Damon Foreman is an acclaimed jazz guitar player in the greater Washington DC area, having toured with such known groups as Ashford & Simpson and Sista Monica Blues Review.
Music has always been Damon’s primary passion – coming from a musical family, he started his music journey at the age of 5. His father was a concert pianist and piano teacher. He began playing piano at age 5 but soon developed a strong interest in guitar upon seeing Jimi Hendrix perform on television. He began playing guitar at age 7 – initially by ear, then later learning to read music, and began performing professionally at age 14 in his first band, “Spontaneous Generation”.
While an undergrad at Rutgers, he learned jazz guitar from the amazing Ted Dunbar. Kenny Barron, Larry RIdley, Al Foster, James Spaulding and many other top notch Jazz instructors/performers were also a part of the faculty. Damon began teaching guitar on Saturday mornings at Jazz Mobile in Harlem, New York. After graduation from Rutgers, he successfully auditioned for the acclaimed group Ashford and Simpson and did some limited road work with the group while maintaining his job as a Chemical Engineer.
Damon formed Blue Funk with Ro Cube in the early 1990s in Washington DC. Since then, Blue Funk has toured extensively and made several recordings. Blue Funk has provided music for many luminaries including Melba Moore, Whitney Houston, Mary Wells, Martha Reeves and many other artists as their road band. He continued to make contributions to his community in Columbia, MD, and was presented with the “Artist of the Year” award by the Howard County Arts Council in 1998.
Damon is not only an active performer, teacher and producer but he’s a business owner as well. In May of 2007, he opened the Damon Foreman Music Academy in Glenwood, MD. The Academy has won many awards, including the “2015 Small Business of the Year”, and year after year “Best Music Academy” in the Howard Magazine. Many artists have recorded their music in this location, including the famous “Gallant”, and several DFMA students have gone on to highly successful careers in the music business.