Kessel, Barney

Bernard (Barney) Kessel was born on October 17, 1923 in the town of Muskogee, Oklahoma , in the family of Jewish immigrants from Europe Abram Kessel (1877–1941) and Ruth Reisher (1889–1968). ^{[1] [2] [3]} His father came from Ujpest , it was his second marriage and in each of the marriages he had three children; mother came from Russia . ^{[4] [5]}

For the first time he saw a guitar, passing by a music store, working as a peddler of newspapers. He liked the way she looked and the fact that she was selling with the booklet “How to learn to play in five minutes”. The study took much more than five minutes, and after the booklet Kessel switched to swinging the music of the swing musicians he heard on the radio. At the age of 14, he dropped out of school to start a professional career, and soon he spoke with a group in local black clubs, standing out not only by age but also by skin color, being the only white in the group.

Kessel refined his play by focusing on the heavy swing vibrato inherent in the Kansas scene of the time. In addition, he borrowed a lot from his fellow countryman Charlie Christian , a black guitarist who performed with great success in the sextet Benny Goodman . Christian was a key figure in the development of guitar music. It was he who was one of the first to get the guitar out of the rhythm section, playing a solo on it.

Christian heard about Kessel on one of his home visits, and their joint jam led Barney to the idea of ​​creating his own style. The world did not need a second Christian, at least Barney did not want them to be: “I realized that I methodically borrowed ideas from his notes. All that I could was his music. And it was time for me to invent something of my own. ”

On the advice of Christian in 42, Barney Kessel moved to Los Angeles and soon toured the showman Chico Marx with the orchestra. In addition, he performs and works in the studio as Les Brown's guitarist.

In the summer of '44, Kessel joined Charlie Barnet’s big band, and at the same time participates in the filming of the short Jammin 'the Blues, a kind of music video, before the appearance of this genre. The film was nominated for an Oscar, while Kessel, as the only white in the film, had to paint his hands black, while he himself acted with a half-shade in the shadows.

Barney's lyric guitar can be heard on the Artie Shaw orchestra recordings of that time. Over the past two years, more than 70 studio recordings have been made with Shaw, while he continued to work actively with Benny Goodman, and at the beginning of the 47th recorded four tracks with Charlie Parker . No wonder one of the critics said about Kessel: “This guy can sit and play with anyone. He has what is called “Big Ears” in jazz, he is remarkably able to listen and respond to what he hears. ”

In the list of Kessel's involvement in the late forties and early fifties, it is worth mentioning Just Jazz All Stars, a popular series of concerts in Southern California, where Barney was marked by a special version of Stardust and the Jazz At The Philharmonic international tour as part of the Oscar Peterson trio.

By this time, he was experienced and authoritative enough to build his own band. The first entries in the role of the band leader for Kessel began in the 53rd. On the Contemporary label, with which he collaborated until the end of his musical career, albums appeared about once a year.

His early records, such as “Easy like” and “Kessel plays standards”, were remembered for the originality of the combination of a guitar with various instruments: oboe and tenor sax Bob Cooper and Georgie Ould, Harry Edison's trumpet.

Until 1960, he was repeatedly recognized as the number one jazz guitarist by various magazines, such as Esquire , Down Beat, Metronome and Playboy ^[6] . At the same time, he had enough money to live and, to make ends meet, he became a frequenter of Hollywood's recording studios. In this parallel life, he recorded for various television soundtracks and commercials, but at the same time was in demand as a session musician on the albums of Elvis Presley , Frank Sinatra and Sam Cook .

In addition to financial support, there was also a useful experience: Kessel was not only one of the first electric guitarists, but also recorded for the first time without pianos, which brought the guitar from the background to the fore. In general, the trio of guitar, bass and drums became Kessel's trademark style. A vivid example of such a sound was the Julie London album “Julie is her name” recorded at the end of the 55th. Only guitar, bass and voice, thirteen songs with the title Cry me a river, which has since become the jazz standard.

Despite the fact that Kessel continued to produce high-quality solo albums, for the most part he was busy as a session musician. In those years, there was even a special term for guest studio musicians, Wrecking Crew, and Barney was number one among the guitarists on this list.

His career peak came in the mid-60s, when he played with a huge number of performers from Barbara Streisand to Doris Day , and from the Beach Boys to Marti Beilin from Jefferson Airplane . Often in the weekly top 40 charts you could find three or four songs with his participation, each time with a new performer. Barney's guitar can be heard on Elvis' single "Return to Sender", in the intro "Wouldn't it be nice" from the Beach Boys cult album " Pet sounds " and on "I got you, babe" by Soni and Cher .

In 64'm, along with his second wife, singer BJ Baker, Barney created the label Emerald Records, where he later released his albums, the sound of which shifted towards swing and Bosanova. In the 67th, Kessel's book was published, with a simple title: “Guitar”. The book contained not only the lessons of the game, but also tips on how to choose a guitar, strings, pickups and how to accompany musicians in different styles. In the same 67th, he opened a music store, right next to the building with the Capitol records building in Hollywood. For three years with a small store, his clients were John Lennon , George Harrison , Frank Zappa and Buffalo Springfield . In addition, Barney gave a job at the store to young guitar master Bernardo Ricco, who later organized the BCRich Guitars company.

Shortly before that, in the early 60s, Gibson began the production of Barney Kessel’s personalized guitar. This semi-acoustics fell in love with many famous musicians, and was issued until 1974.

In the 70s, Kessel toured a lot, first with his seminar "Effective Guitarist", and later with the guitar supertrio The Great Guitars, which, besides him, included Charlie Bird and Herb Ellis . In addition to touring, they recorded three joint albums. Barney himself described them as a set of jazz standards, presented from all possible sides of guitar sound and technology.

By the 80s, he had already become a living legend: John Lennon and George Harrison in an interview called him the best guitarist in history, Pete Townsend dedicated an instrumental composition to him on an album in 1983, and Barney himself performed several times in the White House for Presidents Carter and Reagan. He was later accepted into all kinds of jazz halls of fame.

In the early 90s he was as active and in demand as the last few decades. In the first months of 1992, Barney traveled through Australia, New Zealand, and the USA and prepared to continue the tour, but on May 26, 1992, he had a stroke ^[7] that put an end to his brilliant career; his health no longer allowed him to continue activity

Barney Kessel died on May 6, 2004, at his home in San Diego, at the age of 80.

Band Leader

• Vol. 1: Easy Like (Contemporary 1953/1955)
• Vol. 2: Kessel Plays Standards (Contemporary 1954/1955)
• Vol. 3: To Swing or Not to Swing (Contemporary 1955)
• Music to Listen to Barney Kessel by (Contemporary 1956)
• The Poll Winners (Contemporary 1957)
• Let's Cook! (Contemporary 1957)
• The Poll Winners Ride Again (Contemporary 1958)
• Kessel plays Carmen (Contemporary 1958)
• The Poll Winners Three! (Contemporary 1959)
• Some Like It Hot (Contemporary 1959)
• The Poll Winners - Exploring the Scene! (Contemporary 1960)
• Barney Kessel's Swingin 'Party at Contemporary (Contemporary 1960)
• Bossa Nova (1962)
• Workin 'Out with the Barney Kessel Quartet (Contemporary 1961)
• Hair Is Beautiful (Atlantic 1968)
• Feeling Free (Contemporary 1969)
• Autumn Leaves (Black Lion 1969)
• The Poll Winners - Straight Ahead (Contemporary 1975)
• Soaring (Concord Jazz 1976)
• Solo (Concord Jazz 1981)
• Spontaneous Combustion (Contemporary 1987)
• Red Hot and Blues (Contemporary 1988)

• Kessel, Barney (eng.) On the site AllMusic
• "Barney Kessel Jazz Scene USA (1962)" on YouTube
• Barney Kessel (Neopr.) . The date of circulation is November 4, 2014. Archived December 10, 2007.
• Kessel, Barney (Eng.) On the site Find a Grave