Sonny Sharrock

One of the most dynamic guitarists in avant-garde jazz, the former doo-wop singer Sonny Sharrock was inspired to switch to jazz guitar at the height of the 1960s free-jazz movement. Sharrock released a string of solo albums after several stints playing for heavyweights like Miles Davis and Pharaoh Sanders. With a style that vacillated between delicate, traditional jazz and ferocious death-metal riffage (particularly in his work with avant supergroup Last Exit), Sharrock became a fixture of the Knitting Factory jazz scene centered on the New York City club of the same name. He passed away in 1994.

• Bill Laswell
• Charles Gayle
• Derek Bailey/Henry Kaiser
• James Blood Ulmer
• John McLaughlin & Mahavishnu
• Marc Ribot's Rootless Cosmopolitans
• Peter Brotzmann/Shoji Hano/Tetsu Yamauchi/Haruhiko Gotsu
• Pharoah Sanders

• Eddie Hazel (Funk)
• Herbie Mann/Bill Evans (Piano)
• Jimi Hendrix
• John Coltrane/Don Cherry (Jazz)
• Miles Davis
• Ornette Coleman
• Sunny Murray

• Bill Frisell
• Caspar Brotzmann/Massaker
• Nels Cline
• The Denison/Kimball Trio
• The Flying Luttenbachers
• Tortoise
• Tyondai Braxton/Parts & Labor
• Vernon Reid & Masque

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