With only a slim body of recorded work to his
name, guitar guru Ted Greene remains best known as a teacher and
theoretician. His book Chord Chemistry is widely acclaimed as
the bible for aspiring jazz guitarists. Born in Los Angeles on
September 26, 1946, Greene began his own guitar studies at age
11, and was an accomplished player while still in high school,
often collaborating with local R&B groups; he briefly studied
accounting at Cal State Northridge, but soon dropped out to devote
all of his energies to music.
Greene typically worked as an accompanist behind vocalists, despising
the limelight himself but finding group settings restrictive.
While he was a sought-after session player, he derived much of
his income from tutoring, ultimately writing four acclaimed books
on the subject: Chord Chemistry, Modern Chord Progressions: Jazz
and Classical Voicings for Guitar, and the two-volume Jazz Guitar:
Single Note Soloing. In 1977, he also recorded his lone solo LP,
titled simply Solo Guitar.
While much respected and celebrated by his fellow guitarists across
the musical spectrum, Greene was nevertheless little known to
the general public, his anonymity even more pronounced by his
aversion to live performance. By all accounts painfully shy and
humble, his roster of alumni included jazz player John Pisano,
but he never charged more than 25 dollars per hourly lesson. Greene
died suddenly of a heart attack at his Encino, CA, apartment on
July 25, 2005; he was 58.
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