The California Guitar Trio's core lineup consisted of Paul Richards, Bert Lams, and Hideyo Moriya.
Today's CGT lineup includes founding members Richards and Lams, with the addition of Tom Griesgraber, a Chapman Stick virtuoso.
Highly regarded instrumentalists, the CGT have achieved worldwide renown for their eclectic repertoire, precision arrangements, and expansive sonic palette.
The three original members—Paul Richards of Salt Lake City, Utah, Bert Lams of Affligem, Belgium, and Hideyo Moriya of Tokyo, Japan—toured as part of Robert Fripp and The League of Crafty Guitarists.
[1] After completing the 1991 tour of Europe with the League of Crafty Guitarists, Fripp asked Lams to write down a list of musical aims, materials, strategy, and possible collaborators for what was called the California Project.
[2] Lams named two other Guitar Craft students as potential collaborators who would be willing to move temporarily to Los Angeles to work with him on this project based out of his home: Richards and Moriya.
Their performances and recordings include original compositions, surf covers, and arrangements of classical music created for the New Standard Tuning and their tight interplay style known as "circulation" in the Guitar Craft parlance.
In 1998, CGT released Pathways, in similar format to the first two albums, with combinations of original compositions, arrangements of classical pieces, and surf guitar songs.
California Guitar Trio maintains an exhaustive list of their appearances on their website dating back to their first formal show in February, 1991.
[7] The following artists have appeared on CGT recordings: In addition to their collaborations, California Guitar Trio have shared the stage as either an opening act or headlining performance with musicians as varied as King Crimson, John McLaughlin, Jerry Marotta, David Sylvian, Tito Puente, Leftover Salmon, Taj Mahal, Guy Pratt, Steve Lukather, Simon Phillips, Adrian Legg, Jon Anderson,[8] the California Symphony, Monte Montgomery, Enchant, Spock's Beard, The Flower Kings, Slash's Snakepit, Rick Wakeman,[9] The Flower Kings, Primus, Zoë Keating, Adrian Belew Power Trio, Jake Shimabukuro[10] and Trace Bundy.
In 2005, Lams released Nascent, a collection of Bach preludes and violin partitas transcribed for the guitar in New Standard Tuning.
Lams, along with Italian guitarist Fabio Mittino have recorded and toured as a duet performing the music of George Gurdjieff and Thomas de Hartmann.
The three founding members of CGT can also be heard on two albums recorded by Robert Fripp and The League of Crafty Guitarists.