Home » Jazz Musicians » Sal Salvador

Sal Salvador

A versatile guitarist and onetime head of the guitar department at the University of Bridgeport, Sal Salvador was a capable soloist and accompanist whose single-string style, shaped by his early interest in the music of Charlie Christian, was augmented by extensive studies of guitar technique. Salvador's years of research, playing, and analysis eventually led to his writing guitar methodology books, among them Sal Salvador's Chord Method for Guitar and Sal Salvador's Single String Studies for Guitar in the '50s and '60s. He became interested in jazz during his teens, and began playing professionally in Springfield, MA, in 1945. He worked with Terry Gibbs and Mundell Lowe in New York at the end of the '40s, then joined Stan Kenton's orchestra in 1952. Salvador worked with Kenton until the end of 1953, and appeared on the New Concepts of Artistry in Rhythm album. He led bebop bands featuring Eddie Costa and Phil Woods. Salvador was featured in the film Jazz on a Summer's Day and headed a big band in the late '50s and early '60s. He worked in a guitar duo with Alan Hanlon in the early '70s, and began recording again as a leader later in the decade. He re-formed his big band in the '80s, and was named to his position at the University of Bridgeport. Salvador led recordings for Blue Note (1953), Capitol, Bethlehem, Decca, Jazz Unlimited, Dauntless (1963), Bee Hive, GP, and Stash; he died September 22, 1999, at the age of 73. Source: Ron Wynn

Tags

4
Album Review

Stan Kenton and His Orchestra: In a Lighter Vein

Read "In a Lighter Vein" reviewed by Jack Bowers


Stan Kenton was a man of many moods, as was his intrepid and popular orchestra, which endured until his passing in August 1979 and whose renown is kept alive even today by the Stan Kenton Legacy Orchestra. Kenton dons his carefree hat on In a Lighter Vein, an assortment of straight-ahead themes from the orchestra's jazz library, preserved in five concert performances from 1953-55 beneath the umbrella of NBC radio's All Star Parade of Bands. Original compositions ...

Read more articles

Video / DVD

Sal Salvador: Colors in Sound

Sal Salvador: Colors in Sound

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

Sal Salvador is best known as Stan Kenton's guitarist from 1953 to 1955, at which point he left the band to work as a freelance small-group leader and studio musician. In the late 1950s, with the advent of stereo, Decca signed him for a pair of big-band albums that took advantage of the new format's sound separation and wide, dynamic presentation. The Dauntless label tapped Salvador for a third album. Dauntless was a subsidiary of Audio Fidelity Records and managed ...

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

In a Lighter Vein

Sounds of Yesteryear
2020

buy

You Ain't Heard...

Jazz Records
1963

buy

New Concepts Of...

Capitol Records
1953

buy

Frivolous Sal

Jazz Records
0

buy

Videos

Similar

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.