Greg Spero

Born in Chicago, the son of two pianists, Spero began working professionally with his father's blues band at 14. A year later he was playing in the Chicago fusion band Bucket Shop with musicians twice his age. The pianist cites two fellow Chicagoans as early influences: Robert Irving III, who was one of his first musical mentors and Herbie Hancock. 

Spero majored in music composition and jazz piano performance at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, known for their renowned music composition program. He studied a wide range of composition including classical, atonal, algorithmic and electronic music. 

Following college, Spero became a mainstay in Chicago's creative music scene and also participated in a number of Hip Hop projects in New York playing on tracks that featured Curren$y and Ski Beatz, among others. Spero also had the good fortune to join the Buddy Rich Big Band, where he performed with drummer Dave Weckl and met longtime Prince drummer John Blackwell. He ended up working with John Blackwell's band for several years after that. 

In January 2013, Spero received the Best Jazz Entertainer award at the Chicago Music Awards. Spero went on to tour with the Miles Electric Band under the direction of Vince Wilburn, Jr. and alongside the likes of Christian Scott and Darryl Jones.  While touring with pop artist Halsey, he created his own band Spirit Fingers with members including Hadrien Feraud, Dario Chiazzolino, and Blaque Dynamite.  They released their first full length self titled album in March 2018.