[Dixielandjazz] Guitarist Barney Kessel died at 80

[Don Ingle]

I snuck in with several of my high school buddies in the late 40's to Billy
Berg's on Vine Street in Hollywood to hear Barney Kessel play. Heard part of
a set until the waitress got to our table for a drink order and carded us.
Under age and no food being served meant hit the road jack, but what we did
hear if short on full set was some fine guitar work. While Barney was often
lumped in with the  Boppers of that time, I have heard him play in small
groups where his rhythm backing and some of his full chord fills rather than
single string were not all that distant from some of  Van Epps' ensemble
work. A fully rounded and versitile player, he has been sort of forgotten in
recent years. But I have enough of his recorded work in my stacks to refresh
my memories of this fine player.
Don Ingle
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Roger Wade" <rwade1947 at comcast.net>
To: "Norman Vickers" <nvickers1 at cox.net>; <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Saturday, May 08, 2004 9:28 AM
Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] Guitarist Barney Kessel died at 80


> Listmates,
>
> Barney Kessel was a great jazz guitarist who also appreciated the roots
> of jazz.  Note his 1954 (Good Time Jazz L-12008) recording with Kid
> Ory's Creole Jazz Band.
>
> Roger Wade
> Really Old Records
> Natick, MA
> USA
>  >>
> Norman Vickers wrote:
>
> > Listmates:  Another member of  God's Jazz Band--Barney Kessel
> >Norman Vickers
> >
>
>---------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
> >----
> >New York Times
> >May 8, 2004
> >Barney Kessel, 80, a Guitarist With Legends of Jazz, Dies
> >By PETER KEEPNEWS
> >
> >Barney Kessel, a guitarist who was both a celebrated jazz soloist and a
> >ubiquitous but anonymous studio musician, died on Thursday at his home in
> >San Diego. He was 80.
> >
> >The cause was brain cancer, said his wife, Phyllis. Mr. Kessel had been
> >inactive since a stroke in 1992, and he learned in 2001 that he had
> >inoperable cancer.
> >
> >By the mid-1950's Mr. Kessel was one of the most popular guitarists in
jazz,
> >a perennial winner of music magazine polls and a sideman whose résumé
> >included work with Charlie Parker, Billie Holiday, Art Tatum and
countless
> >others. But he still found it hard to pay his bills, so he began a second
> >career in the studios, which came to dominate his professional life until
he
> >decided to return to jazz full time in the 1970's.
> >
> >He was born in Muskogee, Okla., on Oct. 17, 1923, and began his
professional
> >career there at 14 as the only white musician in an otherwise all-black
> >dance band.
> >
> >Mr. Kessel initially modeled his style closely on that of the pioneering
> >electric guitarist Charlie Christian, a fellow Oklahoman, and he
continued
> >to regard Christian as his main influence.
> >
> >But when he had the opportunity to play with Christian at a jam session,
he
> >told The New York Times in 1991, the experience inspired him to develop a
> >style of his own.
> >
> >"I realized that I had been methodically lifting his ideas from records,"
> >Mr. Kessel said. "What was I going to play? All I knew was his stuff.
There
> >were two guys playing like Charlie Christian. I knew I had to find
myself."
> >
> >With Christian's encouragement, Mr. Kessel moved to Los Angeles in 1942
and
> >was soon on the road with a band fronted by the comedian Chico Marx.
> >
> >Over the next few years he worked with the big bands of Artie Shaw,
Charlie
> >Barnet and Benny Goodman, establishing a reputation as one of the most
> >versatile and reliable guitarists on the West Coast.
> >
> >He soon began working regularly as a sideman for the record producer
Norman
> >Granz, and in 1944 he was one of the many musicians featured in "Jammin'
the
> >Blues," the acclaimed short jazz film produced by Granz and directed by
the
> >photographer Gjon Mili. (In a strange echo of his first job, Mr. Kessel
was
> >the only white musician in that film; all that was clearly visible of him
> >were his hands, which were dyed black.)
> >
> >Mr. Kessel's profile in the jazz world continued to grow in the 1950's.
In
> >1952 he joined the pianist Oscar Peterson's trio and toured with Granz's
> >all-star Jazz at the Philharmonic aggregation.
> >
> >The next year he began his recording career as a leader with the first of
a
> >series of small-group albums for the Los Angeles-based Contemporary
label.
> >
> >Within a few years he had also become a fixture in Hollywood's recording
> >studios. In this parallel career he could be heard on movie and
television
> >soundtracks and in television and radio commercials as well as on records
by
> >everyone from the Beach Boys to Liberace to Frank Sinatra.
> >
> >In 1973 he joined forces with his fellow jazz guitarists Herb Ellis and
> >Charlie Byrd to form the group Great Guitars. In 1983 at 59 he made his
New
> >York nightclub debut as a leader.
> >
> >In addition to his wife, Mr. Kessel is survived by two sons from a
previous
> >marriage: Dan, of Hemet, Calif., and David, of Pacific Grove, Calif. Also
> >surviving are three stepchildren: Christian Wand, of Los Angeles; Colette
> >Wand Wirtschafter, of Marysville, Calif.; and Cleo Dougherty, of Boonton,
> >N.J.; and five grandchildren.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >_______________________________________________
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> >Dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com
> >http://ml.islandnet.com/mailman/listinfo/dixielandjazz
> >
> >
> >
>
>
>
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