"Lesser" known great guitarists.

[faktat]

Varre Vartiainen:
YouTube - Varre Vartiainen - Aeroplane

[nado64]

René Thomas
Rune Gustafsson
Doug Raney
Eddie Lang

[msr13]

I don't think I've seen Lionel Loueke listed, but I've really, really been enjoying Karibou and In a Trance. Great albums.

I will also echo Jesse van Ruller as probably my favorite of the more recent guys.

[randalljazz]

hmmm...still missing bruce forman and eddie duran...

[Dystonian_Mode]

Russell Malone

[amusiathread]

Roland Dyens is one of my favs. He kind of blurs the edges between Jazz and Classical, does some waltzes and stuff too. He composes and improvises, and does some standards here and there as well. He's truly an artist, I'm amazed he doesn't ever get mentioned on this forum.

YouTube - Roland Dyens - A Night in Tunisia

[takefive]

I didn't see Tommy Tedesco mentioned. If you watch 60's, 70's and 80's reruns you've heard alot of his playing.
http://www.youtube.com/v/SGlee4kzjjc

[Peterplaysmusic]

Good gosh! I must be missing something but Danny Gatton is conspicously absent ( so is Robert Conti ) ... just finished reading a book about Gatton ( Unfinished Business by Ralph Heibutzki ) very sad story ( suicide ) with lots of speculation & theories ( my pick -- self defeating behavior ) why he never was recognized for the monster jazz player he was -- equal to any of the icons ... plus a virtuoso's mastery of rock, blues, & country / chicken picken / rockabilly, -- i wonder if we Jazz forum folks are a bit arrogant ( don't flame me ) if a player is not an exclusive jazz artist. As I guy who plays jazz along with other genres I believe knowing other idioms "informs" playing in the others... Even if we look narrowly at Gatton's jazz artistry the fellow is a monster player that could hang with bebop icons all day long ... and exceed those with speed and taste to spare ....hence the tag, "the humbler " ... jazz , per the book, may have been his favorite style ...check out his CD "unfinished Business " and dig his rendition of Cherokee and Homage to Charlie Christian. As a guitarist I admit to being excessively guitar-centric ...listening mostly to other guitarists while guys like Gatton and Conti focused on horn players and pianists. Guitarists have certainly made a contribution to the evolution of Jazz...but arguably the BEST examples of modern jazz / bebop are guys like Charlie Parker, Coltrane, Miles Davis, Lester Young, Charlie Mingus, Art Tatum, Bud Powell, Monk, Stan Getz, and many more. Perhaps the best thing a guitarist might do to elevate their playing is to listen to these guys and learn a bit of rockabilly chicken picking for right hand technique .. and transportation and infusion of that vocabulary and technique to the jazz idiom. Ok, let the debate or conversation begin,

Cheers, Peter

[JohnW400]

I have most of his CD's. Danny even had a few major label records like 88 Elmira. He is well known by most guitarists. I think most of us don't consider him to be lesser known

[Tom Karol]

Attila Zoller
George Barnes
Dean Parks (not a jazzer per se, but a prolific LA Studio guy)
Julian Lage (he has gotten some recognition, but I think there are still many who don't know he exists)
Gustavo Brasil
And ...
Tom Karol (Oh wait, you said 'great' - Never mind!)

[Peterplaysmusic]

Hello JohnW400,

Thanks for your comments, perhaps you are right in stating he is well known by guitarists,

Cheers and happy holidays, Peter

[JohnW400]

Hello Peter. Happy Holidays to you to.

Danny's CD with Joey D is great. He also did one called New York Stories. That one I don't have. It's all jazz tunes if I remember.

(Don't forget he got a lot of coverage in GP magazine)

[lschofield]

Several years ago, before his Electra record contract, Guitar Player magazine placed Danny Gatton on the cover wearing a "phantom of the opera" mask naming him the greatest guitar player you never heard of. The article had great bio information, as well as gear information. He always played Telecasters and was (at the time, I think always after) using Joe Barden pickups which seemed like a boutique pickup at the time.

Anyway, I always thought the guitar player article at least got him to "known by guitarists". Live music lovers in the DC area knew of him - he was well traveled through the local music scene at places like the Birchmere, Zoo Bar, etc., and other local band places (Joe Barden is local to DC also). I was lucky enough to see him three times, and it was always funny to see the stage 2 or 3 deep with guitar players picking their jaws up after each song. You could stare at him all night and watch what he was doing and know you couldn't get there no matter how much you shredded. And, he effortlessly shifted between rock and roll, rockabilly, jazz, etc., sometimes all in the same song.

I'd place Danny in the "lesser known" list if we're going to list people like Tedesco, but concede a lot of guitar players know who he is. YouTube has a few nice videos if you search for him. A real shame he's not around - he was a great, great player.

[Robertkoa]

When I was a kid in Buffalo in the 60s there was a group called " The Rising Sons " later called " Raven".

They were the earliest "fusion " band with the most amazing rhythm section- you can Google them and their old manager has recordings of them, they did an album on Columbia and were house band at the great "Inferno" in Buffalo and later "The Scene " Club in NYC where Hendrix, Clapton , Beck used to jam.

Group was Blues/Rock/Jazz and guitarist J.R. Weitz played kind of like a cross between Clapton and Kenny Burrell, but even before Clapton emerged.

The group had more " Blues" in their jazz than any I've heard and singer Tony Galla had a full 3 Octave range.

The whole group was ahead of their time- J.R. Weitz would solo sometimes more like a jazzer but using modes etc. and octaves but would also do screaming wide vibrato stuff , with slaving amps together to get his sound at reasonable volume, and he did a little feedback stuff sometimes- but this was in 1966 and I think he was doing it before then also!

He also had this sliding , behind the beat rhythm style that fit perfect with their ultra funky rhythm section and the piano player, drummer and bassist were all killer.

I remember being shocked when they did a spot on perfect version of "Sunshine of Your Love" only a few weeks after it was released and J.R. nailed every spec of the solo and vibrato and tone of the solo perfectly- it was easy for him and back then very few in the world had the Clapton Vibrato but J.R. had been playing that way already in addition to Wes and Burrell ( and who knows ) inspired stuff.

They were the elite of Buffalo and even NYC in some ways- check out "Raven" ridiculous players, soloists and Rhythm Section in 1965 and 1966 , and continued to evolve in NYC for the next few years.

[Drumbler]

http://www.markwhitfield.com/

"Mark Whitfield"


Mark Whitfield graduated from Boston's prestigious Berklee College of Music, the world's foremost institute for the study of Jazz and modern American music, in the Spring of 1987 having studied composition and arranging as well as all styles of guitar performance. Upon graduation, he returned to his native New York to embark on a career as a jazz guitarist that afforded him the opportunity to collaborate with many legendary artists including Dizzy Gillespie, Art Blakey, Clark Terry, Jimmy Smith, Carmen McCrae, Herbie Hancock, Quincy Jones, Jack McDuff, Betty Carter, Shirley Horn, Ray Charles, Gladys Knight, Burt Bacharach, Joe Williams, Wynton Marsalis, Bradford Marsalis, Stanley Turrentine and his greatest teacher and mentor George Benson.
Along the way, the New York Times dubbed Whitfield "The Best Young Guitarist in the Business" and in September of 1990 Warner Bros. released his solo debut, "The Marksman". The success of this release has led to a recording career that has produced 14 solo projects to date and a myriad of collaborative efforts with some of the most important artists in recent years; Sting, D'Angelo, Mary J. Blige, Chaka Khan, John Mayer, Jill Scott, Roy Hargrove, Diana Krall, Lauryn Hill, Sy Smith and Chris Botti.
In September of 2005, Mark Whitfield accepted the invitation to join the faculty at his alma mater, teaming up with Joe Lovano, Ralph Peterson, Danilo Perez, and Terry Lynn Carrington as "Artists in Residence" at the Berklee School.
While maintaining a teaching schedule that requires his presence on campus 1 day a week for 14 weeks/per semester, and a touring schedule that includes at least 100 concert dates/per year with trumpeter Chris Botti, Whitfield still manages to remain active as a solo artist and 2008-2009 will see the release of his latest solo effort; a Stevie Wonder tribute entitled "Songs Of Wonder" and 2 collaborative projects with long time friends Christian McBride and Nicholas Payton.

[frogeye]

Most of the names I had in mind have been already mentioned although for some there was no record mentioned. Here is a small assortment from my "guitar record" collection that some of you may find interesting checking out.

• Kenny Poole & Gene Bertoncini - East meets Midwest
• Kenny Poole - For George - Tribute to a master (G. Van Eps was Kenny's mentor)
• Dave Stryker, Guitar on Top, One for Reduus
• Karl Ratzer - Waltz for Ann
• Cal Collins - Cincinnati to LA, Blues on My Mind, By Myself, Cross Country
• Louis Stewart - Overdrive
• Wayne Krantz - 2 drinks Minimum, Signals
• Tchavolo Schmitt - Alors? ...Voila!
• Steve Erquiaga - Erikology
• Ron Affif Trio - 52nd Street
• Rick Zunigar - New Frontier
• Richie Hart - Remembering Wes
• Paul Bollenback - Invocation
• Mitch Watkins - Curves, Underneath it all
• Kazumi Watanabe - Mobo I & II, Spice of Life Too

Enjoy

[Solo Flight]

I had the near-religious experience of seeing Danny Gatton live on a handful of occasions. What always struck me (and many others I'm sure) was the stark contrast between this sheer genius of a musician and some of the settings in which he played. Seeing him play in some dive, often with realtively few people in attendance, made you want to physically pull people off the street and demand that they sit and listen to this guitar god. It's a shame that his mental state/personality was not conducive to his garnering the attention he deserved. But I guess that's the randomness of genius - or maybe not. I know of at least one other musical genius who quite clearly has Asperger's, which also hinders his ability to translate his talent into a career worthy of his musical gifts. Maybe it was also part of Danny's troubled makeup. But none of that mattered when he was on stage ripping though some rockabilly tune and out of nowhere toss in some Monk or Charlie Christian reference.

[frogeye]

And I forgot to mention Steve Khan.... I have a few of the Eyewitness albums from way back. From what I remember he also played on one of the Caribbean Jazz Ensemble recordings that Paquito D'Rivera.

[mmmmdoss]

I can't think of anyone who hasn't already been mentioned. Ed Bickert and Lenny Breau as far as Canadians go, as well as Lorne Lofsky and Roy Patterson (both of whom are also great teachers). Lionel Loueke is awesome and totally unique, so is Ralph Towner. I also really dig Mick Goodrick and somebody mentioned Gilad Hekselman or however you spell it.

I think its important to recognize that jazz is very localized. Ben Monder for example, is busy as hell in New York but here in Toronto you'd never hear him without the internet and even then you sort of have to go looking. Every now and again somebody from New York will come to town and play the Rex but that's about it.

OH! Reg Schwager is a great Toronto guitarist, and from New York there's Rez Abassi who I really dig, hes got strong roots in Indian music.

[paynow]

Joe Puma, who I see has been mentioned in a couple of other posts on this thread:

Classic Jazz Guitar - Guitarists

Such a wonderfully lyrical player.

Joe was a close family friend; I had an opportunity to take a couple of formal lessons with him but more than that to hang around him and learn even more that way. And I'll add this; he was the funniest jazz guitarist who ever lived. There are so many classic Puma anecdotes that I can't even count them.

Once he was doing a gig for bassist Chuck Israels and was handed charts with odd times, 7/8, 5/4, 9/8, etc. He asked Chuck "Are these time signatures or hat sizes?" His comedic timing and delivery were wonderful.

Yet another gem in the rough from the Bronx, New York. Listen to anything by Joe that you can get your hands on.

[mangotango]

Originally Posted by gravitas

Don't forget about Jeff Langley

(for the uninitiated:
YouTube - Jake Langley, Trio at Dizzies "Pork Pie Hat"
YouTube - Jake langley Dis Here)

Courtesy of Jazzradio.com/guitarjazz (NOT originally a plug, but having said that, a great source of previously undeard material for me), I have become aware of Mr. Langley and think he's pretty darn good.

His albums with Joey De Francesco sound very fine. That's how I'd like to be able to play when I grow up. Hope I manage to achieve one or other, if not both.