The Most Amazing Jazz Music Guitar Personalities Ever!
The development of the jazz guitar and jazz guitar music has been marked by a long string of specialized and stylistic innovators! In the post World War I era there emerged the unique solo voice of Lonnie Johnson, one of the generally unheralded guitar players of the twentieth century who would go on to additional achievement performing the blues. His one time recording friend, Eddie Lang, performing under the pseudonym Blind Willie Dunn, advanced the cause of chordal comping and single note improvised soloing and is credited with moving the guitar forward as a legit music instrument. Following in the twenties are the notable soloing and chord melody accomplishments of George Van Eps, Dick McDonough, Carl Kress, and Nick Lucas whose collection books of jazz guitar tabs and jazz guitar tablatures are still available. The thirties produced the wild gypsy guitar genius Django Reinhardt – a virtuoso whose exciting flights of improvised solos, octaves, and intense chording would also produce far reaching influence.
The introduction of the first commercially viable amplified guitar in 1936 by Gibson Guitar Company led the way for yet another genius and the acknowledged forefather of modern jazz guitar music, Charlie Christian. Easily realizing the expanded soloing potential of the electric guitar, Christian sprung incredibly innovative horn-like lines on his stunned contemporaries while playing in the Benny Goodman Band. Equally as important, he was instrumental in the progress of bebop in the forties via his involvement in after hours jam sessions at Minton’s in Harlem. Like a shooting star, his expertise blazed for a brief interval in between 1939 and 1942 right up until he died at the tender age of twenty five. The number of guitarists who fell under Christian’s guitaristic influence was countless and continued to multiply with Johnny Smith, Joe Pass, Oscar Moore, Barney Kessel, George Barnes, Les Paul, Tal Farlow, and Herb Ellis becoming only some of the most famous.
The next sylistic leap transpired in the late 50s when rumors of a great new jazz guitarist, performing in obscurity in Indianapolis, made their way east. Wes Montgomery, using his thumb rather than a guitar pick, was completely dazzling in his speed, dexterity, and creativity! He memorized the Charlie Christian songbook inside and out, but added his own extraordinary octave technique and bop blues sensibility to a style that became the benchmark for nearly all other jazz guitar players. Tired of playing long hours for short pay in the jazz clubs, Montgomery took a turn in the direction of easy listening arrangements of pop tunes in the mid-sixties, to the consternation of jazz critics, and died too young at the age of 44 in 1968.
Concurrent with Montgomery’s rise in the sixties was the sighting of yet a different young man gobbling up acres of guitar fretboard. Pairing the very best of Charlie Christian and Wes Montgomery, George Benson was actually performing his way out of R&B bands on his way to becoming even larger and far more popular than his predecessors. With outstanding chops and the longevity to let them develop and mature, he is arguably the most famous jazz guitarist of all time as well as one of the greatest and continues to dazzle guitarists and audiences alike with his extraordinary guitar playing!
Peabody Conservatory trained guitarist Steven Herron helps guitar players become better guitarists. His company ChordMelody.com features an enormous selection of jazz guitar tablatures
as well as instructional DVDs by George Benson himself. Find out more and claim Steven’s popular free monthly guitar lesson e-course available at: =>
jazz guitar tabs
Processing your request, Please wait....
