An American master session musician and renowned jazz fusion and bebop guitarist.
Born in Niagara Falls, New York, Tedesco made his way to the West Coast where he became one of the most sought-after studio guitarists between the 1960s and 1980s.
Although Tedesco was primarily a guitar player, he was also qualified on the mandolin, ukulele and the sitar as well as 28 other stringed instruments (though he played all of them in guitar tuning). He was described by Guitar Player magazine as the most recorded guitarist in history, having played on thousands of recordings. He recorded with most of the top musicians working in the Los Angeles area including the Beach Boys, Everly Brothers, the Association, Barbra Streisand, Elvis Presley, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Zappa, Sam Cooke, Cher, and Nancy and Frank Sinatra.
He was a member of the Abnuceals Emuukha Electric Symphony Orchestra around 1967 when Frank Zappa recorded the orchestral parts for Lumpy Gravy.
Tedesco played on the theme music for many TV programmes, including Bonanza, The Twilight Zone, Green Acres, M*A*S*H and Batman, and performed for film soundtracks such as The French Connection, The Godfather, Jaws and The Deer Hunter. He was also the guitarist for the Original Roxy cast of The Rocky Horror Show.
On his own, Tedesco recorded a number of jazz guitar albums but his musical career ended in 1992 when he suffered a stroke that resulted in partial paralysis. He died in Northridge, California in 1997, aged 67.