Irving Ashby

One of the grand old men of jazz guitar, Ashby played in some groups that leaped over the pop music fence, but eventually saw his distinctive style overwhelmed by newer, fancier pickers. There was Django Reinhardt, whose speed and facility scared Ashby to death the first time he heard the French gypsy guitarist on the radio, followed by a wave of smarty-pants jazz guitarists such as Barney Kessel, who wound up grabbing Ashby's seat in the famed Oscar Peterson trio. Most jazz listeners have enjoyed Ashby's work on early recordings by the Nat King Cole Trio, in which he played from 1947 through 1951, replacing Oscar Moore. It was in this context that he first came to prominence on the jazz scene, and it is often this collaboration that catches the ear of new listeners. The blues revivalist Taj Mahal, for example, will drop Ashby's name when listing important early influences, sticking out among usual blues guitar suspects such as Blind Lemon Jefferson and Robert Johnson. "Everybody else I heard was playing real tight chords when I started hearing guitar in the '40s," Mahal said in an interview. "The first person I really loved was Irving Ashby, who played with Nat King Cole. That guy was incredible. He had a certain sound." Although it is the guitarist, and not the guitar, that makes the sound, part of the Ashby tone certainly came from his unique guitar, a Stromberg created by the brilliant luthier Elmer Stromberg. This was Ashby's guitar of choice in his days with the Lionel Hampton's band, even before he began performing with the Cole group. In the latter combo he was particularly known for playing an over-sized guitar known as "the Yellow Cloud," and it was perhaps this axe that Ashby was paying tribute to in the '50s when a combo under his own name recorded the...