Guitar/Keyboard Session Players

Guitar/Keyboard Session Players

Guitar and keyboard players on this page:

Ry Cooder - Jesse Ed Davis - Andy Fairweather Low - Victor Feldman - Eric Gale - Albhy Galuten - Marlo Henderson - Nicky Hopkins - Paul Jackson - Ben Keith - Sneaky Pete Kleinow - Larry Knechtel - Danny Kortchmar - Mike Landau - David Lindley - Steve Lukather - David Paich - Ray Parker Jr. - Dean Parks - Greg Phillinganes - Steve Porcaro - Billy Preston - Melvin "Wah Wah Watson" Ragin - Leon Russell - Benmont Tench - Waddy Wachtel

There are an awful lot of successful musicians out there who aren't substantial songwriters, don't produce, don't perform in public much, and never formally join a band - namely, session players. There are so many of them it's hard to keep track, but we thought we would document the careers of at least a few top-notch session musicians with a set of cool cross-references to their guest appearances on records we've reviewed. There undoubtedly are many other such appearances we simply don't know about, but it's a start... and the biggest session player of them all? Paulinho Da Costa, of course. (JA)

Ry Cooder

American guitarist, master of the slide and closely associated with the Rolling Stones. Has released numerous solo albums, including a series of instrumental movie soundtracks. (JA)

Jesse Ed Davis

Guitar.

Andy Fairweather-Low

Co-founder (with Blue Weaver, another popular session player) of Amen Corner, a late 60's British rock band that scored a half-dozen domestic hits, dumped its horn section and put out an album called Fair Weather that also included a hit single ("Natural Sinner"), and split in about 1971. But the really interesting thing about him is the people he plays sessions for; it's not every day that someone like Eric Clapton or Pete Townshend lets someone else play guitar on one of their records. (JA)

Victor Feldman

It's not that there are two Victor Feldmans out there; it's just that the man has had a very strange career, alternating between jazz and light rock, piano and percussion (mostly vibes). (JA)

Eric Gale

Electric guitar, from jazz to R&B. (DBW)