Tommy Tedesco was billed as the most recorded guitarist in history and he certainly seemed to live up to his reputation with his thousands of sessions in almost every conceivable style of music.
He was a member of the group of Los Angeles session musicians known as the Wrecking Crew, which also included keyboardist Leon Russell, bassist Carole Kaye and drummers Hal Blaine and Earl Palmer.
I first became aware of Tedesco as the lead guitarist on some of the early releases in producer Tommy Garrett's 50 Guitars series. He was also, I learned later, front and centre on recordings by The Marketts, whose Surfer's Stomp was a Top 40 hit in 1962. But his list of pop and rock credits was seeminly endless, and included the Beach Boys, Frank Zappa, The Monkees and the Partridge Family.
Tedesco was also active in the TV and movie soundtrack scene, lending his guitar to such series as The Mickey Mouse Club, Bonanza and The Twilight Zone.
Jazz became Tedesco's primary focus beginning in 1978, and there were half a dozen albums over the next five years, including Carnival Time, a live set by his trio released in 1983. The link to the title track is below. The MP3 is from a cassette version of the album.
Carnival Time
Jimmy Bruno and Jon Kurnick were the other guitarists in the Tommy Tedesco Trio for Carnival Time, with Bruno composing the title tune.
All of Tedesco's jazz albums are out of print, with Fine Fretted Friend, his final offering released in 1992 (Tedesco died, age 67, of lung cancer in 1997), the easiest to obtain on CD at a reasonable price. Only his 1986 album Hollywood Gypsy is available as a download.
Here's Tommy Tedesco playing a wonderful solo version of Nature Boy at the Musicians Institute in Los Angeles. Uploaded to YouTube by Tedesco's son, Denny.
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