The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
Reply to Thread Bookmark Thread
Posts 1 to 13 of 13
  1. #1

    User Info Menu

    I'm interested to listen to more good chord-melody jazz guitar. I am becoming more and more interested in this style, but I am very much a newcomer to it.

    Can anyone recommend some "must hear" chord-melody albums? What are the top 5 iconic chord-medley albums?

  2.  

    The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
     
  3. #2

    User Info Menu

    Pick It And Play It by Jonathan Stout.
    Pick It and Play It | Jonathan Stout

  4. #3

    User Info Menu

    Ted Greene’s ”Solo Guitar” is one of my favorites in this style of jazz music. All ”Virtuoso” albums by Joe Pass are of course awesome too. William Ackerman have also made some great chord-melody albums but it’s probably too ambitious to call them straight-ahead jazz albums.

  5. #4

    User Info Menu

    Pasquale Grasso's solo standards album

  6. #5

    User Info Menu

    Quote Originally Posted by Bbmaj7#5#9
    William Ackerman have also made some great chord-melody albums but it’s probably too ambitious to call them straight-ahead jazz albums.
    IMO, William Ackerman isn't even remotely in the category. I would call his stuff acoustic fingerstyle, and leave it at that.

  7. #6

    User Info Menu

    Quote Originally Posted by Tricky Fish
    I'm interested to listen to more good chord-melody jazz guitar. I am becoming more and more interested in this style, but I am very much a newcomer to it.

    Can anyone recommend some "must hear" chord-melody albums? What are the top 5 iconic chord-medley albums?
    I mostly don't listen to a lot of solo jazz guitar, so I would recommend both albums that have chord-melody solo guitar tunes on them, but are not necessarily exclusively that, and some that are just solo guitar. Anyway, here are 5 (I wouldn't presume to know the top 5 iconic ones, just ones I like) that have some great chord-melody playing, and which are all quite different from each other.

    Joe Pass -- Virtuoso
    Johnny Smith -- Moonlight in Vermont
    Wes - The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montogmery (a lot of people might say he didn't really do chord-melody, but screw-em. A day without Wes is like ... a day without Wes.)
    Gene Bertoncini - Someone to Light up My Life
    Steve Masakowski -- Direct AXECess

    It's a big subject, though, and there's obviously much, much more to explore than this.

    John

  8. #7

    User Info Menu

    Forum member Tim Lerch has some excellent downloadable fingerstyle albums in the spirit of Ted Green, available here:
    Tim Lerch Store

    Example:


    I avoid the term chord-melody as I’m not sure why it’s called that. There’s solo guitar, then fingerstyle vs. plectrum, and then the styles of various players. So perhaps “chord-melody” means in the style of guitarists who described their own style as that?

    Matt Warnock defines chord-melody not as a synonym for solo guitar but as an approach to soloing by harmonizing the melody line. But I don’t think most guitarists would define it that way.

    I don’t want to drive the thread off topic in a terminology dispute, but I thought I’d at least mentioned it since you used the term.
    Last edited by KirkP; 08-16-2019 at 01:29 PM.

  9. #8

    User Info Menu

    On the page of Jordy Farrés, A great Spanish guitarist, you can find his album "The George Van Eps Transcriptions" for free with the transcriptions of the songs.
    Very nice and useful.
    Downloads – Jordi Farres – GUITAR

  10. #9

    User Info Menu

    A couple of my favourites:

    Andy Brown - Soloist.
    Kenny Poole - Heritage.

  11. #10

    User Info Menu

    Quote Originally Posted by cesarguit
    On the page of Jordy Farrés, A great Spanish guitarist, you can find his album "The George Van Eps Transcriptions" for free with the transcriptions of the songs.
    Very nice and useful.
    Downloads – Jordi Farres – GUITAR
    Didn’t know about this - very cool - thanks!

    Also worth checking out George Van Eps of course. There is a recording called Johnny Smith / George Van Eps - Legends, which features solo tracks by both of them.

  12. #11

    User Info Menu

    Quote Originally Posted by grahambop
    Also worth checking out George Van Eps of course. There is a recording called Johnny Smith / George Van Eps - Legends, which features solo tracks by both of them.
    The Legends album has all my favorite Johnny Smith tracks. Several of them are classical and folk melodies rather than jazz standards and are played in more of a classical style. They are beautifully arranged and the plectrum virtuosity is stunning.


    I’m not as impressed with the George Van Eps tracks, but his sense of time has never grabbed me.

    I’d also recommend Martin Taylor, Howard Alden and Lenny Breau. I think they all have good solo albums.
    Last edited by KirkP; 08-17-2019 at 09:13 AM.

  13. #12

    User Info Menu

    Quote Originally Posted by FourOnSix
    IMO, William Ackerman isn't even remotely in the category. I would call his stuff acoustic fingerstyle, and leave it at that.
    Yes, many of Ackerman’s albums are not jazz music in a correct definition. His compositions sounds more like a fusion between folk, jazz and new age music. My definition about jazz music is wide. In my opinion he differs a lot from other acoustic guitarists. In what ways is hard to tell, but I think it’s something in his approach to music in general that feels interesting.

  14. #13

    User Info Menu

    My 2 favorite chord melody solo albums are "The Man With The Blue Guitar" by Johnny Smith.

    And "Solo Guitar" by Mike Elliott.