About les
Four decades into his recording career, contemporary jazz guitarist Les Sabler scored one of the biggest hits of his career: Billboard’s No. 2 Smooth Jazz Song of the Year in 2025 for his single “Patches’ Groove.” Each year, he eclipses earlier accomplishments by honing his sound and creating new music with GRAMMY®-winners and nominees and Billboard hitmakers such as Paul Brown and Greg Manning.
Throughout his time as a professional, Sabler has surrounded himself with world-class collaborators while confidently blurring boundaries between music genres, allowing the composition to dictate the direction. That approach has empowered his freedom to explore and experiment with jazz, Latin, blues, R&B, and pop music — whether he wields an electric jazz guitar, a nylon-string guitar, or steps to the microphone to sing in Portuguese.
Sabler has further solidified his presence on the contemporary jazz scene through his collaborations with Brown and Manning. Two-time GRAMMY®-winning producer Brown (Boney James, Al Jarreau, Norman Brown) helmed Sabler’s two most recent albums, “Flying High” (2023) and “Tranquility” (2021). Manning, who has architected over a dozen Billboard No. 1 hits, co-wrote and produced Sabler’s three most recent singles.
A No. 1 hit on the Billboard, Mediabase, and Smooth Jazz Network charts, “Patches’ Groove,” a Sabler-Manning collaboration, is named for the single’s featured trumpeter, Patches Stewart (Quincy Jones, Al Jarreau, Marcus Miller).
“I enjoy presenting my unique guitar style within the context of great compositions that have included collaborations with world-class composers. Since I started collaborating with Paul Brown and Greg Manning, my music has evolved to include subtle rhythmic complexities while retaining strong melodic structure and grooves,” said Sabler, whose recordings received 6.6 million Spotify plays in 2025 and nearly twenty million streams to date.
The Montreal, Quebec native found fresh inspiration after moving to Nashville. Immersed in Nashville’s live music culture, Sabler has rediscovered his hunger for the stage.
“I have been performing in Nashville with my quintet and eight-piece group that includes a horn section. When performing with my quintet, many of the newer songs — which are really fun to play live — work well alongside selections from my catalog. I recently arranged for the songs that have horns on the recordings to be performed live with the horn section, and audiences responded enthusiastically. The horns bring a surge of energy to the live show,” said Sabler, who has played dates with GRAMMY® winner Jeff Lorber, Richard Elliot, Spyro Gyra, Michael Lington, and two-time GRAMMY® winner Diane Schuur.
To offer a taste of the dynamic energy of his live show, Sabler released a live recording last fall as a tribute to Chuck Mangione shortly after the legendary trumpeter’s passing. Sabler produced and arranged “Land of Make Believe” featuring trumpeter/flugelhornist Tyler Jaeger (Joe Bonamassa) playing a horn arrangement by GRAMMY® nominee Ron King. The track spotlights the powerful voice of versatile Nashville session singer Kim Fleming.
While Mangione’s music helped inform Sabler’s brand of contemporary jazz, his guitar technique reflects the influence of Wes Montgomery, Larry Carlton, George Benson, and Lee Ritenour.
Sabler studied jazz at Concordia University in Montreal before taking graduate courses at the University of Miami music school. After creating the score to a Canadian Television Network documentary about the Titanic, Sabler released his debut album, “Hidden Treasure,” in 1990. His breakthrough came on his third album, “Bridge the Gap,” when the title track became his first No. 1 single in Canada for which he garnered Album of the Year and Guitarist of the Year nominations at the Canadian Smooth Jazz Awards.
The “Sweet Drive” album followed with Sabler bringing in GRAMMY®-winning bassist Brian Bromberg to produce the collection. GRAMMY® winners Lorber, Vinnie Colaiuta, and Jerry Hey along with GRAMMY® nominees Eric Marienthal and Alex Acuna appeared on the 2007 album. The outing received an Album of the Year nomination and Sabler received another Guitarist of the Year nomination from the Canadian Smooth Jazz Awards while the Canadian Indie Awards bestowed a Jazz Artist of the Year nod.
Sabler switched things up by playing only a nylon-string guitar on his “Crescent Shores” (2010) album. Another major stylistic change followed in 2014 on the Amazon Brazilian Jazz and Latin Jazz best-selling album, “Jobim Tribute,” an ornately orchestrated set honoring Brazilian songwriting icon Antonio Carlos Jobim with arrangements by GRAMMY® nominee Tom Zink.
Sabler’s Brown-produced projects are next level. The “Tranquility” disc has generated 11.8 million Spotify streams driven by the seductive twirl, “Esselle's Dance,” a No. 1 Mediabase hit that received 3.6 million Spotify plays. “Flying High” spawned multiple radio singles highlighting Sabler’s versatility by offering an eclectic mix of Latin rhythms (“New Bossa”), the familiarity of nylon-string guitar (“Old Friends”), and nocturnal electric guitar musings (“Moonlight”). Both albums include songwriting, production, and instrumental contributions by GRAMMY® winner Shane Theriot (Hall & Oates, Dr. John).
Constant growth, evolution, and experimentation have an inherent place in Sabler’s musical and guitar artistry over the decades. Look for new music from him in 2026. He isn’t revealing where his sound is headed next, but listeners can expect well-crafted compositions, masterful musicianship, and premium production quality.