Doug Raney
Electric Guitar
About
Doug Raney was a bebop jazz guitarist who spent most of his career in Copenhagen, Denmark, recording approximately thirty albums that established him as one of the finest guitarists in the modern jazz tradition. The son of guitar legend Jimmy Raney, he switched from rock to jazz in his late teens and was playing professionally with pianist Al Haig by age eighteen. After touring Europe with his father in 1977, he settled in Copenhagen at twenty-one and quickly became a fixture of the Scandinavian jazz scene. His most celebrated work includes trio recordings with Chet Baker at Jazzhus Montmartre — Daybreak, This Is Always, and Someday My Prince Will Come — and a series of duo albums with his father for SteepleChase. He also recorded and performed with Johnny Griffin, Dexter Gordon, Horace Parlan, and Kenny Drew.
Trivia
Raney began as a rock guitarist, idolizing Jimi Hendrix and Jeff Beck, before switching to jazz in his late teens — symbolized by trading his Gibson SG for a jazz archtop Gibson L7. His brother Jon organized the only performance featuring all three Raney musicians — Doug, their father Jimmy, and Jon — at the Dean Street jazz club in Brooklyn in 1993. His final album, Blues, Ballads, Bebop and a Blue Girl (2008), was released on a small Japanese label and now sells for fifty to seventy-five dollars on the secondary market.
Early Life
Born on August 29, 1956, in Queens, New York City, he grew up in the working-class neighborhood of Briarwood, known more for his competitive drive in handball and billiards than for music. He picked up the guitar around age fourteen, drawn initially to Jimi Hendrix, B.B. King, and the British rock guitarists rather than his father's bebop recordings. By sixteen he began listening seriously to jazz and took informal lessons with guitarist Barry Galbraith. His first professional gigs came at eighteen, performing with bebop pianist Al Haig, and at nineteen he made his first recording alongside his father and Haig. A European tour with his father at twenty proved transformative, and at twenty-one he settled permanently in Copenhagen, launching his recording career with Introducing Doug Raney for SteepleChase in 1978.
Doug Raney Solos
1979
Electric Guitar solo - I Waited for You - 1979
4/4 ballad in E♭ major at 59 BPM
Electric Guitar solo - But Not For Me - 1979
4/4 swing in E♭ major at 242 BPM
Electric Guitar solo - Autumn In New York - 1979
4/4 swing in F major at 114 BPM
Electric Guitar solo - The Blue Room - 1979
4/4 swing in F major at 123 BPM
Electric Guitar solo - The Touch of Your Lips - 1979
4/4 ballad in B♭ major at 57 BPM
Electric Guitar solo - Star Eyes - 1979
4/4 swing in E♭ major at 138 BPM
Electric Guitar solo - Autumn In New York - 1979
4/4 swing in F major at 112 BPM