My top 25 guitar instrumental artists...from A to Z...

John Abercrombie

Berklee grad and New York native made his first big splash playing in Billy Cobham’s band, then started recording extensively for the ECM label, both as a leader and with artists like Jack DeJohnette, Jan Hammer and Ralph Towner. Jazz is his base, but his influences are much broader than that (early gigs included a tour with blues organist Johnny Hammond). He’s also well-known for his teaching clinics. “I’d like people to perceive me as having a direct connection to the history of the jazz guitar, while expanding some musical boundaries which may not always involve the guitar itself,” he said in an interview with Jazziz magazine.
Where to start: Open Land is a tastefully adventurous 1999 production with a stellar trio of jazzmen including Joe Lovano (sax), Kenny Wheeler (trumpet) and Mark Feldman (violin) supplementing Abercrombie regular guitar-organ-drums trio. His two albums with Towner – Sargasso Sea (1976) and Five Years Later (1982) – are good explorations of the guitar duo format.
Link: Official website.

Jeff Beck

This British born guitar-slinger, who first gained recognition as a member of the Yardbirds in 1966, is one of the most innovative players ever to wring notes out of an electric six-string. Originally part of the '60s British blues invasion that brought us guitar heroes like Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page, Beck broke new ground with his 1975 jazz-rock fusion album Blow By Blow. To this day he's continued to ignore stylistic limitations, while creating wild new guitar vocabularies. “I don’t understand why some people will only accept a guitar if it has an instantly recognizable guitar sound,” he says on his web site. “Finding ways to use the same guitar people have been using for 50 years to make sounds that no one has heard before is truly what gets me off.”
Where To Start: Blow By Blow blew the doors wide open for guitar instrumental music and still sounds great today. If you don't get chills listening to his achingly beautiful version of the Stevie Wonder ballad "Cause We've Ended as Lovers," you may not be breathing. Recent releases like Jeff pit Beck's soaring guitar pyrotechnics against a crunchy, supercharged techno grind. And how can you not like songs with titles like "Line Dancing With Monkeys"?
Link: Official web site

Chris Bucheit

Based in the Western Wisconsin college town of La Crosse, Chris is a talented fingerstyle guitarist and composer. I had the great fortune of sharing a bill with him at a club in tiny Galesville, Wis. back in the 1990s, and was impressed by both his musical ideas and facility on his Taylor six-string. (He also plays 12-string.) Acoustic Guitar magazine was obviously just as impressed when it gave his Hand To Mouth one of its Homegrown CD Awards, and Performing Songwriter said: "Chris Bucheit plays fingerstyle guitar better than most mortals have a right to." Leo Kottke was a major influence early on, but Chris has steadily moved toward a more individual style that synthesizes his eclectic tastes in jazz and pop music.
Where to start: Chris' debut album, Naive Work Songs, is still my favorite. This is just a great listen throughout. If you like this, try his new, more jazz-oriented Solo Guitar collection. Other releases include a mix of instrumentals and vocal tracks that any fan of Crowded House would like.
Link: Chris' official site

Ry Cooder

Though best known today for his work on the Cuban music movie, The Buena Vista Social Club, this LA native is revered in musician circles for his superb slide guitar work. He's composed hauntingly bluesy soundtracks for numerous movies and has released some 25 albums since his debut in 1970. He was an early pioneer of the world music concept in the U.S., creating cross-cultural stews that drew from a dizzying array of styles ranging from Tex-Mex to ragtime to country to Hawaiian music. And he's not slowing down: On Chavez Ravine, his 2005 opus to his hometown, the 57-year-old Cooder created the most ambitious and fully realized album of his entire career.
Where to start: For instrumental guitar fans, 1993's A Meeting By The River is a must-own record. This trancendant musical document pairs Cooder's down-home slide guitar blues with the eastern virtuoso V.M. Bhatt, an Indian musician who plays the mohan vina, a 19-string instrument of his own invention. "The musical interplay between Cooder and Bhatt is nothing short of astounding," says AllMusic.com. "The voices of the two instruments blend marvelously, first alternating melodic statements, then doing so together, each dancing around the other, playing cat and mouse, probing, answering, reflecting...a thing of pure, unadulterated beauty."
Link: More on the album at Cooder's Artist Direct site

Larry Coryell

Eclectic is a term that often gets tossed around when Larry Coryell is discussed. The Galveston-born guitarist got his start in Chico Hamilton’s and Gary Burton’s bands. He was an early jazz-rock fusion pioneer (forming the seminal Eleventh House band with Randy Brecker, Mike Mandel and Alphonse Mouzon in 1973), has recorded several acoustic duo and trio albums with other prominent jazz guitarists, and, less satisfyingly, spent some time cranking out smooth jazz records. Some of his most memorable dates are his post-bop work, which seem to be the best showcase for an enormous six-string talent.
Where to start: Coryell's recorded more than 70 albums, so there’s a lot to choose from. I highly recommend the 1997 disc, Spaces Revisited, which pairs him with drummer Billy Cobham, bassist Richard Bona, and guitarist Bireli Lagrene. This underappreciated album is nothing short of spectacular, especially the interplay between the two guitarists. For a taste of how fusion sounded when it was fresh, it's worth seeking out Introducing The Eleventh House from 1974.
Links: Larry's bio at All About Jazz.   Official Larry Coryell website.

Bill Frisell

Genre-bending jazz guitarist Bill Frisell was born in Baltimore, grew up in Denver, and started playing clarinet in fourth grade. After hearing Wes Montgomery, he switched to guitar. He attended the Berklee School of Music in Boston (Pat Metheny was a classmate). He also studied with Jim Hall and lived for a while in Europe, where he met Manfred Eicher and recorded extensively for his ECM label. Later he was part of the New York downtown scene; he currently lives in Seattle. His experimentation with loops and signal processing led to the development of his unique sound. “Frisell is a revered figure among musicians," said the Philadelphia Inquirer. "Like Miles Davis and few others, his signature is built from pure sound and inflection; an anti-technique that is instantly identifiable.” At times dark and mysterious, at times lighthearted and rootsy, Frisell has worked with a wide variety of collaborators; no purist, his extensive catalog draws on jazz, blues, country, world and pop yet always maintains his trademark eerie beauty.
Where to start: Frisell's recordings are of such consistently high caliber that it's hard to recommend which ones to listen to first. I keep several full albums on my iPod, ready to go whenever I need my Frisell fix – which is often. For starters, try: The Willies for his rootsier side; Ghost Town, a moody atmospheric outing and his first true solo album; or Bill Frisell With Dave Holland And Elvin Jones to hear him swing hard with a top bop rhythm section.
Link: Frisell's official web site

Leo Kottke

At once one of the most idiosyncratic and most copied of all fingerstyle guitarists, Leo Kottke inspired a generation of players with his rich, powerful and instantly recognizable style on six- and especially 12-string guitar. He was born in Georgia but lived in 12 states growing up; he ended up attending college in Minnesota and became a fixture on the folk circuit in the Twin Cities in the 1970s. His big break came when he sent a cassette of his instrumental music to John Fahey; from there he went on to a major label deal and status as an international cult figure. Years of touring led to a severe case of tendonitis. Once recovered, Kottke switched from fingerpicks to fingers, and his work since then has taken on a more subtle and lyrical slant.
Where to start: Though he desired to be strictly an instrumental composer (he once likened his voice to “geese farts on a foggy day”), due to music business marketing ideas, many of his albums contain vocal works as well. I like the all-instrumental stuff best, like 6 and 12 String Guitar, the 1971 album he recorded for Fahey’s Takoma label. Through the wonders of modern iPod-ery, I’ve also been able to cull the guitar-only tracks from the rest of his extensive library.
Link: Kottke’s official web site is almost as quirky as his infamously rambling patter during live performances, and includes a section of unusual essays with titles like “The Snout of Watt”. But that’s Leo for ya––a true individual if there ever was one.

Leonard Kwan

I first learned of the style known as Hawaiian slack key (ki ho'alu) guitar playing while working as a music journalist in the 1990s. New-age pianist George Winston had fallen in love with the genre – made distinctive by its sweet sound and tuned-down (slack key) open tunings – and released a series of albums of its top masters on his Dancing Cat Records. They're all fine releases, but the artist whose melodies stuck with me the most is Leonard Kwan. According to the label's web site, Kwan was one of the first to take slack key outside of Hawaii, and in the 1950s released some of the first ki ho'alu singles. In 1960 he recorded his classic first album, Slack Key (aka "The Red Album"). It's credited as the first Hawaiian album to feature all instrumental slack key tracks.
Where to start: Try Ke'ala's Mele (1995), Kwan's third and final recording before his death at 69 in 2000, and his first for Dancing Cat. I was hooked as soon as I heard the opening lines of the first track, "New 'Opihi Moemoe #3." Kwan lays down a soothing island melody using the G Wahine tuning (D-G-D-F#-B-D), and the rest of the album continues in the same sweet vein.
Link: Kwan's page at Dancing Cat

Pat Martino

Born Pat Azzara in 1944 in Philadelphia, Martino is one of the amazing jazz stories. One of the most virtuosic guitarists to emerge in the 1960s, he started playing professionally at age 15 (his first road trip was with organist Charles Earland, a high school friend) and started recording as a leader at 20. in 1980, he suffered a severe brain aneurysm which required surgery. The treatment was successful but left Martino with no memory of his guitar or career. He then launched a remarkable comeback by studying his own recordings and using computer technology to learn to play again. Martino is back in top form as a composer and a player (he was named "Guitar Player of the Year" in the Downbeat magazine 2004 Reader Poll), but the experience has altered his priorities. "The guitar is of no great importance to me," he states on his website. "The people it brings to me are what matters. They are what I'm extremely grateful for, because they are alive. The guitar is just an apparatus."
Where To Start: The Maker is a great testament to Martino's rejuvenated abilites on the "apparatus". The Grammy-nominated Live at Yoshi's and Think Tank (which pairs him with saxophone great Joe Lovano) are other good recent efforts.
Link: Official website

Pat Metheny

Missouri native Pat Metheny surfaced in the mid-1970s after joining Gary Burton's band, then came into his own as bandleader. Influenced by Wes Montgomery and other classic jazz guitarists, Metheny pushed beyond those boundaries with his creative use of electronic effects and the Roland GR300 Guitar Synthesizer. Brazilian rhythms and rock music also work their way into his sound. Recordings with his Pat Metheny Group (PMG) tend toward the more pastoral side, while he gets more “out” on some of his other collaborations. No matter who he plays with, Metheny's sound is instantly identifiable, and he is one of the top figures in the contemporary jazz world.
Where To Start: For solo work, I love One Quiet Night, his 2003 album of folky jazz baritone guitar pieces. Bright Size Life, a 1975 release with Bob Moses and the late great Jaco Pastorius, is a stellar jazz trio CD, as is 1989’s Question and Answer with Dave Holland and Roy Haynes. The Way Up (2005) opens up promising new horizons for his PMG recordings.
Link: Pat's bio at All About Jazz.

Wes Montgomery

The most influential jazz guitarist of the 20th century, Montgomery honed his skills playing nightly club gigs in his native Indianapolis. Though he toured for a while with Lionel Hampton's band, he was a relative unknown until the release of his 1960 album, The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery. Recorded with bassist Percy Heath, drummer Albert Heath and pianist Tommy Flanagan, the album introduced Montgomery originals like "West Coast Blues" and "Four on Six" and showcased his fluid octave and chordal playing style (he played with his right thumb instead of a pick) and warm tone - both of which legions of jazz guitarists attempt to copy to this day. A life-long smoker, Montgomery's life was cut short at age 43 by a heart attack.
Where To Start: Pat Metheny calls Smokin' At The Half Note, a live set Montgomery recorded in 1963 with the Wynton Kelly Trio, "the absolute greatest jazz-guitar album ever made." Another great entry point is the 1995 2-CD set, Impressions: The Verve Jazz Sides. One disc contains remastered versions of the entire Smokin' CD plus a number of other excellent tracks recorded with Kelly's trio. The other disc showcases Montgomery's guitar in hard-swinging big band settings and with organist Jimmy Smith. Extensive liner notes sweeten the package.
Link: Nice tribute site put together by actor Anthony Montgomery (Wes' grandson) includes short sample clips and an extensive bio.

Jimmy Page

We know him best for his monotholic blues-rock riffs with the band Led Zeppelin, but this versatile Brit gave the guitar world much, much more: inventive melodies, cool new sounds, and superb production skills that enabled him to layer multiple guitar tracks onto a song like some psychedelic impressionistic painter. Page first made his mark as a studio musician, then with the Yardbirds (where he played with Jeff Beck). When Zeppelin disbanded in 1980 with the death of drummer John Bonham, Page dropped out of music for awhile, and has never regained the momentum of his glory days. Despite that, he has had a tremendous influence on generations of guitarists to follow, and his work with the band still sounds amazing and fresh today.
Where To Start: For guitar instrumentals with no vocals, there are folky blues pieces like "Black Mountain Side" (Led Zeppelin I) and "Bron-Yr-Aur" (Physical Graffiti). You can hear more of Jimmy's instrumental work on later solo records like Outrider and his soundtrack for Death Wish II, though the songs are fairly forgettable. Otherwise, just put on any Zeppelin track and hear a true guitar genius at work.
Link: Guitar geeks (like me) will get plenty of gear and music background with this in-depth Guitar World magazine interview or this interview by biographer Steve Rosen.

Joe Pass

The man known as “the president of bebop guitar" advanced the evolution of the guitar by incorporating the sophisticated harmonic concepts of jazz players like John Coltrane, Charlie Parker and Art Tatum into his six-string playing. Born Joseph Passalaqua in 1929, he started playing guitar at age 9, and doing professional gigs at age 14. In 1963, he received Downbeat Magazine's "New Star Award" and started working extensively as a sideman on recordings and TV shows. In the early 1970s, he worked as a duo with guitarist Herb Ellis and in 1973 released the first of his landmark Virtuoso solo albums. He stayed busy until his death in 1994, performing and recording often with big bands, vocalists and other guitarists. “His solo style was marked by a sophisticated harmonic sense, counterpoint between improvised lead lines, bass figures and chords, spontaneous modulations, transitions from fast tempos to rubato passages, and a total command of the instrument,” says AllMusic.com. “By the end of his life the virtuoso had carved out his own unique musical niche, improvised jazz guitar as chamber music, with a breathtakingly beautiful solo guitar style.”
Where to start: Any of his four Virtuoso albums are great introductions to his fluid solo work. The 1974 album, The Trio, with Oscar Peterson, and Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen, won a Grammy for best jazz performance.

Les Paul

Inspired by a ditchdigger in his hometown of Waukesha, Wis., Les Paul started playing harmonica at age eight. He took up guitar in his teens. “Heavily influenced by Django Reinhardt at first, Paul eventually developed an astonishingly fluid, hard-swinging style of his own, one that featured extremely rapid runs, fluttered and repeated single notes, and chunking rhythm support, mixing in country & western licks and humorous crowd-pleasing effects,” says AllMusic.com. He also backed a number of singers, including wife Mary. It’s hard to exaggerate the importance of his pioneering efforts in the design of a solid-body electric guitar (eg. the Gibson Les Paul model), multi-track recording and a number of reverb and echo effects. “We must all own up that without Les Paul, generations of flash little punks like us would be in jail or cleaning toilets,” says Keith Richards.
Where To Start: A good introduction is the 2005 CD American Made World Played, in which the 90-year-old Paul is joined on guitar duets by Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, Buddy Guy and more plus a stellar rhythm section and a slew of top guest singers. But to get a real sense of his chops, even better are two albums he made in the late 1970s with Chet Atkins (Chester & Lester and Guitar Monsters. Or check out his lightning duet with Al DiMeola on the song “Spanish Eyes” from DiMeola’s Splendido Hotel CD.
Link: Great Q&A with Les in My Midwest magazine. Also, the official Les Paul website has a ton of info plus an embedded “Les Paul Show” with short sound samples from his many recordings.

Rodrigo y Gabriela

Mexican-born, Dublin-based guitar duo of extraordinary finesse and power. Rodrigo Sanchez and Gabriela Quintero met as teenagers at Mexico City's Case de Cultura, where Rodrigo's father was director. They played everything from heavy metal to bossa nova in various bands before moving to Ireland in 1999 with just $1,000 between them. To make ends meet, they started busking. Their high-energy instrumental performances soon drew attention and they eventually made their first recordings – a singular fusion of what on the surface would appear to be wildly opposing influences. "It's mainly got Latin harmonies and rhythms, but the structure is rock," they explain on their website. "It's not jazz because it's structured, and we don't improvise. Our solos are exactly what's on the record; as a metal fan and guitarist you always want to hear the same solo!"
Where to start: The self-titled 2006 release Rodrigo y Gabriela is a smokin' yet lyrical document of the duo's acoustic guitar pyrotechnics. They complement their own Latin-tinged compositions with instrumental covers of "Stairway to Heaven" and Metallica's "Orion" that surprisingly don't suck, but explore some exciting new musical territory on these time-worn classics. This ain't your daddy's flamenco band!
Link: Official website.

Andres Segovia

Born in 1893 in the birthplace of the guitar, the Andalucia region of Spain, Andrés Segovia transformed the public's perception of the guitar from a gypsy dance instrument to a serious classical instrument. His ambition to do this may have been fueled by his family's strong opposition to playing the instrument. He transcribed works by Bach, Mozart and other great composers and commissioned new music by contemporary classical composers. Self-taught, his style became the standard for modern classical players, and he established schools and courses to pass on the tradition. He died in 1987 at age 94.
Where To Start: I found a great boxed set called Segovia that I listen to all the time. Everything on it is absolutely stellar. My advice is to go to your local library and listen first before you buy anything, just to ensure that the recording quality is equal to Segovia's always impeccable performances.
Link: Live performance video

Ralph Towner

Born in Washington State in 1940, Towner started playing piano at age 3. He still performs on that instrument but is best known for his highly personal 12-string guitar sound, which draws from jazz, classical and Indian music. Towner is one of the founders of the ensemble Oregon, and on his own has recorded a large body of work for the ECM label. He's also notable for being one of the few jazz guitarists who plays strictly on acoustic guitar.
Where To Start: If you can find it, get his 1975 album Solstice, which opens with a brilliant 10-minute tour de force called "Oceanus". This is the track that first got me hooked on Towner's evocative sound. Like all of Towner's best work, it achieves a perfect balance of soothing ambience and challenging musicality. Other good introductions are Anthem (2001) and City of Eyes (1988). I'd also highly recommend either of his duo recordings with vibraphonist Gary Burton, Matchbook and Slide Show.
Link: Official artist site

The Ventures

Who hasn't heard the reverb-drenched guitars of the best-known instrumental rock band of all time? The Ventures were formed in 1959 in Tacoma, Wash. by construction workers/hobby guitarists Bob Bogle and Don Wilson. The group scored a surprise No. 2 chart hit in 1960 with "Walk Don't Run," and went on to make dozens of albums that included their own tunes along with covers like "Hawaii 5-0", which hit No. 4 at 1969. After that, the Ventures pretty much fell of the charts, but the band has stayed together (with some personnel changes) and tours to this day. They're especially big in Japan, where they've sold 40 million of their worldwide total 90 million albums, according to their official website.
Where To Start: The 1960 debut, Walk Don't Run, is one of the first rock albums recorded in stereo and still sounds retro-cool today, daddio.
Link: Official band site has some cool features like "Ask A Venture".

Guitar Picks Editor Mike Starling

Guitar Picks editor Mike Starling is a Wisconsin-born writer, photographer and musician. A two-time winner of the Milwaukee Press Club Award, he's worked with a number of bands where his journalistic training has been put to good use writing wry, topical lyrics. He's also had success composing guitar-based instrumental music. His first all-instrumental recording, Thunderbird, was a low-tech affair made on a four-track cassette recorder that nevertheless inspired positive reviews. "Extremely rootsy and homey,” said LAX Magazine. “Sounds like the background music for some rustic weirded-out documentary; jangly and melodic but funky at unexpected moments. Never does Starling try blowing anybody away with his instrumental virtuosity (he has no delusions of being the next Leo Kottke), but instead allows the tunes to brew slowly and more often than not, satisfyingly." More recently, he has infused his bluesy acoustic and electric guitar and dobro playing with world beat rhythms and ethnic instruments in releases like Didjeriblue, which has been featured on numerous television soundtracks.

Where to start: Guitar Moods is his latest instrumental release. "Quite a new world for moody, instrumental guitar subtlety," wrote Martin Jack Rosenblum in the Shepherd Express. "Standout moments (include) the spare rasp of 'Above The Clouds,' the sonic narrative 'Rememory,' the dance through dust of 'Amarilla' and, especially, the dirge that refuses sorrow of 'Sophie & Boscho.'"

Links: Official website | Mike's blog Journeys in Sight & Sound