Best Guitarist

The real joke is the mention of Kirk Hammet.

The best gutarists are people you have never heard of.

 

Jimi

 

If it was recent, then it was called "First Milestone" with Eric, Pat, and Harold Mabern. Or, it could be "A Tribute to Charles Earland."

For those who don't know Pat Martino and Wayne Krantz, here's the lowdown:

Pat Martino is probably the greatest jazz guitarist ever. His style is fluid and technical, but with a great sense of musicality. His stuff in the early 70s was about as good as it gets. Try anything from the album Consciousness to see what I mean. Around 1977, Pat suffered a severe brain aneurysm that caused him to lose everything he'd ever learned. He didn't even know who his parents were. Long story short, he re-learned how to play and is still going strong as ever.

Wayne Krantz plays like nobody else. His style is somewhere between jazz, rock, blues, and prog, but he always manages to groove. His solo stuff is incredible. Must be heard to be appreciated. Try "Your Basic Live" and "2 Drink Minimum" to get the gist of Wayne's style. In his spare time, Wayne is the lead guitarist for Steely Dan.

www.patmartino.com

www.waynekrantz.com

 

I wasn't aware of his health problem; his recovery is both remarkable and testiment to his will. Wow!
I first heard him, live, with Brother Jack McDuff in Boston. Now, to me, that group is what I call real rhythm & blues.

'Preciate the headsup.
[BTW: I have Eric Alexander's "the second milestone" and Pat Martino's "stone blue." Neither of those is the one I'm looking for. I'll check "first milestone" out.]

 

Jazzbluescat, where would you rank Pat Martino? BTW, your selection of guitarists is preety damned strong too.

 

Tell you the truth, I've only recently gotten in tune to'em. When I first heard him [when I was a "kid"], I kinda just waited for him to finish so I could hear the organ or sax player play...Then, a few years ago, I noticed his name kept cropping up, but, I was engrossed with Metheny and Scofield, still didn't pay him no mind. But then recently, I heard Eric Alexander for the first time, and, coincidently the guitar player caught my attention; it was Martino. I was blown away! That particular cd is the one I'm looking for.

Anyhow, to answer your question, I'd put him right up there with Jim Hall, Joe Pass and Kenny Burrell. [Man, I kinda hate this ranking stuff. You know, once they get at a certain level, it's hard to say who's better than such'n such; one guy may do one thing a bit stronger than the other, yet does something else strong to "make up for it."] I can say that Martino is the most enjoyable player that I've heard in quite some time, bar none. He has a technical flexibility that is phenomenal, also, IMHO.

 

Certainly. I think they were going with skill, and style, moreso than artistic content. Eddie Van Halen, for instance, doesn't express. Jimi did. BB does. Jack White doesn't, and has no place this high on the list - I'd be very surprised if he's remembered as a top 20 guitarist in five years. And I like the guy.

Kirk Hammett doesn't deserve the list. These pairings of two guys in one band? That's a joke right? Two guitarists in unison just happening to be influential and important together because they're in one band? That's like saying John Paul Jones is a great bassist because he backed Jimmy Page.

It's hard to really say about these lists. I mean, Jimi is undoubtedly my greatest ever. But I wouldn't even want to list them in order - listing them at all is a daunting task. Plus, as you'd have said, classical and other styles of guitar get pushed out just because they're not "happening" right now, but they probably take more skill overall.

They don't get into the idea of improvisation - some of the best lines half of these guys played were written, and played throughout their careers the same way. They don't get into trailblazing but now and again. They don't even paint a good representation of what these guys did best.

But it's entertaining to read, and certainly sparks thought in my mind, all of which were things I was needing and still enjoy. So I take it for that.

 

Hey mag,
You remember a while back when we were speculating(or at least I was)on who did the bari solo on Lou Reed's WALK ON THE WILD SIDE? It was a cat named Ronnie Ross; according to David Bowie, who was producing Lou Reed at the time. Ross did it in one take. [They interview Bowie in the current ROLLING STONE rag.]

 

yeah, I caught that.
I also caught where DB wanted to play the bari and they made him play alto. It's where they went wrong

 

It took until page 2 to see Mark Knopfler's name.