Barney Kessel (October 17, 1923 – May 6, 2004) was an American jazz guitarist. Known in particular for his knowledge of chords and inversions and chord-based melodies, he was a member of many prominent jazz groups as well as a “first call” guitarist for studio, film, and television recording sessions. Kessel was a member of the group of session musicians informally known as the Wrecking Crew.

Kessel was born in Muskogee, Oklahoma in 1923 to a Jewish family. Kessel’s father was an immigrant from Hungary who owned and operated a shoe shop. A self-taught guitarist, his only formal musical study was three months of guitar lessons at the age of 12. He began his career as a teenager, touring with local swing bands. When he was 16, he started playing with the Oklahoma A&M band, Hal Price & the Varsitonians. The band members nicknamed him “Fruitcake” because he practiced in excess of 16 hours per day. Kessel gained recognition due in part to his youth, and in part to being the only white musician playing in all-African-American bands at black clubs.

In the early 1940s, he moved to Los Angeles, where for one year he was a member of the Chico Marx big band. Noticed by Norman Granz, he appeared in the 1944 film Jammin’ the Blues, which featured Lester Young. Soon after, he played in the bands of Charlie Barnet and Artie Shaw. During the day, he worked as a studio musician and at night played bop-oriented jazz in clubs. In 1947, he recorded with Charlie Parker. He worked in Jazz at the Philharmonic and for one year in the early 1950s he was a member of the Oscar Peterson trio. After leaving the trio, he recorded several solo albums for Contemporary. He recorded a series of albums with Ray Brown and Shelly Manne as The Poll Winnersbecause the three of them often won polls conducted by Metronome and DownBeat magazines. He was the guitarist on the album Julie Is Her Name (1955) by Julie London, which includes the standard “Cry Me a River“, selling a million copies and demonstrated Kessel’s chordal approach to guitar.