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Carl Kress Biography

carl-kress
  • Born: October 20, 1907 in Newark, NJ
  • Years Active: 1930s-1960s
  • Genre: Jazz

One of the great guitarists of the 1930s, Carl Kress had a very sophisticated chordal style on acoustic guitar. He originally played banjo before gradually shifting to guitar. Kress played with Paul Whiteman in 1926 and then became a very busy studio musician, recording with all of the top white musicians (including Bix Beiderbecke, Red Nichols' Five Pennies, and two classic duets with Eddie Lang) in those segregated days. Kress often teamed up with fellow guitarist Dick McDonough in the 1930s, he co-owned the Onyx Club on 52nd Street for a time, and continued working in the studios into the 1960s, playing during his last years in a duo with George Barnes. Most of Carl Kress' solo and duet (with McDonough) recordings from the 1930s are long overdue to be reissued. ~ Scott Yanow, Rovi

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