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Smooth jazz guitarist Peter White's lyrical lines and musical inventiveness are a joy to listen to. The affable Englishman's charm and playfulness come through in his music, giving his style of smooth jazz a liveliness that others in the genre lack. Born September 20, 1954, to an English father and a French mother in Luton, a town north of London, England, White and his family moved soon after his birth to nearby Letchworth. His brother Danny was born a few years later. As a child, White loved sports, hiking, and tree climbing, but music was most special to him. His father encouraged him to learn many musical instruments -- recorder, clarinet, cornet, trombone, violin, harmonica, piano -- but the one instrument his dad couldn't help him with was the guitar; White was on his own. He learned to play simple chords by experimenting and listening with one ear glued to the radio. Like a lot of musicians, White was heavily influenced by the Beatles and the guitar-driven sound of the beat gr...