Jazz Guitarists playing Pop songs

[jjang1993]

Deleted for privacy and safety reasons

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

Start with all of Wes’s covers. He did many pop tunes in his later albums.

[Tricky Fish]

i really like Lucas Brar when it comes to pop / jazz crossover:

[sgosnell]

Jazz standards were pretty much all pop tunes before they became jazz sandards. The Great American Songbook was the pop music of the time. Pop music has been incorporated into the jazz vocabulary since before there was "jass", and continues today. Examples are all over the place.

[jazzkritter]

Sure…
check out our forum member Jake Reichbart. He has an incredible number of educational videos of all sorts of pop songs, as well as the old war horse standards and ‘proper jazz’. Decent guy, plays beautifully.
https://www.jakereichbart.com/

Search on him here, he frequently posts new songs he’s worked up. And he often runs sales on his videos.
Anyone who gigs with blue tape covering the absent bridge pup on a down line Ibanez to me is a monster.

good luck!

jk

[JazzPadd]

I second Wes, and would add Gabor Szabo, Tony Mottola and Howard Roberts. More recently, there’s Bill Frisell and Scofield.

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

I second Wes, and would add Gabor Szabo, Tony Mottola and Howard Roberts. More recently, there’s Bill Frisell and Scofield.

I don’t know if they ever made it to CD, but Tony Mottola’s early Command albums like Mr Big and Romantic Guitar are just stellar. I still have my vinyl and marvel at how beautiful his playing was on simple pop tunes of the day. Mr Big is from 1959 or 60 and Romantic Guitar came out about 2 years later. I got my start learning these albums along with early Wes.

Players like Mottola are every bit as important to jazz guitar as our usual idols. He was the main Tonight Show guitarist for years, and backed stars like Perry Como with tasteful and facile accompaniment. He wasn’t a “jazz guitarist”, but he could hold his own with the best of them and do so much more than most.

[lawson-stone]

Joe Pass and Roy Clark did an album of Hank Williams tunes.

[Christian Miller]

how deep is your love

my album features Wichita Lineman. Link below

[JazzPadd]

I don’t know if they ever made it to CD, but Tony Mottola’s early Command albums like Mr Big and Romantic Guitar are just stellar. I still have my vinyl and marvel at how beautiful his playing was on simple pop tunes of the day. Mr Big is from 1959 or 60 and Romantic Guitar came out about 2 years later. I got my start learning these albums along with early Wes.

Players like Mottola are every bit as important to jazz guitar as our usual idols. He was the main Tonight Show guitarist for years, and backed stars like Perry Como with tasteful and facile accompaniment. He wasn’t a “jazz guitarist”, but he could hold his own with the best of them and do so much more than most.

Agreed, Mottola’s playing is lovely and important to jazz guitar indeed. I have a CD with Roman Guitar and Mr. Big, re-issued in 2011 by Sepia Recordings in the UK. I’m not sure if Roman Guitar and Romantic Guitar are from the same session but it’s a truly beautiful record, as is Mr. Big.

[cesarguit]

Great version.

[grahambop]

Check out Dave Stryker’s ‘8-track’ albums, he does great versions of 70s hits.

[pingu]

I like this one a lot

[Average Joe]

Sylvain Luc play a lot of pop tunes

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

Agreed, Mottola’s playing is lovely and important to jazz guitar indeed. I have a CD with Roman Guitar and Mr. Big, re-issued in 2011 by Sepia Recordings in the UK. I’m not sure if Roman Guitar and Romantic Guitar are from the same session but it’s a truly beautiful record, as is Mr. Big.

I bought every Command album on which he played as soon as they hit my local record store, and I still listen to them. I don’t think Roman and Romantic were recorded at the same sessions, but we’re on vacation this week so I can’t get to the jackets for a few mor days. Although not a guarantee of separate sessions, I think they were released a few years apart.

[medblues]

Others:
John Pizzarelli
Pat Martino (Sunny on YouTube with Joey DeFrancesco)
Fareed Haque (CSNY cover album)
Bill Frisell
Earl Klugh
George Benson (Beatles)
Gabor Szabo

[A. Kingstone]

Others:
John Pizzarelli
Pat Martino (Sunny on YouTube with Joey DeFrancesco)
Fareed Haque (CSNY cover album)
Bill Frisell!!
Earl Klugh
George Benson (Beatles)
Gabor Szabo

..

[MarkRhodes]

I loved Scofield's Ray Charles tribute album.

[NewNewcastleBud]

Of course, there's Bireli Lagrene!

[JFranck]

Lennon & McCartney tunes on this George Van Eps LP

[JazzPadd]

I bought every Command album on which he played as soon as they hit my local record store, and I still listen to them. I don’t think Roman and Romantic were recorded at the same sessions, but we’re on vacation this week so I can’t get to the jackets for a few mor days. Although not a guarantee of separate sessions, I think they were released a few years apart.

Thanks, and they do appear to be separate sessions. Gonna seek Romantic Guitar!

[m_d]

..

I like that one a lot:

[ooglybong]

Local (Albany, NY) jazz guitarist Sam Farkas (R.I.P.), hipped me to Bobby Broom's 2001 album Stand album many years ago; it was my introduction to him and one I've pretty much followed in all the years since. Stand is entirely made up of 'Pop' covers and, IMO, impeccably played with his guitar-bass-drums working trio of that time in a very well-produced recording. Even after all these years later, I still play it it every now and then. VERY highly recommended.

His other excellent releases since have, IIRC, not been quite so pop-oriented, but those type of songs still do appear throughout his discography along the way anyway—if I'm recalling correctly, of course, since to my ears, they've all now become jazz tunes and, without fixating upon the actual titles, they've each simply become one more tune within Bobby's excellent discography to me.

Stand! | Bobby Broom

BTW, you can preview all the album's songs at the above site, even to their entirety, I believe.

NOT pop covers, but mentioning as a bonus: my other favorite album of Bobby's is Bobby Broom Plays For Monk (all Monk tunes in a trio).

Bobby Broom Plays for Monk | Bobby Broom

[JazzPadd]

Local (Albany, NY) jazz guitarist Sam Farkas (R.I.P.), hipped me to Bobby Broom's 2001 album Stand album many years ago; it was my introduction to him and one I've pretty much followed in all the years since. Stand is entirely made up of 'Pop' covers and, IMO, impeccably played with his guitar-bass-drums working trio of that time in a very well-produced recording. Even after all these years later, I still play it it every now and then. VERY highly recommended.

Thanks, gonna get this. His Monk album is superb!

[JazzPadd]

Joe Pass did an album of Rolling Stones tunes in 1967, with John Pisano, Dennis Budimir, Ray Brown, John Guerin, Victor Feldman in the rhythm section, plus horns.