Every Guitarist Needs This Collection in His Christmas Stocking

Non-guitarists, too! There's some great stuff here. Read on.

Guitar has often been a secondary instrument in the history of jazz. In a genre more commonly dominated by pianists, horn players, and big bands, the guitar generally served a background role as a rhythm instrument, sitting in the back of the bus with the bassists and drummers as it were. Moreover, the popular notion of the guitar lies almost entirely in the realm of rock, pop and country music. So, wherefore jazz?

Sony’s new collection Progressions: 100 Years of Jazz Guitar puts to rest any notion of the marginality of the guitar in jazz. This four disc, seventy-five selection production is an extraordinary amalgamation of jazz guitar from Sony’s vaults. It is a wonderful introduction to jazz guitar for the neophyte, a terrific survey for the casual listener, and even major jazz heads should enjoy this vast retrospective of jazz guitar in the twentieth century. You’re going to get to hear stuff played on just about everything imaginable, from banjos to acoustics to Gibson electric archtops to highly processed solid bodies. For a lousy thirty five bucks from Amazon, this is an incredible steal and a great gift idea.

The four disks can generally be divided into periods ranging from 1906-1944, 1946-1964, 1966 to mid-seventies, and mid-seventies to present. Every jazz guitarist of importance in these periods is covered and even some who are not jazz players in the traditional sense. Purists will sneer at the presence, for example, of Jimi Hendrix, Carlos Santana and Jeff Beck, so famous for their work in the rock pantheon and not known as your typical jazzer. My response is that these fellows are critical guitarists who had powerful stylistic and tonal influences upon the genre. You can buy that or not.

A more telling criticism is that sometimes the collection doesn’t seem to make sense. First, much of the first disk is barely jazz at all and what jazz there is isn’t jazz guitar, it’s banjo music with some ersatz country and Hawaiian thrown in for good measure. (On the other hand, there wasn’t much true jazz in the early twentieth century, either.) Second, and more telling, is that I sometimes don’t understand what the collectors are trying to convey. Why are certain tunes selected and others not? Why is the artist order what it is and what were the editors trying to say? Is this a greatest hits collection or a random retrospective? One could also argue that the collection could have been much effective by cutting it down to two discs.

But on the other hand, much of the music is sublime and at this modest price I can put up with some of the baggage. Indeed, listening to this music inspires me to go out and buy a couple of hundred guitar CD’s. Just hearing the late, great Wes Montgomery play Unit 7 tells me to hustle off to Amazon’s web site ASAP. The list of greats is almost endless—Chet Atkins, Barney Kessel, Django Reinhardt, Johnny Smith, Les Paul, George Van Eps. It’s a service to the casual listening public that their songs have been resurrected at such a modest price.

I want to say a few words about the 144-page liner booklet: it is superb. It in includes a complete track and performer listing, informative essays on every guitarist in the book (often including key albums for further listening), a collection of remarks by famed guitarists on their own favorite jazzers (read Stevie Ray Vaughan on Wes Montgomery, or Joe Satriani on Allen Holdsworth), and even some short song transcriptions. It’s one of the best booklets of its kind that I have ever read. What really kills me, though, are the pictures of some truly fabulous guitars. The Gibsons alone—L1’s, L5’s, ES-5’s, Les Pauls, SG’s, ES-335’s are enough to drool over, not to mention the assorted other Guilds, Fenders, D’Angelicos and whatnots. People would kill to own these instruments and I’m not fooling.

As I write this in the secular Holiday season (once known as the Christmas season, for those of us foolish enough to publicly profess our religion), this is a great inexpensive gift for any music fan who has more than a casual interest in guitar. It’s particularly appropriate for intermediate guitarists in their early and mid-teens who need to hear something else other than heavy metal that they are incessantly playing. The musicianship on these disks is beyond peer and will inspire players of any genre.

Disc: 1
1. St. Louis Tickle- VESS OSSMAN
2. Chain Gang Blues- SAM MOORE
3. Savoy Blues- JOHNNY ST. CYR and LONNIE JOHNSON
4. You're The One For Me- SOL HOOPII
5. Add A Little Wiggle- EDDIE LANG
6. Clowin' The Frets- EDDIE BUSH
7. California Blues- BENNY "KING" NAHAWI
8. How'm I Doin' / Dinah- ROY SMECK
9. Who's Sorry Now- EDDIE CONDON
10. Danzon- CARL KRESS & DICK McDONOUGH
11. China Boy- OTTO "COCO" HEIMEL
12. Minnehaha- SAM KOKI
13. Swingin' On The Strings- INK SPOTS
14. Honeysuckle Rose- DJANGO REINHARDT
15. Guitar Swing- CASEY BILL WELDON
16. Love Me Or Leave Me- EDDIE DURHAM & FREDDIE GREEN
17. Whispering- OSCAR ALEMAN
18. Pickin' For Patsy- ALLAN REUSS
19. Little Rock Getaway- GEORGE BARNES
20. Solo
21. Flight- CHARLIE CHRISTIAN
22. Buck Jumpin'- AL CASEY
23. Twin Guitar Special- LEON McAULIFFE & ELDON SHAMBLIN 24. I'm Walkin' This Town- TEDDY BUNN
25. Palm Springs Jump- SLIM GAILLARD
26. Gee Baby Ain't I Good To You- OSCAR MOORE
27. Red Cross- TINY GRIMES

Disc: 2
1. Ol' Man Rebop- BILL DE ARANGO
2. On Green Dolphin Street- BARNEY KESSEL
3. What Is This Thing Called Love- GEORGE VAN EPS
4. Body And Soul- JIMMY RANEY
5. My Baby Just Cares For Me- CHUCK WAYNE
6. Runnin' Wild- LES PAUL
7. Mountain Melody- CHET ATKINS
8. Yardbird Suite- TAL FARLOW
9. The Boy Next Door- JOHNNY SMITH
10. Tocata- LAURINDO ALMEIDA
11. I've Got You Under My Skin- JIM HALL
12. Aguas De Marco [Waters Of March]- JOAO GILBERTO
13. Bluesette- TOOTS THIELEMANS
14. Midnight Blue- KENNY BURRELL
15. Unit 7- WES MONTGOMERY
16. Naptown Blues- HERB ELLIS
17. Move- HANK GARLAND
18. Easy Living- HOWARD ROBERTS
19. Jean de Fleur- GRANT GREEN
20. Night And Day- JOE PASS

Disc: 3
1. Clockwise- GEORGE BENSON
2. Just Friends- PAT MARTINO
3. A Taste Of Honey- LENNY BREAU
4. How Insensitive- CHARLIE BYRD
5. Gypsy Queen- GABOR SZABO
6. June 15, 1967- LARRY CORYELL
7. As We Used To Sing- SONNY SHARROCK
8. Should Be Reversed- DEREK BAILEY
9. Manic Depression- JIMI HENDRIX
10. Birds Of Fire- JOHN McLAUGHLIN
11. Coral- MICK GOODRICK
12. Ralph's Piano Waltz- JOHN ABERCROMBIE
13. The Prowler- RALPH TOWNER
14. Bright Size Life- PAT METHENY
15. Aqui, Oh- TONINHO HORTA
16. Midnight In San Juan- EARL KLUGH

Disc: 4
1. Europa (Earth's Cry Heaven's Smile)- CARLOS SANTANA
2. Inner City Blues- PHIL UPCHURCH
3. Thumper- ERIC GALE
4. Spiral- LARRY CARLTON
5. Captain Fingers- LEE RITENOUR
6. Mr. Spock- ALLAN HOLDSWORTH
7. Race With The Devil On Spanish Highway- AL DIMEOLA
8. Cause We've Ended As Lovers- JEFF BECK
9. Church- JAMES BLOOD ULMER
10. Ron Carter- BILL FRISELL
11. Hottentot- JOHN SCOFIELD
12. Postizo- MARC RIBOT
13. Fat Time- MIKE STERN