Best Wes Montgomery anecdote: somebody asked him about his practicing routine, and his reply was that , every so often, he would open up his guitar case and toss in a chunk of raw meat.
Django Reinhardt
The 'Gypsy Guitarist' played stuff that seemed impossible for somebody with a full complement of fingers...never mind just two. When I found out that he had only two working digits on his fretting hand I was more than amazed. That fact is not what drew me to Django. It was the spirit of his play. When it's sad, it's downright depressing. And when it's happy, it's the sunniest musical vision you've ever heard. Check out just about anything he did with violinist Stephane Grappelli...you won't be disappointed.
Bern Nix
The only Bern Nix recording I own is Alarms and Excursions. It's an odd (and great) little record. Nix, a former member of Ornette Coleman's Prime Time, takes the ideas of Coleman's "harmolodics" (where melody, harmony and rhythm are all equal players) and spins up some pretty brilliant sounds. To hear his clean-toned guitar slip out what at first sounds like an off-key retort to the bass is to hear not a mistake, but a revolution. If you can 'get' this then your ears will hunger for the rest of the harmolodic universe. You won't leave the rest of your musical world behind, but you will hear it in a different way.
Barney Kessel
Back in around 1990, I started taking my guitar playing more seriously. The cover band I was in was fun, but there was something missing. What drove me to start studying jazz guitar was the solo during "Blues Walk" from Lyle Lovett and his Large Band. I wanted to play like that...but I couldn't. My guitar teacher turned me on to a lot of cool players, one of them being Barney Kessel. We were trying to develop my ability to come up with chord solos (to construct a chord solo you take a given melody and then improvise chord changes over it...keeping in the proper key (or keys) as you move through the changes). I don't remember exactly what record he loaned me but the chord soloing on it was pure magic. The guy had what seemed like an unlimited pool of material to lift ideas from...and it always sounded natural. My favorite Kessel record (and there are lots of 'em) is Straight Ahead, a "reunion" album with his early trio "The Poll Winners" (with Ray Brown & Shelly Manne). It's definitely straight ahead jazz guitar, but there's nothing 'ordinary' about it.
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— go to most recent comments1 - Tom Johnson
Bill Frisell
Charlie Christian
Jimmy Bruno
Pat Martino
These guys make my list every time.
I've tried Sco time after time and just can't get into him. I can't put a finger on what it is I don't like about his style. Same with Metheny - but I do like his Trio work from a few years back, especially the live set released from their tour. I think what turns most people off of him is his use of midi/synth guitars. There are very few applications of that instrument that I don't find laughable sounding, and every time I hear it, I just wish these guys would put the toy down and play guitar. (Robert Fripp and Adrian Belew are two examples in the rock world who I think have become over-dependent on midi. Fripp, knock it off with the vibraphone patch!)
2 - The Theory
Let me add Bela Fleck to the mix.
...what? yes, i realize he's only banjo player... but... banjos are cooler than guitars, anyway. So ha.
3 - Phillip Winn
TT, Fleck is in my truck CD player right now. Love him!
4 - Mark Saleski
yea, their version of Hoedown is a blast!
5 - The Theory
the flecktone's bass player is incerdible, too.
6 - Phillip Winn
Victor Wooten (the bass player) has a few solo projects out, too. Darn good.
7 - Johno
Tom,
I understand about Scofield, though I like him myself.
The thing about Sco is he's always so... Sco. Love him or hate him, his touch is always identifiable. Personally, I love WHAT he plays but hate the way it sounds. Something in the way his hands touch the guitar is always rough and spiky, and even when he's playing legato it sounds like he's cramming the pick halfway down the soundhole.
I'm a huge fan of Pat Martino's too, even though he sometimes melts into sap.
Bill Frisell is the second greatest interpreter of songs I know, right behind Bill Evans.
And I'm going to toss John McLaughlin's name out there. He helped Miles Davis invent fusion, THEN played on that Jack Johnson record Miles did, THEN made "My Goal's Beyond", THEN played with Shakti. He's probably too good to be true.
He was the first non-rock guitarist I really got, also. My guitar teacher lent me the "Shakti" record and not too long after that I picked up "Bitches Brew." Before I knew it I had thrown over Jethro Tull and Winger for Skinny Puppy, Cecil Taylor, and Diamanda Galas. Thank you, John McGlaughlin!
8 - Dave
Topping my list would have to be Ralph Towner. He's also one of my favorite jazz pianists. Check out Oregon's Live at Yoshi's to hear what I'm talking about.
9 - Mark Saleski
mclaughlin's never done much for me on an emotional level except for the Shakti-oriented stuff....like Live at the Royal Albert Hall. man, the acoustic guitar with tablas is way cool.
are things like "Remeber Shakti" worth a listen? i've never heard 'em.
10 - AntFreeze
I don't listen to a lot of Jazz but the best I've ever heard is Larry Coryell. The man can flat scat.
11 - Johno
I think "Remember Shakti" is only okay, somewhere between my tenth and fifteenth favorite world/world fusion release of 1999. But my wife really loves it.
OFF TOPIC
He's not a guitarist, but Malian kora virtuoso Toumani Diabate rips it up, and his stuff has actually been a big influence on my jazz guitar in recent years. His lines are gorgeous.
12 - Eric Olsen
Ullmer was on the blues series last night - looked freaky and played squeaky. He's cool
I love corny old Charlie Byrd, especially in his samba mode, and Jobim of course.
13 - ClubhouseCancer
How you feel about Kessel, I feel about the great Tal Farlow. His straight ahead, intricate bebop lines are to me the purest expression of the main ideas of bebop. He never really developed any post-bop ideas, but could play so fast and so sweet, with tremendous empathy. The trio stuff with Eddie Costa (much underrated pianist, BTW) is great ("Tal" and "The Swingin Guitar of"), and the early famed Mingus/Norvo/Farlow chamber stuff is also fab, but not a showcase for Tal. An interesting man, too, who semiretired very early, to live at the New Jersey Shore and be a sign painter.
He used to play a little oceanside restaurant every Sunday in the 80's for the brunch buffet in a duo with the incredible Gary Mazzaroppi. Trust me, not 5 percent of the room had any idea they were in the presence of an important musician, my own brunch companions as clueless as the rest of the sunburned, hungover vacationers.
Tal would be wailing away on "Yesterdays" or "What is This Thing Called Love" all over the fretboard at like a 155 MPH tempo, and my Aunt Vicki would comment "These eggs are dryer than last time," to which my grandmother would agree and motion to the waitress for more coffee. And if her sciatica was acting up...
I also love James Blood and respectfully add that "Odyssey" is his most famous and popular album, and it is terrific and a good place to start. Harmolodic Guitar with Strings is harder to get into but also very rewarding.
In peanut butter terms, Blood is chunky, Tal is smooth.
14 - Tom Johnson
I saw a show on Tal Farlow on BET Jazz earlier this year. Never heard him before, only knew him by reputation, but I was really blown away by his playing. I keep meaning to find stuff of his, but as with anything I don't write down, it slips my mind . . .
As for McLaughlin not connecting emotionally, I liken him quite a bit to Robert Fripp, who finds new, intriguing ways to play outside of what we listeners expect to hear every time he touches his guitar. I actually do find emotion in such clean, sharp, excruciatingly perfectly rendered playing, but it's taken a lot of listening to really appreciate what these guys do. Once I got standard "blues" based guitar styling out of my head, it suddenly became very clear how emotional what these guys play is.
15 - andy
Actually The Theory, Bela's been known to pick up a guitar now and then. He kicks a lot of ass on the guitar as well!
16 - Eric Olsen
I love Metheny's quiet, ambient stuff - the "Map of the World" (title?) soundtrack from a few years ago is just brilliant. I love lots of quiet little noodling in a corner like no one's around, but that always stays interesting without imposing itself down your gullet or p your vas deferens. It's really hard to do tht and remain interesting.
17 - Mark Saleski
i do love the Map Of The World soundtrack...i also read an interview with Metheny from around that time...where he was saying what a great book it was...so i rented the movie....dang, talk about depressing!
18 - David
My favorite Sco recordings are ScoLoHoFo and Joe Henderson's So Near So Far. They both have the same band, except with different tenor players, are utterly inspired GROUP performances, and SWING. Sometimes I don't like Sco's tone, and the blues licks can sound bogus on a bad day, but his lines are always the best.
I think people who think they don't like Metheny simply haven't heard his best stuff i.e. other than the Metheny Group (which took me some time to appreciate. His first album Bright Size Life is a good place to start because he keeps the echo under control and because it's, again, a great group performance (even if his soloing was not nearly as developed as it is now). All the trios are good, and I especially love the quartet album 80/81.
I listened to some samples of Ulmer's early recordings with organist Big John Patton and was surprised by his good Montgomery-style playing. No monster chops, but still quite good - swinging and melodic. I also quite like the two Arthur Blythe records he plays on.
19 - David
Oh yeah, and I also love the beautify Abbey Lincold record Turtle's dream, which Pat plays on, and the record that he and JH did together, and, and, and...
20 - Gypsy Roaddog
Steve Khan,Pat Martino,John Abercrombie, Mike Stern and of course Tommy Bolin's stuff with Billy Cobham. John Goodsall of Brand X was good and what about Allan Holdsworth. Check out some of his stuff with Gong and Bill Bruford.
Just a few extra names for the mix.
21 - SeamusLeary
Although, a great deal of his recorded work is crap (mostly because he was too messed up most of the time to get into the studio, what do you all think of Lenny Breau's work? Especially the "velvet touch of Lenny Breau" and "Live at Bourbon Street"? He sounds a bit like chet atkins, a bit like tal farlow, and a bit like ted greene, but he's dirtier than all of them (purposefully, listen to his early flamenco albums) and he plays like bill evans doing quartal harmony while soloing and sometimes walking bass.
22 - Douglas Mays
OK, one jazz guitarist that deserves some notice is SCOTT HENDERSON. The guy has chops like a maniac and can play all styles of music with accuracy. And best of all, he has a hell of a sense of humor.
Oh man, this guy is amazing. Hard core jazz and he throws in rock, blues, etc. stylings along with that occasional sense of laugh makes for a great listening.
Check the guy out, you'll see what I mean.
peaceloveguidance
23 - Mark Saleski
Lenny Breau was great. i have a couple of those 'living room' recordings. tremendous player. i loved those crazy artificial harmonic runs he would do.
24 - Brady
Hey Mark, had I seen this list before the other list that was more rock oriented, I wouldn't have argued with your "omissions." Wes is here and so is
Django along with Scofield and other greats. No Charlie Christian though? Hey Mark Ribot could almost fit in here too. Good list.
25 - Mark Saleski
Ribot's a tricky one. i love his playing as it's all over the map and more than a little tough to pigeonhole.
if i remade this list i'd probably drop Scofield for Ribot.