Jazz Guitarist - 1930s

1930s

Even as late as the early 1930s sophisticated jazz orchestras such as the Duke Ellington band still used a banjo to provide a rhythmic pulse. During the 1930s, though, guitarists gained prominence in jazz and some were even featured performers. Carl Kress (1907–1965) and Dick McDonough (1904–1938) made an early guitar duo recording in 1934. Kress was featured with the Paul Whiteman Orchestra in 1926 and recorded in 1927 with Bix Beiderbecke. He initially played banjo and four-string guitar, changing over to six-string guitar in the 1930s. Kress used an unorthodox tuning that he created for himself. He played in the 1950s on the Gary Moore television show and into the 1960s in a duo with George Barnes. McDonough led radio and performing bands and performed with many other musicians such as the Dorsey Brothers.

Other successful jazz guitarists of the period included George Van Eps (1913–1998) and Freddie Green (1911–1987), who played rhythm guitar in the Count Basie Orchestra for 50 years. George Van Eps (1913–1998) began recording as early as 1934 and taped his last records in 1996, along the way inventing the 7 string guitar in the 1950s

In Europe, Django Reinhardt (1910–1953), a Belgian gypsy jazz guitarist recorded with his Quintette du Hot Club de France with violinist Stéphane Grappelli (1908–1997), a French jazz violinist. Reinhardt was an influential figure in jazz and among jazz guitarists as a soloist, accompanist and composer. The Quintette du Hot Club de France included Django Reinhardt's brother Joseph Reinhardt as well as several other Gypsy guitarists and non-Gypsy musicians. Because of international commerce, records featuring Django Reinhardt were heard in the United States and inspired many future famous jazz guitarists. Django's early style was influenced by the jazz of the time, including Louis Armstrong and was later influenced by bebop musicians such as Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. In 1946, Duke Ellington brought Django to the United States for a series of concerts.

Jazz guitar reached a watershed with the development of amplification using a magnetic pickup and amplifier. With its amplifier, an electric guitar could be as loud as horns, drums, and piano put together. This dramatically changed the way that the instrument could be used, because before amplification was available, the guitarist would just play chords, because single-note melodies would be inaudible. One of the very first jazz guitarists to experiment with the electric guitar was Eddie Durham (1906–1987) who was playing one as early as 1938. Durham showed the instrument to Charlie Christian (1916–1942) in 1937 and to Floyd Smith. On March 16, 1939 Smith recorded "Floyd's Guitar Blues," perhaps the first hit record featuring electric guitar. But it was Christian who was to become the central figure of the electric guitar revolution in jazz, playing with Benny Goodman after an audition on August 16, 1939. Christian was influenced by the records of Django Reinhardt, learning some of his solos note-for-note.