Rick Vito was influenced by this American jazz, country, and blues guitarist, songwriter, luthier, and inventor who was one of the pioneers of what?
Les Paul Lester William Polsfuss (June 9, 1915 – August 12, 2009), known as Les Paul, was an American jazz, country, and blues guitarist, songwriter, luthier, and inventor. He was one of the pioneers of the solid-body electric guitar. Paul taught himself how to play guitar, and while he is mainly known for jazz and popular music, he had an early career in country music. He is credited with many recording innovations. Although he was not the first to use the technique, his early experiments with overdubbing (also known as sound on sound), delay effects such as tape delay, phasing effects and multitrack recording were among the first to attract widespread attention.
Eddie Durham Eddie Durham (19 August 1906 – 6 March 1987) was an African American musician who pioneered the use of the electric guitar in jazz. He was a guitarist, trombonist, composer, and arranger for the orchestras of Benny Moten, Jimmie Lunceford, and Count Basie. With Edgar Battle he composed "Topsy", which was recorded by Count Basie and became a hit for Benny Goodman. In 1938 Durham co-wrote "I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire", with Bennie Benjamin, Sol Marcus and Eddie Seiler.