Scott Castonguay is a Washington DC area guitarist known for his virtuosity, versatility, and reliability. He started playing guitar at the age of 13 after switching over from four years on saxophone in various school bands. He studied with a variety of private instructors through high school, and continued on into his college years where he studied classical guitar, jazz guitar and ensemble, as well as music theory at Northern Virginia Community College. During that time Scott was fortunate to meet and play with such jazz luminaries as Charlie Bird, Keter Betts, the world renowned bassist for Ella Fitzgerald, Webster Young, and Paul Bollenback. He began studying privately with Bollenback in 1983 and continued until 1988.
Scott began playing professionally with a rock band shortly after graduating high school, but that only lasted a year. It wasn’t until 1984 when he started playing professionally again with the NVCC Jazz Ensemble, and in 1985 joined the Northern Va based big band Kaleidoscope under the direction of Doug Sorenson. Around this time he began freelancing as a sideman and solo guitarist. After a few years away from music to start a family he made his way back to the music business first as a private guitar instructor, then performing both private events and public venues in and around the DC area. He began working as a leader when he formed his jazz trio in 1991 which went on to play in a variety of venues around the area for thirteen years. As a freelance artist Scott has accompanied the likes of Al Wilson – Show And Tell, Pat Upton – More Today Than Yesterday, as well as many others. He’s also played with a variety of bands over the years covering many styles including but not limited to pop, rock, soul, r&b, blues, funk, jazz, reggae, and much more.
Scott has continued to this day teaching privately and performing in several bands he’s currently involved with as well as studio session work and freelancing. Most recently he was asked by his friend and former band-mate and composer James Cotton to partake in the recording of the soundtrack for a locally produced feature film entitled “Spent”, which was released June 14th 2016.