50s Jazz Guitarists Using Telecasters

[neatomic]

50's jazzer with lp

the great mickey baker



cheers

[neatomic]

be remiss not to mention the master of the telecaster..the tele was pretty much the only guitar he used/uses throughout his (6 decade +) career!..from the 50's on...

he was filmed with gretsch and rics on the ricky nelson show...but all the real recordings were done with tele

he even had his early tele painted red to match his caddy!! hah

hugely influential...the great james burton




cheers

[radiofm74]

(responding to the hijack) Before Michael Bloomfield picked up the Les Paul and got the whole Baby Boom generation (including all the British Invasion folks) playing it, the folks who were associated with the Les Paul guitar were, IIRC: Les Paul, Jim Hall, George Benson, Muddy Waters, Hubert Sumlin, and Freddy King.

A bit later, jazzy players Frank Zappa and Al DiMeola took up the Les Paul and made it work to their advantages.

I'm sure there were others, besides these jazz and blues players, but these were the ones I thought of.
Attachment 49488

Pushing the hijack further. Since you cite Al Di Meola, I can’t help mentioning an album that is simultaneously my favorite fusion album, my favorite John McLaughlin album, and my favorite album ever cut on a Les Paul Custom: the Inner Mounting Flame.



… aaaand, back to “Leo got it right the first time” We’re still short of ‘50s jazzers on a tele here!

[Cunamara]

… aaaand, back to “Leo got it right the first time” We’re still short of ‘50s jazzers on a tele here!

The exact same thought occurred to me. The Tele did not make inroads into jazz for a long time, it seems to me, but was quite well established elsewhere. I think the visual of the archtop guitar was so dominant- along with suits and ties- that conservatism kicked in and most stuck to the tradition.

And even more modernly there are still far fewer jazz guitarists playing Teles than archtops or even semi-hollows. Whenever I play of one mine at a gig, someone comes up at some point and says disbelievingly "jazz on a Tele?"

[neatomic]

jimmy bruno was just talkin about tele jazzers on one of his recent u-tubes

mentioned (approvingly!) ted greene, ed bickert and jack wilkins

cheers

[Jehu]

What about 30's style on a tele?

[citizenk74]

What about 30's style on a tele?

[radiofm74]

What about 30's style on a tele?

It’s a whole series of amazing videos and I always use it to show that in the right hands, a tele can do things you’d never expect it to do.

But Jeez, he has got some set of hands!

[neatomic]

What about 30's style on a tele?

]

don't know that i'd call that 30's style!!! his playing anyway...it's very 50's hot style guitar...

probably listened to lots of jimmy bryant

cheers

[radiofm74]

Look at the other videos from the same concert. Django on a tele (or as close as it can ever get to that…). Just kills me, including the way he COMPS on that tele. You’d say he had some acoustic in his hands…

But now that you’ve mentioned Jimmy Bryant… yes, I can hear that too in there. Anyway, one of the most stunning uses of a tele I’ve seen (short of Keith Richard’s famous ‘tele swing’, in the sense of swinging a club…).

[neatomic]

allmusic bio-

b. 15 November 1965, Liverpool, Lancashire, England. Taking up guitar in his youth, Potter played in country music bands at the age of 12. He had a spell in the USA, drawing approving attention in Nashville, Tennessee, where he was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame. Potter also drew inspiration from early rock ‘n’ roll before becoming interested in jazz...



hah keiths swingin tele!! indeed!!


cheers

[jazzbow]

Neil Le Vang?

I love the 60's Jazzmaster/flatwound stuff too