Lonnie Johnson – inventor of the modern day guitar solo
A hundred many years back (prior to WWI) the guitar was a normal function instrument employed predominantly for rhythmic aid, its unamplified steel strings strummed chordally relatively than picked or plucked individually. Lightweight and moveable, neither also highly-priced nor far too loud (smoother than the banjo) – it was the perfect “parlour” instrument, helpful for parties and sing-a-longs (especially in the absence of a dwelling piano) and as harmonic accompaniment for extra expressive solo devices like the violin or clarinet.
In 1920s era dance bands and orchestras (the rock groups of their working day) the guitar was normally played sitting down, and in guiding with the rhythm portion (bass and drums) – not up front in the solo section with the glamour devices (trumpet, clarinet, saxophone, and trombone). But nowadays, and in fact for quite a few a long time now, the electric guitar has occur to occupy the ear-splitting foreground.
How did the uncomplicated “flat-prime box” ascend from aural obscurity to world-wide hegemony? Who was the 1st musician to step forward and execute a solitary notice guitar solo in the manner of a fiddler or a horn-player? Evidence strongly suggests that it was New Orleans-born bluesman Alonzo “Lonnie” Johnson (1899-1970).
Born into a household of musicians, young Lonnie researched violin, piano, and guitar. As a teenager he played guitar in his father’s New Orleans dance band. A very expert instrumentalist, he was also a proficient singer, and in 1925 won a deal with Okeh Documents (for whom he finally recorded about 130 sides).
In 1927, he was engaged to document instrumentally in Chicago with the vastly popular Louis Armstrong and his Incredibly hot Five. An invitation to perform with the most effective jazz band in the business was a unusual honor, accorded only cutting-edge elite players. Why did Armstrong talk to Lonnie Johnson to sit in? It could not have been for his vocal techniques – Satchmo himself took very good treatment of that. Probably it experienced some thing to do with his peculiar (ie: earlier unheard of) single-take note, plectrum-design and style of buying.
The earliest regarded recorded efficiency of the single-notice, plectrum procedure (the prototype of what we now call “guide” guitar playing) – was by Lonnie Johnson on the 1927 Scorching Five launch “6/88 Glide” (possibly applying a roundhole Martin acoustic like the a single pictured higher than). That’s why, blues historian Gerard Herzhaft’s Encyclopedia of the Blues (1997) cites Johnson as “undeniably the creator of the guitar solo played notice by notice with a decide on, which has turn into the conventional in jazz, blues, state, and rock.”
How influential have been Johnson’s 1927 Very hot 5 classes? A lot of people like to credit history 1930s-period guitar icons these kinds of as Charlie Christian, Django Reinhardt and Robert Johnson for initially introducing the single-observe finding system. Easy chronology, having said that, implies otherwise. Fifteen many years youthful than Johnson, Charlie Christian (b. 1916) recalled listening to Lonnie’s information on the radio when increasing up in Oklahoma throughout the Depression. Gypsy jazzman Django Reinhardt (b. 1910), a huge Louis Armstrong supporter, doubtless 1st heard Johnson’s distinct procedure on the Very hot Five’s seminal 1927 disc. Indeed, Django and violinist Stephane Grapelli didn’t form their famed Quintette du Sizzling Club de France right up until some yrs later on in 1935. And Delta bluesman Robert Johnson (no relation) failed to file a lick right until 1936-37 (the legendary Dallas/San Antonio classes).
Yes, the world’s pretty to start with direct guitarist was Alonzo “Lonnie” Johnson.