Russell Welch

RUSSELL WELCH, is an independent recording and performing jazz guitarist, composer, and band-leader based in New Orleans, and a native of Jackson, Mississippi.

The 2022 Django A Gogo International Festival and Guitar Camp (NYC/N.J.) called him "not only the most sought after guitarist in New Orleans, (but) also one of the finest Django (Reinhardt)

style players in the world!"

"This is virtuoso guitar work, pure and simple. A master of the instrument and the Gypsy genre lets the fireworks fly, but it's always tasteful and melodic; it always feels effortless. He's having fun and it's simply amazing. This music belongs in a Wes Anderson movie. It's quirky, inventive, fun, playful and always fundamentally sound musicianship. I love it. For its personality and beauty." - Jon Stewart (Detroit)

Russell has been a faculty member and featured concert performer at two of the most prestigious Django Reinhardt Jazz festivals in North America: Django a GoGo International Festival and

Guitar Camp (New York City, 2022), and Django in June Festival and Guitar Camp (Southampton, Massachusetts, 2022), and a featured concert performer at others, including the Midwest

Gypsy Swing Festival in Madison, Wisconsin; the Charm City Django Jazz Fest in Baltimore, Maryland; the Jazz and Heritage Festival and the French Quarter Festival in New Orleans, Louisiana;

The Township Jazz Festival and the Millsaps (College) Arts and Lecture Series in Jackson, Mississippi, inter alia.

He is also a working club and public/private event guitarist with a variety of different genre (jazz, rock, R&B) bands based in New Orleans, including: The Russell Welch Hot Quartet/Trio, The Champagniacs, Meschiya Lake and the Little Big Horns, The Jumbo Shrimp Jazz Band, The Hot Club of New Orleans, Meschiya and the Machetes, and King James and the Special Men.

Russell and his albums have been honored with multiple “New Orleans Best” nominations, and reviews have praised his albums as a "tour de force” (“Mississippi Gipsy”)) and “masterful”

(“Mississippi Gipsy” “Showarama”), inter alia. His studio-quality "Live In Baltimore" RWHQ concert album was recorded at the Charm City Django Jazz Festival.

Russell and his bands have toured the world, performing for festivals, concerts, clubs, and events in 12 countries and counting. He plays somewhere in New Orleans almost every night when

he is in town. Check his website, above for regular weekly gigs, and Russell Welch Russell Welch Page The Russell Welch Hot Quartet and other band FB pages for dailies. His own band

albums are available on his website, above; on Band Camp, https://russellwelch.bandcamp.com, and, a few, on Spotify.

Video samples:
"Whoopin' Blues" et al., Django A Gogo, 2022 (faculty member promo) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLsnfDM-W38
"Enter:Grace" (Russell Welch), Midwest Gypsy Swing Festival: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czaSbapwyZI
Millsaps Arts and Lecture Series concert, 2nd Set: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3KzawCVO6Y
"Mississippi Gipsy" (Russell Welch) album release concert: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5syC3w_WCoM