☰
Peter performing on guitar , harmonica and piano

About Peter Morgan

Pacific Audio Records recording artist Peter Morgan composes and performs unique original smooth jazz instrumentals delivered in a coastal style, spiced a dash of blues and Latin that is Peter's signature sound. Morgan has produced all six of his albums showcasing his multi-instrumental skills on guitar, harmonica, bass, keyboards, lap steel, dobro, pedal steel, pan flute, ukulele, percussion and vocals.

Peter Morgan has performed alongside some of the biggest names in jazz including Doobbie Brother Michael McDonald, trumpeter Chris Botti, saxophonist Kim Waters, keyboardist Phillipe Saisse, Jon Anderson of "YES" and the smooth jazz super-group Fattburger, to name a few. He's performed for celebrities including Carol King, Kenny Rogers, Red Skelton and more.

He has has performed numerous festivals including the Sacramento Jazz festival, the world's largest jazz festival, and others including the Lompoc Flower Festival and the Folsom water Festival.

Background

Peter was born and raised on California's Central Coast. From an early age he was exposed to rock and roll from The beetles, Stones, Beach boys. He loved the band Poco and feel in love with pedal steel guitar and the dobro. Poco was the gateway to country rock and The Eagles and Loggins & Messina. Peter took guitar lessons on his big brother's guitar in fifth grade has been obsessed with guitar and music ever since. He studied music at Cal State Stanislaus where he performed in school jazz combos the the university big band, while playing in country and rock band evenings and weekends.

His next stop was Cal pol San Luis Obispo where he earned a bachelors degree in graphics communication with an emphasis on graphic design. he worked as a graphic designer and photographer in Sand Diego, Santa Cruz and Sacramento and spent 33 years in marketing at Intel Corporation. Through it all he kept a full schedule of music performances for events, wineries and concerts with his ban, The Peter Morgan Group.


Peter performing with Michael McDonald

World-Class Collaboration

Peter collaborates with world-class guest artist on his projects including Vel Selvan (Cold Blood, Joni Mitchell and the LA Express) and Tom Saviano (Bill Champlin, Brian Bromberg, Jeff Golub, Lee Ritenour, Brenda Russell, Maroon Five and Earth, Wind & Fire).You can see Peter perform with Grant Reeves (Dan Siegel, Richard Marx, Bob Marley, Toto, Tom Scott, David Sanborn, Spyro Gyra and The Jazz Crusaders). Vel, Tom and and Grant are gifted, seasoned first-call professional musicians with a world of experience and list of credits most musicians could only dream of. "I am very lucky to be able to collaborate with so many wonderful players", says Peter. And you'll always hear member's of The Peter Morgan Band featuring Bill Sidney on saxophones, Eric Parsons on Bass, Miguel Castillo on percussion.

Music For Television

Heart Of Dixe TV Show soundtrack

played guitar, harmonica and pedal steel on a song that was used on the WB Network's hit show Hart of Dixie. Peter recorded steel guitar and Pedal Steel guitar on the soundtrack for Actor Mark Harelik's original musical No Teardrops Tonight". Peter has received national exposure as the music director for a number of public television specials including The Boston Computer Museum's Computer Bowl and The Software Publishers Associations 10th annual Excellence in Software Codie Awards. Both broadcast on PBS' Computer Chronicles.

Music For Marketing

Peter Morgan receives Crystal award for Sacramento Zoo jinglePeter Morgan's IABC award for Sacramento Zoo jingleMorgan unites his passion for music with his marketing career to create original jingles, corporate motivational music, trade show sound tracks as well as film, multimedia and video scores. Peter composed and produced the soundtrack for Intel Corporation's Smithsonian exhibit and has composed and produced music for numerous corporate videos for Fortune 1,000 companies including Intel and Microsoft.

Peter Morgan Creative Services has been honored with awards for excellence in communications from both The Sacramento Ad Club and the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC).  Click here to hear a fun example of Peter's world-class commercial work with an MP3 file of his original Sacramento Zoo jingle.  Peter's music was used for a TV commercial for the Folsom Tourism Bureau.

Even with a busy performance schedule Peter and the band find time to give back to the community performing and donating CDs for The March of Dimes, St. John's Home for homeless Women and Children, Muscular Dystrophy and a number of local schools.

In The Press

Fortune Magazine cover Peter was featured in a story in Fortune Magazine about bands in corporate America. 

 FolsomStyle Magazineagazine Peter was voted favorite musician for El Dorado Hills and Folsom California. 

Peter's performance for the Crocker Art museum's "Third Thursday At The Crocker" was featured in Sacramento Magazine.

sacramento business JournalThe Sacramento Business Journal did an article focusing on Peter's work life balance of his marketing career at Intel corporation and his passion for producing and performing music.

In The Community

Over the years Peter and his group have been very active in the community often donating their time and talents to assist non-profit charity organizations such as:


Musical Education

Peter studied music theory, voice and jazz at Stanislaus State university where he performed in the university big band and numerous jazz, rock and country bands. He went on to study music at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (California polytechnic State University) while earning his Bachelors degree in Graphic Communications/Design while performing in rock and country bands to fund his education.

Musical Influences

Morgan has studied and performed many diverse music styles including ensemble, big band and contemporary jazz, as well as rock, country, reggae, ;Latin and bluegrass. His musical influences are many given the various instruments he plays. His .guitar heroes include Larry Carlton, Lee Ritenour, Jimmy Messina , Robben Ford, Albert Lee, and Brent Mason. David Lindley, Bonnie Raitt ,and Lowell George inspired Peter's expressive slide guitar and lap steel style. Norton Buffalo and Peter's dear friend and mentor Mike Caldwell lite a fire in Peter's melodic harmonica style. Peter's compositions show influences of Mike Post, David Benoit, Spyro Gyra and Russ Freeman of The Rippingtons.

In The Arts

Peter has performed for Capital Public Radio's Second Saturday Artist Reception, a Sacramento Watercolor Artist Association event, The Folsom Gourd Festival, receptions every year at The Gallery At 48 Natoma in Folsom, and annually for the El Dorado Hills Arts Association Art Festival.  Check out the Calendar page for future performance information.

Discography

Peter's Gear

Peter is a multi-instrumentalist who is proficient on guitar, pedal steel guitar, lap steel and slide guitar, bass, keyboards, harmonica and knows enough to be dangerous on mandolin, ukulele and banjo. For the hard-core music gear-heads, Check out a complete listing of Peter Morgan's instruments and gear.
 

Peter Morgan instruments collage