Results for "Chet Atkins"

Chet Atkins

Thirty Essential Transformative Guitarists

by Alan Bryson
September 9, 2026

"Best guitarist" lists are inherently subjective--often nonsensical. They rank the unrankable, folding popularity, technique, cultural impact, sales, and personal taste into a single hierarchy. This list takes a different approach, acknowledging thirty guitarists who transformed the instrument itself: they created new techniques, pioneered fresh concepts, expanded its sonic vocabulary, and changed how those who followed them played. ...

Tommy Emmanuel: Finding Common Ground On Guitar

by Jim Trageser
April 4, 2026

Tommy Emmanuel began his musical career at age 6, playing guitar in his family's band as they busked around the Australian bush more than six decades ago. An invitation from guitar legend Chet Atkins to visit Nashville led to Emmanuel's relocating to the United States in 1997, where his genre-defying career has only further exploded.

Jack Kelly's Honkatonktet At Scott's Jazz Club

by Ian Patterson
April 29, 2024

Jack Kelly's Honkatonktet Scott's Jazz Club Belfast, N. Ireland April 26, 2024 Who knows what sort of music Charlie Parker would have made had he lived another thirty-five years? It is tantalizing to think that he might have ventured into country music. Parker loved country music, especially Hank Williams, drawn ...

Take Five with Bryan Lubeck

by AAJ Staff
November 5, 2021

Meet Bryan Lubeck Billboard Magazine's “Critic's Choice" Bryan Lubeck is known for the fusion of his romantic Spanish guitar style and smooth, energetic urban grooves. Bryan has become a familiar name in contemporary instrumental radio and streaming platforms over the last decade, with his 2021 release Midnight Sun becoming an Amazon #1 best-selling album. He began ...

Immortal Axes: Guitars That Rock

by Doug Collette
October 23, 2021

Immortal Axes: Guitars That Rock Lisa S. Johnson 388 pages ISBN: # 978-1648960239 Princeton Architectural Press 2021 Sometimes a guitar is just a guitar. More often, however, it's a talisman or a totem, a combination of toy and weapon, simultaneous object of love and hate. Above all, though, it's ...

Guitar Gods & Goddesses: An Alternative Top Ten Albums

by Chris May
February 4, 2021

Although it has been present in jazz since the 1920s, when it was routinely used in rhythm sections, as a solo instrument the guitar struggled to make itself heard--literally--until the second half of the 1930s, when reliable pick-ups and portable amplifiers became available. Foremost among the pioneers of the electrified instrument was Charlie Christian, a member ...

Tony Taravella: Dedicated To Les Paul

by Dan McClenaghan
November 28, 2020

Les Paul (1915 to 2009) was one of the innovators in the creation of the solid body electric guitar. Paul enjoyed a long and successful career—performing and recording from 1945, backing Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters, offering up a bunch of singles (this was pre-33rpm album days) with his wife Mary Ford, playing with Chet ...

The Multifaceted Mike Seal

by Alan Bryson
December 8, 2018

He's an extraordinarily talented guitarist whose musical interests range from jazz and bluegrass to classical music. Mike Seal has been active on the Southern music scene for over a decade and is based in Nashville, Tennessee. His grandfather was a gifted self taught gospel guitarist in rural Virginia, and his older brother, Rob Seal, is a ...

The Julian Lage Trio at SFJAZZ

by David Becker
September 13, 2016

The Julian Lage Trio SFJAZZ Center San Francisco Sept. 11, 2016 Guitar virtuosity was the theme for the opening week of San Francisco presenter SFJAZZ's 2016 season. In the intimate Joe Henderson Lab at the SFJAZZ Center, that meant four nights of modern guitar wunderkind Julian Lage working through a string ...