Omar Akhtar

Background: Omar has been playing guitar for 20 years. He started out playing metal, punk, grunge, and math rock. After high school he became interested in Jazz.   Omar moved to Chicago and attended Roosevelt University where he received a B.M. in Jazz Guitar Performance. After college he taught music at a charter school on Chicago's west side and also offered private lessons.

Omar currently leads a jazz trio that is gearing up to start gigging in the Chicago area.  Subjects can include Jazz repertoire, improvising/soloing, comping, chord melody music theory, reading music, modes/chord relationship, fretboard theory and Right hand techniques including sweep picking and economy picking.

      Instruments:  Guitar                       Styles: Rock, Metal, Jazz, Blues

Mike Burns

Michael Burns is originally from St. Louis Missouri. He graduated Cum Laude from Boston's Berklee College of Music.  After graduating he immersed myself in the New England music scene, playing countless sessions, gigs, tours, and teaching. In 1999, he was asked to join Blue Man Group as they assembled the band for their Las Vegas show. He quickly learned all three string positions in preparation for the show's opening and was hired additionally as "string trainer".  He was later promoted to Resident Musical Director.  Mike continued as the Resident Musical Director of Blue Man's "How To Be A Megastar" tour starting in 2006. After traveling the world on tour for two years, he realized that he missed simple things like having an oven, a cat and being part of a musical community. Mike always loved Chicago and decided that it had everything that he was looking for: excellent music scene, great food, houses with ovens, and cats. 

Mike is currently a band member with Blue Man Group here in Chicago. He also has an instrumental band called "Electric Hawk" (see his latest video) which just released their first record and frequently plays around Chicago. Mike is obsessed with gear, vibrato, and good tone. He has studied with or at least sat with and ripped things off from: -Richard Fortus (Guns N Roses, Psychedelic Furs) -Duke Michalak (St. Louis guitar guru) -Jim Kelly (Boston guitar guru) -Kevin Barry (Ray Lamontagne, hired gun extraordinaire) -Duke Levine (Solo, studio, session master) -Mike Landau (Studio legend).

   Instruments:  Guitar, Bass                     Styles:  Rock, Metal, Blues

Nick Jaffe

Nick Jaffe is a Chicago-based musician, recording engineer, producer and educator. As a guitarist he has been something of a fixture on the Chicago hip-hop, soul and funk scene for a decade. Nick has performed with Common, Ice-Cube, Dwele, Estelle and has performance and studio credits with a wide variety of local and national artists in different genres. He has also done scoring and music for national TV ad campaigns. Nick also performs and records regularly with a number of different rock, hip hop, soul and experimental music projects and recently produced a solo album that chronicles the history of the Sputnik 1 satellite. Nick is also the effects demo-video guy for Rock n Roll Vintage.

As a guitar teacher Nick 's focus is helping students with: --New school and old school funk, soul and R&B styles. --Learning to play in a band context.--Learning to write effective rhythm and lead parts for stage and studio.--Developing your own voice and style as a guitarist.--Crafting effective guitar tones.--Guitar, amp and effects consulting.

   Instruments:  Guitar                            Styles: R&B, Rock, Metal

Graham playing bass with his band
"Electric Hawk"

Graham McLachlan

Graham first started playing bass in 1987. Originally from Connecticut, Graham has a degree in Music Composition and Theory from Lehigh University, where he studied with jazz gurus Paul Salerni and Rich Metzger. Graham then relocated to San Francisco where he played on countless records and tours. He joined the Blue Man Vegas cast in 2001, where he continued to focus on time, space, and space/time. Blue Man reaffirmed his belief that a bass player's best friend is the metronome.

He moved to Chicago in 2008 to join the Blue Man Chicago production playing Chapman stick and Bass. Besides Blue Man, Graham plays in the instrumental prog powerhouse Electric Hawk, currently playing all around Chicago and the Midwest promoting their recently released record. He maintains a collection of vintage gear, much of which was purchased at Rock and Roll Vintage, and has no less than 4 distortion pedals on his pedalboard. To relax, he builds things with power tools.

      Instruments: Bass                   Styles: Rock, Funk, Metal

Call 773.878.8616 for Guitar Lesson Registration

Our Lesson Policies and Pricing:

Rock N Roll Vintage Inc.    Call 773.878.8616     4740 N Lincoln Ave, Chicago IL 60625