Legends of Jazz Guitar - Stefan Grossman's Guitar Workshop

Photo Courtesy of Ashley Mark Publishing Co.
Gillespie and Charlie Parker came to Los Angeles in 1945.
He played with Parker on a 1946 Dial Records session
and became a mainstay of the Hollywood studios, backing
everyone from Bird to Billie Holiday.
In 1952, Kessel joined Oscar Peterson’s trio. His tenmonth
stint with the group brought him greater attention
and gave him the confidence to begin recording and performing
as leader. Despite a busy schedule of session
work, Kessel became the leading voice of jazz guitar in
the 1950s. He routinely walked away with the guitar honors
in down beat’s annual poll until Wes Montgomery
unseated him in 1963.
Kessel continued to be an active and influential force
in jazz guitar throughout the 1960s-1980s. His composition,
“Blue Mist,” is the springboard for stunning ‘conversations’
among Kessel, Kenny Burrell, and Grant
Green captured at Ronnie Scott’s in London in 1969. An
example of jazz artistry at its peak, the exchange of solos
culminates with each guitarist making statements
brilliantly extended by the others.
1974’s “BBC Blues” is a Kessel revision of “Basie’s
Blues” (see Legends of Jazz Guitar, Volume One) with a
title honoring the company which taped it. It’s an example
of Kessel in top form exhibiting what Norman
Mongan, in The History of the Guitar in Jazz, calls “His
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