Top 10 guitarists

ThomasGtar

hey everyone thought i'd start a top 10 guitarist poll! they can be living or dead and from any genre. here's mine......
1.Phil Keaggy
2.Pierre Bensusan
3.Bireli Lagrene
4.Shawn Lane
5.Tommy Emmanuel
6.Stochelo Rosenberg
7.Peter Finger
8.John Petrucci
9.Eric Johnson
10.Guthrie Govan

Musette

1 DJANGO REINHARDT. I'm sure you meant to write that, its ok...just a typo....

B25Gib

This is a forum of players partial to the musical legacy of Django and the evolution of his music! While I can fully understand your appreciation of Phil Keaggy's total ability as an acoustical/electric great considering his total body of work from early on with Glass Harp, and his later beautiful solo Christian spiritual works such as his CD "HymnTunes" his work is not followed here!
......Rocky

BluesBop Harry

1. DJANGO REINHARDT

klaatu

Musette wrote:

1 DJANGO REINHARDT. I'm sure you meant to write that, its ok...just a typo....

Indeed ... no Django, no Stochelo, no Bireli, no Angelo, no Tchavolo, etc. etc.

Not to mention his influence on just about every great guitarist you can mention, some of whom belong on some top 10 list somewhere - Les Paul, B. B. King, Chet Atkins, Julian Bream, a lot of the heavy metal guys, and so on and so forth.

ThomasGtar

I understand this site is about gypsy jazz. if gypsy jazz is all some people listen to, then by all means write down your top 10 favorite GJ guitarists! I might get lynched or kicked off of this site for saying this but Django wouldn't even be in my top 20. I greatly appreciate his virtuosity, fire, swing, and inventiveness! I just like Bireli and Stochelo better. I understand they wouldn't be here if it wasn't for him, but that doesn't mean he needs to be in my top 10 or 20 for that matter. Neither would charlie christian or jimi hendrix be in my top 20 (Pioneers of their genre).

ThomasGtar

3others that could easily have made top 10list........pat metheny, lenny breau, martin taylor(for his solo guitar phenomenon)

Elliot

Here's mine. I put emphasis on individuality and genre-historical consequence. Since they are all very competent players I don't believe it is appropriate to compare them on a strictly technical basis:

1. Hendrix – always ahead of his time
2. Chuck Berry – there was nothing before him, everything after
3. Django – most euphoric player
4. Segovia – savior of the classical tradition
5. Zappa – postmodern jazz/rock originality (Gibson SG period)
6. Charlie Christian – creator and jazz guitar visionary
7. Kirk Hammett – metal godfather
8. Eric Clapton – he really was ‘God’ for a while
9. Tchavolo – irreplaceable - if he didn't exist we'd have to invent him
10 Fapy Lavertin /Angelo Debarre – tied for most authentic
11 Van Halen - what's a white kid to do after Hendrix?

Shawn

If this is more of an opinion poll then I can see your point of leaving Django off the list, as he's not everyones cup of tea. However, if your wanting a list of Top 10 guitarists based upon contributions, influence, talent, etc. then I'm pretty sure Django would have to top that list regardless of musical genre. There is simply no other guitarist (well, maybe Segovia) that brought guitar out of the gutter and made it a prominent musical instrument on the world stage. Django's influence stems into Blues, Rock, Metal, Jazz, Folk, Classical, etc., and everyone from Willie Nelson to C.C. Deville have claimed him as a major influence. That alone is a feat that few can claim...not to mention his perfect ear, ability to improvise (and more importantly "out-improvise" every other musician of his day), etc.

Academically, I believe Django to be the only guitarist one could choose as No. 1! However, as a simple opinion poll one could choose any guitarist they want only based upon the "likeability" of the musician, rather than any other factor.

Just my 2 cents,

Shawn

Elliot

Django's influence on other individuals is here and there, but as Jazz quickly moved to a blues oriented approach Christian eclipsed him. I think Django had much greater scope, however, so I would put him above Christian. Chuck Berry simply changed the guitar world and left his imprint on every rock solo afterward and so must be placed above Django for that reason.

When someone claims Django as an influence, it is hard to know if it is meant to be as a musical influence, or for just being who he was. There is a very early picture of Jerry Garcia before the GD someone showed me - he looked EXACTLY like Django, clothing and all, right down to the mustache! In fact I couldn't believe it wasn't Django. The thing is, the only similarity I can find between them musically is Garcia's use of long, extended lines, but that may well have been the LSD.

klaatu

Elliot wrote:

The thing is, the only similarity I can find between them musically is Garcia's use of long, extended lines, but that may well have been the LSD.

His or yours? 8)