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50 Jazz Blues Licks is an exclusive series of video guitar lessons by David Hamburger covering the jazz blues styles of historically great guitarists like George Benson, Kenny Burrell, Joe Pass, and many others. A new lick will be released each week, so be sure to subscribe and check back often!

Hank Jones plays on two of my favorite jazz recordings, Wes Montgomery’s So Much Guitar and Cannonball Adderly’s Somethin’ Else. In fact, each of these albums includes a great minor blues, Wes’ “Somethin’ Like Bags,” and Cannonball’s “One For Daddy-0.” (Which raises, just tangentially, the question: just how do you get an awesome nickname like “Cannonball” in the first place?) Though Jones’ family seemingly did not hand out the sobriquets as freely as some others, it was clearly a hotbed of talent, as his younger siblings included trumpeter Thad Jones, as well as Elvin Jones – you know, the guy who played drums on all those Coltrane records (Jones himself appeared with Trane and Milt Jackson on the 1960 session Bags and Trane.) Jones began his career working with swing icons like Hot Lips Page and Lucky Thompson before discovering and delving into bebop as it was developing in the mid-1940s and ultimately recorded with both Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker as well as tenor giants Coleman Hawkins and Ben Webster and several other greats. All this after working as a touring member of Norman Granz’ Jazz at the Philharmonic and serving as Ella Fitzgerald’s pianist from 1948 to 1953. Give a listen and you’ll see why so many people wanted him around.

Video Guitar Lesson

If you like these guitar lessons, be sure to also check out Frank Vignola’s Jazz Up Your Blues, which showcases essential jazz blues vocabulary and techniques, Mark Stefani’s Jazzed Blues Assembly Lines, which takes you on a sonic learning tour through the funky rhythm and blues stylings and fretboard concepts of top jazz blues players, and of course all of David Hamburger’s courses.