Home Jazz-EKR Archive by category "Guitar" (Page 3)

Category: Guitar

Today in Music – 1966 – Jazz Guitarist Mark Whitfield is born!!

Today as a scrolled down the names of the jazz musicians who were born of October 6th, among the many names that I didn’t recognize was Mark Whitfield. Since he was holding a guitar I figured he was well worth checking out and boy am I glad I did! Here’s some background on Mark….from Wikipedia: Mark Whitfield (born 6 October 1966 in Lindenhurst, New York) is an American hard bop and soul-jazz guitarist born in Lindenhurst, New York, probably better known for his recordings as bandleader for both the Verve and Warner Bros. Recordsrecord labels. He has worked with Jack McDuff, Jimmy Smith, Courtney Pine and Nicholas Payton, Chris Botti, among others.[1] Mark Whitfield graduated from Boston’s Berklee College of Music,…

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Late Night Jazz from Russell Malone, Christian McBride and Benny Green

Ok so after writing about Christian McBride tonight, I was looking around YouTube and I saw this video of a performance of one of my favorite Wes Montgomery tunes, “Jingles”! The trio performing it was composed of Christian McBride on bass, Benny Green on piano and Russell Malone on guitar. I have recently learned a little about Christian McBride but I don’t know much about Malone or Green. Anyway,I watched the video and I was floored! Malone is outstanding on guitar as is Green on piano, but the driving force behind the whole 14 minutes on the tune is the…

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“Into the Night” with the Jazz Guitar of Grant Green with Organ!

This morning when I opened MOG the first album that caught my eye was a Grant Green album entitled Organ Trio & Quartet. Now I have occasionally listen to the fine guitar of Grant Green, but I don’t ever remember him being associated with an organ trio. So with visions of Jimmy Smith and wes Montgomery dancing in my head I put it on and I was impressed the group was tight and the organ was really smoking. It seemed that through the early tracks of the album the organ was either equal to or more prominent than the guitar of…

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Today in Music – Wes Montgomery’s Birthday – really!

So unlike the other day today IS the birthday of one of my favorite jazz musicians the incredible Wes Montgomery! I started listening to the guitar of Wes way back in the late 60s’ Unfortunately he passed away in 1968 and the age of 45. From Wikipedia: John Leslie “Wes” Montgomery (March 6, 1923 – June 15, 1968)[1] was an American jazz guitarist. He is widely considered one of the major jazz guitarists, emerging after such seminal figures as Django Reinhardt and Charlie Christian and influencing countless others, including Grant Green, Pat Martino, George Benson, Russell Malone, Emily Remler, Kenny…

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Into the Night with Kenny Burrell on his 81st Birthday!

So after I read this morning that it wasKenny Burrell’s birthday, I listened to a mix of his guitar work this morning and as always it was great! Burrell was born in Detroit, Michigan to a musical family and began playing guitar at the age of 12. From his biography  Kenny, who credits Charlie Christian, Oscar Moore, and Django Reinhardt as influences, as well as such bluesmen as T-Bone Walker and Muddy Waters, played on his first major recording session in Detroit in 1951 with a Dizzy Gillespie combo that included John Coltrane, Milt Jackson, and Percy Heath. Not bad for…

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Jazzy Morning – Wes and the Wynton Kelly Trio

So this morning was as jazzy kind of morning as I was out and about doing some errands I had Smokin’ at the Half Note by Wes Montgomery and Wynton Kelly playing on the iPod! The album was recorded live in late June 1965 at the Half Note Club in New York City, and September 22, 1965 at Van Gelder Studios, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey and released by Verve. The album features Montgomery teamed with the Wynton Kelly Trio. The Wynton Kelly Trio is basically Kelly with bassist Paul Chambers and drummer Jimmy Cobb. Cobb and bassist Paul Chambers had…

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Thursday Night – Live at Tsubo!

So I’ve written about the folk music I listen to and the blues, bluegrass, and some rock but I haven’t really written about the jazz I listen to. So tonight spinning in the CD player is one of my favorite jazz musicians the incomparable Wes Montgomery. I was still in high school when I started to listen to Wes Montgomery. He recorded three albums on A&M records that were the most commercially successful of his short career. (He died in 1968 of a heart attack). Those three albums A Day in the Life , Down Here on the Ground, and…

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