- Wes Montgomery
John Leslie "Wes" Montgomery (6 March 1923 - 15 June 1968) was an African American jazz guitarist and the grandfather of actor Anthony Montgomery. - Pat Metheny
Patrick Bruce Metheny (born August 12, 1954 in Lee's Summit, Missouri) is an American jazz guitarist. He is the leader of the Pat Metheny Group and is also involved in duets, solo works, and other side projects. His style incorporates elements of progressive and contemporary jazz, post-Bop, jazz-rock fusion, and folk-jazz. - George Benson
George Benson (b. March 22 1943, Pittsburgh) is an American musician, whose recording career began at the age of 21 as a jazz guitarist. He is however, better known to the public at large as a Pop/R&B singer, famous for such hits as "Give Me The Night", "Lady Love Me (One More Time)", "Turn Your Love Around", "In Your Eyes" and "This Masquerade", among others. - Django Reinhardt
Jean "Django" Reinhardt. His name is pronounced - John Scofield
John Scofield (born December 26 1951 in Dayton, Ohio) is an American jazz guitarist and composer, who played and eventually collaborated with Miles Davis, Phil Lesh, Billy Cobham, Medeski Martin & Wood, Dennis Chambers, George Duke and other important artists. At ease in the bebop idiom, Scofield is also well versed in jazz fusion, funk, blues, soul, and other forms of modern American music. - Joe Pass
Joe Pass (born Joseph Anthony Passalaqua, January 13, 1929, New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA, died May 23, 1994, Los Angeles, California), was a jazz guitarist. His extensive use of walking basslines, melodic counterpoint during improvisation, and use of a chord-melody style of play attributed to him the title guitar virtuoso. - Jim Hall
James Stanley Hall (born December 4, 1930, Buffalo, New York) is an American jazz guitarist. - Bill Frisell
The defining characteristic of any given jazz musician is frequently his sound. The more control a player has over the nature of that sound, the more likely he is to project a distinctive musical personality. - Charlie Christian
Charlie Christian (Charles Henry Christian) (29 July 1916 - 2 March 1942) was an American swing and bebop jazz guitarist. Christian was an important early performer on the electric guitar, and is cited as a key figure in the development of bebop, cool and modern jazz. Many critics believe that he alone is the link between hot and modern jazz; there is jazz before Charlie Christian and jazz "after" Charlie Christian. - Les Paul
Les Paul (born Lester William Polsfuss on June 9 1915) is an American jazz guitarist and inventor. He is one of the most important figures in the development of modern electric musical instruments and recording techniques. He is a pioneer in the development of the solid-body electric guitar (the Gibson Les Paul, which he helped design, is one of the most famous and enduring models), multitrack recording, and various reverberation and echo effects. - Pat Martino
Pat Martino (born Pat Azzara, August 25, 1944, in South Philadelphia) is an Italian-American jazz guitarist and composer within the post bop, soul jazz, mainstream jazz and hard bop idioms. - John McLaughlin
John McLaughlin (born January 4, 1942), also Mahavishnu John McLaughlin, is a jazz fusion guitar player from Doncaster, Yorkshire in England. He came to prominence with Miles Davis' electric jazz-fusion groups from the late 1960s. He is regarded by many as one of the most influential and technically gifted guitarists of all time, having mastered a remarkable range of styles and genres, including jazz, Indian classical music, fusion, and Flamenco. - Kenny Burrell
Kenneth Earl Burrell (born July 31, 1931 in Detroit, Michigan) is an American jazz guitarist. His playing is founded in bebop and blues but works well with other jazz styles, so he has performed and recorded with a wide range of jazz musicians. - John Pizzarelli
John Pizzarelli, Jr. (born April 6, 1960) is an Italian-American jazz guitarist, vocalist, songwriter and bandleader born in Paterson, New Jersey. He is married to torch singer Jessica Molaskey who he has recorded with on each of her albums, and is also the son of fellow jazz guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli. Pizzarelli has had a lengthy career as a recording artist, performing for a variety of labels that include Telarc Records, RCA Records and Chesky Records, among others. - Charlie Hunter
Charlie Hunter is an American jazz, rock and fusion guitarist. He grew up in Berkeley, California, where he graduated from Berkeley High School and took lessons from guitarist Joe Satriani. Hunter is best known for playing a custom, eight-string guitar made by luthier Ralph Novak of Novax Guitars. He plays the lead guitar on the top five strings (tuned ADGBe) and bass guitar (tuned EAD) on the bottom three strings simultaneously. - Grant Green
Grant Green (June 6, 1935 - January 31, 1979; some sources erroneously give the birth year as 1931) was a jazz guitarist and composer. Recording prolifically and almost exclusively for Blue Note Records (as both leader and sideman) Green performed well in hard bop, soul jazz, bebop and latin-tinged settings throughout his career. Critics Michael Erlewine and Ron Wynn write, "A severely underrated player during his lifetime, … - Barney Kessel
Barney Kessel (October 17, 1923 - May 6, 2004) was an American jazz guitarist born in Muskogee, Oklahoma, USA. He began his career as a teenager touring with local dance bands before moving on to bands such as that led by Chico Marx. He quickly established himself as a key post-Charlie Christian jazz guitarist. - Larry Coryell
Larry Coryell is an American jazz guitarist. He was born in Galveston, Texas, in 1943. After graduating from Richland High School in eastern Washington, he moved to Seattle to attend the University of Washington. In 1965, Coryell moved to New York City where he became part of Chico Hamilton's quintet, replacing Gabor Szabo. In 1967 and 1968, he recorded with Gary Burton and Jim Pepper. His music during the late 1960s and early 1970s combined the influences of rock, … - Mike Stern
Mike Stern (born January 10 1953) is an American jazz guitarist. A major player on the scene since his breakthrough days with Miles Davis' comeback band, circa 1981, Stern's sideman credits include work with such jazz icons as saxophonists Stan Getz and Joe Henderson, bassist Jaco Pastorius, guitarists Jim Hall and Pat Martino, trumpeters Tom Harrell, Arturo Sandoval and Tiger Okoshi and saxophonists Michael Brecker, … - Tal Farlow
Talmage Holt Farlow, better known as Tal Farlow, was a jazz guitarist and sign painter born in Greensboro, North Carolina. TALMAGE HOLT FARLOW’s half-century career in jazz embodied the unusual. Born June 7, 1921 in Greensboro, North Carolina, he was supposed to grow up and become a textile plant worker like his father. Instead, he spent countless hours tuned in to remote radio broadcasts of Count Basie, Benny Goodman and Coleman Hawkins. - Chet Atkins
Chester Burton "Chet" Atkins (June 20, 1924 - June 30, 2001) was an influential guitarist and record producer. His picking style, inspired by Merle Travis, Django Reinhardt, George Barnes and Les Paul, brought him admirers both within and outside the country scene. Atkins produced records for Eddy Arnold, Don Gibson, Jim Reeves, Jerry Reed, Skeeter Davis, Connie Smith, and Waylon Jennings. - Bucky Pizzarelli
John Paul 'Bucky' Pizzarelli (born) is an American classical jazz guitarist and banjoist, perhaps most notable for his work with jazz guitarist John Pizzarelli, his son. John has also worked for NBC as a staffman for Dick Cavett (1951) and also ABC with Bobby Rosengarden in (1952). The list of musicians Bucky has collaborated with over his career is considerable, including Les Paul, Stephane Grappelli, and Benny Goodman. - Earl Klugh
Earl Klugh (born September 16, 1953 in Detroit, Michigan) is an American smooth jazz/jazz fusion guitarist and composer. Klugh normally finger picks a nylon string classical guitar. At the age of 13, Klugh was captivated by the guitar playing of Chet Atkins when he made an appearance on the Perry Como Show. He has since been a guest on several Atkins albums. Atkins, reciprocating as well, joined Earl on his "Magic In Your Eyes" album. - Stanley Jordan
Stanley Jordan (July 31, 1959) is an American jazz/jazz fusion guitarist, best known for his development of the touch technique for playing guitar. He was born in Chicago, Illinois. He received an A.B. in music from Princeton University in 1981. Normally, a guitarist must use two hands to play each note. One hand presses down a guitar string behind a chosen fret to prepare the note, and the other hand either plucks or strums the string to play that note. - Norman Brown
Norman Brown (born December 18, 1963 in Kansas City, Missouri) is a smooth jazz guitarist & singer. Brown often draws comparisons to another well-known guitarist, George Benson. Because the two sound almost alike, Brown is sometimes billed as the second coming of Benson. He was discovered in the early 1990s by legendary drummer Norman Connors. - Larry Carlton
Larry Carlton (born 2 March, 1948) is an American jazz guitarist, dividing his recording time between solo recordings and session appearances with more popular bands. Over his career Carlton has won three Grammys for his performances and compositions, including the theme music for the hit television series, Hill Street Blues (1981). Carlton started learning to play guitar when he was six years old. Taking an interest in jazz whilst at high school, … - Stanley Clarke
Stanley Clarke (born 30 June 1951) is an American musician and composer known for his innovative and influential work on double bass and bass guitar as well as his numerous film and television scores. - Herb Ellis
Mitchell Herbert (Herb) Ellis (born August 4, 1921) is an American jazz guitarist. He became prominent after performing with the Oscar Peterson Trio from 1953 to 1958. He was a somewhat controversial member of the trio because he was the only white person in the group in a time where racism was still very much widespread. Before that he had worked with Glen Gray and the Casa Loma Orchestra, Jimmy Dorsey, and Soft Winds. - John Abercrombie
John Abercrombie (born December 16, 1944 in Port Chester, New York) is an American Progressive jazz guitarist. Aside from his solo work he is known for his work with Billy Cobham, Jack DeJohnette and the Brecker Brothers. Abercrombie has recorded principally with the ECM label of Manfred Eicher. He also explores often the parameters of jazz fusion and post bop. Abercrombie is 1967 graduate of the Berklee College of Music in Boston. - Martin Taylor
Martin Taylor is a highly respected British guitarist. Specialising in jazz, he has performed in groups, guitar ensembles and as an accompanist to many of the world’s most famous musicians. However, it is for his remarkable solo fingerstyle performances, in which he provides bass and chordal accompaniment in addition to a melody, that he is most renowned. - Jimmy Bruno
Jimmy Bruno, born July 22, 1953, Philadelphia, USA, is a jazz guitarist. Bruno started playing at the age of 7, and began his professional career at the age of 19, touring with Buddy Rich. He counts Johnny Smith, Hank Garland, Joe Pass, Tal Farlow, Wes Montgomery, Howard Roberts, Jim Hall, and Pat Martino amongst his influences. - Lee Ritenour
Lee Mack "Captain Fingers" Ritenour (born January 11 1952) is a session musician and recording artist. He had a minor U.S. hit with "Is It You" in 1981. Ritenour holds the distinction of having two of the promotional videos for his songs ("Is It You," and "Mr. Briefcase") being played during MTV's first hour. - Charlie Byrd
Charlie Lee Byrd (September 16, 1925 - November 30, 1999), better known as Charlie Byrd, was a famous American jazz and classical guitarist born in Suffolk, Virginia. Byrd collaborated on the famous 1962 album "Jazz Samba" with Stan Getz, a recording which pushed bossa nova into the mainstream of American music. During the late 1950s he toured Europe with Woody Herman as part of a United States State Department "goodwill tour". - Howard Alden
Howard Alden (born) is an American jazz guitarist born in Newport Beach, California. He has recorded a long series of albums for Concord Records. His performances were dubbed over Sean Penn as 'Emmet Ray' in the 1999 Woody Allen film "Sweet and Lowdown". Howard has produced several albums with George Van Eps. - Johnny Smith
Johnny Smith, (born John Henry Smith, Jr. on June 25, 1922 in Birmingham, Alabama) is an American cool jazz and mainstream jazz guitarist, although he does not consider himself to be a musician in the idiom. - Al di Meola
Al Di Meola (born Al Laurence Dimeola July 22, 1954 in Jersey City, New Jersey) is an American jazz fusion and Latin jazz guitarist. Di Meola is a resident of Old Tappan, New Jersey. - Robben Ford
Robben Ford (born December 16, 1951) is a blues, jazz and rock guitarist. He was born in Woodlake, California and raised in Ukiah, and began playing the saxophone at age 10, picking up the guitar at age 13. Robben and his brothers Mark (mouthharp) and Patrick (drums) had a blues band they named the Charles Ford Blues Band in honor of their father. Robben began playing professionally at age 18 when the Ford Blues Band got a gig backing Charlie Musselwhite. - Lenny Breau
Lenny Breau (August 5, 1941-August 12, 1984) was a brilliantly innovative American-born Canadian jazz guitarist who brought together country, classical, flamenco and jazz guitar techniques. Breau developed a great deal of technical ability; inspired by country guitarists like Chet Atkins, Breau used a fingerstyle not often used in Jazz guitar. Largely unknown in popular music, he is known today as a musician's musician. - Marc Antoine
Marc Antoine (born May 28, 1963 in Paris, France) is a smooth jazz/jazz fusion guitarist. His guitar play style is based on Roma music. - Peter White
Peter White is a smooth jazz/jazz fusion guitarist. He also plays the accordion. Peter first gained fame with his distinctive guitar style accompanying Al Stewart. During a 20-year tenure with Stewart, he co-wrote many songs, including Al’s 1978 Top Ten hit “Time Passages”. In the late 1980s, Peter accompanied Basia on a series of acclaimed albums. In 1996 Basia was featured on Peter's album "Caravan Of Dreams", with vocals on the single "Just Another Day".
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