All Blues for Jazz Guitar: Comping Styles, Chords & Grooves
In 1994, Jim Ferguson received one of the highest honors of his profession: a Grammy nomination from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences in the Best Album Notes category for annotating Fantasy Records' 12-CD boxed set Wes Montgomery - The Complete Riverside Recordings, which includes an incisive biographical essay and interviews with numerous figures, including Nat Adderley, Ron Carter, Kenny Burrell, John Scofield, and Tommy Flanagan. The award marked a recent high point in a career that began in the mid '70s. For more than 15 years, Ferguson was associated with Guitar Player Magazine. A former editor, he specialized in jazz and classical guitar - meeting, interviewing, and writing about virtually every important figure in the guitar world. A specialist in jazz, and in jazz guitar in particular, he con-tributed the guitar history entry and 14 biographies to The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz. He has also annotated over 40 albums (Wes Montgomery, Kenny Burrell, Joe Pass, Jim Hall, Tal Farlow, George Van Eps, Johnny Smith, and many others) and compiled several acclaimed collections of historic performances for the Fantasy, Rhino, and Concord labels. In addition to Guitar Player, his hundreds of articles have appeared in JazzTimes, Down Beat, Classical Guitar, Fingerstyle Guitar, and other international publications. His books have covered topics ranging from blues to the music of Federico Moreno Torroba. A noted guitar instructor, Ferguson has a Master of Fine Arts degree from Mills College in Oakland, California, and teaches music at both Evergreen Valley College in San Jose, California, and California State University, Monterey Bay in Seaside, California. He has studied with George Barnes, Red Varner, Lenny Breau, Jose Rey de la Torre, and David Tanenbaum and performed in Europe and the U.S. Moreover, he is profiled in Maurice J. Summerfield's The Jazz Guitar - Its Evolution, Its Players And Personalities Since 1900. Regarding his own approach to jazz, Cadence Magazine said, "Bluesy and swinging, Ferguson bears up under repeated listening." In 1997, Jim founded his own music publishing company, Guitar Master Class, whose first book, All Blues for Jazz Guitar - Comping Styles, Chords & Grooves, has been received virtually with universal acclaim. He resides in Santa Cruz, California.