John William Mackel (December 28, 1912 – May 5, 1986) was an American
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...
guitarist.
Mackel was born in
Baltimore, Maryland
Baltimore is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the List of United States ...
. He played banjo early in his career, but like many banjoists of his time he switched to guitar. He led his own band early in the 1940s, then joined
Lionel Hampton
Lionel Leo Hampton (April 20, 1908 – August 31, 2002) was an American jazz vibraphonist, percussionist, and bandleader. He worked with jazz musicians from Teddy Wilson, Benny Goodman, and Buddy Rich, to Charlie Parker, Charles Mingus, an ...
in 1944 and spent the next thirty years with him.
In the 1940s he also recorded with
Milt Buckner
Milton Brent Buckner (July 10, 1915 – July 27, 1977) was an American jazz pianist and organist, who in the early 1950s popularized the Hammond organ.Arwulf ArwulfMilt Buckner biography All Music. He pioneered the parallel chords style Feather ...
,
Arnett Cobb
Arnett Cleophus Cobb (August 10, 1918 – March 24, 1989)
accessed July 2010.
,
Herbie Fields
Herbie Fields (Herbert Bernfeld, May 24, 1919 – September 17, 1958) was an American jazz musician. He attended New York's famed Juilliard School of Music (1936–38) and served in the U.S. Army from 1941 to 1943.
Career
Membership in the Raym ...
, and others, and worked with
Billy Williams
Billy Leo Williams (born June 15, 1938) is an American former left fielder and coach in Major League Baseball (MLB) who played from 1959 to 1976, almost entirely for the Chicago Cubs. A six-time All-Star, Williams was named the 1961 National L ...
in the 1960s. He played left-handed.
Discography
* ''At Last'' with
Eddie Chamblee
Edwin Leon Chamblee (February 24, 1920 – May 1, 1999), known as Eddie "Long Gone" Chamblee, was an American tenor and alto saxophonist, and occasional vocalist, who played jazz and R&B.
Life and career
He was born in Atlanta, Georgia, United ...
,
Milt Buckner
Milton Brent Buckner (July 10, 1915 – July 27, 1977) was an American jazz pianist and organist, who in the early 1950s popularized the Hammond organ.Arwulf ArwulfMilt Buckner biography All Music. He pioneered the parallel chords style Feather ...
, Michel Gaudry,
Frankie Dunlop (
Black & Blue, 1977)
References
Further reading
*
Barry Kernfeld
Barry Dean Kernfeld (born August 11, 1950) is an American musicologist and jazz saxophonist who has researched and published extensively about the history of jazz and the biographies of its musicians.
Education
In 1968, Kernfeld enrolled at ...
, ed., ''
The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz''. 2nd edition. Oxford, 2002, pp. 662–663.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mackel, Billy
1912 births
1986 deaths
American jazz guitarists
Guitarists from Maryland
20th-century American guitarists
American male guitarists
Jazz musicians from Maryland
20th-century American male musicians
American male jazz musicians
African-American jazz guitarists