Johnny Shacklett is a guitarist, inventor, music teacher and theorist who epitomizes the term "a musician's music." He worked for the Oscar Mayer company in Madison, Wisconsin, after moving to the state capitol from his home town of Indianapolis, Indiana, where he was an early friend of guitarist-legend Wes Montgomery and organist Melvin Rhyne. In Madison he designed and constructed a "jazz harp" by welding together 5-6 electric guitars, in the midst of which the performer situated himself. A long-playing album, <em>Johnny Shacklett at the Hoffman House</em>, which he recorded on the curious instrument in 1969 was never reissued on CD and since become a collector's item. Since Down Beat magazine singled out the album in its Viny Treasures feature, it has become a collector's item, appearing sporadically on auction sites and claiming high prices from bidders around the world. In Madison he served as a teacher and inspiration to musicians such as the prolifically recorded musician-author-producer-NPR announcer Ben Sidran and English professor-pianist-jazz critic Samuel Chell. He was an unusually organized and systematic musician who could be counted on to dominate a session with his carefully worked-out chordal progressions and rhythmic patterns. If he failed to come anywhere close to the fame of Wes Montgomery, it was not for lack of confidence. Yet he was never too prideful or self-absorbed to give freely of his time to up and coming musicians, regardless of their instrument. Although critic Dan Morgenstern once called trumpeter Kenny Dorham a synonym for "underrated," the same could be said for Shacklett and countless numbers of musicians like him--highly skilled, even visionary, artists who found out that for the genuinely creative artist, fame and wealth are rarely among the fruits of their labors.
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