What are your top 5 favorite jazz guitar solos?

[Jazzpunk]

So what are your top 5 favorite jazz guitar solos of all time and why?

[Archtop Bill]

It is hard for me to come up five at the moment, but lately I have really been listening intently to Chet Atkin's rendition of Jorge Morel's Take Five transcription. Chet nails the feeling of this one.

[Jazzpunk]

Originally Posted by Archtop Bill

It is hard for me to come up five at the moment, but lately I have really been listening intently to Chet Atkin's rendition of Jorge Morel's Take Five transcription. Chet nails the feeling of this one.

Cool, I'll have to check that out.

Interesting the lack of response to this thread. I wonder if most jazz guitar solos are simply not that memorable in the long run? Maybe it's the overall vibe of a tune or record that stays with us more than the actual solos themselves?

[augusjazz]

Originally Posted by Jazzpunk

Interesting the lack of response to this thread. I wonder if most jazz guitar solos are simply not that memorable in the long run? Maybe it's the overall vibe of a tune or record that stays with us more than the actual solos themselves?

It is difficult to select 5 guitar solos.
At the moment I can think of these:

YouTube Video

YouTube Video

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Probably tomorrow choose other

[TruthHertz]

Lawrence Lucie live gig in NY during the 80's It's Only a Paper Moon
Jim Hall with Ron Carter, How Deep Is The Ocean it must've been the Vanguard during the 80's
Bill Frisell's Throughout solo at Middle East Cambridge early 90's
Kurt Rosenwinkel solo improvisation that worked into Zhavago, Chris' in Philly a couple of years ago
Jack Wilkins Round Midnite at 1369 Cambridge during the late 70's
all live performances.
David

[ronjazz]

Jim Hall's solo on Stompin' At The Savoy with the Art Farmer Quartet
Wes's solo on 4 On 6 (Smokin' At The Half-Note)
Pat Metheny's solo on Are You Going With Me from Offramp
Pat Martino's solo on Along Came Betty from Live
Bill Frisell's solo on East Timor from Ginger Baker's Going Back Home

[beasleybubba]

Wes' solo on "If you could see me now" on Smokin at the half note KILLS me every time. This solo has literally made me cry on more than one occasion.

any of Django's solos... but everyone should check out his solo on "i will never be the same" on djangology 49 - true brilliance! it sounds like a picasso painting looks.

Wes' solo on "Canadian Sunset" - so perfect, so musical.

Joe Pass' solos on "Cherokee" on 2 for the road (there's a slow and a fast verion... both burn)

Benson's solo on "JH Bossa Nova" = freakin' perfect implementation of the blues in the context of a solo that is quite harmonically sophisticated


...I can't pick 5 "favorite" solos per se, but these are some of my favorites that come to mind.

[eddy b.]

Ed Bickert-Have You Met Miss Jones, Ed Bickert-This is New, Wes Montgomery-No Blues, Ed Bickert-Just Squeeze Me, John Scofield- Honest I Do

[kris]

Too many favorite solos...sorry

[BenThayer]

My favorite jazz solo of all time isn't guitar. It's violin. Stephane Grapelli playing "16....16" on David Grisman's "Hot Dawg" album. I always feel all of Life's joys and sorrows in his expression. No "shredding" involved. Not one single gratuitous note. No single phrase which says, "Look what I can do." Technically rather simple, but I think it takes a life's experience to play it. Just what we're all striving toward.

So subjective. YMMV, of course. Nice thread.

[AmundLauritzen]

Well, choosing just one solo would be hard. I'd choose this performance. It's the communication and development of ideas. Actually, they all build on each other solos in a way that you can hear the story taking new turns as each player solos.
Pat Martino & John Scofield - "Sunny" - YouTube

Really, these players each give different flavors to the tune. Now I'm mainly a fan of Pat above all, but Sco does a whole different thing with it. The trading at the end is almost transcendental. At 14:25, the whole performance is not a minute too long. These cats could probably keep going for much longer than that and still have the listener on his toes.

If I had to choose one particular solo in the performance(I hate to do that, I love them all), It'd have to be Pats solo. The pulse in his lines speak to my particular musical energy. The way he goes balls to the walls with the repetitive motif shows a courage few musicians have. Just as it's about to get annoying, he resolves it. Perfect timing in my opinion.

The whole performance is an essential lesson in building a solo and listening to the other players in the band. Lots of gems to steal.

[SammieWammie]

Wes Montgomery - Round Midnight - YouTube

So many of Wes's solos blow me away and this is my favorite of him 'Round Midnight, possibly my favorite jazz guitar solo.

Jim Hall's playing on Darn That Dream in Undercurrent.

Adam Rogers on Pop Tune from Follow The Red Line—live At The Village Vanguard, don't know if that counts as jazz.

George Benson - This Masquerade, the scatting makes it stand out as a favorite.

And another player, Pat Martino - Willow Weep For Me from We'll Be Together Again.

Interesting how they're all ballads...

[cosmic gumbo]

In this video, Sonny Sharrock is playing all 5 of my favorite guitar solos at once!

YouTube Video

[princeplanet]

Masturbation in public should be outlawed.

[JakeAcci]

It is currently against the law to masturbate in public. I learned this the hard way.

[princeplanet]

Group masturbation in public I find particularly distasteful.

[JakeAcci]

Especially for the clean up crew.

But seriously, I think to the average listener there is little difference in sound between what you heard above and listening to the great bebop recordings.

[Patrick2]

I'll give ya two . . . Wes . . . "Unit 7". . .
Tal Farlow .."It's You or No One"