Fingerstyle Jazz Guitar

this little farm town where I lived, you could listen to Howard
Roberts playing ‘The Shadow of Your Smile.’ I thought it
was great.”
In high school, Nichols led a rock band called the
Silvertones. By the time he was 18, he was giging with
other area bands as well as with his father and brother,
John.
“Dad had his own group and played in a big band, so I
got a lot of valuable experience, doing some reading,
playing standards, and learning to play electric bass guitar,
too,” Nichols says. He continued working in and around
his hometown until 1972, when he and John Nichols
decided it was time to try make it as professional musicians
in California.
“The two choices were New York and Los Angeles,”
Nichols says. “We figured you could find a place to park in
L.A., and it didn’t snow there. We’d make the big jump
when we were young and strong, and if we bombed, we’d
come back home. We drove out there with all our stuff in
two cars. We were in Amarillo, in the parking lot of a hotel,
because we were too broke to stay in the hotel. There was
one little, pitiful piece of fried chicken left, and I looked at
my brother and said “What have we done?’ When we finally
got to L.A., we went to the musicians’ union and got a gig
right away. That lasted about 3 days, and it was really
horrible. We went to see our uncle in San Francisco, and
at that point we actually started to make a living playing
music.”
Nichols had made the right move. Not long afterward
he met Kenny Rankin, who was so impressed with Nichols’
playing that he featured him on his “Silver Morning” album.
Once word of Nichols’ talent began to spread, he found
himself working with accomplished jazz musicians such
as Art Pepper, Bud Shank, Red Holloway, Buddy
Montgomery and Hubert Laws, making television
appearances on “The Tonight Show” and “Don Kirschner’s
Rock Concert,” and doing session work. In 1982 Nichols
married a talented vocalist who was teaching guitar at a
music store where he used to hang out. Jim and Morning
Nichols have since made three albums for Kamei
Recordings, and Nichols has recorded several solo albums,
including “Jazz & Country,” which was chosen as an
Editor’s Pick for 1996 in Guitar Player magazine.