Jazz is a genre I don’t know much about.
I usually like what I hear when I hear it. And I enjoy going to jazz bars.
But I am not capable of coming up with a list of the best jazz guitarists.
Before this article, I was not even able to name a single jazz guitarist.
Luckily, the metal guitarist who writes all my guitar articles knows a lot about jazz.
Keep reading for his selection of the most skilled jazz guitarists in history. After listening to each of them a bit, I could easily become a fan of every one.
Table of Contents
Best Jazz Guitarists Of All Time
The 6 jazz guitarists listed below have different styles, but they are all incredibly skilled and incredibly creative. This goes to show just how much variety there is within the jazz genre.
Django Reinhardt
The music landscape as we know it wouldn’t be the same without the legendary Django. A true virtuoso and innovator with unrivaled technical proficiency to boot, Django Reinhardt revolutionized the jazz guitar and inspired countless musicians throughout, and also after, his time.
Drawing inspiration from some of the finest musicians of the early 1900s, like Louis Armstrong and Eddie Lang, Django (indirectly) learned from the best and came up with a unique twist that would eventually revolutionize swing jazz and big band music.
What makes Django’s playing even more impressive is that his fretting hand was severely injured in an accident involving fire. He had to improvise and devise a unique playstyle that would enable him to better use his damaged fingers, which is a big reason his technique is so unique.
Tony Iommi, the lead guitar of the iconic Black Sabbath, suffered a similar workplace injury and expressed that he was inspired by Django Reinhardt, reinforcing the fact that his music translated marvelously to more modern genres far beyond jazz.
Wes Montgomery
Arguably the most influential fingerstyle jazz guitarist of all time, Wes Montgomery is heavily acclaimed for his extremely intricate playing style and compositions that are so fluent that even laymen can enjoy them.
His thumb-picking method is rightly considered “as rare as it is efficient”, even by today’s standards. One of the scant few guitarists that came close to Wes’s original playing style is Tosin Abasi from Animals As Leaders, since he also relies on his thumb more than any other finger for his fingerstyle technique.
Besides creating a fresh, original method, Wes Montgomery was known for creating jazz tunes with an amazing feel. Even though he plays countless tones in rapid-tempo action, Wes maintains full control over each throughout his performances.
His most notable contribution to the global Jazz scene lies in gorgeous, melodic music that holds strong even half a century after his passing.
Tal Farlow
Tal Holt Farlow, the King of swing guitar more popularly known by his nickname “The Octopus”,was a widely acclaimed jazz guitarist renowned for his ultra-fast, ultra-fluent playing. Similar to Wes Montgomery, he was a fingerstyle guitarist who initially started playing the mandolin in a standard ukulele tuning.
An innovator from the get-go, Tal built his very first guitar with his own hands and used high uke strings instead of regular guitar strings. The authenticity of his tone mainly stems from his magic fingers, but it is also influenced by this minor technical innovation of sorts.
While most old-school jazz players would often weave between shredding, harmonic, and soloing parts, Tal used a more balanced approach, enriching every piece of his compositions with a bit of everything.
His exemplary skill as a composer and master of guitar lies in his ability to make such extraordinary arrangements work. With an outstanding sense of rhythm, a percussive-oriented playing style, and a harmonically-minded approach to uke-esque sounding guitar, his songs are beautiful mysteries that have inspired generations after his death.
Joe Pass
Joe Pass was the epitome of virtuosity in the music world. He was among the best-rounded guitarists to have ever lived.
He could play smoothly, he could shred at insane speeds, he could transform improvisations into songs, and elevate written pieces into soulful performances.
Joe’s uncanny ability to perfectly keep time without a metronome, while constantly bouncing between exceptionally challenging time signatures and keys, remains unparalleled. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg that is his skill and proficiency.
Famed for collaborating with numerous orchestras and top-tier classically trained musicians, he towered above his peers in terms of technical prowess and ingenuity.
Similar yet strikingly different from Django and Wes Montgomery, Joe was a first-class soloist, an innovator, and an exceptionally prolific professional.
John McLaughlin
John McLaughlin surfaced in the world of jazz a few decades after the legendary pioneers the likes of Django, Wes, and Joe Pass. Hailing from a musical family, he underwent formal training on piano, violin, and several other instruments, before ultimately falling in love with the guitar shortly after reaching his teenage years.
McLaughlin’s track record started in the early ‘60s, right around the time when psychedelic music genres gained traction. While John is famed for creating an array of jazz and blues compositions, what sets him apart from his influences is a restless musical spirit keen on exploring the possibilities of guitar styles and genres.
While some of the most renowned jazz players often mixed their music with a pinch of blues, rock, and avant-garde styles, John would delve into the realms of flamenco, psychedelic rock, fusion, and numerous other genres.
His debut record Extrapolation perfectly illustrates his exquisite idiosyncrasies and uniqueness. John’s tunes are elaborate and complex, even by today’s jazz standards, but they have a remarkably melodic foundation that is a stranger to most progressive guitar styles.
Patrick Metheny
Pat Metheny surfaced roughly a decade after John McLaughlin. As dissimilar as their styles are when compared to each other’s (and those of the kings of vintage jazz), they are both characterized by modern tones, chords, melody, and progressive structures.
Pat puts an even stronger emphasis on melody and harmony than McLaughlin, without hurting the shredding aspect of technical jazz. His writing style is somewhat comparable to Joe Pass’s, as they both tend to write and play in stages – there’s the song, and then there are hauntingly beautiful, intricate solos.
Metheny’s Latin Jazz sensibilities and producing skills are to blame for his tunes being more fluent than an average jazz composition. Songs he wrote have a clear-cut structure and almost guide the listener through an avalanche of intertwining harmonies and chord progressions, which sets them apart from what some would consider traditional jazz.
Pat is among the pioneers of electronic jazz that sonically, emotionally, and structurally resides in a different plane from its steel-strung counterpart. His legacy paved the way for newer bands to explore the possibilities of synths and electronic timbres in jazz music.
Best Jazz Guitarist Ever: Final Thoughts
As mentioned in the introduction, I am completely unqualified to create, or even judge, a list of the best jazz guitarists of all time. I can certainly tell that the guitarists above are all incredible, but I don’t know if there are others that should have also been on this list.
Hopefully you can help me with that. Let me know in a comment below if there are any other jazz guitarists that deserve a place on this list. Also let me know if you feel one of the included guitar players should not have been included.
And if you enjoyed this list, we also have similar lists for the best metal guitar players and the best blues guitar players of all time. We also have a list of the most famous black guitarists ever, which includes a few players who also played jazz, among other genres.
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