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Jazz guitar may refer to either a type ofelectric guitar or a guitar playing style injazz, usingelectric amplification to increase the volume of acoustic guitars.
In the early 1930s, jazz musicians sought to amplify their sound to be heard over loudbig bands. When guitarists in big bands switched fromacoustic tosemi-acoustic guitar and began usingamplifiers, it enabled them to playsolos. Jazz guitar had an important influence on jazz in the beginning of the twentieth century. Although the earliest guitars used in jazz wereacoustic and acoustic guitars are still sometimes used in jazz, most jazz guitarists since the 1940s have performed on an electrically amplified guitar orelectric guitar.
Traditionally, jazz electric guitarists use anarchtop with a relatively broad hollow sound-box, violin-stylef-holes, a "floating bridge", and amagnetic pickup.Solid body guitars, mass-produced since the early 1950s, are also used.
Jazz guitar playing styles includecomping with jazz chord voicings (and in some caseswalking bass lines) andblowing (improvising) over jazz chord progressions with jazz-stylephrasing and ornaments. Comping refers to playing chords underneath a song's melody or another musician's solo improvisations.
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The stringed, chord-playing rhythm can be heard in groups which included military band-style instruments such as brass, saxes, clarinets, and drums, such as early jazz groups. As the acoustic guitar became a more popular instrument in the early 20th century, guitar-makers began building louder guitars which would be useful in a wider range of settings.Nick Lucas is regarded as the grandfather of jazz guitar, with two of his guitar compositions recorded in 1922, Picking the Guitar and Teasing the Frets, being the first guitar solos ever recorded. Lucas built the foundations for jazz guitar through his development of various rhythmic, single string, and sweep picking techniques.
The Gibson L5, an acousticarchtop guitar which was first produced in 1923, was an early “jazz”-style guitar which was used by early jazz guitarists such asEddie Lang. By the 1930s, the guitar began to displace the banjo as the primary chordal rhythm instrument in jazz because the guitar could be used to voice chords of greater harmonic complexity, and it had a somewhat more muted tone that blended well with theupright bass, which, by this time, had almost completely replaced the tuba as the dominant bass instrument in jazz.
During the late 1930s and through the 1940s—the heyday ofbig band jazz andswing music—the guitar was an importantrhythm section instrument. Some guitarists, such asFreddie Green ofCount Basie's band, developed a guitar-specific style of accompaniment. Few of the big bands, however, featured amplified guitar solos, which were done instead in the small combo context. The most important jazz guitar soloists of this period includedDjango Reinhardt, the Manouche virtuoso;Oscar Moore who was featured withNat “King” Cole's trio andCharlie Christian ofBenny Goodman's band and sextet who was a major influence despite his death early in 1942 at the age of 25. Also noteworthy wasMike Danzi who performed with theAlex Hyde Orchestra in the United States as well as with several jazz orchestras throughout Germany during the 1930s.[1]
It was not until the large-scale emergence of small combo jazz post-WWII that the guitar took off as a versatile instrument which was used both in the rhythm section and as a featured melodic instrument and solo improviser. In the hands ofGeorge Barnes,Billy Bauer,Kenny Burrell,Herb Ellis,Barney Kessel,Jimmy Raney, andTal Farlow, who had absorbed the language ofbebop, the guitar began to be seen as a "serious" jazz instrument. Improved electric guitars such as Gibson'sES-175 (released in 1949), gave players a larger variety of tonal options. In the 1940s through the 1960s, players such asWes Montgomery,Joe Pass,Al Caiola[2][3][4]Tony Mottola[5][6][7] andJim Hall laid the foundation of what is now known as "jazz guitar" playing.
As a result of the ubiquity of the guitar in rock and pop bands during the 1960s, jazz guitarists began to pursue rock-based styles and genres, radically changing the face of jazz guitar and developing the style of "jazz fusion", which broke out of standard jazz idioms and explored rock, funk, and electronic music. As early as 1967,Larry Coryell and his band The Free Spirits recordedOut of Sight and Sound, a groundbreaking album that was one of the earliest examples of rock music being interpreted and played by jazz musicians. More prevalently,Miles Davis featuredGeorge Benson as a soloist on the track "Paraphernalia" off of his 1968 albumMiles in the Sky, which marked the first example of his long-standing associations with guitarists. Shortly after this, he recruitedJohn McLaughlin to play onIn A Silent Way andBitches Brew, some of the first jazz albums to be called "fusion" and the first serious jazz-rock albums. McLaughlin was a veteran of the British blues scene, and had cut his teeth playing with popular blues and rock groups, such asThe Graham Bond Quartet,The Rolling Stones, andGeorgie Fame and the Blue Flames. McLaughlin was an avowed fan ofJimi Hendrix, and utilized phrasing closer to that of blues and funk guitarists than stereotypical bebop phrasing, and even had a track off of Bitches Brew named after him. He also played with theTony Williams Lifetime for two years, before departing, radically altering his approach, and founding a new band. Davis would continue experimenting with guitar-based music during the 1970s, spearheaded by experimental soloistPete Cosey, and rhythm guitaristsReggie Lucas and, for some time,Dominique Gaumont. Cosey made heavy use of effects, including a synthesizer, as well as 10 string guitars and experimental tunings. His work and influence is recognized by several avant-garde guitarists, such asTelevision guitaristTom Verlaine.
The Mahavishnu Orchestra, the resulting band, broke significant ground in both rock and jazz realms, and was headlined by McLaughlin's newer, more experimental style. His guitar playing began to utilize bends, sustain, and distortion common to blues rock musicians, as well as a vocabulary heavily influenced byHindustani andCarnatic styles ofIndian classical music which had become popular inpsychedelic rock. His aggression and virtuosity earned him and his band fame, and he became a dominant force in jazz guitar. Inspired by him, pianistChick Corea reorganized his Latin jazz bandReturn to Forever into a guitar-led rock band, first with blues-based guitaristBill Connors, then with young virtuosoAl Di Meola. Di Meola would also accrue much respect as a soloist, and influenced numerous rock and jazz guitarists after his time.
Many rock guitarists also began to utilize jazz vocabulary and jazz-based ideas, reflective ofprogressive rock's convergent evolution with fusion jazz.Yes guitaristsPeter Banks andSteve Howe had styles akin to that of many jazz guitarists early on, and helped define Yes's sound apart from other bands.John Goodsall, guitarist for the seminal jazz-rock bandBrand X, utilized a fusion guitar style in the context of a progressive rock sound. Most notably, though, wasAllan Holdsworth, who played with numerous progressive rock groups and musicians(Soft Machine,Gong,Tempest,Bill Bruford,U.K.) before embarking on a decades-long solo career that saw him become of the most revered soloists in the guitar world. Rather than utilizing standard picking, Holdsworth relied on legato phrasing inspired by horn players likeJohn Coltrane and wildly unique and extremely advanced harmonic ideas. Despite being an "underground" musician and getting very little commercial success, Holdsworth inspired several guitarists over the years, most particularly,Eddie Van Halen.[8]
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By the early 1980s, the radical experiments of early 1970s-era fusion gave way to a more radio-friendly sounds ofsmooth jazz. GuitaristPat Metheny mixed the sounds of rock, blues, country, and “world” music, while still maintaining a strong foundation in bebop and cool jazz, playing both a flat-top acoustic guitar and an electric guitar with a softer, more mellow tone which was sweetened with a shimmering effect known as “chorusing". During the 1980s, a neo-traditional school of jazz sought to reconnect with the past. In keeping with such an aesthetic, young guitarists of this era sought a clean and round tone, and they often played traditional hollow-body arch-top guitars without electronic effects, frequently throughvacuum tube amplifiers.
As players such asBobby Broom,Peter Bernstein,Howard Alden,Russell Malone, andMark Whitfield revived the sounds of traditional jazz guitar, there was also a resurgence of archtop luthierie (guitar-making). By the early 1990s many small independent luthiers began making archtop guitars. In the 2000s, jazz guitar playing continues to change. Some guitarists incorporate a Latin jazz influence,acid jazz-style dance club music uses samples from Wes Montgomery, and guitarists such asBill Frisell continue to defy categorization.
While jazz can be played on any type of guitar, from an acoustic instrument to a solid-bodiedelectric guitar such as a Fender Stratocaster, the full-depth archtop guitar has become known as the prototypical "jazz guitar." Archtop guitars aresteel-string acoustic guitars with a big soundbox, arched top, violin-stylef-holes, a "floating bridge" andmagnetic orpiezoelectric pickups. Early makers of jazz guitars includedGibson,Epiphone, D'Angelico and Stromberg. The electric guitar is plugged into aguitar amplifier to make it sound loud enough for performance. Guitar amplifiers have equalizer controls that allow the guitarist to change the tone of the instrument, by emphasizing or de-emphasizing certain frequency bands. The use ofreverb effects, often included in guitar amplifiers, has long been part of the jazz guitar sound. Particularly since the 1970sjazz fusion era, some jazz guitarists have also usedeffects pedals such asoverdrive pedals,chorus pedals andwah pedals.
The earliest guitars used in jazz were acoustic, later superseded by a typical electric configuration of twohumbucking pickups. In the 1990s, there was a resurgence of interest among jazz guitarists in acoustic archtop guitars with floating pickups. The original acoustic archtop guitars were designed to enhance volume: for that reason they were constructed for use with relatively heavyguitar strings. Even after electrification became the norm, jazz guitarists continued to fit strings of 0.012" gauge or heavier for reasons of tone, and also preferflatwound strings. The characteristic arched top can be made of a solid piece of wood that is carved into the arched shape, or a piece of laminated wood (essentially a type of plywood) that is pressed into shape.Spruce is often used for tops, andmaple for backs. Archtop guitars can be mass-produced, such as theIbanez Artcore series, or handmade byluthiers such asRobert Benedetto.
Jazz rhythm guitar often consists of very textural, odd-meter playing that includes generous use of exotic, difficult-to-fret chords. In 4/4 timing, it is common to play 2.5 beat intervals such as on the 2 and then the half beat or "and" after 4. Jazz guitarists may play chords "ahead" of the beat, by playing the chord a swung eighth note before the actual chord change. Chords are not generally played in a repetitive rhythmic fashion, like a rockrhythm guitarist would play.
Jazz guitarists use their knowledge ofharmony and jazz theory to create jazz chord "voicings," which emphasize the 3rd and 7th notes of the chord. Some more sophisticated chord voicings also include the 9th, 11th, and 13th notes of the chord. In some modern jazz styles,dominant 7th chords in a tune may contain altered 9ths (either flattened by a semitone, which is called a "flat 9th", or sharpened by a semitone, which is called a "sharp 9th"); 11ths (sharpened by a semitone, which is called a "sharp 11th"); 13ths (typically flattened by a semitone, which is called a "flat 13th").
Jazz guitarists need to learn about a range of different chords, includingmajor 7th,major 6th,minor 7th,minor/major 7th,dominant 7th,diminished,half-diminished, andaugmented chords. As well, they need to learn about chord transformations (e.g., altered chords, such as "alt dominant chords" described above),chord substitutions, and re-harmonization techniques. Some jazz guitarists use their knowledge of jazz scales and chords to provide awalking bass-style accompaniment.
Jazz guitarists learn to perform these chords over the range of differentchord progressions used in jazz, such as the ubiquitous ii-V-I progression, the jazz-styleblues progression (which, in contrast to a blues-style 12 bar progression, may have two or more chord changes per bar) the minor jazz-style blues form, the I-vi-ii-V based "rhythm changes" progression, and the variety of modulation-rich chord progressions used in jazz ballads, andjazz standards. Guitarists may also learn to use the chord types, strumming styles, andeffects pedals (e.g.,chorus effect orfuzzbox) used in 1970s-era jazz-Latin, jazz-funk, and jazz-rock fusion music.
Jazz guitarists integrate the basic building blocks of scales and arpeggio patterns into balanced rhythmic and melodic phrases that make up a cohesive solo. Jazz guitarists often try to imbue their melodic phrasing with the sense of natural breathing and legato phrasing used by horn players such as saxophone players. As well, a jazz guitarists' solo improvisations have to have a rhythmic drive and "timefeel" that creates a sense of "swing" and "groove." The most experienced jazz guitarists learn to play with different "timefeels" such as playing "ahead of the beat" or "behind the beat," to create or release tension.
Another aspect of the jazz guitar style is the use of stylistically appropriate ornaments, such as grace notes, slides, and muted notes. Each subgenre or era of jazz has different ornaments that are part of the style of that subgenre or era. Jazz guitarists usually learn the appropriate ornamenting styles by listening to prominent recordings from a given style or jazz era. Some jazz guitarists also borrow ornamentation techniques from other jazz instruments, such as Wes Montgomery's borrowing of playing melodies in parallel octaves, which is a jazz piano technique. Jazz guitarists also have to learn how to add in passing tones, use "guide tones" and chord tones from the chord progression to structure their improvisations.
In the 1970s and 1980s, with jazz-rock fusion guitar playing, jazz guitarists incorporated rockguitar soloing approaches, such asriff-based soloing and usage ofpentatonic andblues scale patterns. Some guitarists usedJimi Hendrix-influenced distortion and wah-wah effects to get a sustained, heavy tone, or even used rapid-fireguitar shredding techniques, such astapping andtremolo bar bending. GuitaristAl Di Meola, who started his career withReturn to Forever in 1974, was one of the first guitarists to perform in a "shred" style, a technique later used in rock and heavy metal playing. Di Meola used alternate-picking to perform very rapid sequences of notes in his solos.
When jazz guitar playersimprovise, they use the scales, modes, and arpeggios associated with the chords in a tune's chord progression. The approach to improvising has changed since the earliest eras of jazz guitar. During the Swing era, many soloists improvised "by ear" by embellishing the melody with ornaments and passing notes. However, during the bebop era, the rapid tempo and complicated chord progressions made it increasingly harder to play "by ear." Along with other improvisers, such as saxes and piano players, bebop-era jazz guitarists began to improvise over the chord changes using scales (whole tone scale, chromatic scale, etc.) and arpeggios.[10] Jazz guitar players tend to improvise around chord/scale relationships, rather than reworking the melody, possibly due to their familiarity with chords resulting from their comping role. A source of melodic ideas for improvisation is transcribing improvised solos from recordings. This provides jazz guitarists with a source of "licks", melodic phrases and ideas they incorporate either intact or in variations, and is an established way of learning from the previous generations of players.
In jazzbig bands, popular during the 1930s and 1940s, the guitarist is considered an integral part of the rhythm section (guitar,drums andbass). They usually played a regular four strums to the bar, although an amount of harmonic improvisation is possible.Freddie Green, guitarist in theCount Basie orchestra, was a noted exponent of this style. The harmonies are often minimal; for instance, theroot note is often omitted on the assumption that it will be supplied by the bassist.
When jazz guitarists play chords underneath a song's melody or another musician's solo improvisations, it is called "comping", short for "accompanying". The accompanying style in most jazz styles differs from the way chordal instruments accompany in many popular styles of music. In many popular styles of music, such as rock and pop, therhythm guitarist usually performs the chords in rhythmic fashion which sets out the beat or groove of a tune. In contrast, in many modern jazz styles within smaller groups, the guitarist plays much more sparsely, intermingling periodic chords and delicate voicings into pauses in the melody or solo, and using periods of silence. Jazz guitarists commonly use a wide variety ofinversions when comping, rather than only using standard voicings.[11]
In this style, the guitarist aims to render an entire song — harmony, melody and bass — in something like the way aclassical guitarist orpianist can. Chord roots cannot be left to the bassist in this style. Chords themselves can be used sparsely or more densely, depending on both the individual player and his or her arrangement of a particular piece. In the sparse style, a full chord is often played only at the beginning of a melodic phrase.[12] The denser chordal textures, in contrast, approach chord soloing (see below). A third approach is to maintain a steady, busy bass-line, like a New Orleans pianist. Here, no more than two or three notes are played at a time, and the full harmony is indicated by arpeggiation. Exponents of this style often come from acountry,folk orragtime background, such asChet Atkins, although it is also sometimes employed bystraight-ahead jazz practitioners, for instanceMartin Taylor. Chord-melody is often played with aplectrum (seeTal Farlow,George Benson and others); whereasfingerstyle, as practised by Joe Pass,George van Eps,Ted Greene,Robert Conti,Lenny Breau orhybrid picking as practised byEd Bickert, Laszlo Sirsom and others allows for a more complex,polyphonic approach to unaccompanied soloing.
Eddie Lang andLonnie Johnson were two of the earliest practitioners of single note improvised solos. Both played withLouis Armstrong and other leading jazz and blues musicians of the 1920s and 1930s. In later yearsCharlie Christian andDjango Reinhardt, the former on electric guitar and the latter playing forcefully on an acoustic guitar, are acknowledged as the first soloists to put jazz guitar improvisation on an equal footing with that of other instruments. Over the years, jazz guitarists have been able to solo in standard jazz idioms, such asbebop,cool jazz and so on, while in also absorbing influences from rock guitarists, such as the use of electronic effects.
Jazz guitarists are not limited to single note improvisation. When working with accompaniment, chord solos are created by improvising chords (harmony) and melody simultaneously, usually in the upper register on strings 1,2,3 and 4. Wes Montgomery was noted for playing successive choruses in single notes, then octaves and finally a chord solo - this can be heard in his improvisation on the standardLover Man (Oh, Where Can You Be?). When playing without accompaniment, jazz guitarists may create chord solos by playing bass, melody and chords, individually or simultaneously, on any or all strings - such as the work ofLenny Breau, Joe Pass,Martin Taylor and others. This technique can also be incorporated into unaccompanied soloing: for instanceDjango Reinhardt's"improvisations", as he called his solo pieces.
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