# The 50 Best Jazz Guitarists Of All Time: Videos

- Link: https://jazzblues.eu/2018/02/22/the-50-best-jazz-guitarists-of-all-time-videos/
- Published: 2018-02-22T10:22:53+01:00
- Author: https://JazzBlues.EU

**Even the very best jazz guitarists rarely receive the attention and plaudits that
the genre’s horn blowers –saxophonists and trumpeters, in particular – receive. 
Perhaps that’s because, traditionally, the guitar, which superseded the banjo in
jazz rhythm sections, was primarily perceived as a supporting and accompanying instrument
rather than a viable vehicle for solo improvisation.**

Another reason why the spotlight didn’t fall on jazz guitar players in the music’s
formative years was that their instrument was acoustic and didn’t have the ability
to cut though the rest of the ensemble like brass and woodwind instruments could.
So while the horns basked in the limelight, guitarists had to make do strumming 
chords and comping in the background.

![The 50 Best Jazz Guitarists Of All Time](https://i0.wp.com/www.udiscovermusic.
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But electric amplification changed everything for the role of the guitar in jazz.
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. 
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. 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 Greene, one of the pre-eminent swing-era
axe men – were rarely granted, or even desired, solo passages.

But there were exceptions. 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. 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.

Charlie Christian was the next significant guitarist in jazz. 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. 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.

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. Montgomery, like his idol, Charlie Christian,
could play single-note lines like a horn player, but also incorporated chords and
octaves in his solos. His jaw-dropping abilities made him seem super-human and he
was soon hailed as one of the best jazz guitarists to have walked the planet.

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.

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. 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.

Want to know more? Here is our rundown of the 50 Best Jazz Guitarists Of All Time…

**50: John Pizzarelli (born 1960)**
 Having a noted guitar-playing father (swing
specialist Bucky Pizzarelli) no doubt accelerated this New Jersey fretboardist’s
musical development; he found himself playing with the likes of Benny Goodman and
Clark Terry while still a teenager. Pizzarelli’s tasteful guitar work has graced
recordings by musicians as diverse as Stephane Grappelli, Rosemary Clooney and Paul
McCartney, earning him a name as one of the best jazz guitarists of his generation.

**49: Norman Brown (born 1970)**
 Jimi Hendrix and The Isley Brothers were this 
Grammy-winning Kansas City-born guitarist’s first influences, but he changed direction
after hearing Wes Montgomery. In the 90s, Brown began his solo career serving up
a tasteful amalgam of George Benson-esque melodic lines over chugging, sensual smooth
jazz grooves.

**48: Mary Osborne (1921-1992)**
 Female guitarists are rare in jazz, but this North
Dakotan string-picker, whose musical roots intertwined ragtime and country music,
could certainly more than hold her own against the male guitar-slingers. Osborne
took New York by storm in the 40s but only made a few records under her own name.

**47: Russell Malone (born 1963)**
 Though in demand as a sideman (his credits include
Jimmy Smith, Diana Krall, Roy Hargrove, Harry Connick Jr, and Sonny Rollins) this
Georgia guitarist has a string of fine solo albums to his name. Malone takes a more
traditional, straight-ahead, bop-tinged approach to jazz guitar, favouring a rich,
mellow tone and combining Grant Green-esque horn-like melodies with subtle chord
sequences.

**46: Emily Remler (1957-1990)**
 A tragic heart attack robbed the world of this
Manhattan-born guitarist’s talent, who began playing at the age of 10. Though indebted
to her inspirations, Wes Montgomery and Joe Pass, Remler has earned her place among
the best jazz guitarists in history thanks to the development of her own style, 
which combined a languid grace and emotional intelligence with virtuosic fretboard
work.

**45: Charlie Hunter (born 1967)**
 Not content with the normal six-string guitar,
Rhode Island native Hunter prefers to play on custom-built seven- and eight-string
instruments on which he can play basslines and create contrapuntal patterns. A member
of Michael Franti’s The Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy in the early 90s, he established
a solo career soon afterwards, spending five years at Blue Note. Marrying his jazz
DNA with funk, R&B, rock and pop elements, Hunter is the author of an unclassifiable
sound and style that makes his a unique voice among the world’s best jazz guitarists.

**44: Kurt Rosenwinkel (born 1970)**
 Not averse to using an array of effect pedals
and guitar synthesisers – anathema to most straight-ahead jazz guitarists – this
Philadelphia son also likes to take creative risks and experiment in diverse musical
settings. He famously collaborated with hip-hop troupe A Tribe Called Quest and 
its leader, Q-Tip. An unpredictable player who always surprises.

**43: Julian Lage (born 1987)**
 In the vanguard of the newest generation of jazz
guitar stars, Lage hails from Santa Rosa, California, and was a child prodigy who
went to work with vibraphone maestro Gary Burton while a teenager. Though he only
has four solo albums to his name, Lage’s reputation is burgeoning, thanks to his
skill, imagination and creation of a sound that’s all his own. Though young, he 
has the makings of a talent who could move further up ranks of the world’s best 
jazz guitarists in the years to come.

**42: Earl Klugh (born 1953)**
 A disciple of the nylon-stringed Spanish guitar,
Detroit-born Klugh was inspired to take up the instrument after seeing country star
Chet Atkins on TV. Precociously talented, he was mentored by jazz great Yusef Lateef
and then played with George Benson before establishing himself as a solo artist 
in the late 70s. A tasteful, sensitive musician whose limpid fingerboard filigrees
are gracefully rendered, Klugh’s striking sound is a blend of simplicity and elegance.

**41: James “Blood” Ulmer (born 1940)**
 Starting out as an orthodox rhythm’n’blues
axe slinger, Ulmer radically transformed his style in the early 70s as he fell under
the spell of free jazz maven Ornette Coleman and the latter’s revolutionary harmolodic
concept (a unique system for collective improvisation). As a result, Ulmer created
a discursive idiom defined by scratchy chords and jagged melodic shards. More recently,
Ulmer has explored his blues roots, though his sui generis approach to jazz guitar
remains unparalleled among the best jazz guitarists in history.

**40: Eric Gale (1938-1994)**
 A prolific session ace with perfect pitch whose main
musical domain was R&B and funk, Gale – as some of his solo albums attested – could
also play some mean and dexterous bop-influenced jazz guitar. At the root of his
sound was a deep blues core, which manifested itself in a plaintive, BB King-esque
crying tone.

**39: Eddie Lang (1902-1933)**
 A crucial architect in the evolution of big band
swing guitar (he played in Paul Whiteman’s and Bing Crosby’s large ensembles in 
the early 30s), Lang (born Salvatore Massarro) earns his place among the world’s
best jazz guitarists thanks to the pivotal role he played in getting the guitar 
accepted as a viable jazz instrument (replacing the traditional banjo). A huge influence
on Django Reinhardt, Eddie Lang is rightly hailed as the “father of the jazz guitar”.

**38: Larry Carlton (born 1948)**
 Like his contemporaries Steve Khan and Lee Ritenour,
Larry Carlton was a first-call session guitarist in the 70s and his distinctive,
jazz-informed blues-rock sound defined seminal albums such as Steely Dan’s The Royal
Scam and Joni Mitchell’s Hejira. Carlton’s own work has been more fusion-oriented,
with his early albums being a precursor to what is now called smooth jazz.

**37: Laurindo Almeida (1917-1995)**
 Hailing from São Paulo, self-taught Almeida’s
passport to the US was writing the lucrative song ‘Johnny Peddler’, which was hit
for vocal group The Andrews Sisters. He then joined Stan Kenton’s band and, in addition
to being a prolific recording artist, found plenty of work as a West Coast session
musician. At home with both acoustic and electric guitars, Almeida was a pioneer
who blended jazz with the sounds and styles of Brazil.

**36: George Van Eps (1913-1998)**
 With his mellow, well-rounded tone, this New
Jersey-born guitarist was first drawn to the banjo as a youngster, but after hearing
Eddie Lang playing with big bands, switched to the guitar. He made his radio debut
at 13 and then, in the 30s, as his notoriety gained momentum, he played in several
big bands, including Bennie Goodman’s. Van Eps designed his own seven-string guitar,
which added lower bass notes and allowed him to develop his own finger-picking style.

**35: Sonny Sharrock (1940-1994)**
 Not many of the world’s best jazz guitarists
can also claim to have started out singing doo-wop in the 50s. That’s how New Yorker
Warren “Sonny” Sharrock began his careeer, though in the 60s he became one of the
leading lights of avant-garde jazz guitar. The saxophone was his preferred choice
of instrument (he had fallen in love with John Coltrane’s sound) but his asthma 
prevented him taking up a woodwind instrument. Instead, he turned to the guitar,
and his signature style – which was loud and funky – used horn-like lead lines as
well as rock-style amp feedback.

**34: Howard Roberts (1929-1992)**
 Hailing from Phoenix, Arizona, Roberts picked
up his first guitar at the age of eight and was working professionally at 15. He
moved to Los Angeles and was soon in demand as a session ace, eventually working
with the elite group of sessioneers known as The Wrecking Crew. An adherent of the
West Coast “cool school”, Roberts’ style combined a detached emotional restraint
with fleet-of-finger technical virtuosity. As well as recording many solo albums
for a plethora of labels, he also worked as a record producer. Outside of jazz, 
Roberts appeared on songs by The Monkees and The Electric Prunes.

**33: Kevin Eubanks (born 1957)**
 The nephew of jazz pianist Ray Bryant, Philly-
born Eubanks arrived at the guitar after trying his hand at the violin and trumpet.
His big break came was when he moved to New York in 1980 and played with Art Blakey.
1983 saw the release of Eubanks’ debut album and he’s been recording regularly ever
since. A dexterous guitarist who’s comfortable with both electric and acoustic instruments,
Eubanks combines flowing melodic lines with crisp percussive effects and a sumptuous
harmonic content.

**32: Bill Connors (born 1949)**
 Though his tenure with Return To Forever was short
and overshadowed by the arrival of his flamboyant replacement, Al Di Meola, in 1974,
Connors played on the group’s seminal _Hymn Of The Seventh Galaxy_ album and takes
his place among the world’s best jazz guitarists thanks to his importance in the
evolution of jazz-rock guitar. The Los Angeles guitarist created a signature, readily
identifiable style fusing jazz chromatics and advanced chord changes with elements
of blues and rock.

**31: Steve Khan (born 1947)**
 The son of renowned songwriter Sammy Cahn, Steve
Khan excelled as a versatile studio sideman (his credits range from Steely Dan and
Bob James to Billy Joel and Aretha Franklin) while pursuing a solo career that has
garnered two Grammy nominations. In the 70s, Khan successfully fused jazz with rock
and later added piquant Latin flavours to expand his stylistic palette. Still recording
regularly, Khan is one of the pre-eminent jazz guitarists working today.

**30: Lee Ritenour (born 1952)**
 Nicknamed Captain Fingers, LA-born Ritenour recorded
with The Mamas & The Papas while still a teenager before becoming an in-demand session
ace whose clients included Frank Sinatra, Barry White and Aretha Franklin. Ritenour’s
solo career took off in 1976 when he followed a fusion path that was funkier, lighter
and less grandiose than bands such as Return To Forever. He is also a former member
of the influential smooth jazz group Fourplay.

**29: Pat Martino (born 1944)**
 This Philly axe-meister (born Pat Azzara) is a 
musical shape-shifter who can switch from straight-ahead jazz to fusion and post-
bop at the drop of a plectrum. He served his apprenticeship with soul-jazzers Willis
Jackson, Brother Jack McDuff and Richard “Groove” Holmes before establishing his
solo career in the latter half of the 60s. Keen to share his knowledge, Martino 
has also written textbooks on approaches to guitar playing.

**28: Ralph Towner (born 1940)**
 Despite now sitting comfortably among the world’s
best jazz guitarists, the guitar wasn’t Ralph Towner’s first instrument of choice.
He began on trumpet, then moved to piano, before finally arriving at the classical
guitar, which he studied in Austria for two years. After cutting his teeth with 
the Paul Winter Consort, in 1970 Towner co-founded Oregon, an all-acoustic band 
that blended chamber jazz with Eastern sounds and which was a forerunner of New 
Age music. Though the band is still going strong today, Towner has also enjoyed 
a fertile solo career, and his striking guitar work – limpid and crystalline – remains
a thing of beauty.

**27: John Abercrombie (1944-2017)**
 A prolific recording artist for Manfred Eicher’s
Munich-based ECM label since the 70s, this native New Yorker cited Chuck Berry and
Barney Kessel among his influences. A member of pioneering jazz-rock band Dreams,
in the 70s Ambercrombie played with the likes of Gil Evans and in supergroup Gateway,
while developing a warm, pastel-hued sound that was infused with a melodic lyricism.

**26: Bill Frisell (born 1951)**
 A student of jazz guitar greats Johnny Smith and
Jim Hall, Maryland-born Frisell has found his own stylistic niche by blending jazz
with elements from country, folk and rock music. His ability to conjure a particular
mood or atmosphere with effects is also part of his signature style. An eclectic,
versatile guitarist who has helped expand the boundaries of the instrument.

**25: Freddie Greene (1911-1987)**
 Hailing from South Carolina, Green was a long-
serving stalwart of the Count Basie band and spent almost half a century with the
jazz aristocrat. He began on the banjo before graduating to the six-string guitar,
and rose to fame in the big band swing era. Rarely taking solos, Greene preferred
to help drive the rhythm section by providing a flowing and hard-swinging chordal
accompaniment. He wrote the book on big band guitar paying.

**24: Herb Ellis (1921-2010)**
 There’s a slight but perceptible country twang in
the bebop-rooted style of this noted Texas guitarist, who came on the radar of most
jazz aficionados due to his indispensable presence in the Oscar Peterson Trio during
the 50s. Together with fellow fretboard luminaries Joe Pass, Charlie Byrd and Barney
Kessell, Ellis co-founded a jazz guitar supergroup called The Great Guitars.

**23: Al Di Meola (born 1954)**
 A veritable fretboard speed king, New Jersey’s 
Di Meola fused the passionate, fleet-of-finger intensity of flamenco music with 
the visceral crunch of Santana-esque Latin rock. He was plucked from obscurity at
age 19 when he replaced Bill Connors in Chick Corea’s Return To Forever and then
went on to forge a successful solo career.

**22: Lenny Breau (1941-1984)**
 From Auburn, Maine, and born into a family of country
musicians, Breau was a member of his family’s band for several years when he was
a teenager, but left after angering his father by playing a jazz-inflected solo.
After that, the technically brilliant Breau gravitated towards jazz and also assimilated
Flamenco music, which resulted in a distinctive personal style that never forgot
its country roots.

**21: Mike Stern (born 1953)**
 Born Mike Sedgwick in Boston, Stern played in drummer
Billy Cobham’s fusion band in the 70s before joining a resurgent Miles Davis on 
the comeback trail in 1981. After leaving Miles in ’83, Stern began a solo career
that showed him blossoming into an all-round guitarist who can marry the visceral
power of blues and rock with jazz’s advanced vocabulary.

**20: John Scofield (born 1951)**
 Like his contemporary Mike Stern, Ohio-born Scofield
played fusion with Billy Cobham and then joined a rejuvenated Miles Davis for two
years (he was Stern’s replacement). With his acerbic tone and blues-infused string
pulls, Scofield developed an immediately recognisable style and has recorded in 
a breathtaking variety of styles (embracing jam band funk, orchestral jazz and even
country music).

**19: Charlie Byrd (1925-1999)**
 A jazz proponent of the acoustic, nylon-stringed,
classical guitar, Virginia-born Byrd studied with Spanish master Andre Segovia and
then began to make his mark as a recording artist in the late 50s. His biggest mainstream
breakthrough was the innovative album Jazz Samba, recorded in tandem with saxophonist
Stan Getz in 1962, which fused jazz improv with sinuous Brazilian rhythms and instantly
put him on the map as one of the world’s best jazz guitarists. Byrd’s sound, with
its finger-picked gossamer filigrees, is a unique one in jazz.

**18: Allan Holdsworth (1946-2017)**
 Something of a musical polymath, this supernal
British jazz guitarist advanced the vocabulary of his instrument by using unusual
scales and absorbing elements from progressive rock (including effects pedals). 
Though he often used ornate finger-picking, he liked to articulate melodies in a
smooth, legato style, reflecting his interest in the sound of the saxophone.

**17: Larry Coryell (born 1943-2017)**
 Sometimes dubbed The Godfather Of Fusion,
Galveston-born Coryell (real name Laurence Van DeLinder III) was Gabor Szabo’s replacement
in Chico Hamilton’s band and began to make his name in the late 60s as a proponent
of a new musical hybrid called jazz-rock. He led his own fusion band, Eleventh House,
in the 70s and later joined forces with John McLaughlin and Paco de Lucía to form
The Guitar Trio. A hugely influential axe god who bridged the divide between jazz
and rock, Coryell will forever be remembered as one of the best jazz guitarists 
to ever pick up the instrument.

**16: Jimmy Raney (1927-1995)**
 Tal Farlow’s replacement in the Red Norvo Trio,
Kentucky-born Raney branched out as a bandleader in the mid-50s, triumphing in _DownBeat_
magazine’s Best Guitarist polls on two occasions during that time. His eloquent 
style, with its lucid melodic lines and cool harmonies, won him many fans and his
numerous credits include recording stints with Stan Getz, Oliver Nelson, Lalo Schifrin
and Eddie Harris.

**15: John McLaughlin (born 1942)**
 Miles Davis was so smitten with McLaughlin’s
guitar playing that he named a song after him (on _Bitches Brew_). Before that, 
the Yorkshire-born axe deity made his name as a first-call session musician in London
during the 60s when he appeared on myriad pop and R&B records. He played with Tony
Williams’ Lifetime before, in the 70s, co-founding the influential jazz-rock supergroup
Mahavishnu Orchestra. Combining technical brilliance with emotional depth and a 
genuine appreciation of Indian music, McLaughlin remains one of the best jazz guitarists
in the world, and has led the way in jazz-rock for five decades.

**14: Gabor Szabo (1936-1982)**
 With his meld of Hungarian Gypsy folk music, extended
modal vamps, Indian ragas and psychedelic colouration, this versatile Budapest-born
guitarist exerted a huge influence on Mexican axe god Carlos Santana. His rise to
fame was accelerated by his presence in Chico Hamilton’s pathfinding jazz group 
in the early 60s, before he embarked on a successful solo career.

**13: Johnny Smith (1922-2013)**
 Originally from Birmingham, Alabama, Smith was
a precociously talented musician who learned to play guitar as a pre-teen while 
hanging around in local pawnshops. His all-round versatility (he toured with a hillbilly
band before gravitating towards jazz and could play anything from swing and bebop
to avant-garde classical music) meant that he was much in demand. Smith was also
a noted composer: his classic 1954 song ‘Walk, Don’t Run’ became an instrumental
standard and was a hit for Chet Atkins and later, in 1964, The Ventures.

**12: Stanley Jordan (born 1959)**
 Back in 1985, this Chicago-born fretboard sorcerer,
then just 26, caused a sensation with his Blue Note debut LP, _Magic Touch_, which
showcased Jordan’s remarkably unorthodox technique of playing the guitar by tapping
the fingerboard with his fingertips to produce sounds. Such was Jordan’s digital
dexterity that, much like a pianist, he could articulate melodies and chords at 
the same time with both hands. A phenomenal talent who more than earns his place
among the world’s best jazz guitarists.

**11: Tal Farlow (1921-1998)**
 North Carolinian Talmadge Farlow was a self-taught
guitarist who, in his early days, worked as a sign-painter by day and a musician
at night. He was inspired to build his first electric guitar himself after hearing
Charlie Christian with the Benny Goodman band. His solo career gained pace in the
mid-50s and he quickly acquired the nickname The Octopus, which referred to the 
combination of his large hands and jaw-dropping technical prowess.

**10: Pat Metheny (born 1954)**
 This chameleonic fretboard sorcerer from Missouri–
whose album credits range from David Bowie and Joni Mitchell to Ornette Coleman –
cites the influence of Wes Montgomery and Jim Hall as key components in the foundation
of his own unique style. Lyrical, harmonically rich and yet also intent on dissolving
musical boundaries, Metheny’s shape-shifting music is hard to classify, but that
hasn’t stopped him nabbing 20 Grammy awards. Not only one of the best jazz guitarists
in history, Metheny is, without doubt, the most progressive guitarist in jazz right
now.

**9: Joe Pass (1929-1994)**
 A New Jersey native with Sicilian ancestry, Pass (born
Joe Passalaqua) started playing guitar at the age of nine and advanced so rapidly
that he was gigging by the time he was 14. A supremely versatile guitarist, he patented
a singular and innovative style with which he could articulate melodic lines using
deft sequences of chord progressions. Pass spent many years accompanying singer 
Ella Fitzgerald and also played extensively with pianist Oscar Peterson.

**8: Kenny Burrell (born 1931)**
 A go-to sideman as well as being a recording artist
in his own right, Detroit-born Burrell drew inspiration from blues music as well
as Charlie Christian and Django Reinhardt. He started playing guitar at the age 
of 12 and made his recording debut eight years later with trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie.
Burrell became a key figure in the hard bop movement and can play soulfully as well
as swing hard. His myriad credits range from Sonny Rollins and Donald Byrd to Billie
Holiday and Tony Bennett.

**7: Barney Kessell (1923-2004)**
 A member of the 60s LA session mafia dubbed The
Wrecking Crew, this guitar master was originally from Tuskegee, Oklahoma, and came
to prominence in the 50s, both as a leader and a sideman (he famously accompanied
singer Julie London on her 1955 LP, Julie Is Her Name, which featured ‘Cry Me A 
River’). Fittingly, for one of the best jazz guitarists in history, Kessell played
with the great and good of the jazz world (everyone from Billie Holiday to Sonny
Rollins) and was noted for his mellow sound and judicious choice of chords.

**6: Grant Green (1935-1979)**
 A prolific recording artist at Blue Note during 
the 60s and early 70s, St Louis-born Green, who was influenced by bebop horn players,
adopted a linear approach to the guitar, favouring single melodic lines over chordal
accompaniment. His minimalist, less-is-more aesthetic, with its blues-infused phrasing,
was often highlighted within an organ trio setting.

**5: George Benson (born 1943)**
 Influenced by Charlie Christian and mentored by
Wes Montgomery (he’s often considered the latter’s heir apparent – no finer compliment
for any of the world’s best jazz guitarists), this Pittsburgh-born guitar slinger
was a child prodigy who became a jazz and soul superstar in the 70s when he reinvented
himself as a vocalist. A dexterous fretboardist out of the soul-jazz school, Benson’s
calling card is doing a scat vocal while doubling the melody on the guitar. Probably
the greatest jazz guitarist alive right now.

**4: Jim Hall (1930-2013)**
 Born in Buffalo, New York, Ohio-raised Hall started
playing guitar aged 10 and had a life-changing epiphany went he first heard Charlie
Christian, who had a profound influence on his own style. Noted for his warm, mellow
sound, Hall is a master of utilising space and creating tonal contrasts. He earns
his place among the world’s best jazz guitarists thanks to an eclectic choice of
collaborators and wide range of musical settings that helped to expanded the lexicon
of the jazz guitar.

**3: Charlie Christian (1916-1942)**
 A true jazz guitar revolutionary, Texas-born
Christian rose to fame in Benny Goodman’s band during the years 1939-41. He pioneered
the electric guitar in jazz, which, combined with his penchant for using single-
note lines (like a horn player), took the instrument out of the rhythm section and
into the foreground, making it a valid solo instrument. An early proponent of what
evolved into bebop, Christian was only 25 when he died, succumbing to tuberculosis.

**2: Django Reinhardt (1910-1953)**
 The founding father of swing-influenced European“
hot” jazz in the 30s, this Belgian-born Romani boasted a prodigious technical ability
despite only playing with his thumb and two middle fingers (after a fire had left
his other two digits paralysed). He was able to combine speed, precision and a dazzling
manual dexterity with imagination and deep feeling. A true jazz giant whose playing
never ceases to astonish.

**1: Wes Montgomery (1923-1968)**
 Topping our list of the best jazz guitarists 
of all time is a revered and profoundly influential Indianapolis fretboard genius
who couldn’t read a note of music. Just using a calloused thumb to pick out notes,
Montgomery was inspired by the bebop horn-like phrasing of his idol, Charlie Christian,
but offered a more advanced harmonic style that incorporated block chords and the
use of parallel octaves. He died too young but his music and its influence lives
on.

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