[Nugget]

I've been sucked in to guitar jazz ever since Woody Allen's "Sweet and Lowdown," and I love the soundtrack. Howard Alden, working with the Dick Hyman group, just makes his guitar sing. And there's just something so fun about the particular type of jazz. Take a listen to "I'll See You In My Dreams" from the linked page and you'll see what I mean.

I've run through a few Django Reinhardt albums, and they're at once wonderful and tragic -- wonderful because he was so clearly a genius, tragic because the recordings are uniformly in bad shape. The poor recordings have really killed it for me since joining HF, now that I can't help but seize on the imperfections.

Any recommendations for simple, small-band guitar jazz along these lines? Preferably recent, well-made recordings?

 

[patman657]

Check out Wes Montgomery, one of the greatest jazz guitarists of all time. Several of his best works are available in 20-bit K2 remastered form. Try Boss Guitar (link), Full House (link), and Incredible Jazz Guitar (link). If I had to get just one, I would start with Boss Guitar.

The Riverside 20-bit remasters are pretty much universally excellent in my experience. They all have red sleeves and most, if not all, are limited to 10,000 copies.

EDIT: Wes' style is quite a bit different than Django's style, and you may not like it as much. But if you don't give it a try, you are missing out.

 

[tonym]

If it's high quality SQ plus high quality jazz you're after, and that alone, then you can't go wrong with any recent Ralph Towner ECM release. It may not have the exuberent swing of a Django but as far as composition, technical proficiency and deft impressionism are concerned, then he's hard to beat.
Ditto on the recent Wes 2K remasters.
Grant Green on Blue Note; there's a discussion about him in this forum not long back.
And then there's the Naim label which produces some Antonio Forcione stuff. Audiophile quality but personally the music leaves me cold.

 

[Csericks]

I agree that Wes Montgomery and and Grant Green are essentials. You might add Kenny Burrell. Melvin Sparks is a fine Acid Jazz player. Sundazed has reissued some Hank Garland sides that are hot. If you are into something a bit off of the beaten path you might check out James "Blood" Ulmer.

 

[wolfB]

 

[musicmind]

There's a lot to mention so here are a couple of mainly guitar-based albums I have heard that I think are worth checking out :

For the Django style gypsy jazz, I would recommend Rosenberg Trio. They have a collaboration with Stephane Grappelli (called "85 and still swinging") which is terrific. Rosenberg also have several live albums (Samois, Vienne, NorthSea) but I think the best recorded ones are the studio Seresta and "Ready and Able" albums.
Birelli Lagrene is also a gypsy jazz genius, and his "The Complete Gypsy Project" is a great recording of Django style "manouche jazz" playing. He has some acoustic albums and electric jazz guitar ones. I like his "Standards" and "Virtuosity" album quite a bit.

You mentioned you like Howard Alden. Definitely listen to his albums with George van Eps (13 strings, Hand crafted swing, 7 and 7). His albums with Jimmy Bruno (Full Circle) and Bucky Pizzarelli (In a Mellowtone) are also fantastic.
Jimmy Bruno (Sleight of Hand, Solo, Burnin'), Bucky Pizzarelli and Jimmy Rainey (The Influence) are also great recordings of master straight ahead jazz guitarists.
For Solo guitar, some of the best recent records are by Martin Taylor. He also has an album he did with Grappelli (Reuinion). Also check out the "Tribute ot Art Tatum", "Solo Jazz Guitar", "Portraits" and "Kiss and Tell" albums.
If you dont mind a bit of singing, the recordings of the Susie Arioli band have
a lovely hollowbody acoustic jazz guitar sound mic'ed uplclose on albums like "That's for my baby", "Pennies from Heaven" and "It's Wonderful".

Joe Pass has many great albums, not all are good because many of them are live albums, but his Virtuoso 1-4 albums are a must for any jazz guitar collection.
Gene Bertoncini's Body and Soul is also a very well recorded solo jazz guitar album with many standards played in the chord melody style.

Two of my favourites as Johnny Smith and Tal Farlow. Johnny Smith's "Sound of the Johnny Smith Guitar" is great, as well as his album with George van Eps "Legends" which is a good recordings. Roost has a compilation of all his studio cuts. His "Moonlight in Vermont" with Stan Getz is a masterpiece.
Tal Farlow's "Cookin on all Burners" and his duet albums with Lenny Breau "Chance Meeting" are cleaner recordings than his earlier stuff.
His Verve recordings are classics but not the cleanest quality with a bit of hiss.

Ulf Wakenius' "The Guitar Artistry Of Ulf Wakenius" and Ed Bickert's "The Guitar Mastery of Ed Bickert", Joe Dorio "We Will Meet Again" and Jim Hall's "Concierto" are quite good.

Wes Montgomery is another must have. Bumpin', Dynamic New Sound, Full House, Finest Hour are all pretty well recorded. I picked up his complete Riverside recordings 12 CD set which has most of his great tracks.

Lee Ritenour has some well recorded albums, solo (WesBound) and with Fourplay, in the modern smooth-jazz style, if you dont mind the keyboards and slap bass too much

.

Of the new guys, Mark Whitfield (7th ave. stroll, True Blue, Marksman) has a nice straight ahead jazz sound. Russell Malone's Black Butterfly is good.

As tonym mentioned, there was a Grant Green thread last week, check out his albums mentioned there.

These should keep you in six-string bliss for years to come
Enjoy

 

[SONGsanmanwah]

Any Pat Metheny Group/Trio album's also not to be missed.

 

[musicmind]

Quote:

Originally Posted by SONGsanmanwah /img/forum/go_quote.gif Any Pat Metheny Group/Trio album's also not to be missed.

Pat Metheny's music is not in the same style/sound as the OP's mentioned artists like Howard Alden and Django, so thats why I didn't mention Metheny.
The recent "One Quiet Night" acoustic album is pertty nicely recorded though.
Nice acoustic version of Norah Jones' hit.

 

[braker218]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Csericks /img/forum/go_quote.gif You might add Kenny Burrell.

If you are after Django type jazz guitar definitely get some Burrell (don't know about the quality of his recordings however). I know for a fact he was heavily influenced by Django. How do I know this? I had the honor of taking a history of jazz class instructed by Burrell here at UCLA. It might have been the best class I have ever taken.

 

[Nugget]

I love this forum.

I'm acquainted with Burrell and Montgomery, and of course Grappelli, but other than that I've got a serious Amazon session ahead of me. Thanks for the all the recommendations, fellas!

 

[SONGsanmanwah]

Quote:

Originally Posted by musicmind /img/forum/go_quote.gif Pat Metheny's music is not in the same style/sound as the OP's mentioned artists like Howard Alden and Django, so thats why I didn't mention Metheny. The recent "One Quiet Night" acoustic album is pertty nicely recorded though. Nice acoustic version of Norah Jones' hit.

Ouch, somehow I found that rather harsh

I was focusing on the OP's last paragraph. Tell me if you can think of any recording small band jazz guitar that's still ALIVE besides them. If one of the reasons to play Norah Jones' hit is to keep a tiny space in mainstream live circuit, I would think hard before blaming them.

As far as I know Wes died on 1968.

 

[musicmind]

Quote:

Originally Posted by SONGsanmanwah /img/forum/go_quote.gif Ouch, somehow I found that rather harsh I was focusing on the OP's last paragraph. Tell me if you can think of any recording small band jazz guitar that's still ALIVE besides them. If one of the reasons to play Norah Jones' hit is to keep a tiny space in mainstream live circuit, I would think hard before blaming them. As far as I know Wes died on 1968.

Sorry, but I didnt quite understand what you found to be harsh.

I think you misunderstood my comment to be critical of Metheny and his playing, whereas all I was saying is that he plays in a different style, using effects, with a primarily electric ES-175 sound, playing in a free-jazz style. He definitely doesnt play swing like Alden, Reinhardt, which the OP had reffered to.

"Any recommendations for simple, small-band guitar jazz along these lines? Preferably recent, well-made recordings?"

I like Pat Metheny, I own over a dozen of his albums and concert DVDs. I would include John Scofield, Andy Summers, Kurt Rosenwinkel and Bill Frisell in the list of great players who play in a more experimental style, either by their sound and use of effects or by their musical sensibilities.

As for "small band jazz guitar" still alive today, theres quite a few. Mark Whitfield, Russell Malone, Susie Arioli band, John Pizzarelli , Rosenberg Trio, Ulf Wakenius, Ed Bickert to name a few that I know of.

Yes, sadly Wes left our planet too early. But many of his albums have been remastered and reissued (like the Riverside recordings box set) and are of better listening quality, which is what was asked.

I hope that clears up what I meant and you dont find my comments harsh anymore

Cheers

 

[scompton]

Try any of the CDs from Paris Combo. It's not strictly guitar music, but French retro jazz. AMG describes the guitarist as Quote:

combines the gypsy styling and swing of Django Reinhardt the warm intonations of Joe Pass and the rhythm of Charlie Christian

 

[fatcat28037]

Johnny Smith's Moonlight in Vermont is a classis. if you don't already have this in your collection visit this Amazon link and give a listen.

http://www.amazon.com/Moonlight-Verm...7443083&sr=1-2

 

[SONGsanmanwah]

@musicmind

Yep! That clears things up pretty nicely, and I have a handful of artists to catch up with. Great thread. Now off to Amazon