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Django Reinhardt (1910–53) overcame physical disabilities to create a unique playing style and one of the most highly influential sounds in jazz. He was born in Belgium to gypsy parents. At the age of eight his mother’s tribe settled near Paris. The French Gypsies, or Manouches, were medieval in their beliefs, and distrustful of modern science. But Django ...

Source: Rock Guitar Heroes, consultant editor Rusty Cutchin

(Guitar, 1910–53) One of the reasons that Django Reinhardt dominated conversations about the guitar so completely in the 1930s was his fortunate timing. He arrived on the world jazz scene through the Quintet of the Hot Club of France in 1934 – a year after the death of Eddie Lang and five years before the arrival of Charlie Christian. Belgian ...

Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Jazz & Blues, founding editor Howard Mandel

When the great Mississippi musician Riley King left the cotton fields to seek his fortune in Memphis in 1946, he had $2.50 in his pocket and a battered guitar in his hand. Today, his name is synonymous with blues music itself, yet his ascendance to the zenith of the blues world never altered his friendly, downhome ...

Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Jazz & Blues, founding editor Howard Mandel

(Guitar, b. 1966) A French gypsy, Lagrene was hailed as Django Reinhardt’s heir upon the release of his first album at the age of 13. He has performed gypsy jazz in the company of swing veterans Benny Carter, Benny Goodman and Stéphane Grappelli, but has also developed a personal, fusion-oriented style and mixes both approaches in ...

Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Jazz & Blues, founding editor Howard Mandel

(Tenor saxophone, 1904–69) ‘Hawk’ played with Mamie Smith’s Jazz Hounds in 1922 before joining Fletcher Henderson’s band in New York. Louis Armstrong’s presence in the band had a major effect on Hawkins’ playing; by marrying a swing feel to his heavy tone, informed by his advanced understanding of harmony and chords, Hawkins became a star soloist and the ...

Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Jazz & Blues, founding editor Howard Mandel

Derek Trucks was born in Jacksonville, Florida in 1979. Trucks bought his first guitar at a yard sale for $5 at age nine and became a child prodigy, playing his first paid performance at age 11. Trucks began playing the guitar using a ‘slide’ bar because it allowed him to play the guitar with his small hands. By his ...

Source: Rock Guitar Heroes, consultant editor Rusty Cutchin

(Guitar, 1902–33) Philadelphia native Salvatore Massaro joined the Mound City Blue Blowers in 1924 and by the mid-1920s had become jazz’s first in-demand session guitarist, backing various blues and popular singers. A single-note virtuoso, he was also jazz’s first guitar hero. In 1926, Lang teamed up with high-school pal Joe Venuti for some classic guitar-violin duet sessions ...

Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Jazz & Blues, founding editor Howard Mandel

(Various saxophones, b. 1969) A musical prodigy from Detroit’s Creative Arts Collective, saxophonist James Carter toured Europe at the age of 16, worked with Wynton Marsalis and starred in Julius Hemphill’s saxophone opera Long Tongues. Since 1990, his New York ensemble has recorded a variety of ‘quiet storm’ romantic jazz, Django Reinhardt-style gypsy jazz, hard-core ...

Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Jazz & Blues, founding editor Howard Mandel

By turns avant-garde adventurer, high-voltage rocker and Third World explorer, Yorkshire-born guitarist John McLaughlin has seldom repeated himself. Born in 1942, McLaughlin studied piano from the age of nine and taught himself guitar after becoming interested in country blues, flamenco and Django Reinhardt. A gig with Pete Deuchar’s Professors of Ragtime in 1958 was his ticket to ...

Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Jazz & Blues, founding editor Howard Mandel

Johnny Ramone (1948–2004) was born John Cummings in Long Island, New York. As a teenager, Johnny played in a band called The Tangerine Puppets alongside future Ramones drummer Tamás Erdélyi (better known as Tommy Ramone). Johnny worked as a plumber with his father before The Ramones became successful. He also attended military school and briefly attended college in Florida. ...

Source: Rock Guitar Heroes, consultant editor Rusty Cutchin

Les Paul (1915–2009) developed a reputation in modern music beyond his status as a successful performer and guitar innovator through his pioneering work with multitrack recording. Born Lester Polsfuss in Waukesha, Wisconsin, the nine-year-old Paul first picked up the harmonica from a street musician. Soon, he was playing for money in the streets. He was attracted to electronics ...

Source: Rock Guitar Heroes, consultant editor Rusty Cutchin

1921–2006 English composer Arnold began his career as an orchestral trumpet player, but soon attracted attention with music that combined tunefulness, orchestral brilliance and engaging humour (the comedy overture Beckus the Dandipratt and two sets of English Dances). His symphonies and concertos combine these qualities with deeper emotions; they have attracted a smaller, but admiring, audience. Among ...

Source: Classical Music Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

A true pioneer and musical visionary, Pat Metheny (b. 1954) is one of the most important voices in the history of jazz guitar. Winner of countless ‘Best Jazz Guitarist’ polls and 12 Grammy Awards – including an unprecedented seven consecutive wins for seven consecutive albums – Metheny’s impact on jazz guitar is on a par with that of Charlie Christian ...

Source: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Guitar Heroes, consultant editor Rusty Cutchin

(Violin, piano, 1908–97) Largely self-taught, Stéphane Grappelli’s virtuosity came to the attention of the world in 1934 through records with Django Reinhardt and The Quintet of the Hot Club of France. His refined sound was decorative on ballads but could push with an alert and driving attack of formidable power on jazz standards such as ‘Tiger Rag’, ‘Shine’ ...

Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Jazz & Blues, founding editor Howard Mandel

(Tuba, bass, 1900–57) By the end of the 1930s Walter Page had brought the usually subordinate roll of the bass to a position of critical importance without substantially expanding its time-keeping function. As a component of the unique Count Basie ‘all-American’ rhythm section from 1936–42, he produced a large, round but never percussive attack, whose ringing ...

Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Jazz & Blues, founding editor Howard Mandel
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