The Guitar in Jazz

James Sallis is a guitar player and writer. He is the author of The Guitar Players, available as a Bison Book, and of the novels The Long-Legged Fly, Moth, and Black Hornet.

"Guitarists have been making major contributions to jazz since the 1920s, when Eddie Lang first began adding his brand of six-string sophistication to performances by the Mound City Blowers. Yet the history of the jazz guitar has remained largely undocumented, at least in any methodical way. Now James Sallis has put together a long-overdue anthology which traces the evolution of jazz guitar as well as celebrating some of the instrument's greatest players."-Jazz Times "Probably the most comprehensive anthology of essays essential to a complete understanding of jazz guitar and its stylistic history. . . . Sallis' exhaustive research is clearly edited and written, and I feel it'll be the reference source for the jazz lover, guitarist and non-guitarist alike in the next few years."-Dennis Gonzalez, The New Jazz Review "An unfailingly lively and informative collection of essays that traces the guitar's evolution in the hands of jazz and jazz-influenced artists who have not only mastered the instrument, but repeatedly reinvented it."-Gary Giddins, author of Faces in the Crowd