Howard Buzz Feiten was a born musician hailing from an upper middle class family. His family too had traces of music connection, with his mother, Pauline being a classical Pianist. Buzz Feiten’s dad Howard Sr., was a Pilot with the Airliners. Hailing from North America, Feiten was bought up in Centreport, New York. Buzz Feiten was more lovingly known as “Buzzy” amongst his schoolmates.

Buzz Feiten was known more for his multiple talents of not just playing the guitar, but also constructing new guitar or repairing damaged instruments, thus allowing him to be graded as a “Luthier” (one who can repair or make a new instrument, generally associated with stringed instruments).  Fieten’s expertise was on Lead and Rhythm guitarist, but Buzz Feiten was more considered as an expert of Modern Guitars when he successfully improved the instrument itself with a unique, patented, scientifically-designed tuning system which re-configures its stringboard / neck for more accurate tonality. Buzz Feiten is also famous for his Tuning Systems.

Buzz Feiten
Buzz Feiten

As a young child, Buzz Feiten studied many musical instruments and his first foray into the music world was through the High School Band “The Reason Why”. This group has been quite successful on Long Island and a couple of their songs went to occupy the top slot on Billboard Top 100 for sometime.

Buzz Feiten toured several times on Concert tours, Albums etc since the late 1960’s. His first tryst with the big guns of the musical world was in 1967 when Buzz Feiten performed alongside Eric Clapton in New York City, which catapulted him to stardom and was beginning to be known as the new Wonderkid. Buzz Feiten then joined Paul Butterfield’s Blues band and saw his performance improving with every show and thus allowing him to fine tune his skills. As and when Buzz Feiten grew in the music world, his name Buzzy went on to become modified as “Buzz”. Feiten has so far performed with some of the famous goups such as The Rascals, Bob Dylan, The Brecker Brothers, Bruce Willis, Gregg Allman, James Taylor, Wilson Pickett, Chaka Khan, Olivia Newton-John etc to name a few.

Born in 1936, to a musical family of Lawrence Odell Holley and Ella Pauline Drake, Charles Hardin Holley as he was named made his first music debut singing harmony duets at local clubs and high school talent shows along with Bob Montgomery in 1949. During his childhood, Buddy Holly learned to play piano, guitar, fiddle and the violin. It was by sheer circumstances that Holley became Buddy Holly when Buddy Holly teamed up with Bob Montgomery and the duo later came to be known as “Buddy  & Bob”. Excerpts from Amburn book mentions that his name changed to Holly instead of Holley mainly due to the fact that Buddy Holly signed the Decca Contract which mis-spelled his name as Holly.

Buddy Holly
Buddy Holly

It was Elvis Presley who inspired Buddy Holly to take to Rock music during his live performance in Lubbock. Buddy Holly foray into Rock music was completed when he performed for Bill Haley & His Comets at a local rock show organized by Eddie Crandall. The peformances for Bill Haley and His Comets ensured that Buddy Holly got a contract from Decca Records to perform solo. This was the moment of reckoning for Holly as his career took an upward leap and in 1957, Buddy Holly formed his own band “The Crickets”. They began their recordings in Norman Petty’s Studios.

Buddy Holly got married in 1958 to Maria Elena Santiago after less than 2 months of dating. Holly died under very tragic circumstances in 1959 when the plane he boarded after a performance Green Bay, Wisconsin, crashed minutes after taking off. Though his death news may have got a bit overshadowed by another Boeing Crash the same day in New York, Don Maclean termed it as “The day the music died”.

 

John Paul 'Bucky' Pizzarelli better known as just Bucky Pizzarelli was a great classical Jazz guitarist. His is a family of musicians with his three children John, Martin and Mary also being professional musicians as also his uncles Pete and Bobby. While Martin was a bassist, Mary was a classical guitarist.

During his childhood days, Bucky Pizzarelli learnt playing the Banjo and guitar. He is one of the few guitarists who served the Army during World War II during which he played in an unauthorized Band. Bucky began his career in 1943 by joining Vaughn Monroe group. Though Bucky Pizzarelli had to dis-associate from this band for some time during the World War II, he later re-joined this group only to play for 5 more years. Bucky Pizzarelli, later in 1954, went on to join the Doc Severinsen Band on the “Tonight Show”.

Bucky Pizzarelli
Bucky Pizzarelli

From 1956 to 1957, Bucky Pizzarelli played with the “The Three Sounds” group. Bucky Pizzarelli toured many times with Benny Goodman. Later in 1970, he started performing for the musicians of the 1930’s era as a mark of tribute to them. He had the honor of performing in the “White House” in Washington with Benny Goodman and later peformed twice for President Ronald Reagon and once for President Bill Clinton. In 1985, Bucky Pizzarelli played at the “Jersey Jazz Guitars” concert held at Rutgers University in New Brunswick.

In June 2002, Bucky Pizzarelli was presented with the “Lifetime Achievement Award”. Later in June 2005, he was inducted into the Jazz Wall of Fame.

“George Buddy Guy” was one of the very few guitarists who had the uncanny knack of showmanship of playing the guitar with drumsticks, sometimes just playing with his left hand while swigging a can of beer with his right hand, playing the guitar with his feet, sometimes playing the guitar behind his back or sometimes just walking into the audience directly jamming and trailing a long guitar cord etc were some of the highlights of his showmanship.

Born in Lettsworth, Louisiana, 1936, George Buddy Guy was a five time Grammy Awards winner. George Buddy Guy was one of the main Rock Guitarists and traditional Blues Singer in the late 1950’s. Jimi Hendrix was so inspired by him that sometimes he used to skip his own concerts to attend to Guy’s shows in Clubs. George Buddy Guy’s popularity rose after he moved to Chicago in 1957 and later in 1958 he bagged his first contract after being noticed during his competition with West Side guitarists Magic Sam and Otis Rush. Soon afterwards George Buddy Guy recorded for Cobra Records and also had recording sessions with Junior Wells for Delmark Records.

Buddy Guy
Buddy Guy

Most notably Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton were very much inspired by Guy’s style of music. Eric Clapton once remarked “Buddy Guy is to me what Elvis is for others. He is the greatest guitar player alive”. Known more as a “Musician’s Musician”, George Buddy Guy had an impact on the early blues and on rock and roll, influencing a new generation of artists. Buddy Guy has been one of the main pioneers in changing the course of Rock N’ Roll. His guitar playing techniques may have been viewed as loud and aggressive at times, but he often used pioneering distortion and feedback techniques, sometimes using long solos and driven by emotions and impulse.

George Buddy Guy later realised that his music had a major influence over the British singers and Guitarists when he toured Great Britain during 1965. During his music career, many of his songs have been covered by such artists such as Led Zeppelin, Eric Clapton, Rolling Stones, John Mayall to name a few. As some say, his early songs were stolen by the late Willie Dixon and Guy’s earlier Recording companies. Guy has been the exponent of the famous “Chicago Blues”.

George Buddy Guy won the Grammy five times for his work on both, the Electric Guitar and Acoustic guitar and also for composing traditional forms of Blues Music. Buddy Guy was inducted into the “Rock and Roll Hall of Fame” in 2005 by Eric Clapton and BB King. George Buddy Guy’s speech after being inducted was precise and clear “If you don’t think you have the blues, just keep living”.

Buckethead was born 1969. His real name being Brian Carroll is an American guitarist and composer. He is known for wearing a plastic mask and KFC bucket on his head. He is a great composer and has released more than 22 solo albums. He is best known for for playing his electric guitar with varied styles from trash guitar to fingerpicking and slapping. He was voted as one of the top 10 guitarists of all time.

His first song was "Brazos" which he did for a Guitar Player Magazine contest. He was a runner up.

He has played with many of the top bands in the world. This is what Ozzy Osbourne had to say about Bucket Head.

"I tried out that Buckethead guy. I met with him and asked him to work with me but only if he got rid of the fucking bucket. So I came back a bit later and he's wearing this green fucking Martian's-hat thing! I said, 'Look, just be yourself'. He told me his name was Brian, so I said that's what I'd call him. He says, 'No one calls me Brian except my mother'. So I said, 'Pretend I'm your mum then!'. I haven't even got out of the room and I'm already playing fucking mind games with the guy. What happens if one day he's gone and there's a note saying, 'I've been beamed up'? Don't get me wrong, he's a great player. He plays like a motherfucker!"

He also played with Guns and Roses. When he got seperated from the band, this is what they commented.

"During his tenure with the band, Buckethead has been inconsistent and erratic in both his behavior and his commitment, despite being under contract, creating uncertainty and confusion and making it virtually impossible to move forward with recording, rehearsals, and live plans with confidence. His transient lifestyle has made it near impossible for even his closest friends to have nearly any form of communications with him whatsoever"

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