TODD MOSBY BIO

Not many people know the rich and diverse musical heritage of Missouri. Bluegrass flows from the Ozark Mountains. Blues drifts in along the Mississippi River. Rock ‘n’ roll is part of the state’s DNA—after all, Missouri is the birthplace of Chuck Berry, the “Father of Rock ‘n’ Roll.” Jazz legends like Charlie Parker, Lester Young, and Pat Metheny are native sons. The “Show-Me State” has a lot to say for its musical legacy.

Among Missouri’s modern musical masters is composer, guitarist, and Imrat guitar inventor Todd Mosby. The St. Louis, MO-based artist’s latest album, American Heartland, is the second chapter in a musical travelogue that tone-paints the geography and spirit of America. It’s a sonic tribute to the only state that could produce a Todd Mosby.

“I have a lot of roots in where I grew up,” says Mosby. “It’s really isolated, but it’s also very rich in musical history and culture. You can absorb it all and still have the freedom to develop your own voice.”

Mosby is an award-winning musician who regularly collaborates with some of the most revered studio musicians in the industry. His music synthesizes the sounds of Missouri into a genre-defying, evocative language. A virtuoso musician with a painter’s imagination, Mosby uses jazz, folk, New Age, rock, blues, North Indian classical music, bossa nova, and more to create richly-textured geotemporal soundscapes.

Mosby attended Berklee College of Music as an undergrad, Webster University as a graduate student, and, for 13 years, studied classical North Indian music with Ustadt Imrat Khan. He is one of the few musicians in America who has mastered western composition, jazz improvisation, and Indian raga music forms and incorporates them freely as a part of his musical language. In addition, Mosby has the distinction of being the only guitarist to become a member of the famed Imdhad Khani Gharana of musicians, India’s most prestigious family of sitar musicians dating back 500 years to the courts of the Mughal Emperors.

To bridge Indian and Western musical traditions, Mosby was pivotal in the original design of the Imrat guitar, an 18-string hybrid instrument that blends the timbres and techniques of sitar and guitar.

Mosby crafts sophisticated yet accessible music, in the tradition of artists like Steely Dan, Wes Montgomery, James Taylor, and Joni Mitchell. His compositions feature compelling melodic structures and complex instrumental passages that appeal to both seasoned musicians and casual listeners alike.

He’s worked extensively with world-renowned, multi Grammy-winning contemporary folk producer/guitarist and Windham Hill Records founder Will Ackerman, and two-time Grammy-winning producer Jeff Weber who returns for American Heartland. Other marquee names include session musicians saxophonist Tom Scott, drummer Vinnie Colaiuta, percussionist Luis Conte, and bassist Leland Sklar. Additional contributors boast credits that, among others, include everyone from Frank Ocean to John Lennon.

Over the course of his career, Mosby has released seven albums and one single, along the way winning two ZMR Broadcasters Awards, a USA Songwriters Award, and earning the privilege of becoming a Grammy voter. He has earned raves from India’s Music Ambassador Ustadt Imrat Khan; 17-time Grammy Nominee and jazz guitar legend Mike Stern; and Berklee College of Music President, 7-time Grammy Award Winner, and jazz legend, Gary Burton.

American Heartland is a culmination of Mosby’s journey, thus far. The 11-track collection traverses contemporary jazz, New Age, contemporary folk, blues, solo acoustic guitar, and jazz-rock. Compositions feature lush orchestration, sultry female vocalise, driving horn sections, stately strings, and scene-setting minimalistic lyrics. “I studied poetry, and I like to use words to convey images,” Mosby says.

Those images evoke the soul of Missouri. The rolling hills, the golden fields, the star-filled skies, the lush greens, the sound of distant thunder storms, and the breathtaking sunrise over the Ozarks. American Heartland also recalls the work of French impressionists where they seek to elevate everyday moments with artistic renderings of sprawling landscapes.

Mosby has lived in Missouri his whole life. He remembers waking up at 5:00 AM to feed the horses, cattle, and chickens on his family’s farm. A ritual he immortalizes on the earthy and elegant American Heartland solo guitar piece,“On The Farm.”

A world away but still in Missouri, Mosby can recall discovering Indian ragas at a local retail bookstore. The expanded palette of sound offered by this music would prove profound to his later artistic development. Mosby’s musical world was also shaped through playing various instruments in bluegrass bands, and discovering jazz through his buddy’s mother record collection. She once dated legendary jazz producer/label impresario Norman Granz (Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Lester Young, Billie Holiday). Granz gave her his whole collection of the iconic live recording series he produced, Jazz at the Philharmonic.

Mosby’s individualistic and panoramic artistic perspective is on full display on American Heartland. The album’s opening track, “All The Stars Tonight,” is a shimmery bossa nova piece inspired by stargazing and spiral galaxies. “Witchi Tai” is an original musical rendition of the Native American phrase, reimagined in two parts. Part one is a New Age instrumental, and part two is driving 1970’s acoustic-rock with haunting vocalise.

“Clouds Above Golden Fields” offers a Satie-and-Debussy-inspired contemporary chamber folk atmosphere. Mosby’s imaginative interpretation of Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now” features ethereal female vocals, alongside a cellist and bassist Michael Manring.

The samba tune “Palomino” is inspired by Mosby’s childhood spent riding horses, and his love for drawing them. It’s a harmonically rich, galloping bossa nova in the style of Antônio Carlos Jobim, but with passages featuring unexpected chord changes. The title track, “American Heartland,” is a contemporary jazz piece steeped in the rustic warmth of Missouri.

American Heartland was recorded at the iconic Village Studios in Los Angeles with Grammy-winning engineer Clark Germain and multi Grammy-winning producer Jeffrey Weber. The Village is a legendary facility that has hosted history-making sessions with Steely Dan, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Frank Zappa, Elton John, and John Mayer, among many others.

Mosby will continue his travelogue series with the third and final entry, a collection of Northeastern sketches. Though this program of albums features sonic snapshots of beloved locations, no place holds more meaning to Mosby than Missouri. “Every tune brings forth beautiful memories, sonic descriptions and emotive landscapes. American Heartland feels like home,” Mosby says.