Barney Kessel
Electric Guitar Solo on
Tea For Two

About

Barney Kessel's electric guitar solo is the third and final solo on "Tea for Two" from The President Plays with the Oscar Peterson Trio. Kessel takes three choruses over the 32-bar ABAC form in A-flat at a blazing 275 BPM, the fastest tempo on the entire track. The continued acceleration through the solo order—from Young's 260 to Peterson's 262 to Kessel's 275—creates a thrilling sense of escalating energy. At this speed, Kessel's bop-fluent single-note lines display impressive facility on the electric guitar, closing the performance with considerable momentum on Youmans's classic standard.

Barney Kessel was 28 to 29 years old at the time.