Jazz Guitarist Recommendations

Not a new player, but Steve Khan always sounds pretty fresh to me. Try an album of his called Got My Mental, from 1996, or the double live album Suitcase.

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www.jazzshelf.org

 

I used to spend a lot of time here, and posted a bit, but I had to quit cold turkey because I wasn't getting any work done. Each log-in meant hours of compulsive reading of 500-message threads; I couldn't tear myself away.

I dropped in now just to see what y'all were saying about the Beatle reissues and quickly found a thread that I can enthusiastically post to.

Kevin O'Neil played guitar in Anthony Braxton's band in the few years surrounding the turn of the century, and he's amazing. Unhumanly fast with some startlingly new twists on harmonic/melodic convention. The two sets I recommend (since you said you're not looking for avant-garde) are 23 Standards and 20 Standards, live 4 disk boxes from Leo Records.

And I'll second the recommendations for Jim Hall, Marc Ribot & John Scofield, and add the great Pat Martino.

 

You asked for contemporary players, so that's what I'll stick with. Some of my favorites:

Kurt Rosenwinkel

Joshua Breakstone

Toninho Horta (fantastic Brazilian/jazz guitarist - much of his output is a little outside the jazz realm but check out ONCE I LOVED (Verve Japan) if you can find a copy, a CD from the late 80s where he plays jazz on both electric and acoustic guitars, in a trio setting with Gary Peacock and Billy Higgins - amazing! Pat Metheny is a big fan of Toninho)

Howard Alden

John Abercrombie

Anthony Wilson

 

I am very familiar with Benson and Pass and somewhat familiar with Barney Kessel and Tal Farlow to a lesser degree. I have Jim Hall but I am not familiar with Jimmy Raney. I wil check him out.

 

Appreciated

I really appreciate all the replies and I am definitely going to do some research and check out several of the suggested but I guess when I was specifying "new" I should have defined it a little more as maybe someone who began playing this decade.

Thanks

 

Ray Russell
Sonny Sharrock
Masayuki Takayanagi
Early Nels Cline

 

I would recommend picking up the latest CD by Andy Summers, titled "Earth + Sky". The line-up includes Vinnie Colaiuta: Drums, Abraham Laboriel: Bass, John Beasley: Keyboards, John Novello: Keyboards, Katisse Buckingham: Saxophone. It doesn't get much more heavyweight than Colaiuta and Laboriel. I recommend all of Summers' jazz albums without reservation. He is amazing. "The X Tracks" is a compilation from his later material from before Earth + Sky. All his jazz work is universally amazing.

I also really like John Scofield, he's a much more obvious answer.

 

Ted Dunbar

http://www.jazzdiscography.com/Artists/Dunbar/td-disc.htm

 

I'm struck by how few, how little, we can suggest to the OP.

 

Guitar is not a particularly noteworthy instrument in straight-ahead jazz and bop. Trumpet, sax, bass, drums and piano played a more significant role and few jazz guitarists made a name for themselves, even after fusion came along.

 

That was your 666th posting on the forum. Congratulations but I hate it when things like that happen!

 

Hard to go wrong with the first release from the Guitarchives series GTR-0001 ... Lenny Breau with Dave Young "Live at Bourbon St."

2 CDs of amazing modern interpretations of jazz classics impeccably and exquisitely rendered live from just one guitar and bass.

 

He's not a new artist but Earl Klugh is one of those jazz fusion artists that I can highly recommend.
Others are George Benson, Larry Carlton, Lee Ritenour, John Tropea, Chalie Byrd, and Laurindo Almeida.

Recommended albums:
"One On One" (with Bob James)
"Two Of A Kind" (with Bob James)
"Finger Paintings"
"Heart Strings"

 

According to these guys here are the Top 100 Jazz Guitarists

Wes Montgomery was what first came to mind.
Larry Carlton, Pat Methany and Hiram Bullock there after...

They are on that list.

Django too.

 

Thanks for posting the link of 100 Greatest Guitarists

1. Wes Montgomery
2. Django Reinhardt
3. Pat Metheny
4. Joe Pass
5. Charlie Christian
6. John McLaughlin
7. Allan Holdsworth
8. Grant Green
9. John Scofield
10. Jim Hall
11. Larry Coryell
12. Kenny Burrell
13. Bill Frisell
14. Larry Carlton
15. Pat Martino
16. Mike Stern
17. Al Di Meola
18. Lenny Breau
19. Herb Ellis
20. John Abercrombie
21. George Benson
22. Lee Ritenour
23. Tal Farlow
24. Lonnie Johnson
25. Eddie Lang
26. Robert Conti
27. Johnny Smith
28. Bill Connors
29. George Van Eps
30. Jimmy Bruno
31. Jimmy Raney
32. Hank Garland
33. Joe Diorio
34. Barney Kessel
35. Kurt Rosenwinkel
36. Oscar Moore
37. Les Paul
38. Jeff Golub
39. Ed Bickert
40. Russ Freeman
41. Derek Bailey
42. Charlie Hunter
43. Martin Taylor
44. Howard Roberts
45. Stanley Jordan
46. Ralph Towner
47. Chet Atkins
48. Scott Henderson
49. George Barnes
50. Gabor Szabo
51. Mark Stefani
52. Thom Rotella
53. John Pizzarelli
54. Charley Byrd
55. Ted Greene
56. Billy Bauer
57. Henry Johnson
58. Billy Bean
59. Sonny Greenwich
60. Dean Parks
61. Steve Khan
62. Frank Gambale
63. Andy Summers
64. Russell Malone
65. Ronny Jordan
66. Bireli Lagrene
67. Earl Klugh
68. Grant Geissman
69. Ken Navarro
70. Harry Volpe
71. Paul Bollenback
72. Lorne Lofsky
73. Nguyen Le
74. Robben Ford
75. Daryl Stuermer
76. Phil Upchurch
77. Ulf Wakenius
78. Hiram Bullock
79. Sonny Sharrock
80. Nick Webb
81. Tony Mottola
82. Bucky Pizzarelli
83. Norman Brown
84. Tiny Grimes
85. Tommy Tedesco
86. Mark Whitfield
87. Julio Fernandez
88. Marc Ribot
89. Greg Carmichael
90. John Pisano
91. Emily Remler
92. Brian Hughes
93. Fitzroy Coleman
94. Mick Goodrick
95. Kevin Eubanks
96. Carl Kress
97. Wolfgang Muthspiel
98. Tuck Andress
99. Robert Normann
100. Howard Alden

 

This is going off-topic. The OP asked for guitarists who've emerged in the past 10 years. Most of these are irrelevant. With respect.

P.S. The title of the original post could have been better phrased.

 

We're not intentionally thread-crapping here. Sorry if it turned out that way. Sometimes we have to respond to the post of other forum members within the same thread.

 

Yeah, but as message #30 indicates, we're not answering his quest by offering names such as the first 17 on that list. Lenny Breau, #18, I will search out as an unfamiliar name I keep coming across. I didn't mean to thread-crap.

 

We should control our excitements in answering an op's question.
Sometimes we are becoming careless and insensitive to the op's needs.
We should make it a habit to read carefully what the op is asking for before we press "send" and I am guilty of not doing that.

 

Great Jazz guitarists are worth mentioning regardless of the OP question and if you don't like that oh well, as Peter Green said.

Think of it this way... the earlier artists are likely the influences of the newer artists.

 

But the deal is I am familiar with many, not all, of the older artists and I was seeking out some new innovators taking jazz in their own direction and not just feeding back what they have heard form the greats of the past.

I appreciate everyone's input. Names that I have not been familiar with I have tried to research. Maybe there aren't any young players out there you are doing their own thing and just paying homage to the past.

My original post could have been clearer and more to the point but I still find everyone's opinions interesting even if they do not address my search. I did pick up a Charlie Hunter who I have not had and giving it my first listen tonight.

Thanks

 

Haha...I thought you were speaking figuratively but that makes this 667.

 

I definitely wouldn't recommend concluding that based on what you get in terms of replies to your question here on the SH Forums...I mean I love this place but what you have mostly (and I include myself in this description) are middle-aged guys, and we tend to name-check a slightly older crowd of players.

I try hard to hear new stuff by younger musicians but with kids, jobs etc I don't stay as in touch as I used to - and suspect this applies to a huge cross-section of the members here, which is why most of the suggestions are really not relevant to what you asked for.

If you're looking for cool younger players, just do some Google searches and sample some stuff, or read Jazz Times or Downbeat reviews, or try other music forms with a younger membership. Just my 2 cents. I know there have to be some good players out there.

Here's a link to a discussion on this very issue, from a jazz guitar-focused forum, with some interesting sounding suggestions - again some go off topic and delve into older, more established players but there are some posts with a lot of younger people I know I need to check out!

http://www.jazzguitar.be/forum/players/173-young-emerging-jazz-guitarists.html

 

Me Too

I am there with you bro', 59 and running on.

I have been checking out some of the recommendations I am not familiar with but passed on the many I was familiar with (like Joe Pass).