Russ Hewitt - Cielo Nocturno (2016)

Guitarist virtuoso Russ Hewitt is known for his rumba flamenco rhythms and lightning guitar runs which have become trademarks of his distinctive style. Hewitt's two releases, Bajo el Sol and Alma Vieja, has garnered press and reviews from all over the world and praise among his peers and his new release, Cielo Nocturno is set to do the same. Cielo Nocturno features a stellar line up of backing musicians including percussionist Raphael Padilla (Miami Sound Machine, Shakira, Chris Isaak), drummer Walfredo Reyes Jr. (Santana, Steve Winwood, Chicago), guitarist Larry Carlton, guitarist Ardeshir Farah (Strunz and Farah), bassist Bob Parr (Cher, Brian Setzer Orchestra), guitarist Alfredo Caceres (Gipsy Kings All-Stars), and accordionist Vladimir Kaliazine. All three releases were mastered by Chris Bellman (Van Halen, Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, Elton John)

Hewitt's first CD, Bajo el Sol, gained favorable opinion rapidly, translating into prolific air play and a ten week stay at #1 on Music Choice, the satellite-cable television smooth jazz playlist, and maintained a constant presence on the Smooth Jazz indie charts for over 16 weeks. The first track to be released to radio -- the dazzlingly Latin flavored title cut -- climbed into the Top 20 with the two that followed enjoying similar success. ‘Lydia’ peaked at #15 and stormed onto the Billboard's Top 40, while ‘El Beso’ made it onto that same Top 40 listing. The second CD, Alma Vieja, produced an additional two Top 40 Smooth Jazz singles ‘Pacific Sunrise’ and ‘Samba Samba’. North of Home
featuring the four time Grammy winner Larry Carlton will be the first single released from Cielo Nocturno.

In addition, Bajo el Sol made the ballot for the 52nd Grammy Awards in the categories Best Pop Instrumental Performance, Best Pop Instrumental Album, Best Instrumental Composition, Best Instrumental Arrangement and Best Engineered Album (in the non-classical section). ‘El Beso’ was included in the www.smoothjazznow.com Top 100 Smooth Jazz Songs of 2009 and, most significantly, from a field of 15,000 applicants. Hewitt gained an ‘Honorable Mention’ for the title song 'Bajo el Sol' in the Instrumental Music category at the 2009 International Songwriting Competition.

Hewitt has endorsements from Godin guitars, Radial Engineering, Analysis Plus Cables, Morley Pedals, V-Picks, Voodoo Lab, BBF Pedalboards, Primacoustic, Mission Engineering and DLS Effects who feature him on their artist's page and website. In edition to doing artist interviews and a monthly lesson column in the guitar magazine ‘The Sound’, Russ continues to extend his boundaries into soundtracks and commercial work having won five Telly Awards for 'Parent Compass' and the DVD companion to the New York Best Seller 'The Harbinger Decoded' by Johnathan Cahn. This year saw the released of The Mystery of the Shemitah Unlocked which immediately went to #1 in Amazon's Faith & Spirituality category. Russ has also written the music in the upcoming feature film Thirst: Mission Liberia which has already won a Silver Telly, the top award, in the spiritual/ faith category and a Bronze Telly in the Documentary category.