Barry Finnerty

​Guitarist Barry Finnerty has performed many times with Charged Particles.

Barry is especially known for his work as a touring and recording session musician for Miles Davis, The Crusaders, the Brecker Brothers, Hubert Laws, and Ray Barretto.
 
Barry was born in San Francisco, raised on the West Coast, lived in Hong Kong with his mother in the early 1960s, and studied at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and University of California Berkeley.
 
When he was fourteen, he began playing electric guitar and joined a band that opened a show for Herman's Hermits. He played in the band Beefy Red for several years before studying at the Berklee College of Music and later moved to New York City.
 
In 1974, he began playing with Chico Hamilton, Airto Moreira, and Flora Purim. In 1975, he became a member of the Joe Farrell quartet, and later in the decade played with Hubert Laws, Tower of Power, Thad Jones and Mel Lewis, and Ray Barretto.
 
Barry played and recorded with Michael Brecker and Randy Brecker (1977–81) and The Crusaders (1979–84), in addition to touring in Europe with Billy Cobham in 1980. He played and recorded with Miles Davis in 1981, being featured on much of Davis's 1981 album The Man with the Horn, and is mentioned in Davis's autobiography.
 
Barry has released many records as a leader, including “New York City”, “Lights on Broadway”, 2B Named Later”, “Blues for Trane”, “Straight Ahead”, and many more.  He is a sideman on numerous records as well.
 
He released his first jazz education book, The Serious Jazz Practice Book, in 2006. The work was endorsed by notable musicians including Randy Brecker, Bob Sheppard and Dave Liebman.  Barry authored a follow-up work in 2008, The Serious Jazz Book II, endorsed by jazz flautist Hubert Laws.
 
Barry is also the author of books on music improvisation and a semi-autobiographical novel, published in 2016 and loosely based on his life in New York City in the mid-90s.