Jim Campilongo is a New Yorkroots rock guitarist from San Francisco, known for recording a series of mostly instrumental albums. He is also known for being a member of The Little Willies with Norah Jones. Campilongo primarily plays Fender Telecaster guitars. He employs a hybrid right-hand technique that involves the use of both a plectrum and his fingers. He holds a mandolin pick between his thumb and forefinger while plucking with his middle and fourth fingers. He is a teacher and a contributing editor for Guitar Player magazine.
Musical career
Campilongo was born in South San Francisco, California. When he was nine, he discovered the Beatles and Jimi Hendrix. He became interested in improvisation, saying in one interview, "I knew I liked improvisation and long musical journeys...so I used to buy albums based exclusively on how long the tracks were...That's how I discovered John ColtraneLive in Japan, John McLaughlinDevotion, a couple of different Cream albums." Campilongo's career began in the mid-1970s. He studied guitar in San Francisco with Bunnie Gregoire, who taught him to embrace many genres of music, including the work of jazz guitaristGeorge Van Eps and country singer John Denver. He used green stamps to buy his first guitar. During high school, he played with his friend and drummer Ken Owen, and when he was seventeen he began performing with local bands. One of Campilongo's biggest influences at the time was blues guitarist Roy Buchanan. His recording career started in San Francisco in 1996 when he formed Jim Campilongo and the 10 Gallon Cats. After several years, he left the group and recorded Table for One in 1998. In 2002, he moved to New York City and formed his Electric Trio, which toured Europe and Scandinavia and recorded the album American Hips for Blue Hen Records. In 2003, he formed the group The Little Willies with Norah Jones, Richard Julian, Lee Alexander, and Dan Rieser. He has played with Al Anderson, Bright Eyes, Cake, J. J. Cale, Steve Cardenas, Burning Man, Chris Cheek, Nels Cline, Patrick Stewart, Charlie Hunter, Adam Levy, Sunny Ozell, David Rawlings, Peter Rowan, Teddy Thompson, Martha Wainwright, and Gillian Welch. Campilongo released Orange in 2010. In 2011, "Awful Pretty, Pretty Awful" was nominated for Best Instrumental Song at the 10th Annual Independent Music Awards. His album Dream Dictionary included Chris Morrissey and Josh Dion. Other contributions came from Steve Cardenas, who played on two acoustic songs, and Norah Jones, who sang the album's only vocal on "Here I Am" by Ray Charles. On Last Night, This Morning Campilongo joined the Honeyfingers with Luca Benedetti, Jonny Lam, Roy Williams, Dave Speranza and Russ Meissner. Vintage Guitar magazine called it "a brilliant record with magic and artistry". In 2017 Campilongo produced Zephaniah Ohora with co-producer Luca Benedetti that All Music described "…just enough warmth and echo to suggest the softer records emanating from Bakersfield in the '60s and '70s, and that is precisely the right musical bed for OHora". In 2018 he released Jim Campilongo Trio- Live at Rockwood Music Hall with Chris Morrissey and Josh Dion. The album included guitarist Nels Cline. In 2018
Instruments
For many years, Campilongo's primary guitar was a 1959 Telecaster. In 2010, the Fender Custom Shop introduced a limited-edition Campilongo Signature Fender Telecaster, and Campilongo has performed live and recorded with examples of his signature model as well. In 2018, he collaborated with luthier Chihoe Hahn to create the Hahn Campilongo Model C guitar, an electric guitar based on the Fender Telecaster.
