Historic Guitar Virtuosos

One thing that has always interested me has been the history of
the guitar and the legendary guitar players.

When I started playing I tried to find the original innovators
of each style to learn from because I felt guitar knowledge was
cumulative.

So I assembled a list of guitar players that I felt would
lead me towards the modern era that I could build on and
eventually add to.

Here is the list:

Early Jazz Guitar: Charlie Christian – I dig Charlie because
not only did he bring the electric guitar to center stage,
he is mythical in that he set the world on its ear
at the young age of 21 and then died at age 23.
His playing still holds up today. If you subscribe to my newsletter
you will find his biography posted.

Jazz Guitar from another planet: Django – I was fortunate
enough to have an in depth discussion with Jerry Garcia
about Django and he said it best:

`You just can`t cover the cat`.

Despite having only 2 working fingers on
his fretting hand he was able to to play riffs and
runs most people with 4 fingers (and thumb) still
can’t play.

Country finger picking: Chet Atkins – His beautiful melodic
style held up for over a half a century.

Bluegrass: Lester Flatt – Flatt and Scruggs – one of the
reasons bluegrass music is successful today There are few
guitarist/lead singers who are better known in bluegrass
music than Lester Raymond Flatt—probably none.

Blues: B.B. King – His reign as King of the Blues has
been as long as that of any monarch on earth.

General all around: Les Paul – An innovator both as a
musician and as a technician.

Modern influences:

Carlos Santana – His blend of rock and latin music
sets him apart from other guitar players of the modern
era.

Jerry Garcia – His playing covered every style and created
a whole genre.

Clapton, Page and Beck – Major influences of Rock.
They brought the blues into the mainstream.
The early bluesman owe as much to them as they owe
the early bluesman.

These are the guitarist that influenced me.

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 14th, 2008 at 3:42 pm and is filed under Jerry Garcia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.