A trombonist, guitarist, composer and arranger who worked with Bennie Moten, Jimmie Lunceford, and Count Basie, Eddie Durham built one of the first amplified guitar pickups in the mid-1930s and used it to record what are often cited as jazz's first electric guitar solos — a year or two before his student Charlie Christian made the instrument famous. Durham's arranging pen was just as influential as his guitar (he co-wrote Basie staples like "One O'Clock Jump"), but it's his role handing the amplified guitar to Christian that echoes furthest through the instrument's history.

the sound in question

1938

Countless BluesEddie Durham