Instrumental Steel Guitar Jazz Albums

John Larson · From: Pennsyltucky, USA

The title should be descriptive enough. I'm interested in albums that are instrumental in a jazz vein that feature steel guitar prominently. My favorite types of jazz are the modal jazz of Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, John Coltrane, and Wayne Shorter and the Fusion of Miles Davis electric bands and those groups that sprang from them (Headhunters, Weather Report, Return to Forever, Mahavishnu Orchestra, etc.).
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Rejoice in the Lord, O ye righteous; praise is meet for the upright. Give praise to the Lord with the harp, chant unto Him with the ten-stringed psaltery. Sing unto Him a new song, chant well unto Him with jubilation. For the word of the Lord is true, and all His works are in faithfulness. The Lord loveth mercy and judgement; the earth is full of the mercy of the Lord.
- Psalm 33:1-5

Larry Dering · From: Missouri, USA

Unless you just came out of a coma you should know that Buddy Emmons and Doug Jernigan are the most visible in that style. I'm sure there are others. Search the forum for more information. Doug is still playing and teaching steel.

rick andrews · From: Westminster Co 80031

John,

I would recommend hunting down some of Dave Easley's work.

Jerry Overstreet · From: Louisville Ky

Look around the forum. There are several fine steel players who do jazz. Exactly which styles I'm not sure.

Look up Jim Cohen here on the forum. I know he has some good jazz stuff.
https://www.jimcohen.com/music

If you can find a copy of Minors Aloud with Buddy Emmons and Lenny Breau it's good too. Not all instrumental, but lots of steel.

Ken Pippus · From: Langford, BC, Canada

Richard Nelson.

Agree with all the above suggestions, but most are stylistically pre-modal and certainly pre-fusion.

Maybe look for Greg Leisz stuff with Bill Frisell?

Ken Pippus · From: Langford, BC, Canada

Bebop, Etc. by Jim Loessberg.

Jerry Overstreet · From: Louisville Ky

Defer to Ken. I like jazz but not very knowledgeable about the different styles.

Douglas Schuch · From: Valencia, Philippines

You can add these:

Bruce Kaphan Quartet - 2012 self-titled album

Buck Reed - "A Work In Progress" (not exclusively jazz, but several jazz and swing numbers)

Mike Neer - "Steelonious"

Paul Franklin and Mike Smith - "United Steels" - Jazz Fusion

Jan Jonsson - albums "Waltz For Emma" and "Steel Reflections"

Frank Rogers - He had an album offered for sale 20 years ago. The homepage of his website can be googled, but it's a saved image. I've got one track of his - again, no idea how I got it. But a recent post here on the forum inquiring what's up with him got no new info. Maybe I'll post the one track I have on Youtube.

People who do not, to my knowledge, have an album, but do have stuff on Youtube or other places:

Standard Deviations Jazz Quartet

Rick Schmidt

Paul Franklin - has a great version of "Spain" out there somewhere - don't know where I got a copy. I'm guessing this might be a live recording from the same Steel Guitar Show where he did "If I Only Had A Brain".

I worry that some of this music might get lost in the near future - Maybe someone (with a longer life expectancy and more internet savvy) should start a "steel-music-bank" to preserve a lot of this stuff?
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scott murray · From: Asheville, NC

Spain was included on Paul's Play By Play album.

in addition to Paul, check out the albums of Buddy Emmons, Curly Chalker, Doug Jernigan, Hal Rugg, Maurice Anderson, Buddy Charleton, Herby Wallace, Julian Tharpe, Zane Beck. there's a great Terry Crisp album called Burnt To A Crisp if you can find it. and I don't know what he's got in the way of albums, but Steve Palousek is another jazz steeler with some good video available.

I'll probably think of a couple more as soon as I hit submit
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1965 Emmons S-10, 3x5 • Emmons LLIII D-10, 10x12 • JCH D-10, 10x12 • Beard MA-8 • Oahu Tonemaster

scott murray · From: Asheville, NC

Lionel Wendling
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1965 Emmons S-10, 3x5 • Emmons LLIII D-10, 10x12 • JCH D-10, 10x12 • Beard MA-8 • Oahu Tonemaster

John Larson · From: Pennsyltucky, USA

Ian · From: San Francisco, CA

John,

I'll echo what Rick Andrews said about Dave Easley. I'm particularly fond of his work on Brian Blade's first two recordings, Fellowship and Perceptual.

Ian

Mike Neer · From: NJ

I decided to make a record of post-Bop tunes by Shorter, Tyner, Horace Silver, etc during the Covid period, playing my uke, bass and Rickenbacher lap steel that was once owned by Sol Hoopii. It was intense to go so deep into these tunes on three instruments and to get to where I could freely play on them. All the songs were from the Real Book, though some lesser played tunes. I called it Keepin' It Real. I had some stellar guest soloists contribute too.

This is Peace. https://mikeneer.bandcamp.com/track/peace

And this the album. You can listen free of charge (plus this album is on all streaming platforms).
My favorite cuts are African Flower and Passion Dance, and Nica's Dream.
https://mikeneer.bandcamp.com/album/keepin-it-real
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J D Sauser · From: Wellington, Florida

I would say that Buddy Emmons' "Steel Guitar Jazz" Album could well have been the first Steel Guitar Jazz album not centered around Western-Hillbilly or Big Band Swing.

Maurice Anderson would have been, along with Curly Chalker one of a handful of steel guitarists which came out of a main interest in Jazz, Be-&-HardBop into Country (for a living). Maurice as well as Chalker issued a good number of Jazz centered albums, again "Jazz" as un-tethered from Western and Hillbilly/Country Swing.
Sadly only few got put on CD.
And much of Maurice's material is strongly infused by the sounds of the 60's and 70's, which can be interesting but also can sound "dated" or material most will still today not seek to "pick" from.

Buddy Emmons (Step One Records or "SOR") produced a good half dozen of LP's with Big Band, WesternSwing and Country... but these aren't "Jazz" in the Bebop/HardBop or even PostBop sense of the style.

I think most everything else has been listed above already, maybe overlooking John Hughey and Hal Rug.

Some thoughts about influences:
In Buddy Emmons' biography we learn that the first LP album Buddy Emmons bought at age 13 or 14 (1 or 2 years into learning to play steel), was a Jazz Blues/Bebop Album (MGC 602 & 602) featuring Charlie Parker, Barney Kessel, Oscar Peterson and others, which he told he wore OUT.
Yes, he dug Jerry Byrd and Joaquin Murphy (the later which could be viewed as a steel guitarist with a heavy Jazz/Swing influence), but he learned listening to the Chicago, NewYork heavy weights of Bebop.

I don't know what Doug Jernigan and later greats like Paul Franklin listened to, but I would like to suggest that when we want to learn from our steel guitar heroes, we ought to listen more to what influenced THEM.

... J-D.
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Was it JFK who said: Ask Not What TAB Can Do For You - Rather Ask Yourself "What Would B.B. King Do?"

A Little Mental Health Warning:

Tablature KILLS SKILLS.
The uses of Tablature is addictive and has been linked to reduced musical fertility.
Those who produce Tablature did never use it.

I say it humorously, but I mean it.

John Larson · From: Pennsyltucky, USA

JD, it's kind of baffling to me that at one point most of the popular music (swing, Hawaiian, jazz, etc.) in this country was heavy on extended harmony (6th, major 7ths) and then those harmonies just seem to have vanished from most popular music as jazz became more of a niche.
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Rejoice in the Lord, O ye righteous; praise is meet for the upright. Give praise to the Lord with the harp, chant unto Him with the ten-stringed psaltery. Sing unto Him a new song, chant well unto Him with jubilation. For the word of the Lord is true, and all His works are in faithfulness. The Lord loveth mercy and judgement; the earth is full of the mercy of the Lord.
- Psalm 33:1-5

Bill Cunningham · From: Atlanta, Ga. USA

Try this:

https://on.soundcloud.com/5oFoXq7hHL5H4Qsx6

Maurice Anderson with Johnny Case on the little know 1970’s LP “Contrasts In Jazz” One extended improv tune per side.
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Bill Cunningham
Atlanta, GA

Paul Mozen · From: Fl, USA

Sorry, I'm stuck on Bebop

Andrew Frost · From: Toronto, Ontario

Skip Edwards · From: LA,CA

Another vote for Bruce Kaphan...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFeiDEuNUrg

Chris Templeton · From: The Green Mountain State

Buddy said that when he "was put out to pasture", his choice of steel neck/tuning, if he only had one choice, would be the C6th neck.
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Excel 3/4 Pedal With An 8 String Hawaiian Neck, Tapper (10 string with a raised fretboard to fret with fingers), Single neck Fessenden 3/5
"The Tapper" : https://christophertempleton.bandcamp.com/album/the-tapper
Soundcloud Playlist: https://soundcloud.com/bluespruce8:

Tim Toberer · From: Nebraska, USA

Here is the link to forum member Richard Nelson's Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/@ricknelsteel

Franklin · Posted 18 Feb 2024 7:28 am

John,

This instrumental was released in 22 after covid. The steel solo follows the sax. There is some Jazz stuff in commercial settings. Unfortunately the songs are not in one place as the question here asks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UVF8F7j0l4&list=PLzKFxVkdVd263RgW2p7sM9uBNoTOZtdrZ

I love your pursuit.
Paul

J D Sauser · From: Wellington, Florida

Richard Alderson · From: Illinois, USA

Lots of other instruments, not mainly steel, but a lot of steel, Brisbane Bop, on You Tube with Vance Terry. It would be nice to see a more modern take on Vance's stuff, but its outstanding for what it is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2SeC0P4Ymg&list=PLvWJe_xPPXoFXWOyyZLy5ugUNoNw3M6Mu
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Donny Hinson · From: Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.

A few other players who delved occasionally into jazz stylings, but haven’t been mentioned yet, are Curly Chalker, Wally Murphy, and Julian Tharpe. Cool

Jazz can be a very tough road, and its top players are unbelievably talented. Even Buddy Emmons once admitted that there was no way he could hang in there with the top jazz musicians. To me, that took an awful lot of humility for him to state that.

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