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Who are considered the best jazz guitarists of all time? +++ THIS +++ article provides one answer, what's yours? Who was left out that you think should be listed? Who is over rated and should be listed lower or, not at all?
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Like most top 10 or top 50 lists, I don't agree with the ranking, but that's a matter of taste. All are worthy to be on the list.
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Like most top 10 or top 50 lists, I don't agree with the ranking, but that's a matter of taste. All are worthy to be on the list.
Insights and incites by Notes ♫ I agree with Notes. But I think they missed a great guitarist in Tony Mottola: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7TYeXgD4mQI would definitely add him to the list.
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Like most top 10 or top 50 lists, I don't agree with the ranking, but that's a matter of taste. All are worthy to be on the list.
Insights and incites by Notes ♫ I agree with Notes. But I think they missed a great guitarist in Tony Mottola: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7TYeXgD4mQI would definitely add him to the list. Tony Mottola doesn't get his due often. With his many albums of "easy listening" renditions of various popular songs I think people forget what a formidable guitarist he was. Very tasty arrangements, very fluid and fast player. Could play with anyone and had a good long career.
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As with all lists people will disagree with plenty of parts of it. Overall, a pretty good list.
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[quote=MarioD]...............
Tony Mottola doesn't get his due often. With his many albums of "easy listening" renditions of various popular songs I think people forget what a formidable guitarist he was. Very tasty arrangements, very fluid and fast player. Could play with anyone and had a good long career. I agree but Johnny Smith is #13 on the list and some of his albums are "easy listening". Also what about Wes and those "string" albums? I am not starting a war but most all of the guitarist listed did covers like Tony did. And I am not knocking any of the guitarist on the list. I just think they missed an important guitarist. YMMV
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She said she can't remember what she ever saw in me!
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I first encountered the great Tony Mottola on Music Minus One records. Very influential.
Unless I read too fast, the list doesn't include any Brazilians. Perhaps they don't match the author's definition of jazz. But I would submit some of these should have been considerd: Joao Gilberto, Oscar Castro-Neves, Romero Lubambo, and Bruno Mangueira.
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Tony Mottola, Luiz Bonfa and a few others could have been included. But those lists are always like that.
A lot of personal taste goes into them, and it's often not my personal taste.
And who can really say who is best (#1). It's not something you can measure like who can eat the most hot dogs at the county fair. It's art, and art gets very personal.
Some people think John Coltrane is the greatest tenor sax player who ever lived. I can analyze his music and appreciate what a genius he was, but his music doesn't speak to me. I prefer Stan Getz or Stanley Turrentine because their improvised melodies resonate with me.
So my top 10 sax players would not be everyone's. Same for jazz guitarists.
But I think the list in the article was a pretty good list.
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Though not known specifically for jazz, I'd lobby for Tommy Tedesco and Chet Atkins. Skills at that level translates into players who can play everything. But like has been said, these lists are so subjective, who knows who belongs? Geeze, Jaco played jazz at a very high level and on 2 less strings. I mean, Donna Lee?
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What about Jeff Beck? Some of his music was definitely in the jazz genre, and there weren't many guitarists more accomplished than he was.
But who they left out of the list isn't as important as the fact that nobody on the list didn't deserve to be there.
Insights and incites by Notes ♫
Bob "Notes" Norton Norton Music
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& Fake Disks for MIDI and/or RealTracks
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Though not known specifically for jazz, I'd lobby for Tommy Tedesco and Chet Atkins. Skills at that level translates into players who can play everything. But like has been said, these lists are so subjective, who knows who belongs? Geeze, Jaco played jazz at a very high level and on 2 less strings. I mean, Donna Lee? I was going to mention Chet Atkins as he did record some straight jazz tunes.
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[quote=MarioD]...............
Tony Mottola doesn't get his due often. With his many albums of "easy listening" renditions of various popular songs I think people forget what a formidable guitarist he was. Very tasty arrangements, very fluid and fast player. Could play with anyone and had a good long career. I agree but Johnny Smith is #13 on the list and some of his albums are "easy listening". Also what about Wes and those "string" albums? I am not starting a war but most all of the guitarist listed did covers like Tony did. And I am not knocking any of the guitarist on the list. I just think they missed an important guitarist. YMMV I certainly wasn't knocking Tony for those albums. Wes Montgomery did it, Johnny Smith did it just as you said. They had to make a living! I like those covers actually. They are very soothing and the playing it top notch on every one of them. When I was first learning guitar I used to listen to several Tony Mottola albums and work on figuring out the melodies and then trying to figure out his chordal backgrounds and scales etc. Good Stuff.
My wife asked if I had seen the dog bowl. I told her I didn't even know he could.
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I was going to mention Chet Atkins as he did record some straight jazz tunes.
I had the good luck and the pleasure of meeting Chet many years ago. We were doing our gig and I mentioned that I tried being in a jazz band but pop cover songs paid the mortgage. Chet said that he always wanted to be a jazz player, but he knew which side of the bread was buttered. We both agreed that we are happy doing what we are doing, but the challenges of jazz would be interesting. Notes ♫
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& Fake Disks for MIDI and/or RealTracks
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Unless I read too fast, the list doesn't include any Brazilians. Perhaps they don't match the author's definition of jazz. But I would submit some of these should have been considerd: Joao Gilberto, Oscar Castro-Neves, Romero Lubambo, and Bruno Mangueira.
Or Nelson Farias, Toquinho, Yamandu Costa, Pedro Martins.... Just too many to mention!
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I was going to mention Chet Atkins as he did record some straight jazz tunes.
I had the good luck and the pleasure of meeting Chet many years ago. We were doing our gig and I mentioned that I tried being in a jazz band but pop cover songs paid the mortgage. Chet said that he always wanted to be a jazz player, but he knew which side of the bread was buttered. We both agreed that we are happy doing what we are doing, but the challenges of jazz would be interesting. Notes ♫ George Benson also knew what side of the bread was buttered.
I think my wife has started to show the first signs of dementia.
She said she can't remember what she ever saw in me!
64 bit Win 10 Pro, the latest BiaB/RB, Roland Octa-Capture audio interface, a ton of software/hardware
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But you had to know that Django, Wes and Charlie were going to float up high!
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<...snip...>
George Benson also knew what side of the bread was buttered. Definitely. Add the saxophonist many sax players love to hate, Kenny G. If you find a way to make a living playing music, do it. If it brings you stardom and lots of money, that's even better. A lot of people dis musicians for 'selling out'. They get even more upset when they become big pop stars. I've played classical, jazz, and other forms of 'art music' but have never been able to make a living doing that. I needed a 'day job' to pay the mortgage. Mostly, I play pop music, and that paid off the mortgage. Which is a bigger sellout? Playing pop music or working a 9 to 5 as a wage slave for some faceless corporation? A bad day playing music is better than a good day at any day job I can think of. Some musicians refuse to play Mustang Sally, Brown Eyed Girl, Wagon Wheel, and others. These songs work so well with the audience, I wish I had a hundred of them that work like that. If it gets requested enough, and I can do a good job covering it, I'll learn it. That's how all but the lucky 1% of us make a living doing music and nothing but music. I suspect there are some very worthy musicians that could be on that list that don't play jazz for a living, but could if they got the breaks. Insights and incites by Notes ♫
Bob "Notes" Norton Norton Music
https://www.nortonmusic.com
100% MIDI Super-Styles recorded by live, pro, studio musicians for a live groove
& Fake Disks for MIDI and/or RealTracks
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It funny as I got called out for selling out when I started a wedding band.
I had a rock band in the early to mid 60's that played a lot of gigs and got a great write up in the Rochester NY news paper. But I got tired of playing only rock so I started a jazz trio, a B3, drums, and me. We had a very hard time getting gigs. When we played people liked us but there wasn't a big demand for jazz bands in our area in the late 60's. There were a lot of rock places though. The B3 player and I started a wedding band and laughed all the way to the bank.
I think my wife has started to show the first signs of dementia.
She said she can't remember what she ever saw in me!
64 bit Win 10 Pro, the latest BiaB/RB, Roland Octa-Capture audio interface, a ton of software/hardware
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I sold out. I had the dreams of being the big star and owning a tour bus and all of that but there came a time when I just had to admit that I wasn't good enough. That was so hard on me I considered myself to be such a failure that I considered suicide. I considered playing copy music as settling because I believed I was a good enough songwriter to sell many millions of albums. I really felt like never playing another note. I remember riding my motorcycle on the Ohio Turnpike and looking at those bridge abutments and really considered locking the throttle a full open and driving into one of them. I didn't play for a long time. And I was embarrassed to come back and play cover music with what I thought was a catalog of outstanding songs.
Well, the reality was that the catalog of outstanding songs, they weren't. That amazing level of talent and skill I thought I had, I didn't. And I had to learn the difference between chasing a fantasy and earning a living. I was never really okay with it, but I accepted the truth and played for about 8 more years before I just put it away and went back to college for my IT degree and got a big boy job. In addition, being in bars was really not a good place for me. Factor in my anxiety around large crowds of people and the exhausting amount of energy it takes to wear a happy mask for 5 hours and retiring was the right choice for me.
Everybody sells out in some way at some point in their life. How many guys go to the Home & Flower show just because it means they'll get laid later? Me playing those awful copy songs were my version of going to the Home & Flower show. And all in all, it was better than tattooing a bridge abutment with my body.
I now see music as one more thing I failed at. Like sports, marriage, fatherhood...
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Everybody sells out in some way at some point in their life. How many guys go to the Home & Flower show just because it means they'll get laid later?
I went to see Cher with my wife. I swear I was the only straight guy there but I got to my fun after the show....
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