Whats good from Ohio?

[MarimbaGuitar]

Hello, my name's Josh and I'm fifteen, and I've been exploring music ever since I was old enough to realize there was music outside of the radio. The three styles of music that have caught my ear the most are rap and rock, but mostly jazz. I love how diverse jazz is, and its really interesting because I find out about alot of jazz through rap songs that sample jazz tunes. My favorite guitarist so far is Wes Montgomery, but I also enjoy Bireli Lagrene, Herb Ellis, and Grant Green. I started playing guitar about 5 years ago and I'm self taught, but I already kind of knew piano. As you can see from my name I'm also an avid marimba player, which gives me my music theory base. I'm so glad I found this site because really, theres only 1 week every year (jazz camp) where I can actually talk to somebody about music theory, what I've figured out, and all that good stuff. So I apologize for this somewhat long introduction, but I hope I can stay up to date with you guys cant wait to see what new info and ideas I can uncover!

[ronjazz]

Cal Collins, a great jazz guitarist, hailed from Ohio, I think, and Kraig Phillips, a fine guitar repair guy and designer is out there as well.

Welcome.

[JimBobWay]

Ohio (particularly S/W Ohio and especially Cincinnati) has a long standing jazz tradition, and some top-notch guitarists are included. As Ron noted, Cal Collins was the best-known in the jazz scene recently - although his good friend and frequent collaborator Kenny Poole was a damn fine player, may they both rest in peace. There are so many other great players past & present that I won't start a list, I would miss someone important. Plus, there is a lot of true fusion due to the location. Is Scotty Anderson a jazz guitarist? Depends on which bar you hear him play, pun intended. And Adrian Belew (or Steve if you like) - not easy to pigeonhole. Good for him! And Lonnie Mack...OK not really Ohio but very close, and a lot of his work is as jazz as anyone's. Jorma Kaukonen moved to the boho side of the state (Athens) and has a nice blues/jazz/etc. thing going including his own PBS radio show.

You're listening to some of the best, and your marimba will serve you well. In fact right now I'm listening to another Cincinnati native, Arthur Tripp III, playing marimba on Captain Beefheart's "Shiny Beast" (jazz?) and thinking about another fantastic local artist - Daniel Joseph Dorff - who has mastered that, drums and percussion as well as piano...so stay with it and let me know if you want to jam.

[MarimbaGuitar]

Sweet, thanks for the info and encouragement!

[mattymel]

cincity native here...if you are in or around cincinnati you can always go check out Steve Schmidt. amazing pianist. kenny and cal arent around anymore, but you could do alot worse as far as jazz towns go. the blue wisp always has stuff going on. another great young piano guy is named dan karlsberg. brad meyers is a good guitar player too. everybody else i know moved to nyc and chicago...

[AlsoRan]

You have got a guy named Jack Zucker in Cleveland, Ohio (I believe that is his city) who is steeped in Jazz knowledge. You may want to check out one of his many of videos on YouTube. He, in turn, knows many current and aspiring Jazz guitarists in the Ohio area.