Happy Birthday to Earl Klugh

Happy 73rd birthday to guitarist Earl Klugh, born September 16, 1953, in Detroit!

Few guitarists in contemporary jazz have a sound as immediately recognizable as Klugh. His distinctive fingerstyle sound on nylon-string guitar draws from jazz, pop, R&B and Brazilian music, with a strong emphasis on melody. You usually don’t need to see his name to know when Earl Klugh is playing.

And he started remarkably young. As a teenager working at a Detroit music store, Klugh caught the attention of jazz great Yusef Lateef, who invited him to play on his 1970 album Suite 16. Klugh was only 16. He soon recorded with George Benson on White Rabbit, toured with Benson for more than a year and even spent a brief period playing with Chick Corea’s Return to Forever.

His self-titled debut arrived on Blue Note in 1976, beginning a recording career that has now stretched across five decades. His partnership with Bob James produced the classic One on One, which won a Grammy for Pop Instrumental Performance, and he later reunited with Benson for the 1987 album Collaboration.

Klugh has never fit neatly into one musical box. Jazz, pop, soul, Brazilian music and classical guitar have all found their way into his recordings over the years. Klugh once summed up his approach very simply: “Music has no boundaries.”

That sounds like a pretty good philosophy for contemporary jazz, too.

Happy birthday, Earl!