Guitar Great Ron Eschete’ Dies at age 77

Jazz Guitar Today, Joe Barth and fellow guitarists pay tribute to jazz guitarist Ron Eschete.

Joe Barth: Jazz guitarist Ron Eschete died suddenly on May 20, 2026, at age 77.   Ron was born in Houma, Louisiana, fifty miles southwest of New Orleans.  He started on guitar at age fourteen, absorbing the sounds of BB King, Muddy Waters, and Jimmy Reed.  While in a record store, he heard a recording of Howard Roberts and fell in love with jazz guitar.  As a young man, while working a day job, he played at strip clubs on Bourbon Street at night.  Attending Loyola University, he majored in classical guitar and flute.  Before he could graduate, he left college to play in Buddy Greco’s band, later settling in Los Angeles. 

Since the 1970s, Ronny has been a busy player in the Los Angeles area.  He was one of the first instructors at the Guitar Institute of Technology, teaching there from 1976 until 1998.  He has played with a Who’s Who of Jazz, including several years with pianist Gene Harris.  He supplemented his performance schedule with teaching at both Long Beach State University and California State University, Fullerton.

Tributes from fellow guitarists:

Guitarist and Educator, Wolf Marshall

Ron Eschete was pivotal to me and a lot of young players getting into jazz guitar in the 1970s. I first met him at LACC in the jazz big band class, where he visited as a guest artist and counseled the upcoming students. His knowledge. sound, feeling, and facility with chords and advanced bop lines blew us all away! He played an Epiphone Howard Roberts model back then and impressed everyone who had the good fortune to hear him live. Then, through Howard Roberts, I saw him again as a faculty member at GIT in its infancy in the mid-1970s and got reacquainted. He was inspiring and motivating to a lot of us coming out of the blues-rock-pop continuum. His Howard Roberts transcriptions further blazed the path for accurate notated jazz-guitar solos and laid an important precedent for my own career in the next few decades as transcriptionist. I did a deep dive into his Super Solos book of HR transcriptions, as I am sure did many. He later published some fascinating material in GIT’s Ten book and has since released numerous must-hear recordings documenting his enormous talents, which continued to blossom, spread, and led to his command of the seven-string guitar. I am certain in the years to come, many uninitiated guitarists will discover, and many established guitarists will rediscover, Ron Eschete and become entranced by his music.

Howard Paul, president of Benedetto Guitars

Ron Eschete’s passing marks the transition of one of the most respected voices and beloved characters in the jazz guitar world. As an LA-based player for much of his career, Ron was revered as a first-call accompanist on major stages and television productions, as a leader and key sideman for many of the greatest names in jazz history, and as a consummate educator in universities, conservatories, and through private sessions. His publications remain relevant today. I met Ron in the mid-90’s and knew of his reputation as a “guitarist’s guitarist” from the 1980s. His Ron Eschete Trio recording on Concord is inspiring. A standout as a 7-string player, he’d collaborated with Bob Benedetto on several 7-strings beginning in 1981, again in 1989, and in 1996. We refinished one of his guitars as recently as a few years ago. 

My favorite photo of Ron comes from Bob and Cindy Benedetto’s archives with Benedetto Players Joe Diorio, Ted Shumate, Les Wise, and Ron Eschete photographed at GIT in 1981 – a Hollywood Mt. Rushmore! May his memory be a blessing for all who knew and loved this amazing musician!

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