With domestic civil war, economic collapse and global nuclear war all looming, I thought it was time we named who we believe to be the best guitar players of all time from popular music. Don't name your favorites to listen to, just who you think is very good (they could be different). Name five in order of talent. I'll start. 1) Jeff Beck 2) Jorma Kaukonen (Hot Tuna) 3) Eric Clapton 4) Mark Knopfler (Dire Straits) 5) Jimi Hendrix I started the topic so I can cheat with six. 6) Carlos Santana (I met him in Berkeley)
All so good! Heart ... drool. Thanks, Beth. About George Harrison. he wrote lovely melodic guitar music but didn't try the wild riffs and I don't think he could match some others in that. Stevie Ray was good but I didn't care for his taste in music.
Okay, John. I thought I was pretty broad in my tastes. You need to tell us who they were and who they played with. The only name I recognize is Wes Montgomery.
My older brother played trombone and was in The Army Band. He was one of the founding members of their jazz band...The Army Blues. Through him and his friends, and through a couple of guys I went to high school with who went into The Air Force Band (and played with The Airmen of Note), and through other band nerds, I got exposed to all sorts of stuff. These guys are jazz and Brazilian samba. I'll combine what I know with their bios (lots of background I'm just learning): Buddy Fite (June 1938 - September 2001): Fite disliked flying and had a deep love for the Pacific Northwest. Consequently he rarely played outside that area. I think all of his albums were solo stuff. The one I recall was his first (1969) 8 track. Al Di Meola (July 1954 - ): He played with Chick Corea's band when he was in his late teens (that's what I recall of him) and did a bunch of solo stuff, both acoustic and electric. Tony Mottola (April 1918 - August 2004): I mostly remember him from his 15 year stint with The Tonight Show Band. He put out 33 solo albums and was more or less a "featured artist/accompanist" on 101 others (I had no idea my collection has so many blots in it.) He performed with Sinatra (just the 2 of them) at Carnegie Hall & The White House. Wes Montgomery (March 1923 - June 1968): Heart attack took him young. He played solo and with Lionel Hampton for a couple of years, doing the John Madden thing (driving all night to avoid air travel), then went back to playing local [Indianapolis] clubs. His octave-style of playing is easily recognizable. Wes was what George Benson wishes he were. João Gilberto (June 1931 - July 2019): João is Brazilian. I head of him through his then-wife, Astrud. She sang "The Girl From Impanema." João was recording in studio one day when his wife stopped by, for some reason she impromptu sang a song with them, and the rest was history. He's the classic bossa nova composer, player and singer...not dazzling but the king of the genre.
I can't find the Jeff Beck piece I wanted on youtube. Download and listen to this. It's worth it. It's one of my favorite ever guitar works. Turn it UP!
Dunno about who is the best but my tastes wrap around guitarists like Earl Klugh, Wes Montgomery, George Benson, Stanley Jordan, BB King and to throw in a classic blues guitarist, Albert Collins. There is one young man though that I’ve been following lately and I do consider him to be about the best Bass guitarist I have ever heard. According to my younger brother, when good bassists wish to be humbled, they watch and listen to Charles Berthoud. And…..to give a big hand to Chet Atkins, the man who founded many of the techniques used by today’s guitarists.
You guys are broadening my horizons with all these jazz guitarists. Please stop it. I like my horizons where they are. Just kidding. All the ones you cite are worthy of mention. Thanks, Bobby. I was once half-member of a band as a sort of arranger. I couldn't play well enough for the public but I had a good ear for the mix. I once explained to the bass player that he was free to create and that he was, in fact, a lead player, just at the lower octaves.
The thing about jazz is that it made a pathway for improvisation or rather, non-scripted music; the type of music that stays within a theme but allows the artists to play the notes he or she feels at the time. Now, I definitely do not like the stuff that goes so off-beat that only the artist himself knows where he’s going with it but there are some who enjoy it for whatever reason. As one guitar artist I knew said, “I don’t care for scrambled eggs much less scrambled notes” and followed with, “it takes more talent and care to make an egg sunny side up”.