Chriss Disla is a Dominican guitarist, producer and music director, and one of the most widely recognised guitar players in Dominican Christian music. He works as a session and touring musician, runs the label Celestial Records, and has spent much of the past decade playing behind other people's names.

The sideman

Disla's career is the kind that normally leaves no written record. Worship music credits singers; the players behind them are rarely named anywhere that lasts, however central they are to how a record actually sounds. He has been the guitarist on stage and in the studio for a succession of the country's most-heard Christian acts.

His early work included Barak, where his guitar solos on Shekinah and on Profetizaré with Marcos Brunet were released as clips in their own right. He recorded Milagro with Josué Capel, played with Marcos Yaroide in New Jersey, cut Alegría with Jorge Fajardo, and covered Miel San Marcos's Eres Todo Poderoso with a solo attached.

Guitar Cam

More recently he has toured with Averly Morillo, and the videos documenting that work have become the most visible part of his catalogue. Filmed from his own position on stage and released as Guitar Cam, they show the guitar part of songs the audience knows in the singer's voice. ¿Quién Podrá? has been the most watched of them, followed by Tuyo Es El Reino, Mesías, and a Medellín performance of ¿Quién Podrá?

The format is unusual. A session player found a way to publish the part of the music that is normally invisible, and those clips have travelled well beyond the audience a sideman would ordinarily reach. He also tours with the singer Dahaira.