Eddie Lang

Eddie Lang是最早的爵士吉他演奏藝術家，他的名字在20年代末的爵士樂壇人人知曉。Lang的老練的和弦演奏使他成為一個出色的伴奏者，同時他也是個很好的獨奏家。最能反映Lang的音樂才能的時期是他與Lonnie Johnson一起組成二重奏的時候（在那時他使用別名Blind Willie Dunn），他負責彈奏和弦部分。Lang后來又與Carl Kress組成二重奏，彈奏主音。
by Scott Yanow
The first jazz guitar virtuoso, Eddie Lang was everywhere in the late 20s; all of his fellow musicians knew that he was the best. A boyhood friend of Joe Venuti, Lang took violin lessons for 11 years but switched to guitar before he turned professional. In 1924 he debuted with the Mound City Blue Blowers and was soon in great demand for recording dates, both in the jazz world and in commercial settings. His sophisticated chord patterns made him a superior accompanist who uplifted everyone elses music and Lang was also a fine single-note soloist. He often teamed up with violinist Venuti (including some classic duets) and played with Red Nicholss Five Pennies, Frankie Trumbauer and Bix Beiderbecke (most memorably on Singing the Blues), the orchestras of Roger Wolfe Kahn, Jean Goldkette and Paul Whiteman (appearing on one short number with Venuti in Whitemans 1930 film The King of Jazz) and anyone else who could hire him. A measure of Langs versatility and talents is that he mostly played the chordal parts on a series of duets with Lonnie Johnson (during which he used the pseudonym Blind Willie Dunn) yet on his two duets with Carl Kress (whose chord voicings were an advancement on Langs), he played the single-note leads. Eddie Lang, who led some dates of his own during 1927-29, worked regularly with Bing Crosby during the early 30s in addition to recording many sessions with Venuti. Tragically his premature death was caused by a botched operation on a tonsillectomy.