World Of Fingerstyle Guitar

Records by Charlie Byrd, Lenny Breau, George Van Eps, Laurindo Almieda, and Joe Pass have set a very high standard for solo fingerstyle jazz guitar, and it is from this vantage point that the solo flights of Taylor, Crook, Nichols, Baker, and Mann take wing. Each player has developed a distinctly different approach by listening intently to numerous other musicians and composers-pianists, horn players, bassists, and singers as well as many guitarists in jazz, blues and other styles. What distinguishes them from more traditional jazz guitarists (who more or less function as a linear voice in an ensemble) is their ability to play (or imply) all aspects of the music-rhythm, chords, bass, and melody-without accompaniment. Their performances not only demonstrate their technical brilliants and imagination, they are a testament to the enduring power and beauty of jazz guitar in its current evolution as a major instrumental force in American music.

Includes:
Martin Taylor:
Shining Stockings
My Funny Valentine
Just Squeeze Me
Tommy Crook:
Melody of Birdland
All the Things You Are
It Had To Be You
Wave
Jim Nichols
Can't Take That Away From Me
East Of the Sun
Taste Of Honey
Here's That Rainy Day
Duck Baker
Back Home In Indiana
Forty Ton Parachute
Out Of the Past
Seven Point One
Woody Mann
Mr. Guitar
Uptown Tales
Gypsy Girl
Cat Burglar