Jimmy Wyble is esteemed for his contributions to the guitar world, both as a performer who played alongside musical “kings” and as an influential teacher.

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A native of Port Arthur, Texas, Wyble began his career working for a radio station in Houston. In the early 1940s, he and guitarist Cameron Hill performed Western swing in a band led by Burt “Foreman” Phillips on local Houston radio. Their distinctive twin-guitar sound caught the attention of Bob Wills, the “King of Western Swing,” who hired both musicians for his famed band, The Texas Playboys.

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Wyble served in the U.S. Army from 1942 to 1946 and returned to Western swing groups after the war. In 1953, he released his first album as a bandleader, The Jimmy Wyble Quintet, featuring accordion, clarinet, guitar, bass, and drums. That same year, he also recorded with jazz guitar legend Barney Kessel.

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Soon afterward, he worked with Benny Goodman, the “King of Swing,” and vibraphonist Red Norvo, known as “Mr. Jazz.” Wyble spent eight years touring and recording with Norvo, including a tour of Australia supporting Frank Sinatra. During the 1960s and 1970s, he became an active session musician and appeared on television programs such as The Flip Wilson Show and Kraft Music Hall.

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Wyble studied classical guitar with Laurindo Almeida and became a revered and highly sought-after instructor. His students included Howard Roberts, Steve Lukather, Howard Alden, Larry Koonse, and Smokey Hormel. He also played guitar on numerous film soundtracks, including The Wild Bunch, Ocean’s Eleven, Woody Allen’s Everything You Wanted to Know About Sex, and Kings Go Forth.

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During the 1970s, Wyble developed a distinctive contrapuntal “two-line” approach to guitar and composed numerous etudes in this style. Many were published in works such as Classical/Country (Howard Roberts—Playback, 1973) and Concepts for the Classical and Jazz Guitar (Mel Bay, 2000). In 1979, Wyble authored his own landmark book, The Art of Two-Line Improvisation, later updated and re-released in 2001.