GEORGE BARNES

George Warren Barnes (July 17, 1921 – September 5, 1977) was an American swing jazz guitarist, who is believed to have played the first electric guitar in 1931, preceding Charlie Christian by six years. Barnes made the first commercial recording of an electric guitar on March 1, 1938, in sessions with Big Bill Broonzy.

Barnes was born in South Chicago Heights, Illinois. He started his professional career at the age of 12, when he received his musicians' union card and toured throughout the Midwest. By the time he was 14, he was accompanying blues vocalists such as Big Bill Broonzy and Blind John Davis. On March 1, 1938, he recorded "Sweetheart Land" and "It's a Lowdown Dirty Shame" with Broonzy, the first commercial recordings of an electric guitar. Later in 1938, he was hired as a staff musician for the NBC orchestra, and became a featured performer on the radio shows National Barn Dance and Plantation Party.

In 1940, Barnes released his first recording under his own name, "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles" backed with "I Can't Believe That You're in Love With Me", on Okeh Records.

Barnes was drafted into the Army in 1942, and served as an intercept operator in the basement of the Pentagon. Immediately after his discharge in 1946, he formed the George Barnes Octet and was given a 15-minute radio program on the ABC network.

He and Evelyn Lorraine Triplett were married in Chicago on January 17, 1947.

In 1951, Barnes was signed to Decca Records by Milt Gabler and moved from Chicago to New York City. In 1953, he joined the orchestra for the television show Your Hit Parade. The band was conducted by Raymond Scott, and Barnes was a featured soloist. Barnes, Scott, and vocalist Dorothy Collins (Scott's wife) also recorded together.

In addition to being a well-known jazz musician, Barnes also made a living as a New York studio musician, playing on hundreds of albums and jingles from the early 1950s through the late 1960s. He played guitar on Patsy Cline's New York sessions in April 1957. Barnes was primarily a swing jazz guitarist, but he could play in any style, as evidenced by his work with the Jodimars.[2] Barnes participated in hundreds of pop, rock and R&B recording sessions: he was a regular guitar player on most of the Coasters' hit records produced by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, he provided the guitar solo for the Connie Francis hit "Lipstick on Your Collar", and he played on the Drifters' version of "This Magic Moment" and Jackie Wilson's "Lonely Teardrops".

Barnes recorded three albums for Mercury Records: Movin' Easy, with his Jazz Renaissance Quintet in 1960; Guitar Galaxies in 1960; and Guitars Galore in 1961. The latter two contained Barnes's unique orchestrations with 10 guitars, known as his guitar choir, which utilized guitars in place of a horn section. They were two in a series of Mercury albums that used an early 1960s state-of-the-art recording technique known as Perfect Presence Sound.

Albums he recorded with the guitarist Carl Kress received national acclaim in the early 1960s. The duo was invited to play at the White House staff Christmas party on December 17, 1964. For the occasion, Barnes wrote a song for First Daughter Luci Baines Johnson, "Watusi for Luci", as she was then famous for attending discothèques and dancing the Watusi with Hollywood celebrities. The recording was used as the theme for The Clay Cole Show in 1965, when the show was renamed Clay Cole's Discotek.

After the death of Kress in 1965, Barnes formed another guitar duo with Bucky Pizzarelli. Their partnership lasted from 1969 to 1972, and they recorded two albums.

In 1973, Barnes formed a partnership with cornetist Ruby Braff. The Ruby Braff–George Barnes Quartet made its debut at Carnegie Hall with the 1973 Newport Jazz Festival. The quartet recorded several albums, including Live at the New School, released by Chiaroscuro Records in 1974, and To Fred Astaire with Love, released by RCA in 1975. They also recorded a double album with Tony Bennett in 1973, The Rodgers and Hart Songbook.

From 1973 until 1977, Barnes recorded several well-received albums for Concord Jazz under his own name and with the quartet he had formed with Braff. He also recorded two albums for Concord Jazz with jazz violinist Joe Venuti.

Barnes and his wife, Evelyn, left New York City after his last European tour in 1975 to live and work in the San Francisco Bay area. Barnes died of a heart attack in Concord, California, in 1977, at the age of 56.

First recording with electric guitar

Barnes played an electric guitar on two songs, "Sweetheart Land" and "It's a Low-Down Dirty Shame", recorded by Big Bill Broonzy and produced by Lester Melrose in Chicago on March 1, 1938. Some historians incorrectly attribute the first recording with electric guitar to Eddie Durham, but Durham's recording with the Kansas City Five was not until 15 days later, on March 16, 1938. Several recordings of an electric lap steel guitar precede both, including recordings by Milton Brown and his Musical Brownies with Bob Dunn on electric lap steel as early as January 1935. But Broonzy's 1938 session with Barnes is the first to feature an electrically amplified (non–lap steel) guitar.

Barnes's style took shape before the development of bebop, and he remained a swing stylist throughout his career. His lines were usually short, melodic, bluesy and "inside" (i.e., diatonic), compared to the chromaticism and long lines of bop-era guitarists. His improvisations often employed call and response phrases, and his tone was clearer, cleaner and brighter than many other jazz guitarists (such as Joe Pass or Jim Hall) and reflected his "happy" approach to music.

Not long before his death, he recorded three live albums—two produced from a concert at the San Francisco club Bimbo's 365, the other at the Willows Theatre in Concord, California. The albums are good examples of his swinging, happy and often mischievous style. The albums also include his banter with the audience and his introductions of tunes and his band, giving the listener a glimpse of his sense of humor.

In a review of the album Don't Get Around Much Anymore (material from a 1977 concert in Concord, California, recorded a little more than a month before Barnes's sudden death at the age of 56), Jim Ferguson wrote, "Often overlooked in a sea of more modern-sounding, bebop-oriented guitarists, George Barnes could swing like mad and spin out intricate, frequently bluesy phrases with awesome precision and musicality.... From start to finish, this well-recorded performance demonstrates the qualities that qualify Barnes for a position among the most elite players in the annals of jazz guitar."

In 1942, Barnes wrote the first electric guitar method, The George Barnes Electric Guitar Method, published by Wm. J. Smith. In 1961, he wrote and recorded George Barnes' Living Guitar Method; The Easy Way to Learn All the Chords and Rhythms and Ten Duets for Two Guitars (recorded with his partner Carl Kress) for Music Minus One. In 1965, he wrote How to Arrange for Solo Guitar, published by Peermusic. He also produced the first guitar course offered on cassette tape, The Great George Barnes Guitar Course, published in 1970 by Prentice Hall.

                                                   



                                               

Electric guitar pioneer and jazz guitar great George Barnes http://georgebarneslegacy.com was a consummate and innovative musician whose influential career spanned 44 years. This track was recorded on 23 September 1946, when George was 25 years old and had recently been discharged from the army. With Boyd Rolando on tenor sax, Frank Rullo on vibes, Earl Backus on rhythm guitar, Mike Rubin on bass, and Dick Baldridge on drums, THE GEORGE BARNES SEXTET was George's first jazz recording under his own name, and was produced for the Keynote label by Harry Lim in ABC's Studio E, Chicago.

                 

When guitar legend George Barnes died on 5 September 1977, at the comparatively young age of 56, he was creating his next guitar method, material he developed in the private master classes he'd been teaching for almost two years in Northern California.

Several hours before he died, he recorded the last piece for his masters series of chord solos -- Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein's "All the Things You Are." These are his last notes, recorded for every guitarist who strives for musical excellence.

This video homage features photos of George and his beautiful wife Evelyn, who was his biggest fan and most devoted partner.

George Barnes: The Methods can be found at http://georgebarneslegacy.co