Pick One Favorite Guitar Player For All Time
Everyone has their favorite, and every style of music has its master musician that garners all the votes from aficionados of that style. Jazz people like this person, Rockers like that one. Classical and country, and flamenco and Gypsy, and fusion and be-bop, and rockabilly and bluegrass, and lions and tigers and bears, Oh My.
Well, this is my Journal posting and store, so I’ll take advantage of the soap box to suit my own preferences. If I had to choose just one among a good hundred masters of the craft whom I respect, (limited to those that I have ever heard, of course), what criteria would be fairest? I would choose on the basis of breadth, flexibility, and ‘listenability.’
By ‘listenability’ I mean even though the player has towering technical ability, can I listen with enjoyment in the music, or just dazzlement at the pyrotechnics. A piano example comes to mind: Art Tatum versus his protege Oscar Peterson. Tatum was all over the piano, using all 88 keys all of the time, filling every beat with complex figures and jaw-dropping runs. Count Basie said of him “He doesn’t like spaces.” It’s amazing, but it’s tiring listening to the guy. Flowery to the max. Oscar Peterson can occasionally fall into the same trap, probably because, well, look who his mentor was. But most often Peterson drives the hell out of a tune, putting surprise packages everywhere, and making you smile at his bluesy touches where you least expect them. Plus, Oscar’s not ‘afraid of spaces.’ He’s every bit as accomplished as Tatum, but much more of a joy to listen to. That’s what I’m looking for in my guitar player favorite.
And my ‘breadth and flexibility’ comment? What’s with that? It means does the player move across genres with ease, playing at the top of the game no matter what style is being demanded. That narrows the field considerably. Not too many rock god shredders are found on classical or country recordings, for example. Not to say they couldn’t if they wanted, but the recordings aren’t there.
With that kind of criteria there are still some difficult choices left. My biased, personal list includes Danny Gatton, Barney Kessell, Joe Pass, and Tommy Emmanuel. But I’ll bravely make a personal choice: Howard Roberts.
This gentleman apparently grew up playing country music in Arizona, moved to Los Angeles and switched to the be-bop and mainstream jazz that was the ‘in’ music of the SoCal scene in the 1950’s. He found that there was money to be made in the studios pumping out Top 40 tunes, and became a member of the ‘Wrecking Crew’ that anonymously backed hundreds of hits on vinyl. Plus he rode the fusion train into experimental jazz and played on many movie & TV soundtracks (that’s him on the “Route 66” theme), all at peak prowess. Plus he founded LA’s Musician Institute, akin to Boston’s Berklee School of Music. In between, he found time to make Commercial / Jazz records labeled ‘funky’ before that word came to mean wah-wah pedals.
For myself, I was a teenager in bands of the 1960’s playing the then-current Top 40 stuff. My first exposure to what could really be done with a guitar in the hands of a professional was Howard Robert’s records ‘Color Him Funky’, ‘HR is a Dirty Guitar Player’, and ‘Something’s Cookin’. In retrospect, and in light of his unsurpassed abilities heard on other less-commercial albums, I’m sure that Howard saw these as throwaway, make-a-few-bucks-with-short-jazz-hooks kinds of albums. To a musical knee-high, though, these were the holy grail.
Actually, I still enjoy them immensely to this day. Good music is timeless.
