Daryl Stuermer
Daryl Mark Stuermer (born November 27, 1952) played lead guitar for the band Genesis. Currently plays lead guitar for Phil Collins and is a solo artist with his own band.
Stuermer was born on in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Playing with his Milwaukee band Sweetbottom, he was discovered by Frank Zappa keyboardist George Duke. Stuermer auditioned for and won a spot backing up jazz violinist Jean-Luc Ponty in 1975, recording a total of four albums with Ponty.
In late 1977, Stuermer was recommended as a replacement for Steve Hackett at the insistence of his friend Alphonso Johnson. He joined up with Genesis as touring guitarist at first and retained that position until the group disbanded. In 1982, Stuermer followed Genesis front man Collins as the lead guitarist for the pop star's solo career. In doing so, he went from what Collins called a "permanent-temporary-part-time member" of Genesis to a "permanent-touring-recording member" of Collins' new group. The collaboration has been a successful one for both musicians, and Stuermer has earned co-writer credits on several of Collins' songs.
Stuermer has recorded seven solo albums, Steppin' Out, Live and Learn, Another Side of Genesis, Waiting in the Wings, Sweetbottom Live: The Reunion, Retrofit, The Nylon String Sampler, and most recently Rewired – The Electric Collection.
Daryl has released several solo works with his band, which, of course, focus on his skills with the guitar, we see Daryl's versatility as he sounds just as comfortable with acoustic guitar as with electric guitar.
Daryl's monstrous playing leaves the guitar on fire! Fortunately he doesn't take this as a way to simply show-off. He's also followed by a bunch of great musicians who provide a solid and sometimes exotic rhythmic section as well as fanciful keyboard textures.
Stuermer's albums range the gamut in varying shades of instrumental jazz ranging from contemporary 'smooth jazz' to Latin jazz to acid jazz to rock-laden jazz-fusion and beyond!
Daryl's relentlessly fiery guitar riffs soar through an almost progressively peppered rock 'n roll fusion hybrid from beginning to end, while his lyrical, melodically work on the other end of the spectrum will being tears to your eyes.
Daryl, backed up by his band, has the freedom to do the music that he loves. He is like most of the rest of us, and not locked into a single genre or style, and his solo work shows that.