Introduction
It is almost natural to associate jazz with instruments such as the saxophone, clarinet, or trumpet. Nonetheless, like any sophisticated musical genre, jazz has never been limited to just these particular instruments. The diverse array of styles and emotions conveyed in jazz often arises from the interplay between ensemble performers and the soloist’s innovative ideas and techniques.
The guitar, in particular, is a fascinating example because of its adaptability as both an ensemble and solo instrument. The most straightforward approach is to examine the significant artists who influenced the genre across different jazz eras to track the development of the jazz guitar style. This research paper will explore the history of the Electric Jazz Guitar, focusing on six pivotal periods: Chicago, Kansas City, Fusion, Cool, Bebop, and Swing.
Chicago
The Chicago Period marked the beginning of jazz’s transformation, as groups started experimenting with new instrumentation and moved away from the traditional New Orleans sound. Jazz bands began incorporating stringed instruments like the banjo, guitar, and string bass (Gaspard Bolin 256). Lonnie Johnson, a blues musician originally from New Orleans, was among the pioneers who made a mark in the jazz community in Chicago. Johnson honed his guitar technique and created a distinctive style, highlighting his musical ingenuity and adeptness in blues playing. His refined guitar style impressed several musicians, including Duke Ellington, and he quickly rose to prominence as a solo guitarist with his rendition of “Misty Morning” (Jazz).
Johnson influenced many aspiring guitarists, including Salvatore Massaro, who preferred to be called Eddie Lang (Jazz). Lang’s early training in classical music, including solfeggio, helped him comprehend and master novel patterns quickly, contributing to his improvisational skills on both the violin and the guitar. During his high school years, Lang collaborated with a violinist named John Venuti, and together, they honed their improvisational abilities while performing mazurkas and polkas. His guitar skills helped give the Mound City Blue Blowers a fuller and more harmonic sound, and he quickly became the most in-demand musician in jazz after leaving the group in 1925 (“Eddie Lang Biography, Songs, and Albums | AllMusic”). Lang’s approach to music, influenced by his early training and improvisational skills, set him apart from his contemporaries in guitar playing, and his influence on jazz guitar can still be heard today.
Swing
During the Chicago era, swing was a popular sound and gave rise to a new type of band, the Big Band. With around 15-17 players, these bands had a louder musical force than others, making it difficult for softer instruments like guitars to be heard, even with microphones (Jazz). Leo Fender’s innovation of the first electronic “pick-up” altered the game by converting guitar string vibrations into an amplifiable electronic signal (Facey 7). A talented guitarist, Charlie Christian was among the first to use this new technology to revolutionize the perception of solo guitar in Swing bands.
Charlie Christian’s love for jazz began at a young age, and he quickly surpassed some of Kansas City’s most talented guitarists. He subsequently joined AI Trent’s Sextet on tour. He caught the attention of John Hammond, who enlisted him to play with Benny Goodman’s Orchestra in 1939 (“History of the Electric Guitar – Guitarist: Charlie Christian”). During a casual jam session at Minton’s Bar in Harlem, Christian played a key role in shaping the groundbreaking new sound that emerged from the venue, transcending the boundaries of swing. He employed his vast knowledge of harmony to restructure chord progressions in numerous popular songs of the day, laying the foundation for the upcoming bebop movement.
Kansas City
During the 1930s, when jazz was dominated by the Big Band/Swing craze, the Kansas City style emerged as a contrast, focusing on old ragtime timbre and the blues. This new sound, characterized by larger instrumentation, allowed for the emergence of new voices, including the electric guitar. Django Reinhardt was one of the most influential guitarists of the Kansas City era.
Born in Belgium in 1910, Django was a gypsy exposed to music from an early age. He developed a two-fingered playing style after a fire left him with severe burns on his left hand, losing the use of two fingers (Burlingame). Jazz allowed Django to showcase his improvisational skills, integrating blues and classical elements with the gypsy style of performance (Burlingame). His solos were adorned with flamenco techniques like glissandi, and he enlivened his rhythm sections, bringing out various ideas while keeping a coherent main idea.
Bebop
In the late 1940s, the jazz scene experienced a significant transformation as musicians at Minton’s Bar, including Jo Jones and Charlie Christian, pioneered a novel musical style known as “bebop.” This innovative approach involved reconstructing and re-harmonizing traditional chord progressions, adding fresh chords, and producing intricate arrangements that only the most skilled and technically proficient musicians could successfully improvise (Amendola 97). Barney Kessel was a guitarist who dedicated himself to mastering bebop and incorporating Charlie Christian’s style into his work. He emerged as the most popular guitarist of the era, synthesizing old musical styles into a distinctive new sound by skillfully blending the bebop technique and the melodic, smooth approach of the West Coast style (Amendola 14). Kessel was also a sought-after instructor who collaborated with various publishers to create instructional materials on jazz guitar techniques for the general public.
Cool
The development of “cool” jazz on the West Coast starkly contrasted with the East Coast’s bebop movement. This style was characterized by subdued melodies and a departure from complex chord transitions (Polianskyi 43). Cool jazz musicians like Wes Montgomery and Joe Pass relied heavily on their melodic creativity.
Wes Montgomery, renowned for his impeccable improvisation skills, frequently utilized octaves in his solos and created a distinct, resonant tone by eschewing the use of a pick (Facey 10). On the other hand, Joe Pass defied easy categorization as a guitarist and drew heavily from Charlie Parker’s style. Unlike Montgomery, Pass’s silky smooth lines did not resemble his contemporary’s sound. He employed a trumpeter’s approach to guitar playing, producing crisp, concise, and tuneful melodies by prioritizing melody over complex chord progressions (Facey 12).
Montgomery and Pass contributed a novel, rich sound to guitar playing that has inspired numerous up-and-coming musicians. Montgomery says, “You know, John Coltrane has been sort of a god to me. Seems like, in a way, he didn’t get the inspiration from other musicians. He had it. When you hear a cat do a thing like that, you have to go along with him. I think I heard Coltrane before I got close to Miles [Davis]. Miles had a tricky way of playing his horn that I didn’t understand as much as I did Coltrane. I didn’t understand what Coltrane was doing, but it was so exciting the thing that he was doing. (Top 14 Quotes by Wes Montgomery | A-Z Quotes.)”
Fusion
The late 1960s saw trumpeter Miles Davis draw inspiration from rock music, leading to the fusion movement in jazz, which blended rock and funk with jazz. This allowed guitarists to become bandleaders, with many achieving popularity and being named influential in downbeat polls. John McLaughlin, who helped start the fusion movement with Davis, was a guitarist who consistently ranked high in these polls.
McLaughlin was a natural fit for fusion, having made a name for himself in the British blues revival before moving into jazz. He was introduced to Davis through drummer Tony Williams, who impressed the legendary musician with his use of effects to create new sounds (“John McLaughlin Biography, Songs, and Albums | AllMusic”). McLaughlin’s unique approach blended conventional and non-conventional styles, producing pure and technical melodic lines with swirling sound textures. He became a brilliant improviser as a result of this method, and Tal Farlow was the only guitarist who could match his pace.
In 1970, McLaughlin formed the Mahavishnu Orchestra, which combined various sounds and paved the way for future fusion acts such as Weather Report. The group incorporated the jazz genre into a rock style, and McLaughlin’s performances in tracks such as “Awakening” shared similarities with those of Jimmy Page rather than earlier jazz guitarists. (“John McLaughlin Biography, Songs, and Albums | AllMusic”). By combining popular genres, McLaughlin helped jazz reach new artistic heights and opened the door for other guitarists to combine jazz and rock.
Conclusion
The development of the electric jazz guitar has been continuous from the Chicago period to the bebop and fusion eras. Lonnie Johnson, Charlie Christian, and Django Reinhardt are key guitarists who influenced the jazz instrument’s growth. Sadly, several other equally essential guitarists are not given this kind of credit. Nevertheless, the overall image shown by these important performers reveals that there is still more change to come and depicts the jazz guitar’s gradual development.
Works Cited
Amendola, Andrew F. “An Exploration of Kurt Rosenwinkel’s Stylistic Contribution to Jazz Guitar Improvisation, with Illustrative Comparison Between Significant Artists Over Like Forms.” The University of Miami, 2021, Doctoral dissertation.
Burlingame, Sandra. Django Reinhardt Biography. Web.
“Eddie Lang Biography, Songs, and Albums | AllMusic.” Web.
Facey, Mike. “Early Proponents of Electric Bass in Mainstream Jazz: An Analysis of Monk Montgomery and Bob Cranshaw.” University of Colorado, 2020, Master’s thesis.
Gaspard Bolin, Marc Timothy. “The Second Line: A (Re)Conceptualization of the New Orleans Brass Band Tradition.” University of California, 2021, Doctoral dissertation.
“History of the Electric Guitar – Guitarist: Charlie Christian.” Riff Interactive. Web.
Jazz, All About. “Lonnie Johnson.” All About Jazz Musicians. Web.
“John McLaughlin Biography, Songs, and Albums | AllMusic.” Web.
Polianskyi, T. “Typology of Early Jazz: Concepts and Approaches.”Professional Artistic Education and Culture within Modern Global Transformations, edited by Olga Oleksiuk. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2019, pp. 33-38.
Top 14 Quotes by Wes Montgomery | A-Z Quotes. (n.d.). Web.