By
Steve M Herron
Submitted On January 25, 2016
Danny Gatton was born in Washington, D.C. in September 1945. A
virtuoso guitarist who could easily play nearly any style of music,
Danny was concentrating more on jazz during the last couple of years
before his sudden death. Gatton, whose dad had actually been a
professional rhythm guitar player, started playing guitar when he was 9
years old.
The legendary Les Paul and Charlie Christian were his early jazz guitar influences. Danny Gatton was playing in his first band, The Lancers, by the time he was 12. He played jazz guitar with The Offbeats throughout 1960 - 1964 and hung around in Nashville where he worked briefly as a studio musician.
After a period of working day labor jobs and playing guitar at local bars at night throughout the 1970s, Danny gained some recognition for his performances with Liz Meyer & Friends and with other groups in the Washington, DC area. Gatton tape-recorded "American Music" in 1975 and the appealing "Redneck Jazz" in 1978, performing jazz on the latter album with a band that also included pedal steel guitarist Buddy Emmons. He later led a group called The Redneck Jazz Explosion.
Danny Gatton's fame was at first made in country and western music (while he was on the road with Roger Miller) and rockabilly where he was thought to be one of the top guitarists. He was nicknamed "The Telemaster" and was sometimes called the world's greatest unknown guitar player. His recordings ranged from rockabilly to rock in addition to bluegrass to blues and he constantly seemed on the verge of making it big time - although that never took place.
Danny typically played a 1953 Fender Telecaster with Joe Barden pickups and Fender strings. For a slide, Gatton in some cases would use a beer bottle or mug. He chose to utilize an Alka-Seltzer bottle or a long 6L6 vacuum tube as a slide, but his audiences seemed to like the beer bottle! He always played slide overhand, citing his earlier training in lap steel guitar playing. Among the amplifiers Gatton is said to have made use of are a 1959 Fender Bassman and a heavily customized Fender Vibrolux Reverb.
After making use of standard Fender guitar picks for years, Danny switched to a jazz design teardrop guitar pick after Roy Buchanan recommended them to him. He was capable of intricate passages integrating bebop, garage, and bluegrass sounds - all carried out with amazing clarity and at blistering speeds! His picking methodology was a hybrid combination of pick and fingers, mostly his middle and ring fingers on his right hand.
The basis of Danny Gatton's picking methodology was utilizing banjo rolls. He was an accomplished banjo picker and from that he adapted the traditional Earl Scruggs style banjo technique. His forward roll consisted of a plectrum downstroke, then middle finger, then ring finger. His backward roll included middle finger, then a plectrum upstroke, then a plectrum downstroke. He had a classical guitar left hand technique with his thumb behind the neck and curved fingers fretting the strings.
In 1992 Gatton changed gears by recording a straight-ahead CD set called "New York Stories" for Blue Note Records. Some setbacks led to him going back to session work, however in 1994 he worked with organist Joey DeFrancesco on an album called "Relentless". Due to mostly unknown emotional problems, on October 4, 1994 Danny Gatton committed suicide leaving behind no suicide note. He was only 49 years of age.
The legendary Les Paul and Charlie Christian were his early jazz guitar influences. Danny Gatton was playing in his first band, The Lancers, by the time he was 12. He played jazz guitar with The Offbeats throughout 1960 - 1964 and hung around in Nashville where he worked briefly as a studio musician.
After a period of working day labor jobs and playing guitar at local bars at night throughout the 1970s, Danny gained some recognition for his performances with Liz Meyer & Friends and with other groups in the Washington, DC area. Gatton tape-recorded "American Music" in 1975 and the appealing "Redneck Jazz" in 1978, performing jazz on the latter album with a band that also included pedal steel guitarist Buddy Emmons. He later led a group called The Redneck Jazz Explosion.
Danny Gatton's fame was at first made in country and western music (while he was on the road with Roger Miller) and rockabilly where he was thought to be one of the top guitarists. He was nicknamed "The Telemaster" and was sometimes called the world's greatest unknown guitar player. His recordings ranged from rockabilly to rock in addition to bluegrass to blues and he constantly seemed on the verge of making it big time - although that never took place.
Danny typically played a 1953 Fender Telecaster with Joe Barden pickups and Fender strings. For a slide, Gatton in some cases would use a beer bottle or mug. He chose to utilize an Alka-Seltzer bottle or a long 6L6 vacuum tube as a slide, but his audiences seemed to like the beer bottle! He always played slide overhand, citing his earlier training in lap steel guitar playing. Among the amplifiers Gatton is said to have made use of are a 1959 Fender Bassman and a heavily customized Fender Vibrolux Reverb.
After making use of standard Fender guitar picks for years, Danny switched to a jazz design teardrop guitar pick after Roy Buchanan recommended them to him. He was capable of intricate passages integrating bebop, garage, and bluegrass sounds - all carried out with amazing clarity and at blistering speeds! His picking methodology was a hybrid combination of pick and fingers, mostly his middle and ring fingers on his right hand.
The basis of Danny Gatton's picking methodology was utilizing banjo rolls. He was an accomplished banjo picker and from that he adapted the traditional Earl Scruggs style banjo technique. His forward roll consisted of a plectrum downstroke, then middle finger, then ring finger. His backward roll included middle finger, then a plectrum upstroke, then a plectrum downstroke. He had a classical guitar left hand technique with his thumb behind the neck and curved fingers fretting the strings.
In 1992 Gatton changed gears by recording a straight-ahead CD set called "New York Stories" for Blue Note Records. Some setbacks led to him going back to session work, however in 1994 he worked with organist Joey DeFrancesco on an album called "Relentless". Due to mostly unknown emotional problems, on October 4, 1994 Danny Gatton committed suicide leaving behind no suicide note. He was only 49 years of age.
Peabody Conservatory trained guitarist Steven Herron is an expert on jazz guitar instruction.
He has spent most of his adult life playing professionally at clubs and
restaurants as well as teaching private students at his studio. Sign up
now for his Free Guitar E-Course and find out more about Danny Gatton guitar solos.
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