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I have been asked this question more than once: “Les Paul invented the Les Paul guitar, didn’t he?” Well…no, he did not. In 1952 Gibson created the Les Paul with his assistance and endorsement. Lester William Polsfuss was an exceptional guitarist who, in his early career, focused mainly on jazz, having been inspired by French guitarist Django Reinhardt and American pianist Art Tatum.

Never legally changing his name, he adopted the stage name Les Paul and went on to become one of the founding fathers of rock and roll. His taste in music was extremely varied, however, and he was quite at home playing country and blues music. In 1949 he married Mary Ford and together they had dozens of hits and sold millions of records. The duo featured Les’s stellar, fast and jazzy guitar work together with Mary’s clear singing, often layered in multi-track recordings to provide self-harmonization.

Les Paul Creative Genius

Les was much more than a guitarist, however. He was an inventor and experimenter who brought the use of delay, phasing, multi-track recording and over-dubbing into common use. His innovative playing still inspires guitarists of all stripes to study and emulate his fretting and phrasing techniques.

One of only a handful of artists to have been given a permanent exhibit in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Les Paul remains the only person inducted into both that institution and the National Inventors Hall of Fame. Perhaps his biggest gift to rock and roll was the “Log”, his first, hand-built, solid-body electric guitar. Starting with a simple piece of 4×4 lumber, Paul attached a sawn-apart Epiphone acoustic guitar body to the sides.

The solid piece of lumber down the middle became the neck and also supported a pickup and bridge and gave Les what he was looking for: added sustain and reduced acoustic feedback. This was by no means the first electric guitar nor was it the first solid-body guitar, but it was the best one yet and he continued to modify and use it in the studio long after the creation of the Gibson Les Paul and other solid-body electrics from manufacturers like Fender.

Long Lived and Well Remembered

Les Paul passed away on August 12th, 2009, at the age of 94. He had been performing brilliantly and vibrantly until just months before succumbing to pneumonia. Les has been award so many honors and inducted into so many “halls of fame” that they cannot be listed here. His accolades have been sung by everyone from Chet Atkins to Slash to Jeff Beck and, as of 2011, he was ranked at number 18 on Rolling Stone magazine’s “100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time”.

Any guitarist who hasn’t listen to Les Paul’s amazing and innovative guitar playing, or who is unaware of his many contributions to music and to recording, would be well advised to do some research and listening. This short but informative YouTube video featuring Les and Mary is a good starting place:

Les Paul – Inventor, Innovator, Overdubber, Looper

It seems somewhat strange to me how the Grateful Dead achieved fame and longevity and amassed one of the most dedicated fan base (the Deadheads) in the history of music despite having only one real hit – 1987’s “Touch of Grey” – and receiving very little radio play, especially on the AM band where musical careers were made back in their heyday. As any Deadhead would tell you, the Dead’s music covered a vast array of genres. Lenny Kaye, guitarist for the Patti Smith Group, said: “Their music touches on ground that most other groups don’t even know exists.”

Jerry Garcia, the group’s guitarist, is – to this day – often referred to as the Dead’s leader, though that was never really the case. The Grateful Dead were a true democracy, a musical commune and Jerry frequently stood back from the front of the stage when they performed, but he did not stand back from the attention and adoration of music lover of all kinds.

There is no question that Jerry was an amazing musician who deserves to be recognized not just as a guitarist but also as a more-than-competent player of many instruments, including mandolin, banjo, pedal steel, harmonica and whatever other instrument he was intrigued by.

A Versatile Musician

As an immensely talented musician, Jerry played with skill and passion even in the early days of the Dead. Raunchy rock’n’roll, inspired guitar psychedelia, blues, country, folk, jazz and “old-timey” music were all rendered beautifully. His soloing was always a treat and often mesmerizing, built around the song’s melody with particular attention to phrasing.

The Dead will go down in history for many reasons, one of which is that they were one of the first “jam bands”, taking songs into lengthy and uncharted territory on stage, frequently including extended, meandering guitar solos from Jerry.

Different Bands Jerry Played In

Any guitarist, or for that matter, any musician in general can learn from Jerry Garcia’s music. The tremendous variety of genres to which he contributed is evidenced by the over one hundred albums he played on as a member of the Grateful Dead, New Riders of the Purple Sage, the Jerry Garcia Band, the Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band, Old and In The Way, as session musician for dozens of other artists and in solo recordings under his own name.

His Favorite Guitar

As is probably the case with any professional guitarist, Jerry owned and played many guitars, but the one he is most often associated with was his bespoke Tiger. This heavy, 13.5 pound beauty is to my eyes, one of the sexiest guitars ever and was custom built for Jerry by Doug Irwin, who had also built previous guitars, such as Wolf and Eagle, for Jerry.

As with a lot of Jerry Garcia’s guitars, Tiger was loaded with electronics and featured easily removable DiMarzio pickups because Jerry felt their output weakened after a couple years. Tiger was almost exclusively Jerry’s choice of electric guitar for live performances from 1979 to 1990.

Jerry Garcia Band – “How Sweet It Is To Be Loved By You” Shoreline Amphitheater – 9/1/90

Bucky Pizzarelli has given the world of music many things, including two sons – John (guitar) and Martin (bass) – who feature prominently in today’s world of jazz. Born in 1926, Bucky is still going strong at eighty-eight years of age and is noted for his amazing skills as a rhythm guitar player, something he seems to have passed along to his son, John. Bucky has a strong affinity for guitar compositions of the 1930s, when jazz and dance music were brilliantly combined by the likes of Carl Kress and George Van Eps.

Bucky Played a Unique Instrument

Bucky brought one other item of note to the world of modern guitar: the 7-string electric guitar, which he played almost exclusively. He first encountered the 7-string via George Van Eps, adopting not only that instrument but also George’s renowned chord progressions that were used as solos in place of single-note runs. The chord solo has since become a standard soloing style in guitar jazz and something John Pizarelli is known for.

A Little 7 String History

For those nouveau rock guitarists who think that maybe Steve Via is responsible for the 7-string electric guitar, now you know better. We have George Van Epps and Bucky Pizzarelli to thank. Incidentally, 7-string acoustic guitars have been in use for over 150 years, having come to prominence in early-19^th-century Russia and Western Europe. Van Eps had a custom 7-string electric built for him by Epiphone in the 1930s, while Bucky’s preferred instruments are built by Robert Benedetto. Finally, yes…Steve Vai is responsible for the first mass-produced electric, solid-body, 7-string guitar, the Ibanez UV-7.

Life and Times of Bucky Pizzarelli

Bucky’s long and continuing career as a guitar great began when, as a 17-year-old, he joined Vaughan Monroe’s dance band. In 1964 he began an extended gig as guitarist for Johnny Carson’s “The Tonight Show Band”. Though Bucky has never been a fan of rock and roll, he did play as a session guitarist on many songs for early ‘60s hit-makers, Dion and The Belmonts.

Choosing to be part of musical groups throughout his career has meant that only eleven Bucky Pizzarelli albums have ever been produced. The last of these is 2007’s “Five For Freddie”, a tribute to Freddie Green who, like Bucky, was a noted rhythm guitarist in big bands, especially as part of the famous “All-American Rhythm Section” in Count Basie’s Orchestra.

If you are a fan of John Pizzarelli’s style of jazz guitar, as I am, and don’t know about his father’s accomplishments (as I didn’t, for a long time), perhaps it’s time you checked out the music of the legendary Bucky Pizzarelli.

 

As the story goes, when asked how it felt to be the world’s greatest guitarist, Jimi Hendrix replied: “I don’t know; you should ask Rory Gallagher.” However, there is no evidence Hendrix ever said such a thing. It has been reported that he said the same about Phil Keaggy as well as Greek bouzouki player, Manolis Hiotis.

There is no doubt in my mind that Hendrix would have admired the stellar musicianship of all three, as do I. Admittedly, I know very little of Hiotis, but I have been a big fan of the man in plaid – Rory Gallagher – for decades.

Self Taught Guitarist

Rory was a self-taught master musician from Ireland who played rock and blues guitar both raucously and exquisitely. As with so many musical artists of his time and place, his first big influence was British “King of Skiffle”, Lonnie Donegan, who covered many tunes by American blues musicians.

His Favorite Guitar

In 1963 Rory came across a slightly-used, 1961 Fender Stratocaster in a music store. Reported to have been the first Strat in Ireland, it had been ordered by showband guitarist Jim Connolly, but wasn’t the color that he wanted. Rory bought the instrument for one hundred British pounds, an amount that in 1963 Ireland was enough to break the average Irish family. This Strat remained his primary and most-used guitar until Rory’s untimely death in 1995.

One Unique Instrument

Virtually all the paint had been worn off over more than three decades of use, and most of the hardware had been changed. When one of the original clay 12th-fret position markers fell out, Rory replaced it with a brilliant white plastic one. He also replaced the tuning pegs with five Sperzels and one Gotoh, the reason for which I have never discovered.

Pickups were changed and the guitar was rewired so that only the master volume and one tone control remained in the circuit. In 1961, Fender made Stratocasters with only a three-way pickup selector switch, which Rory soon replaced with the newer five-way switch, giving him the much greater tonal choices the newer Strats incorporated.

Today Rory’s famous, and some would say sacred Stratocaster is kept safe and secure by his brother Donal. It was brought out in October of 2011 so that Joe Bonamassa, an ardent Rory Gallagher fan, could play it in two concerts at London’s Hammersmith Apollo. Joe opened each concert playing Rory’s “Cradle Rock”.

Rory Gallagher Playing Calling Card

Musicologists have said that Jimmy Page played on 25-to-50% of all popular music recordings made in England in the 1960s. Even the lower figure in that range seems astonishing but, no matter the actual number, something of young Jimmy Page’s passion and abilities is revealed in such a statement. His session guitar work saw him perform on recordings by The Who, The Rolling Stones, Van Morrison & Them and Petula Clark, among many, many others while playing fifteen sessions a week.

He is purported to be responsible, together with Alan Holdsworth, for the wonderful, psychedelic soloing on Donovan’s “Hurdy Gurdy Man”. We say purported because it is not documented and Donovan has attributed the guitar work to Page and Holdsworth at times and to Alan Parker at others. Nobody seems to know for sure.

Playing on a TV show at the age of 13, in 1957, when asked about his future he expressed a desire to become a biologist and cure cancer. While touring with a band called The Crusaders, in the early ‘60s, Jimmy contracted mononucleosis, following which he abandoned music to enroll in art college. Thank heavens for us rock fans he returned to music a couple years later. A living legend and rock guitar god, Page played briefly in The Yardbirds, the eclectic and innovative ‘60s British rock group that was also a stepping-stone for Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton.

Led Zepplin

All three of these guitarists are in the top 5 of Rolling Stone magazine’s “100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time” list. Wanting to create a new and heavy blues-based rock sound, Jimmy Page founded Led Zeppelin and the rest, as they say, is history.

Inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame twice, for his work with both Led Zeppelin and The Yardbirds, Jimmy Page is also an Officer of the Order of the British Empire as well as an honorary citizen of Rio de Janeiro, an honor bestowed upon him for his charity work on behalf of the children of Brasil. His influence is immeasurable and has been cited by such guitar luminaries as Steve Vai, Zakk Wylde, Eddie Van Halen and Alex Lifeson.

Personal Possessions

Jimmy’s guitar collection, housed in a small, climate-controlled warehouse, is – according to Jimmy – out of control and includes his first Gibson Les Paul, which he bought from Joe Walsh, as well as guitars previously owned by Buddy Holly and Eddie Cochran.

Truly one of the guitar gods, Jimmy continues to inspire guitarists both new and seasoned, and will likely influence musicians, bands and songwriters for generations to come.

Jimmy Page and Robert Plant The Rain Song

Joe Satriani took the rock world by storm with his 1987 breakthrough instrumental album, “Surfing With The Alien”. An earlier effort, “Not Of This Earth”, was pretty good but wasn’t promoted and nearly bankrupted Satch.

Having taken up the guitar upon learning of the death of Jimi Hendrix, Satch was good enough – before his own commercial success – to teach some musicians who later became famous in their own right, including Steve Vai, Kirk Hammett, David Bryson and Alex Skolnick.

The son of Italian immigrants, Joe Satriani was born and raised in New York but in 1978 moved to California to pursue his music career.

A genuine guitar virtuoso, Satch can play blazingly fast although he really likes slow melody and legato and also employs considerable tapping, vibrato and whammy bar use. Influenced by rock and jazz guitarists, as well as jazz pianist Lennie Tristano who was one of Joe’s early music teachers, he quickly became a skilled composer.

Joe’s concerts, whether with his own backing musicians or with other guitarists on his G3 tours, are musically scintillating and awe-inspiring.

In his early days as a guitarist, Satch played on Mick Jagger’s first solo tour and spent a year as lead guitarist for Deep Purple. His solo career has been very successful with strong sales and excellent critical reviews. In 2008 he became lead guitarist for super group Chickenfoot, which included Sammy Hagar, Michael Anthony (ex-Van Halen bassist) and Chad Smith (drummer for Red Hot Chili Peppers).

Most of the guitars that Satch plays are made by Ibanez since he first played their Radius 540 model. A long-time endorser of Ibanez guitars, Joe has parlayed his association with the company into a complete line of instruments known as the JS Series. Joe became famous in the 1990s for his use of chrome-plated Ibanez JS2CH guitars, commonly known as Chrome Boys.

Newer Chrome Boys have since been based on JS10 and JS2PRM (for Premium Rock Mirror) instruments. Satch has also used a variety of amps, most notably Marshall and Peavey models and has released a Peavey-built, 5-watt tube amp called the “Mini Colossal”.

For an expanded reading of Joe’s abilities, a good choice would be his 1993, double-disc release, “Time Machine”. With one disc of studio tracks and the second featuring live recordings from a five-year period, this collection features some of his most familiar songs together with some wonderful and perhaps even weird tracks not heard on any other albums. Highly recommended.

Joe Satriani “Flying in a Blue Dream”

We could all learn something from our fathers. My father and my mother are my all-time heroes and, although they weren’t able to teach me anything about guitars, they taught me a lot about life. Carlos Santana’s father passed along something to his son for which all of us Santana fans should be grateful: phrasing.

It was obvious right from our first sight of Carlos on the stage at Woodstock that he had something special. A big, big part of his musical signature is his unique way of phrasing the notes he plays, and that is something he inherited – or absorbed, perhaps – from his father’s trumpet playing.

Carlos has always been a slave to melody, which is another of the reasons his music is so important to me. Influenced by a tremendous variety of music and musicians, Carlos always manages to create beautiful melodies in both his playing and composing. Though usually labelled a latin-rock guitarist, Carlos Santana is very highly respected by the top artists in the worlds of jazz, blues, gypsy and new age. He has even contributed to concerts and studio recordings with artists as diverse as Wayne Shorter, Vernon Reid, Weather Report, Ottmar Liebert and Nigerian drummer Babatunde Olatunji, who helped Carlos develop his famous percussion jam, “Jingo”. Carlos’s own guitar influences include Mike Bloomfield, Jimi Hendrix and Hank Marvin.

His Style and Instruments

Originally using mainly Gibson SG and Les Paul guitars, he switched to Yamahas as his main instruments in the late ‘70s and since 1982 he has used PRS electric guitars almost exclusively. His distinctive tone comes mainly from his amplifiers and not from effects pedals, of which he uses relatively few. Typically he feeds his guitar signal to three amps to produce three distinctive sounds. Of late, these amplifiers are Mesa Boogie, Bludotone and Dumble makes and he switches between them in order to allow his guitar to emulate human head, chest and belly singing.

Incidentally, Carlos is responsible for the “Boogie” part of the Mesa Boogie amplifier name. When he first tried a Mesa amp (which were souped-up Fender amps), he commented: “That little thing really boogies!”

His Music

If you like Carlos Santana’s music but have only listened to the awesome Abraxas album and his more commercially successful ventures, it’s time you investigated the remainder of his massive and varied output. Get yourself copies of Blues For Salvador, Borboletta, Gypsy/Grajonca and El Farol. Look for his wonderful collaborations with Ottmar Liebert, John McLaughlin, Alice Coltrane, Mike Bloomfield and Al Kooper and others. If you are ever in a used CD store and come across the album with no name. commonly known as “Man With The Out Stretched Hand” pick it up. Great, great stuff!

Carlos Santana on Stage at Montreux

Rolling Stone Magazine’s perennial selection as the greatest guitarist who ever lived certainly isn’t everyone’s favorite… but he is mine. And, in case you are wondering, that list is voted on by dozens of guitar greats of all ages and from all genres. Creating only three studio albums before his untimely death in September, 1970, Jimi Hendrix didn’t just push the boundaries of rock music and guitar playing, he destroyed them.

“Are You Experienced”

The first album released by the Jimi Hendrix Experience, was ear candy without equal to millions of fans of psychedelic rock in 1967 and remains so today. It wasn’t only the bizarre sounds, the whammy bar manipulation and the unheard of, musically-appropriate feedback that instantly won Jimi a massive following, but the fresh and extraordinary song writing as well.

Was there ever a more dedicated musician? An accomplished blues player at a very young age, Jimi was seldom seen without a guitar in his hand, even when walking down a street or meeting friends in a café. He lived for the chance to play guitar – by himself or with anyone – and wouldn’t hesitate to invite himself onstage at jams or even shows featuring established artists. Possessed of a very physical, emotive and effortless style of playing, Jimi set the musical world on fire, whether on stage or through his meticulously crafted albums.

Psychedelic Blues

For sheer brilliance and versatility of composition and execution, get yourself relaxed and listen – and I mean really listen – to the tremendous “Electric Ladyland” album with its rock’n’roll, blues and psychedelic twists and turns. Pay close attention to the near-symphonic tone poem that is “1983…(a Merman I Should Turn to Be)” and the star-studded cast of backing musicians on “Voodoo Chile”. And for something completely different, Jimi’s stellar live performance on “Band of Gypsys”, later reissued as “Live At The Fillmore East”, is unlike anything before or since.

Don’t let yourself be put off by the whammy bar dive bombs and the howling, squealing feedback, but hear them – and see them in your mind’s eye – for the master strokes they are in sonically depicting the horrors of war. Buddy Miles and Billy Cox came together on this album as a formidable and solid rhythm section accompanying Jimi’s scorching solos and driving power funk.

If you are a Hendrix virgin and an aficionado of guitar rock, you are in for a treat the first time you listen to Jimi’s music. For those of you who haven’t yet found his music appealing, you owe it to yourself to listen again. Just listen calmly and carefully and I am sure you will start to appreciate the genius that was Jimi Hendrix. Guitarists of all stripes and abilities can learn and keep on learning from Jimi’s playing and composition.

It’s not really about playing with your teeth (an expected stage affectation which Jimi tired of early on) or with your guitar behind your back. It’s about the music, the interplay between melody and modalities, the tones – created with simple, antiquated analogue peripherals – that bring colours to mind and even the lyrics that varied from expressions of teenage lust to profound social commentary and futurist musings. Even after listening to his albums hundreds – maybe even a thousand times, I am still in awe of the unique and incredible creativity and beauty I hear in the music of Jimi Hendrix.

Gaze into the past and watch Hendrix performing iconic moves like playing with his teeth.

Interview – When Clapton Met Hendrix

The master of the Stratocaster, James Marshall Hendrix will live on in the hearts of many forever.

 

In their heyday, The Who was a powerhouse rock band. The lead guitarist Pete Townshend, contributed to rock music not only with his ballsy guitar playing but also with the song writing.
Creating most of the Who’s original material, Townshend’s compositions helped make the band one of the most popular of its time. He liked to write a lot about the angry young man in a tough world. His songs were usually complex and often deceptive.

Pete had a knack for writing songs based on the standard I-IV-V chord structure that didn’t sound – at first – as though they were quite that simple. If you are an aspiring rock music song writer, listen carefully Pete Townshend’s compositions.

Windmill Guitar Strumming

As a guitarist, Pete was no Clapton or Hendrix and he certainly never developed the speed of modern rock guitar gods like Steve Vai. But Pete Townsend’s guitar playing spoke to his generation, and his live performances were riveting. Pete’s famous windmill strumming sometimes resulted in him chopping off his fingertips on the guitar strings!

Check out this video of the band playing Won’t Get Fooled Again live in 1978 at Shepperton.

Their drummer Keith Moon was famous for getting rowdy and destroying hotel rooms. One of their signature moves on stage was to go wild and smash their guitars at the end of the concert, making encores rather difficult.

If you like this video make an effort to listen to more of their stuff. It’s definitely worth the effort. The best albums were Tommy and Who’s Next, and if you like those then check out Who Are You.