Here is our rundown of the 50 Best Jazz Guitarists Of All Time… 50: John Pizzarelli (born 1960) While you’re reading, listen to our Best Jazz Guitarists playlist here. But one thing that unites them all is their debt to the early pioneers, who took jazz guitar out of the shadows and into the light. Since then, jazz guitarists (Pat Metheny, for example) have generally been a more eclectic breed, absorbing an array of influences, sounds and stylistic elements from all kinds of different musical sources. Montgomery’s influence was deep and wide, but the 60s witnessed the arrival of a new breed of jazz guitar slinger (think Larry Coryell and John McLaughlin) that combined jazz’s complex harmonic language with the high-decibel dynamics of rock music. His jaw-dropping abilities made him seem superhuman and he was soon hailed as one of the best jazz guitarists to have walked the planet. Montgomery, like his idol, Charlie Christian, could play single-note lines like a horn player, but also incorporated chords and octaves in his solos. Their ilk proliferated in the 50s, though the guitarist who stood head and shoulders above everyone else was a modest genius from Indianapolis called Wes Montgomery, who rose to fame as the 50s met the 60s. Christian’s advanced harmonic conception anticipated the development of bebop, which, though a horn-led sonic revolution (its main architects were saxophonist Charlie Parker and trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie), nonetheless saved a bit of the spotlight for some of the best jazz guitarists of the 40s and 50s. As part of Benny Goodman’s band, he blew people’s minds with his ability to solo using single, flowing melodic lines like a horn player. His phenomenal fingerboard work was an inspiration to guitarists everywhere and gave rise to a new generation of jazz guitar star: virtuosic soloists as well as solid rhythm section men.Ĭharlie Christian was the next significant guitarist in jazz.
Enter Django Reinhardt, the revolutionary Belgian gypsy guitarist who made his name playing in smaller ensembles and redefined the role of the guitar in jazz. Even so, due to the propulsive nature of big band swing and its emphasis on the interplay of the horns, the best jazz guitarists of the era – like the Count Basie band’s Freddie Green, one of the pre-eminent swing-era axe men – were rarely granted, or even desired, solo passages.īut there were exceptions. Now, though, not only could their percussive rhythm work be clearly audible in relation to the rest of the ensemble, but the possibility of playing solo passages had also become a tangible reality. Introduced in 1931, the hollow-bodied electric guitar was immediately sought-after by guitarists struggling to be heard in the swing era of brass-heavy big bands. But electric amplification changed everything for the role of the guitar in jazz.
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