5 Barney Kessel Jazz Guitar Intros

Barney Kessel was the master of the jazz guitar intro. Known for his sophisticated harmonic vocabulary, fluent technique, and impeccable timing, Kessel had a gift for setting the mood of a tune.

In this lesson, you’ll learn five jazz guitar intros played by Barney Kessel, taken from both classic recordings and lesser-known performances.

Each example highlights a different harmonic approach, including open-string voicings, repetitive chord-and-bass patterns, quartal harmony, chromatic movement, and a mix between single-note lines and chord hits.

 

 

 

Barney Kessel Intro 1 – The Shadow of Your Smile

Key: E minor

The Shadow of Your Smile is a song written by Johnny Mandel in 1965 for a film called The Sandpiper, and quickly became a jazz standard.

This solo guitar intro comes from Live & Rare, recorded during a 1974 BBC TV program titled The Five Faces of the Guitar.

The intro opens in bars 1 to 4 with some spacious open-string chords.

From bars 5 to 10 he shifts to quartal voicings.

 

 

 

Barney Kessel Intro 2 – Don’t Worry ‘Bout Me

Key: Eb

Don’t Worry ‘Bout Me is a song from 1939, written by Rube Bloom.

Barney Kessel’s version appears on The Poll Winners (1957), widely regarded as his most famous recording and a landmark guitar trio album.

The intro is built around a repeating chord/bassline pattern with chromatic descending chords starting on bar 3.

 

 

 

Barney Kessel Intro 3 – Moose the Mooche

Key: Bb

Moose the Mooche is a rhythm changes in Bb written by Charlie Parker in 1946, and one of the classic bebop heads built on the I Got Rhythm progression.

In this intro, Barney Kessel blends a single-note melodic line with punchy chromatic chord hits.

 

 

 

Barney Kessel Intro 4 – Cry Me a River

Key: E minor

Cry Me a River was written by Arthur Hamilton in 1953 and became famous through Julie London’s 1955 recording, featuring Barney Kessel on guitar and Ray Leatherwood on double bass.

In this intro, I combine Barney Kessel’s guitar part with Leatherwood’s bass line from the original recording, creating a solo guitar version that works on its own.

The intro sounds easier than it is. The minor 9 voicings are wide, and the dominant chords include some unusual tensions.

I end the intro with the typical minor voice leading (5 → ♯5 → 6 → ♯5) that Barney Kessel plays over the first verse. The same movement also appears in the James Bond theme.

 

 

 

Barney Kessel Intro 5 – Blues in C

Key: C

Barney Kessel opens the intro with a C13 arpeggio, followed by three dominant voicings:

C13 → Db13 (tritone sub for G7) → C9 (Em7b5 voicing)

He then plays the same idea transposed to F, the IV7 in a blues.

The intro ends with a blues cliché in sixths.

 

 

 

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