Who is your unsung hero?
 

I am working on a project that pays tribute to the forgotten or under represented trail blazers of the past and present. For instance, Adolph Rickenbacker who invented the electric guitar or Duke Ellington a composer who was claimed to elevate the perception of jazz to an art form.

Who do you believe is a forgotten trail blazer?

There were others who were pioneers and helped raised to a new level or expanded the territory of Jazz (whoever you would put it) like Louis Armstrong, John Coltrane and Miles Davis.

Les Paul for pioneering and/or inventing the follow:

• Solid body guitar
• 8 track recording
• Sound on Sound recording
• Plugging his instrument directly into the recording console
• Effects like Phasing, Flanging and Pitch Shifting
• Looping etc etc etc

Steve Forbert