Gary William Green (20 November 1950 in Stroud Green,

North London North London is the northern part of London, England, north of the River Thames. It extends from Clerkenwell and Finsbury, on the edge of the City of London financial district, to Greater London's boundary with Hertfordshire. The term ''nort ...

, England) is an English musician. During the 1970s, he was the

guitarist A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselv ...

for the

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. Init ...

band

Gentle Giant Gentle Giant were a British progressive rock band active between 1970 and 1980. The band were known for the complexity and sophistication of their music and for the varied musical skills of their members. All of the band members were multi-inst ...

. Green was with the band from the debut album ''

'' all the way to the last album ''

Civilian Civilians under international humanitarian law are "persons who are not members of the armed forces" and they are not "combatants if they carry arms openly and respect the laws and customs of war". It is slightly different from a non-combatant, b ...

''. Green's style was different from most of his peers, being a more

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

-based guitarist. Like his fellow band members, Green was also adept at other instruments, including

mandolin A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...

and

recorder Recorder or The Recorder may refer to: Newspapers * ''Indianapolis Recorder'', a weekly newspaper * ''The Recorder'' (Massachusetts newspaper), a daily newspaper published in Greenfield, Massachusetts, US * ''The Recorder'' (Port Pirie), a news ...

. According to a 2008 interview, founding member Phil Shulman said that, despite Green's blues influences, he fit in well with the band's progressive style since Green was "quick on the up-take."
/ref> Later on, he was a member of the band Mother Tongue, and also recorded on '' The Green Album (Eddie Jobson album), The Green Album'' with

Eddie Jobson Edwin "Eddie" Jobson (born 28 April 1955) is an English musician noted for his use of synthesizers. He has been a member of several progressive rock bands, including Curved Air, Roxy Music, U.K. and Jethro Tull. He was also part of Frank Zap ...

and Zinc, splitting guitar duties with Zinc guitarist Michael Cuneo on two tracks. Green has worked with

Billy Sherwood William Wyman Sherwood (born March 14, 1965) is an American multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, singer, record producer and mixing engineer. He is best known for his tenures in the English progressive rock band Yes (band), Yes as guitarist and ke ...

on a number of projects, including ''

Back Against The Wall ''Back Against the Wall'' is an album released in 2005 by Billy Sherwood in collaboration with a number of (mostly) progressive rock artists as a tribute to Pink Floyd's album ''The Wall''. A year later, Sherwood followed it with the release of ...

'' (2005) and ''Return to the Dark Side of the Moon'' (2006). He is now a member of a band called Three Friends with fellow Gentle Giant member

Malcolm Mortimore Malcolm Paul Mortimore (born 16 June 1953 in Wimbledon, London, England) is a drummer and percussionist who has played with Arthur Brown, Ian Dury, Herbie Flowers, Gentle Giant, Spike Heatley, Tom Jones, G.T. Moore, Mick and Chris Jagger, Oli ...

. Green lives in

Princeton, Illinois Princeton is a city in and the county seat of Bureau County, Illinois, Bureau County, Illinois, United States. The population was 7,832 at the 2020 census. Princeton is part of the Ottawa, Illinois, Ottawa Ottawa, IL Micropolitan Statistical Area ...

, United States, with his wife, Judy. Gary Green's brother, Jeff Green, was a

roadie The road crew (or roadies) are the technicians or support personnel who travel with a band on tour, usually in sleeper buses, and handle every part of the concert productions except actually performing the music with the musicians. This catc ...

for

Soft Machine Soft Machine are a British rock band from Canterbury formed in mid-1966 by Mike Ratledge (keyboards, 1966–1976), Robert Wyatt (drums, vocals, 1966–1971), Kevin Ayers (bass, guitar, vocals, 1966–1968) and Daevid Allen (guitar, 1966–196 ...

in the early 1970s and later played with

Elton Dean Elton Dean (28 October 1945 – 8 February 2006) was an English jazz musician who performed on alto saxophone, saxello (a variant of the soprano saxophone) and occasionally keyboards. Part of the Canterbury scene, he featured in, among oth ...

References

English rock guitarists 1950 births Progressive rock guitarists Living people English expatriates in the United States Gentle Giant members {{UK-guitarist-stub