Harry Volpe

Harry Volpe (born Onofrio Volpe, March 27, 1906– January 16, 1995) was an early jazz guitarist and pioneering music publisher. Following the introduction and popularization of the guitar in jazz in the 1920s by Eddie Lang ‒ and prior to the world's introduction to the playing of Django Reinhardt and Charlie Christian ‒ Volpe was in the vanguard of leading early virtuoso jazz guitarists whose collective style became known as plectrum guitar marked by solo and duet jazz guitar compositions, starting a music publishing company in the 1930s, playing with Django Reinhardt in 1946 in Reinhardt's first US visit, having a Harry Volpe Epiphone guitar introduced in 1955, and having a long career writing guitar instruction books.

Biography Volpe was born in Grotte, Sicily March 27, 1906 after the death of his older brother of the same first name and began his musical career on clarinet, but switched to guitar at the age of 8.

In 1946, while on tour with Duke Ellington in the US, Django Reinhardt visited and played with Harry Volpe. From the late 1940s into the early 1950s, Volpe continued living and performing in New York, but a separation from his wife and resulting legal issues prompted a move to southeast Florida in 1954. Until his death, Volpe continued to play and teach in the Miami-Dade area.

Singles

Discography Around the World with Harry Volpe (1965) World Famous Guitarist (1987)