Jazz Guitar Solos - Barney Kessel Played Guitar Like No One Else!

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  • Jazz Guitar Solos - Barney Kessel Played Guitar Like NoOne Else!By Steve M Herron | Submitted On February 15, 2015

    Although lots of guitarists were strongly affected by Charlie Christian in the 1940s and 1950s, Barney Kessel was the first toestablish his own unique voice out of the Charlie Christian approach. Like Christian, Kessel was from Oklahoma. Besides 3months of lessons, Kessel was self-taught on guitar. He gained early experience playing with regional swing groups.

    After relocating to Los Angeles in 1942, he performed with The Chico Marx Big Band (1942-43), which was a group puttogether by Ben Pollack. Discovered by Norman Granz, Kessel was included in the Lester Young short length film "Jammin' TheBlues" in 1944. He worked with the orchestras of Charlie Barnet (1944-45) and Artie Shaw, likewise having fun performingwith Shaw's Gramercy Five.

    After the Shaw gig, Kessel became a studio musician in Los Angeles while at the same time playing bop-oriented jazz in theevenings. He recorded with Charlie Parker in 1947, travelled with Jazz at The Philharmonic, and during 1952-53 belonged toThe Oscar Peterson Trio. Though he left Peterson after a year to stay near to the studios, Kessel recorded his most uniquerecordings in the 1950s making a string of very creative albums for Contemporary Records.

    While he stayed a bop soloist, the styles varied from swing to west coast jazz. An additional series of recordings teamed himwith Ray Brown and Shelly Manne as The Poll Winners, since they frequently won the "Downbeat" and "Metronome" jazz pollsof that time period. Kessel also recorded with Art Tatum and Sonny Rollins.

    Barney Kessel stayed popular on the scene during the next couple of decades. While his later recordings as a leader typically lackthe excitement and energy of his earlier dates, Barney Kessel still sounded at his fiery best when performing with Herb Ellis andCharlie Byrd as The Great Guitars during 1974-82.

    Barney Kessel's guitar approach was securely rooted in the jazz music of the late thirties and forties. As one of the keytransitional guitar players of that period, his approach naturally embodied the lexicons of the swing and bebop periods. Both jazzcategories applied a tremendous effect on his playing. To a lesser extent, Barney was affected by the post-bop modal and hardbop jazz movements and contemporary jazz.Barney was an incredible chord melody stylist and fantastic single-note soloist. His chord playing referenced the harmonicsophistication, differing structures, and arranging acumen of a pianist and orchestra leader. Barney enjoyed the modern poly

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  • tonal alternatives and chord extensions preferred by jazz keyboardists and often worked these into his re-harmonizations ofstandard tunes like "Tenderly", "Misty," and "Spring Is Here.".

    The sounds of the blues played a huge role in Barney's music. Despite the heady bop-inflected lines and colorful harmonicvariations laced throughout his improvisations, cool sounding blues licks were also plentiful. Barney made use of blueselements in both chord and single-note style. His flowing solo passages were frequently punctuated with distinctive string bends,grooving riff-like patterns, slurred ninth and 7th chords, and characteristic double stops.

    Barney had several notable phrasing techniques that made his single-note improvisations personal and immediately recognizable.Prime amongst these were the rake-picked smeared arpeggio figures that decorated lots of his bop passages. Another uniqueKessel signature was the extended guitar line harmonized in parallel 3rds. Also notable was his strong, unflagging sense ofswing when rendering long strings of eighth notes like a wind instrumentalist. A terrible stroke put an end to Barney Kessel'sjazz guitar playing in 1992 and he died 12 years later.Peabody Conservatory trained guitarist Steven Herron is an expert on jazz guitar instruction. He has spent most of his adult lifeplaying professionally at clubs and restaurants as well as teaching private students at his studio. Sign up now for his free guitare-course and find out more about Barney Kessel solos.

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