caption associated_acts death_date years_active birth_name landscape background birth_date instrument genre image article_title name occupation
billy mackel , c. 1953 lionel hampton 5 may 1986 1944 -- 1986 john william mackel yes non_vocal_instrumentalist 28 december 1912 guitar , banjo mainstream jazz file : billy mackel , jazz guitarist , 1953.jpg billy mackel
 billy mackel guitarist
billy mackel

john william `` billy '' mackel -lrb- december 28 , 1912 -- may 5 , 1986 -rrb- was an american jazz guitarist .
mackel played banjo early in his career in his home town of baltimore , but switched to guitar -lrb- like many banjoists of the day -rrb- in the 1930s .
he played left-handed .
he led his own band early in the 1940s , then joined lionel hampton in 1944 .
mackel worked with hampton , with occasional intermissions , for over thirty years , touring and recording with him copiously .
in the 1940s he also recorded with milt buckner , arnett cobb , herbie fields , and others , and worked with billy williams in the 1960s .
