Today marks two anniversaries relevant to the history of the jazz guitar. Earlier today, I posted a remembrance of trailblazing guitarist Charlie Christian on the anniversary of his 1916 birth.
This date also marks the anniversary of the passing of jazz guitarist Chuck Wayne, who died at the age of 74 on July 29, 1997. An early bebop stylist, Wayne was a member of Woody Herman’s First Herd, part of the George Shearing Quintet, and Tony Bennett’s original music director and accompanist. This New York-born musician was a major innovator in his approach to the jazz guitar, using unique chord voicings, octaves and arpeggios, and a consecutive-alternate picking style that had an impact on my brother Carl Barry. Carl met Chuck early on and they became dear friends. Chuck even played at Carl and Joanne Barry’s wedding (which was like a mini-jazz concert, truth be told!).
I enjoyed Chuck’s playing very much; his 1963 album, “Tapestry,” is one of my all-time favorite jazz guitar albums, featuring one of the best instrumental renditions of “Round Midnight” ever recorded. The album even includes a couple of tracks of bop banjo!
On March 28, 1980, I saw Chuck perform with jazz vibraphonist Warren Chiasson and bassist Earl May at Gulliver’s Guitar Night in West Paterson, New Jersey. I recorded one of the sets on audio cassette and recently digitized it for its premiere on my YouTube channel, in tribute to Chuck. There are a couple of dropouts, due to the age of the audio cassette tape on which the performance was originally recorded. And unfortunately, I don’t know the titles of three songs. For shame! I suspect some of them are originals. If anybody recognizes the tunes and knows the titles, please drop a comment here or on YouTube! Among the selections are “My Funny Valentine”, “Have You Met Miss Jones?”, “Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most”, and “All the Things You Are”.
Postscript (7 September 2025): Thanks to Paul Mitchell Brown on YouTube for providing two of the three missing titles for this video: “When Lights are Low” (Benny Carter / Spencer Williams) and “The Theme” (Miles Davis). One more title to go …
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