Jazz guitarist
Jazz guitarists are guitarists who play jazz using an approach to chords, melodies, and improvised solo lines which is called jazz guitar playing. The guitar has fulfilled the roles of accompanist (rhythm guitar) and soloist in small and large ensembles and also as an unaccompanied solo instrument. Until the 1930s, jazz bands used banjo because the banjo's metallic twang was easier to hear than the acoustic guitar when competing with trumpets, trombones, and drums. The banjo could be heard more easily, too, on wax cylinders in the early days of audio recording. The invention of the archtop increased the guitar's volume, and in the hands of Eddie Lang guitar became a solo instrument for the first time. Following the lead of Lang, musicians dropped their banjos for guitars, and by the 1930s the banjo hardly existed as a jazz instrument. Amplification created possibilities for the guitar. Charlie Christian was the first to explore these possibilities. Although his career was brief, it was influential enough for critics to divide the history of jazz guitar into pre- and post-Christian eras. Early years: 1880s-1920s In early days of jazz in New Orleans most bands had guitarists, but there are no recordings by Lorenzo Staulz, Rene Baptiste, Dominick Barocco, Joe Guiffre, Coochie Martin, and Brock Mumford. Buddy Bolden, one of the earliest jazz musicians, played in a band in 1889 that was led by guitarist Charlie Galloway. King Oliver, another important early figure, belonged to a band in 1910 that was led by guitarist Louis Keppard, brother of Freddie Keppard. Although jazz guitar existed during these years, banjo was a more popular instrument. The metallic twang of the banjo was easier to hear in a band than the acoustic guitar or piano, and it was easier to hear when recording on wax cylinders. The first person to make solo recordings on guitar was Nick Lucas, the dominant guitarist of the 1920s, when he released "Pickin' the Guitar" and "Teasin' the Frets" in 1922. He had experimented with wax cylinders ten years earlier. He became the first person to have a custom guitar named after him, the Gibson Nick Lucas Special. Nevertheless, his career was built on his reputation as a singer. He was popular on radio, Broadway, and in vaudeville. With his high-pitched voice, he sold eight million copies of his signature song, "Tiptoe Through the Tulips". Both the song and singing style were borrowed decades later by Tiny Tim. Replacing the banjo The role of the early jazz guitarists was to be part of the rhythm section. Freddie Green played rhythm guitar for the Count Basie Orchestra from the 1930s until Basie's death in the 1980s, contributing to the band's swing by inverting chords, also known as revoicing, on each beat. Like Green, Eddie Condon played rhythm guitar his whole career without taking a solo. Allan Reuss gave rhythm guitar a place in the big band of Benny Goodman. The first jazz guitarist to step from the rhythm section was Eddie Lang. Wanting