The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary

View Poll Results: Favourite Guitarist

Voters
1242. You may not vote on this poll
  • John Scofield

    131 10.55%
  • Bill Frisell

    91 7.33%
  • Django Reinhardt

    155 12.48%
  • Wes Montgomery

    347 27.94%
  • Jim Hall

    167 13.45%
  • Joe Pass

    278 22.38%
  • Pat Metheny

    160 12.88%
  • Kurt Rosenwinkel

    79 6.36%
  • John Mclaughlin

    66 5.31%
  • John Abercrombie

    28 2.25%
  • Lee Ritenour

    26 2.09%
  • Pat Martino

    106 8.53%
  • Tal Farlow

    64 5.15%
  • Barney Kessel

    94 7.57%
  • Allan Holdsworth

    60 4.83%
  • George Benson

    147 11.84%
  • Grant Green

    123 9.90%
  • Jimmy Raney

    51 4.11%
  • Charlie Christian

    76 6.12%
  • Kenny Burrell

    163 13.12%
Multiple Choice Poll.
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Posts 126 to 150 of 336
  1. #126

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    Wes Montgomery....Joe Pass...Howard Roberts...Kenny Burrell..

    Time on the instrument is time well spent...pierre

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  3. #127
    I'm a li'l late to the party, but I like wes Montgomery a lot.
    I like his feel, his sound, and his accessability. When I was completely against anything even remotely jazzy, I always thought that he was great

  4. #128

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    I had to go with Django as for me his approach to jazz comes across as so fresh even after all of these years. If I was to post my favourite, it would have to be the early Bola Sete stuff. Fantastic! No effects - just a basic nylon guitar and a guy on the brushes. You can check him out on Youtube playing some Dizzie (Tour de force) - he must be up there musn't he?

  5. #129

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    I love Charlie Christiansen, Wes Montgomery, Joe Pass, George Benson and was pleasantly suprised to see Jesse van Ruler mentioned as well.

    As far as improv goes. It's something I think about a lot, I enjoy moments of quiet where my mind drifts off often contemplating a fascet of music and how I think about it. It is a rather boundless subject so I'm sure I'll be doing it until my deathbed.
    The reason I think we are never done as musicians is because we are not done changing as a person until we die. The sublte nuances we reflect in our timing choices and the intervals we are drawn to change with us, and to allow for that we have a lot of practice to do. Whether or not it leads you in a different direction is not the point, it is after all a reflection of the person improvising, not a melody to please your whims.
    The only player I can be is an everchanging me.

  6. #130

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    Agree with you ingreen. In a perfect world, I'd think like Bird, play like Johnny Smith and sound like Kenny Burrell.

  7. #131

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    Jim Hall in this list, I just got pointed to him by an Irish friend, I dig his lines. In the real world I'd have voted for Wakenius. He isn't on this list though, so Hall it is.
    Peace
    Skei (the jazz of life one)

  8. #132

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    I had to vote for Wes. I once asked a guy who was a big fan of jazz and jazz guitar who his favorite was, and his answer was "What genre of jazz are we talking?" I told him that that was the correct answer was Wes Montgomery. In my opinion, he's the type of player who was so good he's better than people who are better than him. I also feel I must say Mike Stern would be a very close second, even though he's not on the list. Even though I kind of hate fusion, I love his stuff. He's also incredibly nice, I had the opportunity to meet him about a year ago. Getting back to the poll, I would be interested to see how people would vote if Wes and Joe Pass weren't options.

  9. #133

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    Quote Originally Posted by bkdavidson
    I had to vote for Wes. I once asked a guy who was a big fan of jazz and jazz guitar who his favorite was, and his answer was "What genre of jazz are we talking?" I told him that that was the correct answer was Wes Montgomery. In my opinion, he's the type of player who was so good he's better than people who are better than him. I also feel I must say Mike Stern would be a very close second, even though he's not on the list. Even though I kind of hate fusion, I love his stuff. He's also incredibly nice, I had the opportunity to meet him about a year ago. Getting back to the poll, I would be interested to see how people would vote if Wes and Joe Pass weren't options.
    Hmmm, tricky. Even though I always say that my playing is from the Kenny Burrell/Grant Green end of things, I would have to say Metheny. He's produced so much music that's actually made me go "wow". Or Benson, when he's not playing soul-pop ("slop") which isn't my cup of tea.

    Wes.......well, this probably sounds like heresy for most people on here , but.....I can appreciate him now BUT I'm not really moved by what he does. I have a couple of albums (including "Smokin'...") and a DVD of him in Europe in the mid-60's. And I can appreciate it on an intellectual level. Just not much emotional stuff going on for me .
    Last edited by mangotango; 05-29-2009 at 06:36 AM.

  10. #134

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    that's easy for me Joe Pass Jim Hall John Pisano and Jimmy Bruno

  11. #135

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    I think I change mine from Pass to Montgomery.

  12. #136

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    Joe Pass kicks ass on everyone else!!!



    This guy is one sick MoFo.
    Last edited by Paul J Edwards; 04-26-2009 at 01:07 AM.

  13. #137
    I think that the earphones dictate a lot things otherwise but the actual mechanics involved clears the way for me.Like what scales are being used/melodic patterns/up a minor third pattens/up ahalf tone in dominant chords.When i sit back and listen knowledge of these things makes the whole experience.

  14. #138
    I think Scofield gets my vote.Maybe on a count that he gets so little love around here.

  15. #139

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    I wouldn't call him "unloved". He did come 8th in this poll, well ahead of my hero, Tal Farlow. I have 10 Sco albums and I think there are a couple of reasons why he doesn't get more "ink" on these pages:

    1 - The obvious focus of this site is Chord Melody. For many people, this is the most attractive aspect of jazz guitar. Sco doesn't do a lot of CM.

    2 - A lot of the analysis here is jazz theory-based. I would never try to explain Cissy Strut or Chank in terms of tritones and Locrians and whatever. The best way, IMO, to understand Sco is to ignore jazz theory and focus on the historical development of Funk. Start mid-60s with Booker T, work on through James Brown, Herbie Hancock, even a touch of Buddy Guy, SRV. Then just smear a thin coat of Bebop over the top and you're getting close.

    Un-discussed at length -yes, maybe. Unloved - definitely not!

  16. #140
    I think the coolist think about poles like this is that they can turn you on to a new player or remind you of one you have been meaning to check out.

  17. #141

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    Early Benson, it doesn't get more exciting than that for guitar. Joe Pass, pretty incredible on a very different (cerebral) level. A lot of great current cats out there too....

  18. #142

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    Well, I voted for Wes some time ago probably due to his early influence on me, but there is one player who appears to have been completely dismissed, or perhaps not considered. The guitarist is Howard Roberts, a wonderfully musical player whose lines are incredibly interesting and thoughtful. Those who rightly like Tal Farlow will know what I mean. Both are outstanding and in a specific jazz guitar genre of their own. So if you haven't heard Roberts (and his music is a bit difficult to come across) make the effort now and you won't be disappointed.

  19. #143

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    quick question about Tal Farlow...
    I do not see why people like him so much? He oviously is a good (technically) player... BUT he is the sloppiest professional musician ive ever heard... It might just be a pet peeve of mine, but his clumsiness on the strings makes it unlistenable to me

  20. #144

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    Quote Originally Posted by Innerurge1
    quick question about Tal Farlow...
    I do not see why people like him so much? He oviously is a good (technically) player... BUT he is the sloppiest professional musician ive ever heard... It might just be a pet peeve of mine, but his clumsiness on the strings makes it unlistenable to me
    Listen to his early recordings with the Red Norvo trio, if that's sloppy I would love to be half as sloppy as that!

  21. #145

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    OK, you might hear the odd mistiming on, say The Return of Tal Farlow, but the thing about him was his incredible musicianship and the lines that he played. There are so many brilliant guitarists but when it comes to following the chords with a solo, and making the solo soar with invention, then Farlow was the man. The nearest you can get to his style is perhaps Howard Roberts.

    If you haven't already hear it, there's a double CD compilation issued by Avidjazz entitled The Heart and Soul of Tal Farlow. It has all the usual standards but breathtakingly played. It makes you wonder how he thought of these ideas.

    And, he was a nice guy too!
    Last edited by Ged; 07-21-2009 at 12:50 PM.

  22. #146

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    My vote was for Grant Green. That said, I really dislike polls. Presuming that all artists are mature, with a distinctive individual voice on their instrument, it's the proverbial comparing apples to oranges. I also thinks it reflects a bothersome (to me, anyway) aspect of a consumer-material-oriented society: 'Choice' being all-conflated with blurry notions of taste, quality, self-esteem etc.

    I especially dislike polls where it's about choosing just one of something.

    So, okay, I chose Grant Green. He's just my all-time fave. But I also love Wes, Frissell, Scofield, Abercrombie, Christian, Leahey, yadda yadda yadda.

    Apples and oranges, oranges and apples. In the back of my mind I hear that dang Queen song 'We Are The Champions,' blaring at huge sporting spectacle-events. Another big night of bread, circuses and gladiators down at Caesar's Colisseum.

    End of rant about polls.

  23. #147

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    The value of polls is that they throw up names that we may not have heard before and give us new music to check out. Beyond that, of course, they mean nothing. If we automatically followed the popular mass-product, we wouldn't be listening to jazz!

    I like that Rolling Stone Poll of the 100 Greatest Guitar solos because I found some players I'd never listened to before, Buckethead, Eric Johnson and a couple of others, but results of the poll were laughable. Hendrix was the only black player! In the top 100! I think Cliffs of Dover by Eric Johnson was Number 18 but nothing else by Eric made the Top 100! Does this mean that Eric's career consists of 25 years of rubbish and 1 perfect day?

    I didn't learn any new names from our poll but there were some good leads thrown up in the subsequent discussion, and for that reason I think it was worthwhile. I've considered starting a 2009 Poll but I don't think, from the discussion on these pages, the results would be any different.

    What might be useful is a "Players under 50" poll. This might throw up some new names we could listen to.

  24. #148

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    Quote Originally Posted by Banksia
    The value of polls is that they throw up names that we may not have heard before and give us new music to check out. Beyond that, of course, they mean nothing. If we automatically followed the popular mass-product, we wouldn't be listening to jazz!
    I never before considered that aspect. Okay, so polls can help folks discover players heretofore unknown to them.

    And I failed to notice that the poll was for 'fave' guitarist--not best.

    That said, I ain't that fond of Favorite Lists, either.

    Oops. Forgot another aspect, which ties into the 'learning of players heretofore unknown to you' aspect: such lists are so tiny...there's billions of people on earth, ya know?.

    So, a few more personal faves:

    -Sonny Sharrock
    -James Blood Ulmer
    -Boogaloo Joe Jones
    -Tom Verlaine (categorized as 'rock' but listen to what he plays, regardless of setting.)
    -Nao Hakamada (ditto as above, hasn't recorded much. NYC-based.)
    -Harry Leahey
    -Leni Stern
    -Willie 'Little Beaver' Hale. (dig into 70's session work, listen past the disco. Played bop-funk on a 12-string)
    -TONS of african guitarists/guitaring, no matter 'genre'....a random few:



  25. #149
    Kenny Burrell.

  26. #150

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    Quote Originally Posted by Banksia
    I wouldn't call him "unloved". He did come 8th in this poll, well ahead of my hero, Tal Farlow. I have 10 Sco albums and I think there are a couple of reasons why he doesn't get more "ink" on these pages:

    1 - The obvious focus of this site is Chord Melody. For many people, this is the most attractive aspect of jazz guitar. Sco doesn't do a lot of CM.

    2 - A lot of the analysis here is jazz theory-based. I would never try to explain Cissy Strut or Chank in terms of tritones and Locrians and whatever. The best way, IMO, to understand Sco is to ignore jazz theory and focus on the historical development of Funk. Start mid-60s with Booker T, work on through James Brown, Herbie Hancock, even a touch of Buddy Guy, SRV. Then just smear a thin coat of Bebop over the top and you're getting close.

    Un-discussed at length -yes, maybe. Unloved - definitely not!
    Yes, I agree Tal Farlow was unique. and I appreciate your analysis. Gads, I heard him in person a couple times, probably 40 years go. Boy, was I ever impressed. First thing I did was to remove the pick guard from my Epi Triump and start trying to pick above the bridge. He was my guy back then. But now, it is Wes M. and George B., mostly because I threw away the pick!. At 87, it is hard to hang on to the Damn thing! But wasn't Les P. a wonder? Man, what a great contribution that man did for the electric guitar. I am really impressed at the the number of fine guitar players out there now. Of course, us old guys always think of a dozen or so of the greats (in our day), and hopefully they left their mark or tradition, but I still admire all of the really good players out there and many are members of this forum! Right on guys and gals, there is nothing better than good jazz with a swinging beat. (I was trained as a classical violinist and still respect and enjoy the classics.) But, man is there anything better than when you hear that improv. in your head and let it fly when it's your turn to hit it? Right on Jazzers!