Barry Finnerty
| Barry Finnerty | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Michael Barry Finnerty |
| Born |
December 3, 1951 San Francisco, California, U.S. |
| Origin | Hong Kong |
| Genres | Jazz |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, singer-songwriter |
| Instruments | Guitar |
| Associated acts | |
| Website |
www |
Michael Barry Finnerty (born December 3, 1951) is an American jazz guitarist, keyboardist, singer, songwriter, and arranger, best known for his work as a touring and session musician for Miles Davis and the Crusaders. Finnerty is also the author of books on music improvisation.
Music career
Finnerty is the son of actor Warren Finnerty (1925–1974) who appeared in numerous films including Cool Hand Luke (1967) and Easy Rider (1969). He was born in San Francisco and raised on the West Coast, studying at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and University of California Berkeley.
He lived in Hong Kong with his mother in the early 1960s. When he was fourteen, he began playing electric guitar and joined a band that opened a show for Herman's Hermits. On returning to San Francisco, he became friends with guitarist Jim Checkley, who invited him to join Beefy Red in 1969. He played in that band for several years.[1]
He moved to New York City after attending Berklee College of Music for a short time in 1971. In 1974 he began playing with Chico Hamilton, Airto Moreira, and Flora Purim. In 1975 he became a member of the Joe Farrell quartet,and later in the decade played with Hubert Laws, Tower of Power, Thad Jones and Mel Lewis, and Ray Barretto.
Finnerty played and recorded with Michael Brecker and Randy Brecker (1977–81) and The Crusaders (1979–84), in addition to touring in Europe with Billy Cobham in 1980. He played and recorded with Miles Davis in 1981, being featured on much of Davis's 1981 album The Man with the Horn and is mentioned in Davis's autobiography.
Finnerty has worked both as a session musician and as leader of his own band.
Discography
- New York City (1982)
- 2B Named Later (Cheetah, 1988)
- Straight Ahead (Arabesque, 1994)
- Space Age Blues (Hot Wire, 1998)
- Trazz! (Birdland, 2003)
- Manhattan Sessions vol.1 (ESC, 2010)
- Blues for Trane (Cheetah, 2010)
- Nothing's Gonna Be All Right (Birdland, 2014)
With Chico Hamilton
- Peregrinations (Blue Note, 1975)
With Afro Elements
- Out of the Centre (UYM, 2014)
References
- ↑ Hamlin, Jesse (4 July 2005). "Jazz guitarist Barry Finnerty knows how to groove alone to make music". SFGate. Retrieved 1 August 2017.
- Barry Finnerty at Allmusic
- Mark Gilbert, "Barry Finnerty". Grove Jazz online