Barney Kessel: St. Thomas

[@freddymclain]

In '68 I visited his shop in LA, near Hollywood and Vine. I played his arrangement of Our Love Is here to Stay (Kessel Plays Standards) on a blonde L-7 and we sort of bonded immediately. He was cordial and nice. He was one of my early heroes and a huge influence.

[@kevinwebb2480]

Nobody swings like Barney. Chord-Melody at its extreme. A genius.

[@michaelGQ]

He was a terrific guitarist and I had the pleasure of meeting him a couple of times. A real gentleman.

[@OldJong]

Barney was something else!

[@luigilamorte7753]

I saw him live and play this piece in Montreal about thirty five years ago. He said that he never played it the same way twice. Everyone had a good laugh. It just made me appreciate him more. Rest in peace Barney.

[@13927]

Drummer is Tony Mann. Great British drummer. Saw this trio myself in Bridgend Wales.

[@MrMjp58]

My attention span on YT can be rather short. Barney's videos usually get watched all the way through. He was such an engaging musician,

[@jazzbeau507]

Nobody can do the Kessel like Barney; not even Hans Solo on Star Wars who travelled on the Kessel Run.

[@thomashagemeijer]

Clever!

[@agustine.alvarez9832]

Brillante, imaginativo, con gran swing. Un genio.

[@gecobrarrett4532]

1:57 The first picked harmonic of mankind. Take that, John Sykes!

[@ProfessorTime]

God, this makes me wanna practice more, but no matter how much I practiced, I would never be Barney Kessel.

[@salvadorgarcia8661]

¡¡¡ Impresionante Barney !!!

[@RockHistoryTube]

Great performance, what else?

[@Ted7828]

Love it!

[@SAHBfan]

Who else is on the stage? The bass player and drummer are superb.

[@petercourtley929]

Tony Mann on drums and, I think, Jim Richardson on bass

[@patrickbickers73]

This was an Austin City Limit broadcast? There were so many great artist that appeared on this show! I love Barney Kessell

[@TheVinciol]

genius

[@RAMLIA1]

♥♥♥

[@Izicanplay]

So suberb.

[@Raz-Sekeles]

who's the drummer ? i really enjoyed his playing.

[@jazzlefty]

When electric bass was ok for the másters, now the purist are more mind closed that those that invented the style

[@fedbos91]

Great. What guitar is Barney playing? A Gibson?

[@vecernicek2]

Old Es 350

[@IamUncledeuce]

There's a lot of speculation on that guitar. It is reported to be a 1946 or 1947 Gibson ES-350 Barney had a falling-out with Gibson so he altered his own Gibson down to where he even changed out the fretboard and put a fretboard with dots rather than whatever inlay design Gibson had on there originally. Also notice that the headstock Gibson logo has been taken off and the pickup has been replaced with a Charlie Christian style single coil blade, and the knobs are chicken heads rather than stock Gibson knobs. The story is that Barney did have a falling out with Gibson but I do not know the extent of that but I have run across a fairly detailed account several years ago someplace on the web. Guitar magazine interviews back in the early 80s also presented a disgruntled Kessel when it came to the subject. I think he was kind of cynical about the whole business but given that, he still flourished within that business.

[@danielm4114]

Love Barney...and the rest of the band for that matter, but the China cymbal's gotta go...sounds like a garbage can lid.

[@Crunkboy415]

That crash symbol sounds like a train wreck lol