About

Amid the swirling sounds and scenes intersected by Los Angeles’ sprawling freeways, John Carroll Kirby is somewhere at the centre of it all, shirt open, hair slicked back. He circles the city’s buzzing jazz movement with his soul-dappled instrumentals and is a keysman, composer and producer who’s been enlisted by some of the most exciting names in contemporary pop: Frank Ocean, Mark Ronson, Harry Styles, Blood Orange, and Solange Knowles, whose incendiary past two albums, A Seat at the Table and When I Get Home, were shaped in part by Kirby.

He sees himself as more of a Ry Cooder character, the guitarist who co-directed the Cuban ensemble Buena Vista Social Club. “He’s a kind of genreless musician,” says Kirby. “He’s just centred around guitar and where that fits into different scenarios. I’m trying to do something similar, but with the keyboard.” – The Guardian