Charlie Byrd Trio

Jazz guitarist Charlie Byrd (d. 1999) plays Those Silk Shiny Stockings tune); his brother Joe is on bass and does a solo. What distinguishes Charlie Byrd from other jazz guitarists is that he uses a classical guitar and pretty much Segovia-style finger technique.

Another Byrd. Here he does Agua De Beber, by the famous Brazilian [...]

“Masters of Jazz”

Jazz guitarist definitely take a back seat to rock guitarists in popularity, as of course do classical. But Masters of Jazz Guitar: The Story of the Players and Their Music (in pb, from 2003) is one of the most interesting books on guitarists of any kind you’ll ever read. There’s Django Reinhardt, Wes Montgomery, Charlie [...]

Short and sweet overview on guitar types

Depending upon one’s musical taste the term guitar can evoke any one of four distinct types: classic, flamenco, plectrum or electric. These in turn can be divided into two distinct classes: the nylon string class (classic and flamenco) and the steel string class (plectrum and electric). Those of the first, almost identical in outline, have [...]

Queen guitarist good at math

Queen guitarist, Brian May, is completing his doctorate in astrophysics:
The 60-year-old guitarist and songwriter said he plans to submit his thesis, “Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud,” to supervisors at Imperial College London within the next two weeks.
I have no idea what that thesis means but I guess it’s nice to have something [...]

A little Ted Nugent history

Ted Nugent and the Amboy Dukes? Yeap, they split way back in ‘75. And I never even knew such a group existed until this very minute. I wonder if Ted toured back then with a couple of deer strapped on over the fenders?

Guitarist as actor

Can a stoned guitarist–namely one of the Rolling Stones–make a good actor? Well, MSNBC contributor Dave White has a take:
You know Keith Richards is in “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End,” right? He plays Johnny Depp’s pirate papa. And without getting too review-y and spoiler-ish … I have to gush a little about Richards’ [...]

Why play a real rock guitar…

When you can pick up an air guitar “and sound and feel like a rock star.”
The gadget has 10 songs, including Deep Purple’s “Smoke On the Water,” programmed to play automatically. It is set to hit the market next month. It can also be connected to an MP3 music player or a speaker system, the [...]

Ex Eagles guitarist

Ever wonder what happened to ex Eagles lead guitarist Don Felder (not to be confused with that other Eagles guitarist, Joe Walsh)? Well there’s a large site dedicated to this great rock guitarist, and what he’s doing now in music; there’s also some radio interviews and videos. I didn’t know this before but Felder is [...]

Playing a symphony on one guitar

The sound quality isn’t the greatest but you get the idea. Guitarist Jorge Caballero, playing the first part of a Dvorak symphony.

Speaking of Japan…

Why is this heavy metal guitarist so into Japan:
Marty Friedman is the ex-lead guitarist of Megadeth, the all-American thrash-metal band that has sold more than 20 million records. Metal cliches being what they are, you’d half expect him to say “Duuuuuuuuude” and throw up a “devil horns” hand sign as a greeting. Instead, his first [...]