Robert Yelin was born on September 25, 1944 in Yonkers, N.Y. His relatives moved to New Rochelle, New York when he was 9 years old. He begun to take an curiosity in the guitar at 15 after hearing some data by rock-and-roll guitar gamers Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley. Robert started off to consider guitar lessons from Gus DeGazio, a area location instructor who played him Johnny Smith’s popular recording of “Moonlight in Vermont”. From that position on he came to know that this was the kind of music he wanted to participate in!
Yelin ongoing his guitar scientific studies with DeGazio but now devoted himself completely to jazz. It was at this time that Robert began his intensive assortment of recordings by all of the famous jazz guitarists. He examined guitar method and harmony for three several years with Augie Lamont and sophisticated his jazz guitar knowing by watching the foremost jazz guitarists of the day which include Kenny Burrell, Jim Hall, and Chuck Wayne perform in New York city jazz golf equipment.
By the time Robert Yelin was 18 several years aged he was actively playing solo jazz guitar in dining places and by the time he was 20 he had made a decision to make a occupation out of tunes. For the up coming 15 yrs Yelin carried out at lots of of the leading New York jazz spots like The Village Gate and Sweet Basil’s. He mixed this job with a working day time work in the Yelin family’s outfits production organization. He is similarly a prolific arranger and author on the guitar. From 1968 – 1982 he wrote over 30 article content for Guitar Player Journal on your own as effectively as content articles for Downbeat and Cadence publications. Starting up in 1982, Robert grew to become a professor at the University Of Colorado where by he taught the history of jazz and worked with the jazz guitar ensemble there.
It was also during that specific exact same 12 months that Robert Yelin was identified with diabetes and muscular dystrophy. The actual physical challenges from these diseases introduced his jazz guitar enjoying profession to an finish. With a combine of outstanding clinical treatment options and own self-willpower, Yelin was capable to start off taking part in as soon as more in 1996. Robert Yelin is a exclusive figure in the jazz guitar earth. As properly as becoming a gifted participant he has one of the world’s major collections of jazz guitar audio and video recordings. His online video selection has really been an superb supply of reference to students and jazz guitar fans alike.
I experienced the enjoyment of leisurely paying an afternoon with Robert Yelin at his home in Littleton, Colorado when I was about 35 a long time old. He played some of his charming jazz guitar chord melody solos for me on a attractive Gibson Kalamazoo Award model archtop guitar that he owned. I immediately understood why Robert was explained in jazz guitar circles as a “guitar chordiologist”! He experienced fairly an arsenal of jazz guitar chords below his fingers to say the least. For my portion, I played some Bach compositions for him on my Manuel Contreras classical guitar and he definitely obtained a kick out of hearing them!