George Benson started his jazz career playing with Hammond B3 organist Jack McDuff. But it wasn’t long before he went out on his own. His first album was New Boss Guitar in 1964. In 1976 George released the album, Breezin’, the first jazz album to go platinum. Ibanez Guitars and… More
Jimmy Bruno is another of my favorite jazz guitarists. I first discovered him on a Concord Jazz CD. He can play incredibly fast while creating satisfying solos. Jimmy started his professional guitar career touring with the Buddy Rich band. He eventually became an LA session player. After 20 years on… More
Mary Osborne is the first female guitarist I’ve featured. She is not my favorite female jazz guitarist, nor is she the first female jazz guitarist nor even the most important female jazz guitarist. The truth is I didn’t know about Mary Osborne until the February 2011 issue of Vintage Guitar… More
I enjoy discovering and listening to great female musicians. It isn’t difficult to find great women jazz and blues singers. Many share my appreciation of their talents. But it is more difficult to find great female instrumentalists. So far, there have been relatively few female jazz guitarists. There are far… More
Bucky Pizzarelli played as a staff musician for NBC in the 1950s. He played with Skitch Henderson and with Doc Severinsen on the Tonight show. He has toured with the Benny Goodman band and played with guitar greats Tal Farlow and Les Paul. Bucky Pizzarelli was inspired by George Van… More
Lloyd Loar, like Orville Gibson before him, took design principles from the violin family and applied them to mandolins and guitars. He designed the first guitar with F-holes instead of a round sound hole, the L-5. He applied the same princliple to the F-5 mandolin, which has become the standard… More
Charlie Byrd was a jazz guitarist whose guitar of choice was a classical guitar. Although many other jazz guitarists have recorded occasionally on acoustic guitars, few made it their main instrument. Charlie Byrd took classical guitar seriously and for a time studied with the great classical guitarists, Andre Segovia. Another… More
Joe Pass is another of my favorite guitarists. Early in his career he had a problem with drugs and spent over two years at at Synanon. He spent most of that time improving his guitar playing. He was great at single-line soloing but he was also great comping or playing… More
Wes Montgomery seems to a favorite guitarist of every lover of jazz guitar. He is one of the most influential jazz guitarists of the post pop era. Not only have many guitarists who came after Wes emulated his style, they continue to issue tributes to Wes. Artists influenced by Wes… More
Russell Malone’s first big break occurred when he was 25 years old and began playing with the great jazz organist Jimmy Smith. He played with Jimmy Smith from 1988 to 1990 then played with the Harry Connick Jr. Big Band from 1989 to 1994. I first heard Russell Malone as… More
