Nevertheless, rock-inspired jazz guitarists like Larry Coryell, while John McLaughlin created a fusion style that was a sensation. In the 60s, the rise of rock music led some jazz guitarists to follow more lucrative paths, recording music for a younger, larger audience. Every jazz guitarist who followed has been inspired and influenced by Montgomery, who died at just 45 years old, in 1968. Then along came Wes Montgomery, whose debut Riverside album, The Wes Montgomery Trio, released in 1959, signaled a new dawn for jazz guitar.
Jim Hall, who was classically trained, took jazz guitar in another direction, while others, like Pat Martino, helped refine the style. There was also Howard Roberts, Herb Ellis, Kenny Burrell, and Barney Kessel, all of whom combined bop and single-note picking, with Burrell, in particular, merging blues with jazz. Many jazz guitarists in the 50s, as well as later, played hollow-body guitars Tal Farlow was one such musician, and his fluid, single-note, bop-style guitar was a sensation. In Europe, Django Reinhardt played single-line melodies that gave the guitar more visibility, casting a huge influence on many jazz guitarists that followed.įender made the first solid-body electric guitar in 1948 and, a few years later, Gibson introduced their Les Paul. Others, like Freddie Green, who played with Count Basie for decades, and Lonnie Johnson, who played with Louis Armstrong, helped to popularise the instrument. Prior to Christian, it was Eddie Lang, a brilliant and sophisticated player, who helped to make jazz guitar more popular.
Christian’s “Solo Flight,” recorded with Goodman’s band in 1941, was a seminal moment for jazz guitar. It was Charlie Christian who, as a member of Benny Goodman’s band, helped change this perception with his electric-guitar playing.
It may stem from the fact that, back in the big band era, the guitar was seen as part of the rhythm section: an instrument that accompanied and filled out the sound rather than one that took center-stage as a lead. But jazz guitar, for some inexplicable reason, seems to lack the attention that it deserves. The best jazz guitar albums are up there with any other jazz classics that you can think of.
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