Barney Kessel

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In the basement storage room of an east side music store in Wichita, Kansas, Barney Kessel demonstrates a new lick he is working on to a local musician. People were handing him various guitars to try out. Mr. Kessel was wearing dark glasses to obscure his identity. He said he was associated with a particular guitar company and didn't want to accidentally violate some unknown stipulation in his contract by inadvertently holding or strumming a competitor's guitar. The "clinic" lasted about an hour and later on that night, Kessel played with Herb Ellis and Charlie Byrd as the "Great Guitars." Kessel was a steadily innovative jazz guitarist with a discography that included sessions with Charlie Parker, Lester Young and Oscar Peterson. He did recording gigs with The Beach Boys and The Monkees. In the ‘50’s he won the reader-voted Downbeat Poll for best jazz guitar. This was followed with an album called “The Poll Winners” with Ray Brown and Shelly Manne. Though he was revered by jazz aficionados, probably his most widely known work was with a trio behind the throaty, smoldering vocals of Julie London. Her bluesy recording of “Cry Me A River” became a pop standard in 1955. Here is a very good source of information on Barney Kessel. Barney Kessel was born in Muskogee, Oklahoma, October 17, 1923. Today, in 2004 we lost Barney Kessel. Thanks Barney.