The World of
Fingerstyle Jazz Guitar
From the beginning, the guitar has played a central
role in the development and expression of jazz.Its evolution
as one of the music’s most articulate and powerful
instruments could not have taken place without the taste
and precision of Eddie Lang, whose plectrum guitar work
with Joe Venuti and Bing Crosby in the 1920s and 30s
drafted the original musical blueprint for jazz guitar playing.
The simultaneous proliferation of phonograph records also
was crucial to the process. Lang’s early records
undoubtedly provided the basic direction and vital
inspiration for guitarists such as Django Reinhardt, Oscar