TOP 100 Jazz Guitar Albums

[anarchristian]

I previously nominated Pat Martino's "El Hombre" (especially for "Just Friends"), but I must also second the nomination of Wes Montgomery, "Smokin' at the Half Note" and add
Kenny Burrell, "Introducing Kenny Burrell" (his first, age 24);
Pat Metheny, "Question and Answer" (especially for his blazing solo on "All the Things You Are"); and
Grant Green, "Solid" (especially for "Minor League" and "Ezzthetic"; great example of his leading a hard bop combo that includes McCoy Tyner and Elvin Jones)
Barney Kessel, "Solo" (his only solo album)

[Traumschau]

1. Tony Williams Lifetime - Believe it (with Alan Holdsworth)
2. Jonathan Kreisberg (Salzau concert)
3. Larry Carlton
5. Joe Pass
6. Gary Burton - Like minds (with Pat Metheny)
7. Robben Ford - Leverkusen Jazztage
8. Diana Krall - The girl in the other room (with Anthony Wilson)
9. Nguyen Le - Maghreb and friends
10 Antonio Forcione

There are a lot of more to mention, but some are already posted.

Greetings from Gelsenkirchen, Germany
Andreas

[The Gibsonian]

Hi fellows guitarists,

I'd like to add the following artists to that wonderful list :

Robben Ford - Supernatural
Luis Salinas - Salinas
Ronny Jordan - The quiet revolution
Russell Malone - All of you with Diana Krall
Chuck Loeb - Grapewine with the Metro band
Bireli Lagrène - (Solo, to Bi or not to Bi)

and of course, i'm a great fan of Montgomery, Benson, Burrell, Ellis, Farlow, Martino, Kessel, Metheny, Ritenour and others

[Matt Galloway]

Pat Martino - El Hombre
Kurt Rosenwinkel - The Remedy
Joe Pass - Virtuoso
Mike Moreno - Between the Lines
Wes Montgomery - The incredible Jazz Guitar of

[Jamste]

You have to mention charlie Christian.

Also, two less-well known ut formidable players: the late Tod Vullo out of Houston, TX, USA, and Bobby Broom out of Chicago, IL, USA.

I'm glad to be part of this. You all know so much!
Thanks!
James

[Jazzguitarfan]

I’m not sure if any of these greatest or top lists are a good idea or if they make any sense, particularly in reference to jazz. It’s like asking who was the better guitar player Joe Pass or Chet Atkins? How can you rate them, they were both great. But in any event, if you’re doing a list just for fun, here’s just a few of my favorites. Not in any order, and I tried to pick some non-typical selections. Any of these are great listening.

• Wes and Friends – Wes Montgomery, Milt Jackson and George Shearing
• Matchbook – Ralph Towner and Gary Burton
• Body Talk – George Benson
• White Rabbit – George Benson
• Gypsy Project – Bireli Lagrene
• Captain Fingers – Lee Ritenour
• Consciousness – Pat Martino
• Intermodulation – Bill Evans and Jim Hall
• Inner Mounting Flame – Mahavishnu Orchestra
• Tambu – Cal Tjader and Charlie Byrd
• Alto – Ali Ryerson and Joe Beck
• Johnny Smith – Johnny Smith (Verve)
• Concierto – Jim Hall, Ron Carter, Paul Desmond
• Virtuoso – Joe Pass
• Woman on Top – Various artists
• Next Stop Wonderland – Various artists
• Dawg Jazz – David Grisman and Tony Rice
• Southern Comfort – The Crusaders
• Where Have I Known You Before – Return to Forever

[DolphinDance]

Howard Roberts The Real Howard Roberts

[chaitanya]

Bill Evans/Jim Hall - Undercurrent
Wes Montgomery/The Wynton Kelly Trio - Smokin' at the Half Note
Pat Metheny/Brad Mehldau - Metheny/Mehldau Quartet
Charlie Byrd - Bossa Nova Pelos Passaros

[odel]

Fantastic lists but pulling it all together will be tough. If we want to add only new names, I'd throw in Ronnie Earl's Grateful Heart cd -- soulful, bluesy jazz that is sure to please everyone who hears it, even if they claim not to like jazz!

A real service would be to get beyond the 'important' albums that we feel obliged to include in the jazz guitar canon and to have a discussion on what is great album by one artist e.g., lots of people cite Joe Pass' Virtuoso album and while I admire it, I don't love listening to it and would like to learn about alternative Pass recordings that capture other aspects of his playing. I also think some of Wes' catalog is just dull (sorry!) and would love to find a way of identifying the real gems in his catalog. And so on....but thanks all for the lists so far -- and I am sure Amazon.com will thank you too when I overspend again....

[reventlov]

The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery
Lenny Breau Live at Bourbon Street
Jazz Winds from a New Direction by Hank Garland
Just about any Hot Club Quintet album with Django
Gateway by John Abercrombie's Gateway trio
Plus something by Eddie Lang and something by Charlie Christian - without these two there would be no jazz guitar tradition at all.

[whippersnapper]

Rene Thomas - Guitar Groove: His ballad playing on "Ruby, My Dear" is worth the price of the admission alone

Howard Roberts - Live at Donte's Volume 2

George Barnes - Don't Get Around Much Anymore

Jim Hall - Jazz Guitar Trio

[vikinin]

my 2 cents on top 100 jazz gtr albums:

Kurt Rosenwinkel : Heartcore
Jonathan Kreisberg: Unearth
Corey Christiansen : Awakening
Nguyen Le: 3 trios
David Torn : Cloud about Mercury
Lage Lund: Early songs
Pat Martino: Think tank

[Jeff]

Hi,
Here are few of mine for the top 100.

I Remember Charlie Parker - Joe Pass
The Song Within - Phil Keaggy
One Quiet Night - Pat Metheny
Remember: A tribute to Wes Montgomery - Pat Martino
Coincidence - Joe Beck.
Larry & Lee - Lee Ritenour & Larry Carlton

Jeff

[Jazzguitarfan]

I forgot to add Spaces - Larry Coryell, has some great guitar going back and forth between Larry and John Mclaughlin.

Also I can't understand how anyone can find any of Wes Montgomery's work "dull". Not even his more commercial later work, but everyone's entitled to their own opinion.

[danny_jazz]

For me, the only ones discs that does not appear is from two great jazz guitar players:
Chuck Loeb => #1 Smooth Jazz Radio Hits
Peter White => By Candlelight

[3rdaxis]

There are so many good jazz albums. I'm more into the fusion stuff to this list may not be pertentent. These are also the only albums I know and some of the artists have a few great albums.
Can't wait for the complete list


Cosmic Messenger - Jean Luc Ponty
Lift off - Jeff Lorber Fusion
Wyclifftower - Alan Holdsworth
The Inner Mounting Flame - John McLaughlin
Bitches Brew - Miles Davis
School Days - Stanley Clarke & George Duke
Unorthodox Behaviour - Brand X
Bela Fleck and the Flecktones - Bela Fleck & The Flecktones
One of a Kind - Bill Bruford
Tribal Tech - Tribal Tech
Vital information - Steve Smith

[puccyu]

Django Reinhardt:IN MEMORIAM 1908-1954

[Caleb Cook]

Well I agree with a few of the original postings and, I have many of the same players as other people but some different albums.

Charlie Christian - The Original Guitar Hero
Wes Montgomery - Full House (ditto)
The Joe Pass Trio - Live at Donte's (Out of Print)
Grant Green - Standards
Johnny Smith - (I think the album is just self titled) Johnny Smith

****BONUS***
Kenny Burrell - Midnight Blue
John Scofield - A Go Go (more of a groove funk album)

[DANTE PAEZ]

I don`t know if cuonts for the pourists but i like:
-Greg-Howe,Dennis-Chambers-"Extraction"
-Some of Allan Holdsworth work
-Norman Brown "After the Storm" (Take me there)
and my fav's are P.M. and Jhon Scofield but they are already on the list.

[BluesRenegade]

George Barnes
Charlie Byrd
Charlie Christian
Joe Cinderella
Tal Farlow
Hank Garland
Jim Hall
Barney Kessel
Eddie Lang
Lou Mecca
Joe Pass
Les Paul
Django Reinhardt
Howard Roberts
Johnny Smith
George Van Eps

This link should help jog some memories, including album references.
Classic Jazz Guitar - Guitarists

Heck, pick an album or more from any or all of the names listed at the link above and there's a good chunk of your greatest 100 jazz guitar albums!

[Ismail]

1. Mahavishnu Orchestra - Birds of Fire
2. Mahavishnu Orchestra - Inner Mounting flame
3. Jim Hall - Concierto
4. Geroge Benson - Beyond the Blue Horizon
5. Miles Davis - In A Silent Way
6. John McLaughlin - Electric Guitarist
   
7. Return To Forever - Romantic Warrior
8. Al Di Meola - Elegant Gypsy
9. Joe Pass - For Django
10. Paul Desmond - Pure Desmond
11. Grant Green - Idle Moments
12. Pat Metheny - Bright Size Life

[Passion4Blue]

With some artists I've been more of a collector because of their influence on my playing and so I've come close to owning practically everything they have ever recorded. This is mostly on the Fusion side, but I also own a lot of the classic Jazz CD's by Django, Wes, Burrell, Pass and many others.

Frank Gambale (in all his incarnations: Solo, GHS, Vital Information, Elektrik Band, and also as a guest on many artists CD's.

Scott Henderson (Same thing: Solo, Vital Tech tones, Tribal Tech)

Allan Holdsworth (Tony Williams Lifetime, Solo, UK)

John Scofield

Frank Zappa

[MelJohn]

How about

Martin Taylor - Solo

[SJM]

[quote=odel;53359]

A real service would be to get beyond the 'important' albums that we feel obliged to include in the jazz guitar canon and to have a discussion on what is great album by one artist e.g., lots of people cite Joe Pass' Virtuoso album and while I admire it, I don't love listening to it and would like to learn about alternative Pass recordings that capture other aspects of his playing.

Good call my friend. Joe Pass was one of the very best and Virtuoso is a dazzling display of, well, virtuosity. But it's not exactly the most pleasurable listening experience is it? Joe wasn't very keen on it himself, mainly because the tone of his guitar is so awful. Apparently someone in the studio convinced him to tape a microphone to the back of his Gibson ES175 rather than plug it into an amp. Maybe it seemed like a good idea at the time. If you want to hear the great man playing at his best AND making enjoyable music, check out the wonderful For Django album. I promise you won't be disappointed.

[SJM]

Originally Posted by franco6719

Tommy Tedesco! I haven't even heard that name mentioned in decades! Off topic, but does anybody remember the name of his book that I used to live out of for about two years when I in my teens. It was red, with a big photo of Tommy and it was filled with entertaining anecdotes and stories about his experiences in the studio, etc...

I think you might mean "For Guitar Players Only." It's an instruction book sprinkled with autobiographical anecdotes. It's been out of print for years. I bought a copy second hand but it was quite expensive. Brilliant book though.

If you enjoyed that you might also like TT's autobiography, "Confessions of a Guitar Player", which is still in print and very reasonably priced. He was quite a character, and what a player!

[milessound]

I would add these 10 to the ones I saw (although I did not read all of them, and I am sticking solely to guitar stuff here despite seeing things like Bitch's Brew and the Koln Concert included on earlier posts):

Pat Metheny - Bright Size Life
(this is his first and best in my opinion - with Jaco Pastorius on bass - beautiful melodies and chord progressions - a must have!!!)

Pat Metheny and John Scofield - I Can See Your House From Here
(great duet album with tons of chops and interesting experimental progressions)

Stanley Jordan - Stolen Moments
(chops galore on this incredible live album, and although the playing is a bit unnecessarily fast in some spots like on Stairway to Heaven, First Impressions and his version of Over the Rainbow are enough to put this album on my favorites list)

Alex Skolnick - Goodbye to Romance
(awesome reinterpretation of some rock favorites in jazz style - there is no other album like it that I know of and Skolnick is a beast in technique and in lyricism/expression)

Joe Pass and Herb Ellis (with Ray Brown) - Seven Come Eleven
(classic playing of classic standards)

Bill Frisell - Ghost Town
(Eerie and ethereal with a country feel, this album always relaxes me with Frisell's unmistakable sound. The Floratone album is also pretty incredible)

Metheny-Meldhau Quartet
(This album is ripe with brilliant guitar work but also includes some beautiful composition and gorgeous piano playing. Meldhau's classical influence shines through to prime a broad and textured canvass for Metheny to streak across.)

Jim Hall/Ron Carter - Alone Together
(Serene and sweet, this drumless duet sweetens the classic standards with Hall's straightforward and melodic style)

**warning - smooth jazz is not my favorite, but I will include these two:

Ronny Jordan - A Brighter Day
(incorporating some funkiness and even some hip hop style and rhythm, including an appearance from Mos Def, Jordan's style is technically spot on and his sound relaxes and grooves at the same time)

George Benson - Absolute Benson
(while corny at times, there is no mistaking Benson's talent. This showcases it well, although I have not heard most of his full records. I am sure there is some brilliant playing on there as well)

[Gaboatman]

There are many others, but here are a few:

Andre Previn, "After Hours"
Al Di Meola, "Anthology"
Antonion Carlos Jobim, "Antonio Carlos Jobim's Finest Hour"
Django Reinhardt, "Verve Jazz Masters 38"
Gato Barbieri, "Caliente!"
Joe Pass, "The Best of Joe Pass: Pacific Jazz Years"
Kenny Burrell, 75TH Birthday Bash Live!"
Larry Carlton, "Collection"
Pat Metheny Group, "Still Life (Talking)"
Stan Getz with Astrud Gilberto, "Getz Au Go Go Featuring Astrud Gilberto"
Tuck Andress, "Reckless Precision"
Al Di Meola, John McLaughlin, Paco Delucia, "De Lucia, Di Meola,McLaughlin"

[tryin'2playjazz]

MY TOP TEN are:

1. Blue Benson-George Benson (out of print-don't even know if it's on CD)

2. Jim Hall Live!- Jim Hall

3. Smokin' at the Half Note-Wes Montgomery (unbelievable. Get the extended CD)

4. Don't Get Around Much Anymore- George Barnes (his last album. An unsung guitar hero)

5. Consciousness-Pat Martino

6. Barney Kessel- Poll Winners (the 1st one)

7. Seven Come Eleven-Herb Ellis and Joe Pass (a killer live album)

8. Swing '49- Django Reinhardt

9. Jazz at the Bistro- Russell Malone (w/Benny Green)

10. Grant Green's 1st album...very bluesy (not Idle Moments.Sorry I forgot the title).

Hey,..I am aware of Metheny, Sco and the rest. But the older stuff does it for me. Thanks!

[jordileft]

Robben Ford - Tiger Walk
Robben Ford - Blue moon
Larry Carlton - Deep into it

[tarus]

George Benson - Breezin'
Charlie Christian - Celestial Express
Joe Pass - Finally
John Abercrombie - Timeless
Djang Reinhardt - Le genie du jayy
Wes Montgomery - The Incredible Jazz Guitar