Earl Klugh — Smooth Jazz on Nylon Strings
Most jazz guitarists reach for an amplified archtop. Earl Klugh (1953–2023) went the other way: he built an entire celebrated career on the warm, woody voice of the nylon-string guitar, played purely with the fingers. The result is one of the most distinctive and beloved sounds in modern instrumental music — a sound that introduced the classical guitar's expressive qualities to audiences who had never set foot in a concert hall.
A Sound Discovered Young
Born in Detroit, Michigan on 16 September 1953, Klugh began playing guitar as a child and quickly developed a fascination with fingerstyle technique. At thirteen he heard recordings by Chet Atkins — the country guitarist who had himself absorbed classical right-hand technique into a uniquely American fingerpicking style — and grasped immediately the full harmonic and melodic potential of the guitar played without a pick. Atkins remained the influence he named above all others, and the debt is audible in Klugh's clarity of tone, his independence of voices, and his capacity to carry melody, harmony, and bass in a single fluid line.
He also absorbed jazz guitarists including Wes Montgomery and George Benson, but his instrument of choice was always the nylon-string classical guitar rather than the jazz archtop. This was not mere stylistic preference; it was an aesthetic commitment. The nylon string's softer attack, warmer sustain, and more intimate dynamic range suited the kind of music Klugh wanted to make: melodic, conversational, beautiful rather than brilliant.
Career: 12 Grammy Nominations and One Win
Klugh's career spanned more than four decades and produced a remarkable body of recorded work. He received twelve Grammy Award nominations over the course of his career — an extraordinary tally that reflects the consistent quality of his output — and won one Grammy Award. His first notable recognition came when Chet Atkins himself invited the young Klugh to perform on his television programme, a signal from the master to the student that the student had genuinely arrived.
His collaborations defined his public profile as much as his solo recordings. Working with pianist and producer Bob James on the duo album One on One (1979), Klugh produced one of the best-selling jazz instrumental recordings of its era — a record that reached a mainstream audience that would not typically buy jazz, because the combination of James's keyboard warmth and Klugh's nylon-string lyricism created something accessible without being superficial. The collaboration with James continued productively for years, with subsequent duo albums that maintained the same quality.
His collaboration with Chet Atkins — with whom he recorded the Grammy-winning duet album Chester and Lester's spiritual successor Work It Out (in their own partnership, Atkins and Klugh) — placed Klugh in direct lineage with the American fingerstyle tradition that had first set him on his musical path.
The Nylon-String Choice and Its Consequences
Klugh's commitment to the nylon-string guitar in a jazz context was commercially bold. Jazz guitar in the 1970s and 1980s was dominated by the electric archtop — the instrument of Charlie Parker's accompanists, of Wes Montgomery, of Pat Metheny. The nylon string was associated with classical music, with Brazilian bossa nova, with certain kinds of Latin music, but not with mainstream American jazz. Klugh ignored these category associations and built a career on the instrument anyway.
The consequences of this choice were several. Klugh could not amplify his guitar with the same ease as an archtop player; he had to use microphones and position himself carefully in live performance. The nylon string's softer projection meant that his music was naturally suited to more intimate settings and recording contexts rather than large amplified venues. These constraints shaped his artistic direction: toward the intimate, the melodic, the beautiful.
Interestingly, Klugh often said that he did not think of himself as a jazz guitarist. His heart, he said, was in beautiful melodic playing, whatever the label. This self-description is revealing: he understood that his music was about a quality of sound and expression, not about a genre category, and that the nylon-string guitar was the right instrument for that quality regardless of what the stylistic taxonomy said.
Legacy: Classical Guitar in American Popular Music
Earl Klugh's legacy for the classical guitar world is primarily one of cultural presence. He demonstrated, to an enormous American mainstream audience, that the nylon-string guitar could carry serious, sophisticated music in a popular context — that its warmth and expressiveness were not limitations requiring special concert-hall conditions to be appreciated but assets that communicated directly with ordinary listeners. His recordings sold in very large numbers, which means that the nylon-string guitar's voice reached ears that would never have sought it out through the classical concert hall or the specialist record shop.
For young guitarists discovering the classical guitar through popular music channels — through jazz, through fingerstyle acoustic music — Klugh was and remains an important gateway figure. He showed what the instrument could do in a language that was familiar, and he showed it with sufficient beauty and craft that listeners were willing to follow the sound wherever it led. Explore the classical guitar collection at Siccas Guitars and discover more great classical guitarists.
Frequently Asked Questions
Did Earl Klugh play a classical guitar?
Yes — he played the nylon-string classical guitar throughout his career, fingerstyle and without a pick, rather than the electric archtop typical of jazz guitarists.
How many Grammy nominations did Earl Klugh receive?
Twelve Grammy Award nominations over his career, with one win — an extraordinary record that reflects the consistent quality and commercial appeal of his recorded output.
Who influenced Earl Klugh most?
Chet Atkins was his primary influence, along with jazz guitarists including Wes Montgomery and George Benson. Atkins invited the young Klugh to appear on his television programme, marking his early recognition as an exceptional talent.
