Lesser known great jazz guitarists

[frogeye]

Most of the names I had in mind have been already mentioned although for some there was no record mentioned. Here is a small assortment from my "guitar record" collection that some of you may find interesting checking out.

• Kenny Poole & Gene Bertoncini - East meets Midwest
• Kenny Poole - For George - Tribute to a master (G. Van Eps was Kenny's mentor)
• Dave Stryker, Guitar on Top, One for Reduus
• Karl Ratzer - Waltz for Ann
• Cal Collins - Cincinnati to LA, Blues on My Mind, By Myself, Cross Country
• Louis Stewart - Overdrive
• Wayne Krantz - 2 drinks Minimum, Signals
• Tchavolo Schmitt - Alors? ...Voila!
• Steve Erquiaga - Erikology
• Ron Affif Trio - 52nd Street
• Rick Zunigar - New Frontier
• Richie Hart - Remembering Wes
• Paul Bollenback - Invocation
• Mitch Watkins - Curves, Underneath it all
• Kazumi Watanabe - Mobo I & II, Spice of Life Too

Enjoy

[Solo Flight]

I had the near-religious experience of seeing Danny Gatton live on a handful of occasions. What always struck me (and many others I'm sure) was the stark contrast between this sheer genius of a musician and some of the settings in which he played. Seeing him play in some dive, often with realtively few people in attendance, made you want to physically pull people off the street and demand that they sit and listen to this guitar god. It's a shame that his mental state/personality was not conducive to his garnering the attention he deserved. But I guess that's the randomness of genius - or maybe not. I know of at least one other musical genius who quite clearly has Asperger's, which also hinders his ability to translate his talent into a career worthy of his musical gifts. Maybe it was also part of Danny's troubled makeup. But none of that mattered when he was on stage ripping though some rockabilly tune and out of nowhere toss in some Monk or Charlie Christian reference.

[frogeye]

And I forgot to mention Steve Khan.... I have a few of the Eyewitness albums from way back. From what I remember he also played on one of the Caribbean Jazz Ensemble recordings that Paquito D'Rivera.

[mmmmdoss]

I can't think of anyone who hasn't already been mentioned. Ed Bickert and Lenny Breau as far as Canadians go, as well as Lorne Lofsky and Roy Patterson (both of whom are also great teachers). Lionel Loueke is awesome and totally unique, so is Ralph Towner. I also really dig Mick Goodrick and somebody mentioned Gilad Hekselman or however you spell it.

I think its important to recognize that jazz is very localized. Ben Monder for example, is busy as hell in New York but here in Toronto you'd never hear him without the internet and even then you sort of have to go looking. Every now and again somebody from New York will come to town and play the Rex but that's about it.

OH! Reg Schwager is a great Toronto guitarist, and from New York there's Rez Abassi who I really dig, hes got strong roots in Indian music.

[paynow]

Joe Puma, who I see has been mentioned in a couple of other posts on this thread:

Classic Jazz Guitar - Guitarists

Such a wonderfully lyrical player.

Joe was a close family friend; I had an opportunity to take a couple of formal lessons with him but more than that to hang around him and learn even more that way. And I'll add this; he was the funniest jazz guitarist who ever lived. There are so many classic Puma anecdotes that I can't even count them.

Once he was doing a gig for bassist Chuck Israels and was handed charts with odd times, 7/8, 5/4, 9/8, etc. He asked Chuck "Are these time signatures or hat sizes?" His comedic timing and delivery were wonderful.

Yet another gem in the rough from the Bronx, New York. Listen to anything by Joe that you can get your hands on.

[mangotango]

Don't forget about Jeff Langley

(for the uninitiated:

)

Courtesy of Jazzradio.com/guitarjazz (NOT originally a plug, but having said that, a great source of previously undeard material for me), I have become aware of Mr. Langley and think he's pretty darn good.

His albums with Joey De Francesco sound very fine. That's how I'd like to be able to play when I grow up. Hope I manage to achieve one or other, if not both.

[ColinO]

Don Ross - not my cup of tea but dude can play.

[jtizzle]

Some of my favorites:
Jay Azzolina (My teacher. Great player, to say the least).
Victor Baker (known more for his luthier work)
Peter Mazza
Barry Green (more of an educator, but amazing player)
Miles Okazaki

[docbop]

When I was a kid in Buffalo in the 60s there was a group called " The Rising Sons " later called " Raven".

They were the earliest "fusion " band with the most amazing rhythm section- you can Google them and their old manager has recordings of them, they did an album on Columbia and were house band at the great "Inferno" in Buffalo and later "The Scene " Club in NYC where Hendrix, Clapton , Beck used to jam.

Group was Blues/Rock/Jazz and guitarist J.R. Weitz played kind of like a cross between Clapton and Kenny Burrell, but even before Clapton emerged.

The group had more " Blues" in their jazz than any I've heard and singer Tony Galla had a full 3 Octave range.

The whole group was ahead of their time- J.R. Weitz would solo sometimes more like a jazzer but using modes etc. and octaves but would also do screaming wide vibrato stuff , with slaving amps together to get his sound at reasonable volume, and he did a little feedback stuff sometimes- but this was in 1966 and I think he was doing it before then also!

He also had this sliding , behind the beat rhythm style that fit perfect with their ultra funky rhythm section and the piano player, drummer and bassist were all killer.

I remember being shocked when they did a spot on perfect version of "Sunshine of Your Love" only a few weeks after it was released and J.R. nailed every spec of the solo and vibrato and tone of the solo perfectly- it was easy for him and back then very few in the world had the Clapton Vibrato but J.R. had been playing that way already in addition to Wes and Burrell ( and who knows ) inspired stuff.

They were the elite of Buffalo and even NYC in some ways- check out "Raven" ridiculous players, soloists and Rhythm Section in 1965 and 1966 , and continued to evolve in NYC for the next few years.

Funny same time in Hollywood a band called the Rising Sons used to play all over town. They later split into Taj Mahal (still one of the best Bluesmen around) with Jesse Ed Davis on guitar, and other Rising Son's guitarist I believe was Ry Cooder. Popular name back in the 60's.

[docbop]

I was lucky enough to get to see Billy Rogers a few times in a local spot playing with a trio. It was not to long before he passed. Billy had his demons, but even when loaded he played his ass off. He did a short stint with the Crusaders after Larry Carlton left the group. Checkout the Youtube he was baaad!!!

[MackBolan]

-Costa Lukacs
the heart of Joe Pass and the fingers of Ted Greene
(and I don"t know 97% of the chords)

.

[Lambosoa]

Laurindo Almeida - although calling him a jazz-guitarist could be questionable.

[Moonray]

Peter Leitch..."Mean what You Say" CD as leader with the late great John
Hicks on piano and a killer rhythm section.
Peter has an extensive body of recorded work, all worth checking out.

Steve Giordano...from Philly I believe...came across him on You Tube.
A wonderfully musical player. [some TY clips are teaching ones and are
really good value IMO]

[Chris Cline]

Someone mentioned Roland Dyens; I just picked up "night and day." Not sure I'd call it "jazz;" feels more like jazz arrangements for a classical player, but dang it's cool.

[Bryan T]

Someone mentioned Roland Dyens; I just picked up "night and day." Not sure I'd call it "jazz;" feels more like jazz arrangements for a classical player, but dang it's cool.

Roland is fantastic.

[paulkogut]

Here's two guys to check out
Carmen Caramanica. He was arranger/conductor for Lou Rawls back when he had cats like Jaco and Don Alias in the band. He gave up the road for teaching and has been Utica, NY's best kept secret for decades. He's just released a long-overdue debut CD, which you can google up on CD Baby.

Another great player and educator is Dale Bruning from Denver. He's developed his own style out of the Jim Hall/Ed Bickert bag, and has a handful of great CD's out, including duo sides with Michael Moore and his former student, Bill Frisell.

[Eddie Lang]

There has been a bunch of great suggestions made so far, some lesser known indeed, others not as much. I would not consider "lesser known jazz guitarists" many whose names I have read in this thread so far, like Kenny Burrell and Grant Green, for example, who are giants, but many others as well. Oscar Moore had some kind of star status, as far as guitar players were concerned, when he was one third of the Nat King Cole Trio in the late 1930s, early 1940s. Mimi Fox, Emily Remler, Ted Greene are not it either, in my opinion. Although they are virtually unknown from the general public, they are sort of known from the guitarists at least because of their educational material. Howard Alden is not one either, considering the profusion of youtube videos in which he appears and his huge discography, everyone he has played and recorded with, soundtracks, etc. One is bound to have stumbled upon him at one time or another.

What is a "lesser known jazz guitarist" anyway? "Jazz guitarist" and "lesser known" are almost synonymous…

Here are a few unknowns: Joe Pass, Wes Montgomery, Herb Ellis… No, I'm only kidding.

Five dead lesser known players:

• Teddy Bunn - especially his work with Spirit Of Rhythm
• Al Casey - with Fats Waller and Lionel Hampton; also as a leader: Buck Jumpin', Jumpin' With Al and Six Swingin' Strings
• Bill Harris
• Cal Collins - By Myself and all his other releases
• John Gray - The New Wave

Five living lesser known players (trying to name some not already mentioned):

• Chris Flory
• Tony Marcus
• John PIsano
• Bill Coon
• Jordan Officer (well known in Eastern Canada, but not elsewhere) - check out all of his work with Susie Arioli

Of course, these are just from the top of my head. I probably could have come up with a top 25 in both the "living" and "dead" lists almost as easily…

[TrakaVobla]

i recently found out this guy - Peter Mazza! Fantastic player!

[TrakaVobla]

And also Steinar Aadnekvam young and really great and talented player! Definitely check him out!

[eddy b.]

Ray Crawford...his work with Ahmad Jamal on the Legendary Okeh recordings is so far ahead of it's time that I am completely amazed how he is so overlooked in the general jazz guitar conversation...from his rhythmic approach to his creating percussion sounds and perfect tastey solos this guy should have been considered an innovator. Check him out!!

[lschofield]

Loved reading this (long dormant but recently posted) thread. Some that caught my eye:

- Completely agree on the Danny Gatton love, but also agree not quite unknown. But, the thread title is "lesser known". Saw him three or four times, and always humbling and inspiring. Its a rare gift when monster ability comes with humor and grace.
- Steve Khan was a nice reference. He was on a number of Michael Franks albums in the 80s and toured with him - saw him a few times with Michael. Great sense of not needing to fill the space with notes; phrasing and emotion were inspiring. I think he's also well known in NYC recording circles or something - see him a lot on recording references.
- Mark Whitfield tours with Chris Botti, which is a pretty good showcase for him although limiting with the somewhat pop/classical set list for Botti. But, I talked to him after a show - the band was hanging out while Botti signed CDs. He was super nice, completely willing to talk gear, signed a CD (I didn't have "true blue" which is a super recording). His red archtop is somewhat of a signature I think.

Thanks to all for lots of names to look up!

[dogbrained]

Perry Hughs

[rictroll]

Excellent list of stellar players when consolidated, though I'd consider many of them highly recognized and appreciated players.

I'll add Bruce Dunlap.

[Jazzism]

I liked Dave Allen's "Untold Stories" I havent seen him mentioned before. He seems to fit this criteria

[docbop]

Mike Miller

I remember when Mike first hit town back in the 70's and has played with everyone, but on his own most don't know of him. Amazing guitarist and writer.