Gregory Lyle Gisbert is an American jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 trumpeter and flugelhorn

Flugelhorn

The flugelhorn is a brass instrument resembling a trumpet but with a wider, conical bore. Some consider it to be a member of the saxhorn family developed by Adolphe Sax ; however, other historians assert that it derives from the valve bugle designed by Michael Saurle , Munich 1832 , thus...

ist.

Early years and school

Gisbert played drums with his father as a child. He moved with his family to Denver in 1971. During high school in Colorado Gisbert auditioned for and played with the 1983/84 McDonald's All-American High School Jazz Band; he toured and recorded with the group. After high school he attended the Berklee College of Music

Berklee College of Music

Berklee College of Music, located in Boston, Massachusetts, is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known primarily as a school for jazz, rock and popular music, it also offers college-level courses in a wide range of contemporary and historic styles, including hip...

 in 1984-85, where he recorded alongside Cyrus Chestnut

Cyrus Chestnut

Cyrus Chestnut is an American jazz pianist, songwriter, and producer. In 2006, Josh Tyrangiel, music critic for Time Magazine, wrote: "What makes Chestnut the best jazz pianist of his generation is a willingness to abandon notes and play space." Chestnut enjoys mixing styles and resists being...

 as part of Phil Wilson

Phil Wilson (trombonist)

Phillips Elder Wilson, Jr. is a jazz trombonist, arranger, and teacher. He might be best known as an instructor at the Berklee College of Music and a former chairman at the jazz division of the New England Conservatory of Music.He began on piano, but was advised to switch to trombone due to his...

's Rainbow Band.

Professional work

During his brief time in school at Berklee Gisbert was offered to go on the road with Buddy Rich

Buddy Rich

Bernard "Buddy" Rich was an American jazz drummer and bandleader. Rich was billed as "the world's greatest drummer" and was known for his virtuosic technique, power, groove, and speed.-Early life:...

 as a connection made through Wilson. Gisbert's credits have then included: Buddy Rich (1985-86), Woody Herman

Woody Herman

Woodrow Charles Herman , known as Woody Herman, was an American jazz clarinetist, alto and soprano saxophonist, singer, and big band leader. Leading various groups called "The Herd," Herman was one of the most popular of the 1930s and '40s bandleaders...

's band under Frank Tiberi

Frank Tiberi

Frank Tiberi is the leader of the Woody Herman Orchestra. He was hand-picked by Woody Herman shortly before Herman's death, to lead the band, and he has been doing it since 1987. He plays the alto and tenor saxophone, clarinet, flute, and the bassoon. He has been performing and recording since...

's direction (1987-89), John Fedchock

John Fedchock

John Fedchock is an American jazz trombonist, bandleader, and arranger.Fedchock studied at Ohio State University and the Eastman School of Music. He worked for several years in the Woody Herman Orchestra in the 1980s, and was particularly noted for his arrangements during this time...

 and Maria Schneider

Maria Schneider (musician)

Maria Schneider is an American arranger, composer, and big-band leader who has won multiple awards. In 2005, her album Concert in the Garden won a Grammy for "Best Large Ensemble Album"...

, Gary Burton

Gary Burton

Gary Burton is an American jazz vibraphonist.A true original on the vibraphone, Burton developed a pianistic style of four-mallet technique as an alternative to the usual two-mallets. This approach caused Burton to be heralded as an innovator and his sound and technique are widely imitated...

 (1989), Lew Anderson

Lew Anderson

Lewis Burr Anderson was an American actor and musician, most famous for being the third and final actor to portray Clarabell the Clown on Howdy Doody between 1954 and 1960...

 (1989) and Toshiko Akiyoshi

Toshiko Akiyoshi

is a Japanese American jazz pianist, composer/arranger and bandleader. Among a very few successful female instrumentalists of her generation in jazz, she is also recognized as a major figure in jazz composition. She has received 14 Grammy nominations, and she was the first woman to win the Best...

 (1989 and subsequently). In the 1990s he played with Mingus Epitaph (1990-92), Frank Wess

Frank Wess

Frank Wess is an American jazz musician, who has played saxophone and flute.-Biography:...

, Clark Terry

Clark Terry

Clark Terry is an American swing and bop trumpeter, a pioneer of the fluegelhorn in jazz, educator, NEA Jazz Masters inductee, and recipient of the 2010 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award...

, Mickey Tucker

Mickey Tucker

Mickey Tucker is an American jazz pianist and organist.Tucker began on piano at age six, and played in church when young. He did studio work in the 1960s with R&B musicians such as Little Anthony & the Imperials and Damita Jo; he accompanied comedian Timmy Rogers...

 and Buck Clayton

Buck Clayton

Buck Clayton was an American jazz trumpet player who was a leading member of Count Basie’s "Old Testament" orchestra and a leader of mainstream-oriented jam session recordings in the 1950s. His principal influence was Louis Armstrong...

 (1991), Danny D'Imperio (1991) Norman Simmons

Norman Simmons (musician)

Norman Simmons is an American arranger, composer, educator, and most prominently a pianist who has worked extensively with Helen Humes, Carmen McRae, and Sarah Vaughan, Anita O'Day, and Joe Williams among others.-Biography:...

 (1992), John Hicks

John Hicks (jazz pianist)

John Josephus Hicks, Jr. was an American jazz pianist and composer, active in the New York and the international jazz scene from the mid-1960s.-Biography:...

 (1992), Fedchock and Schneider again, and with the Convergence quintet. From 1994 to 1997 he worked with Joe Roccisano

Joe Roccisano

Joseph Lucian "Joe" Roccisano was an American jazz saxophonist and arranger.Roccisano received his BS in music education from SUNY-Potsdam in 1963...

, and recorded with Chuck Bergeron, Loren Schoenberg

Loren Schoenberg

Loren Schoenberg is a jazz historian, writer of liner notes, and tenor saxophonist. He began playing tenor saxophone in 1974 and by the late 1970s he was playing professionally with Benny Goodman...

 and Ken Peplowski

Ken Peplowski

Ken Peplowski is a jazz clarinetist born in Cleveland, Ohio, known primarily for playing in the swing music idiom. He is sometimes compared to Benny Goodman in terms of tone and virtuosity...

. He accompanied Carol Sloane

Carol Sloane

Carol Sloane is an American jazz singer born in Providence, Rhode Island, who has been singing professionally since she was 14, although for a time in the 1970s she worked as a legal secretary in Raleigh, North Carolina. She currently lives in Stoneham, Massachusetts.One of her early efforts was...

 and Susannah McCorkle

Susannah McCorkle

Susannah McCorkle was an American jazz singer much admired for her direct, unadorned singing style and quiet intensity.-Biography:...

 in large ensembles in 1996. He has recorded three albums under his own name for Criss Cross Jazz

Criss Cross Jazz

Criss Cross Jazz is a Dutch jazz record label, specializing in American jazz.Criss Cross was founded in 1980 by Gerry Teekens, a drummer and German professor. The label, which releases about 20 albums per year, is noted for its simple, block-color cover art...

.

In recent years, Gisbert has become an active and highly respected jazz educator, teaching at festivals and conducting clinics across the United States. He also had two stints on the Jazz faculty at the University of Miami in the 2000's.

He has also branched out in producing; bringing the up and coming conductor and composer, Chie Imiazumi, to the public's attention, acting as producer of her debut album, "Unfailing Kindness".

Additionally, Gisbert is a founding member of Convergence, whose members include Paul Romaine on drums and Jon Gunther on saxophone. The highly regarded group is based out of Colorado and can be often heard playing at the Pec Too in west Denver.

Discography as leader

• Harcology (Criss Cross Jazz
  Criss Cross Jazz
  Criss Cross Jazz is a Dutch jazz record label, specializing in American jazz.Criss Cross was founded in 1980 by Gerry Teekens, a drummer and German professor. The label, which releases about 20 albums per year, is noted for its simple, block-color cover art...
  
  , 1992)
• Gisbert and Gunther, Big Lunage (Capri Records
  Capri Records
  Capri Records was a short-lived but influential rock and roll record label established in Conroe, Texas by Huey P Meaux and Foy Lee in the early 1960s...
  
  , 1993)
• On Second Thought (Criss Cross, 1996)
• Court Jester (Criss Cross, 1999)