A 37-year-old Barney Kessel is interviewed in 1961. Nice read.

**brent.h** · 03-29-2025, 10:50 PM

JazzProfiles: Barney Kessel: An Interview With Gene Lees

**deacon Mark** · 03-30-2025, 03:08 PM

This was a great read. Kessel was a friend of my fathers on the west coast in the early 60's. He said Barney was nice but always put out that Chet Atkins was a household name, and he was not as such. Chet gets pretty close to a household name although but few if any jazz guitarist other than Wes and George Benson are very well known. Even then they are not known for what they really did the best. Wes could play with such fire and Benson burns bebop like no one else. Everyone wants to hear George sing (he sings great too) but not smoke on Billy's Bounce.

The great thing about Kessel was his most marked style of playing and you know it was Barney right away. No one has quite sounded exactly like Barney abd such that is a good thing. I find Kessel's approach to playing a chord melody huge, he made the guitar an orchestra with the full tilt of sounds and devices. To me he lacks the smooth and long flowing lines of say Tal or even one of the numerous young players today. I think Barney would find that a good thing. That said I think he gets quite sloppy at times and a bit of over kill on the varies rhymical things he does with right hand.

I think Kessel probably made decent money and enjoyed a decent lifestyle but one never knows. It is a whole other trick to play the guitar for a living and have a lifestyle to keep up with the manna of the world. I believe Kenny Burrel was quite well off even though it seemed he had a go fund me page. Not many great guitarists pull this off too well. An interesting comparison would be the average well known jazz guitarist and there "net worth." Not be nosey but just to see how things stack up and what the real aspects of earning a living and retirement.

Here is an odd comparison. My neighbor retired from State Farm Corp he worked there over 30 years. He left at 57 and has a paid for house with I assume some pension till social security. He does not work does what he wants and does not live an extravagant lifestyle but I am sure a go fund me page he will not have. Finally, since I did this for my real living the amount of the musician's social security would tell how much money they actually made. So, if they were a musician full time what they draw in Social Security would reflect real wages. I know based on amounts what income they could have made. Kessel, I don't know but I have brought up too much probably.

**Cunamara** · 03-30-2025, 06:21 PM

Back when Tommy Tedesco had his column in Guitar Player magazine, per his description his hourly rate was what most gigging guitarists would get for an entire evening. That was, of course, also the heyday of studio work. Studios mainly on the West Coast and East Coast, but a few other places as well, were turning out hundreds of songs a week aiming to get them in the top 40. Most performers did not play instruments on their own recordings but only lent their voices. There's a story about Peter Tork turning up with his guitar to record the Monkees album and basically being told "that's cute. Go sit over there and we'll call you for the vocals when we need you." On the other hand, Brian Wilson came into the studio with the orchestrations in his head and sang the parts to the Wrecking Crew that he wanted them to play. People think about record labels when they think about the music industry, but the industrious part of it was the studio musicians.

I think one of the things that held Barney back was that he did not exactly have matinee idol looks. Chet was a fairly photogenic fellow and might have understood managing what we now call one's "brand" a little better than many other talented musicians of the time. In terms of commercial success, the off-stage work is probably more important than the time you put into your instrument, unfortunately.

I think financially jazz guitarists run the gamut from very successful (George Benson, probably Pat Metheny) to dying penniless in a healthcare institution (Charlie Christian, Snoozer Quinn) to somewhere in between (Tal Farlow, Pat Martino). Kenny Burrell was mentioned, but his situation with the gofundme seems to have been pretty bizarre and that whole thing might've been driven by his wife. Apparently he still had full health insurance and salary from UCLA as the director of the jazz studies department and was on sabbatical at the time. I don't know that the truth of all that that was ever uncovered and frankly none of my business, even though I did contribute. And as far as I know there isn't any current public information about how Kenny is actually doing; given that he is one of the most elegantly swinging jazz musicians who has ever walked the Earth, I hope he's doing very well and has recovered from his reported injuries.

**wintermoon** · 03-30-2025, 06:57 PM

Originally Posted by Cunamara

I think one of the things that held Barney back was that he did not exactly have matinee idol looks.

Respectfully I don't think Barney's looks had a thing to do w "holding him back"
He was very successful as a studio musician as was his pal Herb Ellis and they began touring again playing jazz when they were financially able to as a result of their studio success.
The only thing that might've held him back financially was choosing to be a jazz guitarist.

**jameslovestal** · 03-30-2025, 08:30 PM

Originally Posted by wintermoon

Respectfully I don't think Barney's looks had a thing to do w "holding him back"
He was very successful as a studio musician as was his pal Herb Ellis and they began touring again playing jazz when they were financially able to as a result of their studio success.
The only thing that might've held him back financially was choosing to be a jazz guitarist.

I agree. Chet did better because country music, even instrumental recordings, had a larger audience than straight ahead jazz.

**Cunamara** · 03-30-2025, 10:26 PM

Good points.

**John A.** · 03-31-2025, 09:39 AM

Originally Posted by deacon Mark

I think Kessel probably made decent money and enjoyed a decent lifestyle but one never knows. It is a whole other trick to play the guitar for a living and have a lifestyle to keep up with the manna of the world. I believe Kenny Burrel was quite well off even though it seemed he had a go fund me page. Not many great guitarists pull this off too well. An interesting comparison would be the average well known jazz guitarist and there "net worth." Not be nosey but just to see how things stack up and what the real aspects of earning a living and retirement.

Kessel went through periods of making good money, but his healthcare expenses after his stroke impoverished him (and left him unable to play and support himself). Burrell's case appears to be different. He had (has? not sure what his status is now) a full-time professor salary and benefits, so if not wealthy, at least solidly upper middle class. But it seemed that his wife was up to something funny with the family finances and with isolating him from other people, so no one on the outside knows exactly what's what.

But a common thread through jazz musicians' financial stories is health care. A freelancer who cannot work when sick and has to either buy his own insurance or pay cash for medical care is at much higher risk of financial ruin than someone earning a salary that comes with health insurance and disability benefits, even if the freelancer has much higher gross income. And that's the situation jazz "stars" are in. I would imagine Metheny, Benson, Scofield, and maybe a handful of others have made enough to insulate themselves from that, but most probably haven't. The "names" I have direct familiarity with who live at a reasonably high standard all have spouses with solid careers and benefits.