Hello all,
Today, I want to feature an excellent jazz guitar player. Many of you have never heard of him before. I first came across him while I was watching the Benson’s excellent “Absolutely Live” dvd (2001). “(If you haven’t checked out this dvd and you’re a Benson fan, make sure you do get this dvd ASAP. It’s awesome.) As I was watching the video, I kept noticing Benson’s rhythm guitarist and I kept thinking to myself, “Who is this guy? He must be a good player if Benson is playing with him” So I did some research and came across his name: Michael O’Neill. But the interesting part is that I also noticed Michael playing with Benson in the 1980’s!
Take a look at the first video. You’ll see Michael playing rhythm guitar on the Absolutely Live dvd. The song is “Deeper than you think”. In the second video, I’m reposting a video of Benson playing the song “Take 5” in the 1980’s on the Tom Snyder show. Michael’s playing with Benson there too! Yes, Michael’s been playing with George off and on for over 30 years! and he’s still touring with him now in fact. Wow. That’s probably almost as long as George has been playing with his longtime bass player, Stanley Banks.
Anyway, the main reason for making this post is to hip you to fact that Michael is an excellent jazz guitarist in his own right. He has produced many records of his own over the years and has recorded with countless top notch musicians. The third video below shows Michael performing a masterclass on campus at the Australian Institute of Music this year. I hope you enjoy this post and make sure you check out Michael’s website: http://www.michaeloneillmusic.net/
Enjoy,
Leon
I want you to send the video for tutorial
Yeah, he’s really good! I enjoyed the videos. Wish I could have him as one of our wedding guitarists.
Is he the same artist who appears in Gregg Karukas’ song “Nightshift”?