Jimmy Wyble was born in 1922 in Port Arthur, Texas. He first started playing guitar seriously at age 13. He started to play in country music bands and then teamed up with another guitarist Cameron Hill playing Western Swing. In 1944 they joined the Bob Wills Texas Playboys band playing in the newly fashionable twin lead guitar style. Some of their tunes like "Roly Poly" and "Smoke on the Water" became hit records.
Although playing Western Swing, Jimmy was developing an interest in jazz and in 1953 he recorded his first jazz album as a leader - The Jimmy Wyble Quintet. This featured guitar, clarinet, accordion, bass, and drums which was an unusual combination and quite advanced music for the time. Also in 1953 Jimmy recorded as a sideman with Barney Kessel in a quartet featuring two guitars, bass and drums.
In 1956 Jimmy joined Red Norvo's small group (replacing Bill Dillard) which had metamorphosed from the Trio with Tal Farlow or Jimmy Raney on guitar and Charles Mingus or Red Mitchell on bass into a Quintet. He stayed with Norvo until 1965 and can be heard taking fleet solos on a number of records.
After his stint with Red Norvo, Jimmy concentrated on West Coast studio work, and on teaching. He recorded a number of short solo Jazz Etudes on both electric and acoustic guitar. The theory behind these was discussed in his book "The Art of Two-Line Improvisation." For a while in the 1970s Jimmy was a member of Tony Rizzi's Five Guitars group playing in four part harmony with the fifth guitar doubling an octave.
BACK Dempsey Wright UP The Jazz Guitarists