and High School he continued to play the piano and took harmony lessons from Ken Hanna who was an arranger with Stan Kenton. In 1968 Greg went to Valley College (in the San Fernando Valley) where he switched back to piano and joined the "A" jazz band, which won the California State Championship both years he attended. In 1970 he attended CSUN for 1 year.

It was at this point that Greg decided to become a professional musician. From 1971 1974 Greg played casuals (wedding receptions, parties, etc.) then a series of club gigs including the Bla Bla Club as a duo with Al Jarreau, the Play Boy Club lounge in Hollywood, CA for a year and a supper club across the street from A&M Records called the ETC with Maxine Weldon. Greg replaced Edgar Winter in White Trash, cut an album with them, and played the Whisky a Go Go. Greg was in Al Jarreau's band the night Al got his record deal at the Troubadour club. At the end of 1974 1976 he traveled with Helen Reddy around the world and from 1976 1978 he traveled with Olivia Newton-John. In 1977-78 Greg started his own fusion band and started playing at the Baked Potato and also at this time met Larry Carlton, with whom he recorded four albums. Greg still plays with Larry "live".

In 1978 Greg made a commitment to stop traveling and become part of the vibrant L.A. studio scene. Not only did he become one of the top keyboard session players but he also became one of the top arrangers, including String and Horn arrangements. It was at this time he played and arranged his first hits with Donna Summer, Barbara Streisand, the sound track for Midnight Express and Umberto Tozzi in Europe. In the early 1980's he tried his hand at producing and immediately had hits with Tony Basil's "Mickey" and Laura Branigan's "Gloria". For the rest of the 80's, while he continued to arrange and produce records, he also made two solo albums. In 1981 he recorded a live album at the Baked Potato with two members of the group Toto, Steve Lukather and Jeff Porcaro, along with Pop's Popwell from the Jazz Crusaders. In 1986 he recorded a studio album on Head First Records featuring Carlos Vega, Michael Landau, Abraham Laboriel and Luis Conte. In the 1990's Greg spent most of his time traveling and producing in Europe. In the last five years Greg has recorded 3 solo albums, traveled with Faith Hill and continues to arrange, write and produce.