News & Updates — guitar

Houston-born Johnny "Guitar" Watson was a solid blues guitarist in the '50s and '60s before he re-invented himself as the funk god that George Clinton surely studied the style of. Early on he played with Albert Collins, Amos Milburn, Johnny Otis and others. Around '67 he made a very hip record with his friend Larry Williams and the US psych band The Kaleidoscope! ("Nobody"). He recorded with Frank Zappa and then David Axelrod in the mid 70s before his huge funk hits "Ain't That A Bitch" and "A Real Mother For Ya". The Gangster of Love also recorded with Dr...

The great British improviser Derek Bailey is one of the most important and respected non-pop guitarists to come out of the UK music scene. After doing a few straight-ahead gigs, Bailey went the free-form route and co-founded Spontaneous Music Ensemble, as well as Music Improvisation Company. In 1970 he co-founded the first musician-owned improv label in the UK, Incus Records. To listen to Bailey, you would have to throw away every conventional way that you have heard guitar. He plays improvised music, with little concession to pop or rock (or even jazz). Throughout the years he has collaborated with Evan...

"The King of the Slide Guitar", Elmore James tinkered with electronics in his brother's shop to create his raw amplified sound. He hit in '52 with "Dust My Broom" (from his first leader session) and "The Sky Is Crying" is oft-covered. With his wicked slide, "violent" sound and soulful vocal he was a major influence on both subsequent bluesmen and British & US rockers alike (especially Jimi Hendrix and the Allman Brothers). We give a nod to Elmore on his birthday. Check out "Dust My Broom":

The father of the bossa nova, the ever-popular Tom Jobim's breezy, jazzy and poetic music became infectious around the world through songs like "The Girl From Ipanema", "A Felicidade", "Desafinado", "Samba Do Avião", "Corcovado" and more, as interpreted by Stan Getz, Astrud Gilberto, Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald and the man himself. He stands as a major innovator in not just Brazilian music but also as a uniquely pioneering jazz composer. Here is a nice version of "A Felicidade", with Gal Costa:

Blind Willie Johnson, the gospel blues singer/guitarist from Texas was responsible for one of the single most haunting songs in the American song canon, "Dark Was The Night, Cold Was The Ground" (a song which has been sent into outer space). Allegedly blinded by his stepmother in an act of revenge against his father, Johnson's hard life included living in the streets and in the ruins of his burned-down home. While ill, he was refused admittance at a hospital due to being black and blind, dying with no treatment. Here is that deeply stirring song as we celebrate his birthday...