Guitarist/composer/producer Askold Buk has scored numerous episodes of the award-winning PBS documentary series Frontline, as well as 20/20 (ABC), Primetime (ABC) and In Search of America (ABC). He wrote and produced the score to the documentary film Obscene, which premiered at the 2007 Toronto Film Festival. Buk’s songs have been featured on Aquarius (NBC), The Mysteries of Laura (NBC), The Young and the Restless (CBS), Z Nation (Syfy), Hollywood Heights (Nickelodeon), The Hills (MTV), P.O.V. (PBS), and in spots for Zyrtec, ING Bank, Entenmann’s, Ricola and Red Wing Shoes. He also wrote the music for the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum website commemorating the 50th anniversary of JFK’s inauguration, and for the permanent interactive installation at the Mercy Corps’ Action Center to End World Hunger in New York City.
Askold’s eponymously-titled debut CD was featured on Groove Boutique (a nationally-syndicated soul/jazz radio show) and added to over 20 national and international jazz playlists. His song “A.F.B.” was also included on the Philips/CMJ compilation CD Streamium. Famed critic Nat Hentoff wrote: “Askold Buk plays with the passion born of complete mastery of his instrument so that – as Dizzy Gillespie once said of superior players – he knows what notes not to play. Buk communicates with great presence, but without showboating or otherwise indulging in technical virtuosity for its own sake.”
Buk has also toured with Universal recording artist Hayley Westenra, recorded with jazz trumpeter Hugh Masakela, and developed a series of highly-acclaimed guitar videos where he interviewed and played with luminaries such as B.B. King, John Scofield, Albert Lee, Steve Morse, Jack Bruce and Hank Marvin. In addition, he is the author of The Advanced Guitar Case Chord Book (Music Sales) and Practical Pentatonics (Music Sales), which are distributed internationally.
Currently, Askold owns indie music production company Poto Kabango, is in Gibberish with writing/production partner Jed Becker, and is also having a blast co-writing, co-producing and playing in the ’60s-inspired garage-pop band The Lord Calverts.