Herb Ellis

Herb Ellis

Mitchell Herbert "Herb" Ellis was born August 4 1921 in Farmersville, Texas and raised outside of Dallas Texas.  Ellis went to North Texas State University as a music major but studied upright bass because the collage did not have a guitar program yet.  He was forced to drop his studies because of lack of funds and he dropped out in 1941.  After collage he toured with a band for about six months with musicians from University of Kansas.  In 1943 Herb Joined Glen Gray's Casa Lomba Orchestra and started to receive Recognition for his talents. Soon after Ellis moved on to Jimmy Dorsey's band and he recorded some of his first Solos. Herb toured and recorded extensively with Dorsey until 1947.

Herb With Jimmy Dorsey Band 1946

Dorsey took six months off in 1947 and Ellis along with pianist John Frigo and bassist Lou Carter formed Soft winds and stayed at the Peter Stuyvesent Hotel in Buffalo New York.  They wrote the song Detour Ahead during this time.

Ellis left John Frigo center and Lou Carter right

An Older Ellis Preforming Detour Ahead

Herb Stayed with Soft Winds until 1952 and in 1953 he joined The Oscar Peterson trio with Ray Brown on upright bass.  This group is considered one of the best jazz Trios to ever exist.  The trio was the house backing band for verve Records backing Stan Getz, Roy Eldridge and Dizzy Gillespie and with drummer Buddy Rich they were the backing band for Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong duets.

Ellis in Studio

With Peterson Trio 1950s

Trio Live in Amsterdam 1958

With the Oscar Peterson trio 1950s

Ellis Left the Oscar Peterson Trio in November of 1958 and Peterson did not replace him with another guitar player but a drummer Ed Thingpen.  From 1958 to 1960 Ellis tour and recorded with Ella Fitzgerald

Herb Ellis & Ray Brown or bass Backing Ella Fitzgerald in 1957

  

Herb Ellis and Barney Kessel Playing the George and Ira Gershwin standard Lady Be Good

Gibson ES-165 Herb Ellis

Gibson gave Ellis a signature guitar in 1991 the guitar is essentially a ES-175 with one pickup.  It had a gibson 490r pickup in the neck position, in 2004 the 490r was replaced by a floating BRB hum bucking pickup and the tone control was removed.  The scale length is 24 and three quarter inch with a 20 fret neck the width a the nut is 1 11/16 inch.  the fingerboard is bound and is rosewood with parallelogram inlays.  The pre 2004 ES-165s had a rounded jazz profile neck but after 2004 the profile was changed to a standard gibson profile.  The body of the guitar is fully hollow with two internal lateral braces.  The Dimensions are the same as a Gibson ES-175 16 inches at the bout and 3.3 inches deep.  

after November 1991 the ES-165 started silkscreening Ellis's signature on the headstock

2004 model with floating pickup and no tone control

Ellis used a Van Eps String Damper on his guitar the device attached at the trusrod cover and dampened the strings so fretted and open strings sounded the same.

Lessons by Herb Ellis

Ellis on Stanford and son 1970s

Herb in the super guitar group called Great Guitars with Charlie Byrd and Barney Kessel in the 1970s

Herb with a Telecaster 

Herb Ellis died of Alzheimer's Disease on March 28 2010 at the age of 88 in his Los Angeles

Grady Martin

Grady Martin

Thomas Grady Martin was born January 17 1929 in Chapel Hill, Tennessee.  At the age of fifteen in 1944 he performed regularly WLAC-AM out of Nashville Tennessee and made his first recordings on February 15 1946 with Curly Fox and Texas Ruby in Chicago, Illinois.  He went on to play on the road and in the studio with Little Jimmy Dickens as a part of the original lineup of Country Boys band.

Grady Second from left also in picture Little Jimmy Dickens and Hank Williams Sr.

Grady onstage with Hank Williams Sr. note Bigsby guitar and wide panel Fender Pro Amp

Grady with Red Foley

By the 1950s Martin had become a member of the studio musician clique known as the A-team and played wit artists such as Marty Robins {El Paso}, Elvis Presley {Devil in Disguise}, Johnny Horton {Im a Honkey Tonk Man}, Lefty Frizzle {Saginaw Michigan} and Brenda Lee {Rocking Around the Christmas Tree}.

Cool Guitar By Martin for Johnny Horton

Martin on Marty Robbins El Paso 1959

Martin on Marty Robbins Don't Worry 1961 Grady recorded this with a 6 string bass plugged into a faulty mixer channel in the studio. It is considered one of the first songs with fuzz tone. Martin did not like the sound by Robbin"s Producer left it on there anyway.

Martin Played the guitar part on Johnny Burnett's Lonesome Train.  It has been disputed many times but the tone is clearly martin and not Paul Burlison as he claimed but he used a Fender Telecaster and this song is clearly a Bigsby pickup 

Martin in the studio 1960s

Grady Playing on Little Brenda Lee's Begelow 6-200

Grady Martin Produced Hank Garland's Jazz Winds From A New Direction Album Photos Below

Double-neck Bigsby Guitar

 

Martin also had a single neck Bigsby guitar

In the mid to late 1970s Grady's session work slowed down and he started going on the road with Willie Nelson he did this until he retired because of fading health in 1994.  Martin died on December 3, 2001 and is buried at Hopper Cemetery in Marshall  County in Tennessee 

George Barn

George Barnes

George Barnes was born July 17 1921 is believed to have been the first person to recored with the electric guitar.  On march 1, 1938 he played on Sweetheart land and Its a Lowdown Dirty Shame,  Later that year he was hired as a staff musician for the NBC Orchestra and was featured on radio shows Plantation Party and National Barn Dance.  In 1940 Barnes a 45 under his own name with Im Forever Blowing bubbles and the B-side was I Can't Believe Your Still in Love With Me

 

This song is believed to be the first song with electric guitar

In Studio with Chet Atkins {on the Gretsch}

Barnes was drafted into the army in 1942 and served as an intercept operator at the Pentigon in Washington D.C.  Very shortly after his discharge in 1946 he formed the George Barnes Octet and got a 15 minute radio show on ABC

An astonishing rendition of Johann Sebastian Bach's Fugue in G minor The Musicians are Bucky Pizzarelli on guitar, Hank D'Amico on clarinet, Jack Lesberg on bass, Cliff Leeman on drums and Barns on guitar.  The song was recorded on February 25, 1962 at A&R Recording in New York City

I Can't Give You Anything But Love

 

A young Barnes in his instructional guitar book

In 1962 the Guild company gave Barnes a signature guitar called AcoustiLectric.  It was fully hollow with out F-holes to reduce feedback.  the guitar was discontinued in 1973.

With Signature Guild Guiar

Singing in the Rain with 10 piece all guitar orchestra

Flintstones Theme Song

George Barnes Died on September 5 1977, he had a heart attack in Concord California.  He was 56

  

Jimmy Bryant

Jimmy Bryant

Jimmy Bryant was born march 5 1925 in Moultrie Georgia.  Jimmy picked up the fiddle at age 5 and played on the street for money as a child with his father.  At age 18 he was drafted into the army for ww2.  He sent to Europe and was assigned to the third army under general Patton's command.  Jimmy was wounded and reassigned to special services and entertained the troops with his music, he backed up Bob Hope for a few shows during this time.  After the war Bryant moved to Los Angeles California and eventually got hired to play guitar on the TV and radio show Hometown Jamboree.  Here Bryant met a Steel guitar player named Speedy West and they would become famous for recording instrumental albums together and doing sessions for Capitol records with artists such as Tennessee Ernie Ford and Tex Williams.

 

The night Rider 

Promotional photo of Jimmy Bryant and Speedy West. Note that Bryant has the ashtray cover on his telecaster.

Yodeling Guitar

Jimmy is usually thought of as a Fender Telecaster Player but he also played a Stratocaster on many of his recordings

Bryant and West on Hometown Jamboree in the 1950s

Jimmy & Speedy Trading fours on Tennessee Ernie ford's Shotgun Boogie

 on Stratosphere Boogie Bryant used a Stratosphere Twin guitar.  It is a double neck guitar with a twelve string neck and a six string neck.  Most twelve string guitars have the strings tuned in octaves buy Bryant tuned his in harmonies to each other so he was able to play harmony with himself without multi tracking in the studio or playing along to a recording live.

Bryant with Stratosphere Twin Twelve.

another pic this one differs because it has a vibrato bar where Bryant's dose not.

Back Veiw

West coast guitar player and luthier figured out Bryant's tuning and approximate string gauge to play Stratosphere Boogie correctly.

Bryant with Fender Jazzmaster

An older Bryant in the 1970s

Bryant wrote the song Only Daddy That'll Walk The Line witch Waylon Jennings had a hit with in 1968

a life long smoker Bryant was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1978 he died on September 22 1980 at age 55 he is buried at Pleasant Hill Cemetery in Colquitt Georgia