Your 5 favorite living jazz guitar players

[sigmund.fraud]

5 favorite living jazz guitar players...who are they? No more than 5 or it starts getting less interesting. I want to see who makes your personal cut when you can't list 10+ of them and young have to fight out old. If they are breathing and play something that fits your personal definition of jazz, they are fair game. Doesn't matter if they are younger than Julian Lage or older than Bucky Pizzarelli.

For me (in no order):

1) Jim Hall
2) Peter Bernstein
3) George Benson
4) Pat Metheny
5) Kenny Burrell

The first 3 are permanently on that list for me, the last 2 spaces could change week to week or day to day and would most certainly end up including Ed Bickert!

[Jazzpunk]

Aw man, that's a tough one. As of this minute:

John Scofield
Bill Frisell
Jim Hall
Jonathan Kreisberg
Julian Lage
Peter Bernstein



* I tried but I just couldn't do 5!

** list subject to change from tune to tune when listening to iTunes in "shuffle" mode

[jseaberry]

Steve Herberman
John Stowell
Kurt Rosenwinkel
Sid Jacobs
Gilad Hekselman

[randalljazz]

lula galvao
romero lubambo
peter sprague
paul meyers
bruce forman

[kris]

John Scofield
Pat Martino
Jim Hall
Pat Metheny
Kurt Rosenwinkel
Jesse van Ruller

[BeBopBeCool]

Scofield
Rosenwinkel
Jim Hall
Garrison Fewell
Sandro Gibellini

[marcwhy]

Can we do "over 50" and "under 50?"

[mr. beaumont]

Hmmm....this morning...

Lage Lund
Mike Moreno
Matthew Stevens
Lionel Loueke
Nir Felder
Jim Hall

ooops...six...

my guess is this will change by this afternoon...

[sigmund.fraud]

Can we do "over 50" and "under 50?"

Thanks for the question....it made me decide to edit my initial post to clarify the rules.

[AmundLauritzen]

Stochelo Rosenberg
Bireli Lagrene
Pat Martino
George Benson
Jim Hall

These are the ones that have made the greatest impact on me, out of those who are still alive.
Of course, many players who passed a way have made a tremendeous impact since almost all of the jazz musicians from the "golden age"(40s-60s) have now passed away, not to mention Django who began even before that and probably is the most important guitarist ever IMO, and my personal favorite.

It was a tough choice to narrow it down to five, but I don't think I would change that list really.

By the way I like your nickname

[willschmid97]

Kurt Rosenwinkel
Bill Frisell
John Scofield
Pat Metheny
Jim Hall

Especially Rosenwinkel, who I think might be my favorite guitarist ever.

[David B]

Peter Bernstein
Jesse van Ruller
Jonathan Kreisberg
Joe Cohn
Sheryl Bailey

[JSanta]

Frank Vignola
John Pizzarelli
Martin Taylor
Howard Alden
Graham Dechter

Graham is a recent discovery, but his latest is on constant rotation for me.

[Jazzpunk]

1) Jim Hall
2) Peter Bernstein
3) George Benson
4) Pat Metheny
5) Kenny Burrell

Can't believe I forgot Kenny Burrell! "Midnight Blue" was the first record that sparked my interest in jazz guitar.

Narrowing it down to 5 players was cruel indeed.

[docbop]

I'm not going to include the names that always appear on lists like this, most of them I like.
Here's my list:

Sheryl Bailey
Vic Juris
Jonathan Kreisberg
Bobby Broom
Chris Crocco

[daveg]

Ummmm,

Martin Taylor?

Angelo Debarre?

Tommy Emanuel?

Stochelo

Bireli

DG

[newsense]

In no particular order:

Sco
Bireli
Martin Taylor
Pat M (clearly cheating here, Martino or Metheny - I want to list both !)
Mike Stern

These are the 5 (sorry, 6) that I listen to the most, so are my favourites in that sense. However, there are guitarists who I admire technically that might rate in my top 5 if it were purely about chops alone and not my entertainment preferences (e.g. Hall, Rosenwinkel, Kriesberg, .......). For some in the latter group, I only have one or two albums, so they don't get played as often as, say, Sco, who probably has the largest presence in my music collection.

[TrakaVobla]

Pat Metheny
Jonathan Kreisberg
Julian Lage
Kurt Rosenwinkel
Andreas Oberg

[Bill C]

Jim Hall
Ed Bickert
Adam Rogers
Leonardo Amuedo
Wayne Krantz

[hans halmackenreuter]

John Abercrombie
John Scofield
Gilad Hekselman
Kurt Rosenwinkel
Jim Hall


and to be honst I would love to put Peter Bernstein, Mike Moreno, Lage Lund but I know too Little about their work, I have just listened to their work which is on YouTube, but it's definitely next on my list to listen to their recordings.

the funny thing is that thislist would have been very different, if I would have written it two years ago. I guess it would have started with pat martino. I still love his work, but if you have to choose 5, than your choice is limited

[nosoyninja]

Frank vignola
Bucky pizzarelli
Kenny burrell
Jim hall
Dave Biller

[Jazzpunk]

and to be honst I would love to put Peter Bernstein, Mike Moreno, Lage Lund but I know too Little about their work, I have just listened to their work which is on YouTube, but it's definitely next on my list to listen to their recordings.

I dig all of Moreno's records but I keep coming back to "First in Mind". Something about the sound of that record really gets me.

Some of my favorite playing by Bernstein is actually as a sideman with Dr. Lonnie Smith and Melvin Rhyne. Might want to check those out if you dig the organ trio thing.

[Flat]

Wes Montgomery
Joe Pass
Howard Roberts
Emily Remler
Ted Greene

I don't care what anyone says. The ARE still alive at my house.

[hodge12]

Kenny burrell
pat martino
paul bollenback
mark elf
spencer barefield

[hodge12]

votes tallied thus far:

jim hall: 13
kurt rosendinkel: 8
Bernstein: 7
metheny: 6
Kenny burrell: 5
p martino; 5
scofield: 5
kreisberg: 4
g benson: 3
frisell: 2
Julian lage: 2
hekselman: 2