Saturday, January 24, 2009

Down Beat's 75 Greatest Jazz Guitarists

DownBeat's Feb. 2009 issue has an article on the 75 greatest Jazz Guitarists. They don't rank them, but the list is interesting. Of the 75, on 5 are in the DownBeat Hall of Fame (the only Jazz Hall of Fame that matters). The 5: Wes Montgomery, Django Rheinhardt, Charlie Christian, Jimi Hendrix and Frank Zappa. Take away the non-Jazz leanings of the last 2 and you have only 3 guitarists.
Looking at the issue I came up with some names that belong in the Jazz Hall. Grant Green, George Benson, John McLaughlin, Pat Metheny, Earl Klugh. Okay, my list is lousy on historic figures and mostly goes 70's/80's. But seeing some of the Jazz names that they've inducted at DownBeat, I'd say those above all merit discussion.
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