One of the most important and influential new genres to emerge at the end of the 1960s was Latin rock. This was pioneered by Carlos Santana, born in Mexico in 1947, who formed the group Santana in San Francisco in 1966. Santana is a versatile player who has a command of blues and rock soloing with added jazz elements. He uses funky Latin rhythms and fills, gritty distorted chordal fills, and his playing is full of both clear and distorted tones, controlled feedback, and a variety of textures. The band was a platform for his strong melodic arrangements and dominant sound. Their first album, Santana (1969), added a further dimension to rock, mixing extended Latin instrumental with vocal tracks. The instrumental "Waiting" demonstrates rhythmic chordal work, incisive double stopping and surging melodic blues-based playing, and the passionate soloing on "Soul Sacrifice" is given a lift by tight backing rhythms.

On the album Abraxas (1970), the group's version of Peter Green's "Black Magic Woman" features a sensitive solo inspired by the melody, and one of Santana's best melodic compositions, "Samba Pa Ti" is also a vehicle for expressive improvisation. One of Carlos Santana's hallmark sounds - bluesy cries with pairs of bent notes is heard on "Mother's Daughter."

HEAVY ROCK

America started to produce high-volume rock bands during the late 1960s. Vanilla Fudge, formed in 1967, withVince Mar tell on guitar, was one of the first to use high volume and a powerful rhythm section. The anarchic Detroit group MCS, with Wayne Kramer and Fred Smith, unleashed a ferocious, primeval aggression on Kick Out The Jams (1969). Some players, such as Ron Asheton on the album The Stooges (1969), excluded blues and other primary influences, replacing them with a nihilistic irreverence and abandon. This type of unbridled energy has a direct appeal and has shaped the course of popular guitar playing. Mainstream heavy rock at the end of the 1960s was personified by Grand Funk Railroad's Mark Farner (b.1948), who built his playing around distortion and heavy riffs, and the more interesting Mountain, with Leslie West (b.l945), whose style was influenced by British players, notably Cream

CSN&Y

The sound of Crosby, Stills & Nash, formed in 1968 with David Crosby (b. 1941), Stephen Stills (b.1945) and Graham Nash (b.1942), was a synthesis of folk, country, and pop songwriting and featured the expressive blues-rock playing of Stephen Stills. On Crosby Stills &_ Nash (1969), the group combine acoustic and electric guitars, and their style is exemplified by tracks like "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" and "Wooden Ships." Neil Young (b. 194S), who had produced material such as "Cinnamon Girl" (1969), joined the group in 1969 and the CSN&Y album Deja Vu (1970) sees Stills and Young playing in contrasting styles.

The album includes a mixture of full-bodied acoustic guitar sounds and a range of electric riffs and solos. The first track features highly effective guitar supporting the harmony vocals and adding variety. "Carry On" opens with mesmeric, deep, thrumming acoustic rhythms and simple melody parts, backed by electric solo breaks with overdrive, before moving into a section with a spiky, rhythmic wah-wah solo played against a repeating electric bass pattern. The slow-paced "Almost Cut My Hair" has gritty, distorted electric staccato chords and fills with double stopping. It features two interwoven guitar parts with differing bluesy styles, forced against each other with searing intensity. Joni Mitchell's "Woodstock" is turned into a blues-rock number with loose opening riffing and manic guitar. The mesmeric acoustic guitar-playing on "DejaVu" and a muted electric guitar improvisation with the treble rolled off, conjures up a strange sound landscape. Neil Young left the group in 1971 and went on to produce fiery guitar playing on his own albums, playing intense solos with an emotional edge, such as that on "Cortez the Killer" (1975).

ROBBIE ROBERTSON

A departure from prevailing trends, the playing of Canadian guitarist Robbie Robertson (b. 1945) is rootsy and eclectic. Robertson played on Bob Dylan's album Blonde on Blonde (1966) before forming The Band in 1967. They released their debut album Music from Big Pink in 1968 and developed their own blend of rock n' roll mixed with blues and various kinds of folk and country music, including jug styles. Straightforward guitar sounds are used in arrangements with a variety of instruments. Their album The Band (1969) has a tremendous mixture of styles, from the clean, rock 'n' roll guitar of "Jemima Surrender," via the acoustic bluegrass soloing of "The Unfaithful Servant" to the funky chords and fills of "King Harvest."

DUANE ALLMAN

Tennessee-born Duane Allman (1946—71) played authentic, gritty southern blues-rock. Imaginative and soulful within the constraints of a blues-based vocabulary, Allman used both standard and an open-E tuning, and developed his own type of slide sound using a glass bottle, combining it with a rocky overdrive and phrasing derived partly from harmonica players. His burning, Chicago-style guitar can be heard on "B.B. King Medley" (1968). In 1969, he formed The Allman Brothers band with younger brother Gregg (b. 1947) on keyboards and Dickey Betts (b. 1943) on second guitar. Their blues-rock is often based on traditional material, with Betts taking harmony lines and solos as well as rhythm. Allman plays with his right-hand thumb and fingers, and his particular intense, soft, sustaining melodiousness can be heard on "Dreams" (1969), where he mixes fingered notes with slide and arpeggiated slide motifs.

The album Live at the Fillmore East (1971) is a showcase for the band. On "Statesboro Blues" and "Don't Keep Me Wondering," Allman's sensuous, diffused slide phrases have a vocal quality, and his full, sonorous sound infuses the surging phrases in the high register. The 23-minute long "Whipping Post" has a funkier, jazzy feel, and Allman's inventiveness shines on the flowing, bluesy phrasing and lyrical passages. He develops lines by extending ideas, and uses interesting scalar concepts, double stopping, muting, and harmonics.

"In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed" sets a sensitively played melody against violin-like effects, harmony lines, and a rhythmic, improvisatory solo. Allman and Betts could also play attractive acoustic melodies, such as "Little Martha" (1972). After Duane's death, The Allman Brothers carried on, with Betts producing fine instrumental, such as "Jessica "(1973).

ROY BUCHANAN

One of the most overlooked guitar players during the 1960s, Roy Buchanan (1939-88), was finally able to put out his own album, Roy Buchanan, in 1972. His playing on the instrumental tracks conveys humanity and a dark intensity. "Sweet Dreams" starts with crying notes increasing in volume and moves into melodic steel guitar style bending, with fast interjections taut with expressive tension. On the great "Pete's Blues," he is backed by a slow-paced rhythm section working off a repeating bass line and a fundamental Chicago-style bluesy harmony. Buchanan begins with full, upper-register bluesy phrases and moves into an astonishing episodic solo. Improvised passages, with a wailing guitar sound and altered scales, are inspired by Islamic music, and he extends the unusual phrasing up into a higher register, controlling the artificial harmonics created by picking and using part of the right hand to create an ethereal sound Constant inventiveness informs the solo, as Buchanan embarks on a musical journey consisting of melodic double stopping, short passages of cascading motifs, and a range of color with bending, muting, detuning, and broken-up, atonal exclamations. His depth and sensitivity can be heard on "The Messiah Will Come Again," with its sustained melodic lines giving way to a cathartic torrent of ascending notes, followed by seagull-like sounds.

JOHNNY WINTER

The fierce blues-rock style of Johnny Winter (b. 1944) is based on electric and acoustic guitar with a simmering slide. In a trio format on Second Winter (1970), he plays with a distorted sound on "Memory Pain" and slide on "Slippin' And Slidin'" and "Highway 61." He formed a high-energy group with second guitarist Rick Derringer and a highlight album is Johnny Winter And Live (1971) on which the duo perform rock standards, including "Johnny B. Goode" and "Jumpin' Jack Flash."

LOWELL GEORGE

Lowell George (1945—79) was one of rock's outstanding slide players and a fine all-arounder who worked as a session musician with many artists, including Bonnie Raitt, throughout his career. After a stint with Frank Zappa, he formed Little Feat in Los Angeles in 1969. Their sound amalgamated country-rock and blues styles with idiosyncratic elements from folk and ethnic sources.

There is an edgy quality of suspense and warning with the guitars at the beginning of the title track on Sailin' Shoes (1972), on which the slide work and moments of dissonance pull restlessly at the vocal line. "Willin"' demonstrates acoustic chords and sensitive, country-style electric additions.

A second guitarist, Paul Barrere (b. 1948), joined the band for their third album, Dixie Chicken (1973), which features some of George's best work, including the title track that merges repeating, melodic guitar lines with vocals, "Two Trains," on which rhythmic chord textures support George's slide work, and "Fat Man In The Bathtub" with its suitably full-bodied sound. Feats Don't Fail Me now (1974) moves toward a funky sound on parts of the title track and "Spanish Moon." "Rock n' Roll Doctor" with its stop-start, funky rhythm features smoky guitar textures and a short slide break with notes stretched out to create fresh phrases. George continued to produce high-quality music throughout the 1970s, but died on tour in 1979.

Rock styles

During the 1970s, rock in America embraced a whole host of guitarists, many of whom have enjoyed great commercial success. Lynyrd Skynyrd, formed in 1973, featured three guitarists    Allen Collins, Gary Rossington, and Ed King. The smoothly articulated phrasing of the solo on "Free Bird" (1973), that builds organically in an extended track with repetitive blues motifs, has become one of the most popular in rock, and their rocking "Sweet Home Alabama" (1974) stands out.

The Eagles, an important group with a distinctive sound derived from country-rock and blues, formed in 1971 with Glenn Frey (b. 1948) and Bernie Leadon (b. 1947) on guitars. Don Felder (b.1947) joined in 1974 and "One Of These Nights" (1975) features him on lead. With the departure of Leadon, Joe Walsh (b. 1947) joined the group in 1975 and is featured on the album Hotel California (1976). The title track has an acoustic opening and multilayered parts with a funky rhythm, and a section with harmonized puitars leads to a fade-out. "Life In The Fast Lane" offers a mean distorted riff, with Walsh playing a slide solo. Heavy rock is represented by the popular riffs achieved by Joe Perry (b. 1950) of Aerosmith on tracks such as "Walk This Way" (1975), and Ted Nugent (b.1948) with solos such as "Stranglehold" (1975).

STEELY DAN

The group, who took their name frcm William Burroughs' The Naked Lunch, was formed in Los Angeles in 1972. Their music was based on carefully arranged and finely produced songwriting that combined pop with jazz, soul, and funk. In the early 1970s, the group featured a number of guitarists who displayed contrasting yet complementary styles, including the jazz-influenced Denny Dias and Jeff "Skunk" Baxter (b.1948). Elliot Randall plays one of the group's most popular solos on"Reelin' In The Years" (1972).

Steely Dan's third album, Countdown To Ecstasy (1973), features creative, bop-style jazz soloing set in the context of an unusual and inventive pop song, "Bodhisattva." One of the highlights is "My Old School," which sparkles with Baxter's effervescent guitar breaks, played with fine control and great delicacy. There is a wonderful use of space and a stylistic leaning toward a type of linear funk in the blues and country-based phrasing.

FUNK STYLISTS

SLY AND THE FAMILY STONE
In the late 1960s, Sly And The Family Stone with Sylvester "Sly Stone" Stewart and his brother Freddie Stone on guitars developed a stripped-down, minimalist approach combining funk with rock fills. Freddie Stewart developed his own voice with abrasive wah-wah on "Don't Call Me Nigger, Whitey" (1969) and brittle rhythm sounds on "Thank You" (1970).

FUNKADELIC
At the other end of the spectrum, Funkadelic, formed in Detroit in 1968, produced a rich psychedelic funk. Within this setting, Eddie Hazel (1950-92) is a strong and inventive improviser, producing one of the best recorded solos in the genre on "Maggot Brain" (1971), on which his lyrical, soaring, rich blues-rock style is graceful and expressive.

CHIC
At the end of the 1970s, Nile Rogers (b. 19S2) emerged with his New York funk band, Chic, to which he contributed an emotionally charged style with funky chordal riffs. His playing is aggressive and driving yet supple and technically assured. "Le Freak" (1978) has a catchy, repeating melodic rhythm figure with a gritty texture, and on"GoodTimes" (1979), assertive chopped chords are stamped across the track.
Other outstanding players include the Hendrix-influenced Ernie Isley (b. 1952) and Curtis Mayfield (1942-99) with his wide range of soul and funk influences.

Ry cooder

A great slide player with an unmistakable voice, Ry Cooder (b. 1947) worked on sessions and played in Captain Beefheart's Magic Band before releasing his first album, Ry Cooder, in 1970. This is a set of Cooder's versions of traditional material, from Woody Guthrie's "Do Re Mi" to the rough-edged, tumbling "Alimony," bristling with gutsy electric riffs and a slide solo. Cooder also has a tremendous grasp of acoustic traditional styles, playing dancing fingerpicking on "Police Dog Blues" and recreating one of his favorite pieces of music, Blind Willie Johnson's "Dark Was The Night," using slide with reverb.

On the album Into The Purple Valley (1971), he explores Caribbean music and reworks obscure material, integrating traditional styles with unusual instrumental arrangements to create his own identity. Calypso acoustic guitar and mandolin feature on "F.D.R. Trinidad," and the stately beauty of Bahamian Joseph Spence's instrumental "Great Dream From Heaven" harks back to a lost era. Burlesque electric guitar, full of angular character, and a slide solo that helps to convey a sense of ironic social commentary enlivens the traditional "Taxes On The Farmer Feeds Us All." "On A Monday" has wonderful textures, with dry, squawking electric guitar syncopations, and melodic acoustic slide over the top. Cooder's masterful acoustic slide on "Vigilante Man" is evocatively magical; the guitar is measured and graceful but drops away dynamically, with intricate and vulnerable passages suggesting suspense.

Chicken Skin Music (1976) integrates Tex-Mex rhythms with Flaco Jiminez's accordion playing on "He'll Have To Go," and Hawaiian music on "Yellow Roses" showcases slack-key player Gabby Pahinui's luscious, dreamy sound against romantic acoustic guitar. "Chloe" is full of jazzy Hawaiian interchanges and slide melody passages, with Cooder and Pahinui playing together seamlessly, and gospel harmonies underpin "Always Lift Him Up/Kanaka WaiWai." Bop Till You Drop (1979), one of the first digitally recorded albums, brought Cooder to a wider audience in the 1980s.

MUSIC FOR MOVIES

From 1980 onward, Ry Cooder started to build up an extensive body of music for film and television. He has an uncanny ability to paint archetypal American scenes, often with a brooding sense of atmosphere, as on the title music for Paris, Texas (1984); here, Cooder plays acoustic slide over a shimmering background that conjures up a vast, hot, empty landscape. The unforgettable thematic slide phrases and gently plucked chords ride over elemental blues harmonies mixed with mysterious wind sounds, bowed bass, and chiming arpeggios that suggest old shopfront signs moving in the hot breeze. The Long Riders (1980) has sentimental fingerstyle American-themed folk guitar working with an array of instruments, and a more modern sound is produced for "King Of The Street" from Trespass (1992), with hardhitting rhythms and edgy slide guitar.