My Favourite Guitarists

Let me state right from the beginning that there is no real point to this article other than to draw attention to some guitarists who I particularly enjoy and admire. The article consists simply of a list of these players and my reasons for putting them into the category of my 'favourites'. They are a mixed bunch stylistically to say the least! The difficulty of such a list is not so much in who to put into it, but in who to leave out - I've settled on the number 10 and it's tough limiting it to that number - if I rewrote the list next week, some players would still be there and some would be omitted, to be replaced by others. I've made no attempt to give any biographical details of the various guitarists named here - if you want to pursue an interest in any of these fine players, google is your friend!

So let's get to it - the list! In no particular order, my top 10 (this week) consists of the following players: Jeff Healey - Django Rheinhardt - John Williams - Ollie Halsall - Pat Martino - Richard Harding - Hank Garland - Lenny Breau - Chet Atkins - George Barnes. Some of these players are very well known, while others are less so, and a couple are pretty well unknown! Let's have a brief look at each of them.

Jeff Healey comes first on the list for rather a sad reason - Jeff passed away just a few days before this article was written and so I've been listening a lot to him since. He was 41 years of age, and died of the cancer he had for most of his life, which blinded him as a child. His guitar work was strongly blues based, and of all the players I've heard who are exponents of 'in yer face' electric blues playing, he is the one whose playing does it for me. His technique is unorthodox to say the least; he sits down to play and has the guitar flat on his lap, using all 4 fingers and his thumb to play over the top of the neck. What I love about his playing is the total commitment he brought to every performance I've ever heard of him. He was also a fine singer and an excellent jazz trumpeter, in a Louis Armstrong style. He's well represented on youtube - check out 'See the Light' for some typical Healey playing and singing, as well as having Doctor John on piano and Marcus Miller on bass - great stuff!

Django Rheinhardt - what can you say about Django that hasn't been said many times already? Django would always make it easily into my top 10 any week - his combination of melodic phrasing and tone is unfailingly a delight to my jaded old ears. In his latter years, his electric guitar playing was equally as stunning as the acoustic tracks which he's most noted for - his last two recording sessions are a revelation in terms of tone and style, sounding like nobody else sounded for another 10 years or so!

John Williams for me is the epitome of a great classical guitarist. His technique is flawless and his sight-reading ability is legendary but don't make the mistake of thinking that's all there is to what this great musician has to offer. His recordings of Bach and Barrios and many other composers are fantastic achievements - great tone, perfect tempo choices, clarity and precision and musical phrasing - he doesn't miss a trick. He's also one of the most consistent players around - he's always great!

Ollie Halsall (the only 'lefty' on my list) is rather less well known than most of the players named here - he was an English rock player with a heavy jazz influence who was active in a variety of settings from the late sixties up to the time of his death in the early nineties. My favourite Halsall period was his early seventies playing, when he was a member of an outstanding rock quartet named Patto. His playing with Patto was innovative to say the least - he developed a virtuoso technique, capable of playing at speeds fully the equal of any of today's 'shredders' but with much more musical content and originality. He's my favourite rocker by a million miles - check out the excellent Ollie Halsall Archive website - scroll down the page until you find the audio files of Ollie soloing in 'Give it all away' and 'Money bag' and you'll get some idea of what Ollie was about. It's always been a mystery to me why much lesser players became 'guitar heros' during this period, but Ollie was ignored - maybe he was just too far ahead of his time.

Pat Martino is someone I admire both as a guitar player of exceptional ability and as a human being. His recovery from a serious illness of the brain and subsequent amnesia is remarkable enough in itself, but to re-learn the guitar virtually from scratch shows tremendous character and commitment - he's surely the only person to have mastered the art of jazz guitar twice! His playing is speedy and secure, enabling him to play endlessly fluent lines in classic be-bop style with an occasional modern tinge just to keep the listener on his toes; his tone is rich and fat, and overall he simply does what he does superbly well.

Richard Harding is undoubtedly the least well known player on my list. Don't let this fool you however - he's another whose guaranteed a permanent place in my top 10. I first heard him in the sixties, when he was a member of a pop group (remember them? That's what they used to call rock bands in the sixties!) named the Cresters. His playing was heavily influenced by Chet Atkins but with a lot more jazz 'edge' and a more biting tone, and he was the first player of true high-level ability that I had seen in the flesh. I've seen many outstanding players since but to this day nobody's playing is as exciting to me as his - he is the most under-rated player I've ever come across, his ability is exceptional, as is the variety of different styles of playing he excels in. His technique is up to any challenge and his awareness of tone, dynamics and the subtleties of rhythm are second to none. Recordings and info about him are hard to track down - I have a few poorly recorded tracks of him from the sixties which are amongst my most treasured musical possessions - here's one - but be warned - the recording quality is truly dreadful!! If you happen to have any better recordings of him I'd be very pleased to hear from you!

Hank Garland is another of the small group of players who are guaranteed a spot in my top 10 at any time. Hearing his version of 'All the Things You Are' with the then very young Gary Burton on vibes was enough to get me hooked on his playing - it's the first track of his legendary 'Jazz Winds from a New Direction' album and it's totally perfect from start to finish. His jazz style was influenced by the country music he grew up with and played all of his life, and was fluent, inventive and melodic; a jazz guitarist as good as they come. If you backed me into a corner and forced me to pick just one favourite jazz player, it would be Hank.

Lenny Breau was a one-off. A fingerstyle jazz player, he had a complex and beautiful style, influenced by a host of different players and genres; country picking, flamenco, Bill Evans type chords, Tal Farlowe's jazz playing and many other influences came together to form a completely new and unique approach. His playing is itself influential but possibly less than that of some others simply because of it's complexity - not many players have the technique to play his style! He had personal problems throughout his life and died far too young - one of the most unique and gifted men ever to pick up a guitar.

Chet Atkins has one of the neatest and most precise pair of hands in guitar history! Coming from a country music background, his recordings of music from a wide range of styles are amongst the most influential guitar tracks ever made. He was stylish, had one of the most beautiful tones you could imagine (on both electric and acoustic guitars), and was technically innovative throughout his long career. As well as his many solo albums, he was an extremely eclectic and outgoing musician - the list of people he recorded with is impressive and includes such players as Jerry Reed, George Benson, Les Paul, Merle Travis, Dire Straits, Steve Lukather and literally hundreds of others too numerous to mention. I had the extreme pleasure of meeting him in the late 1970s - he was polite, friendly and a complete gentleman.

George Barnes was simply one of the most swinging guitarists you could possibly wish to hear. A great improviser (as opposed to a 'lick' player), he made some wonderful recordings during his long career - standouts include a group of tracks he made with a group combining a classical wind group with a jazz rhythm section in some wonderful arrangements of standards, and some albums he made in the seventies in a drummer-less quartet he co-led with trumpeter/cornettist Ruby Braff; in this band also the arrangements were superb.

There we have it - that's my top 10. Several others were considered for inclusion but I thought it would be a cop-out to name them in a kind of 'honourable mentions' list - I imposed the number 10 on myself and I'm sticking to it!

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