CD-Charts Position 1
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Midnight Blue: Remastered

CD-Charts > Music > Guitar
by: Kenny Burrell

Release Date April 05, 1999
Hynotic, subtle and the same time wonderfully soulful this record surely sits within the top five of all time Blue Note releases. It's the ultimate late night session. The consistently wonderfully Kenny Burrell who makes the difficult sound effortlessly simple gives a masterclass in Jazz guitar playing with an endlesss tapestry of smooth licks that melt into the instinctive groove of Stanley Turrentine's sax. It's a partnership made in heaven, they work so languidly off each other on, "Mule" The way Burrell brings in the track on,"Soul lament," with his emotive twanging are classic bars of music. I am also particularly fond of the waltz tempo on,"Wavy Gravy."
This record is wonderfully focussed, Burrell's musical philosophy is stamped ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 2
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Floating Point

CD-Charts > Music > Guitar
by: John McLaughlin

Release Date June 30, 2008
This album does take some getting used to. And you do have to take some space from it and go back again with fresh ears before you are able to sort out what's new. The Meeting of the Minds - The Making of Floating Point [2008] DVD, which is awesome, helped clinch the album for me. The first thing you have to deal with is the overwhelming drums and percussion throughout. At first you can't help but think that this is some kind of mistake in the mixing, but persist and you can get used to it. It's a deliberate decision that ensures that the whole album operates at a very high energy level. John's albums have always been about joy and ecstasy and seldom on the mellow side of those values. The album is meant to be rhythmically overwhelming, from ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 3
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Trio of Doom

CD-Charts > Music > Guitar
by: John McLaughlin

Release Date June 25, 2007
Scraps and nuggets from a doomed feast. The paucity of salvageable material (no less than four versions of one track for example) backs up the now legendary accounts of the 'difficulties' John Mclaughlin and Tony Williams had with Jaco Pastorius... but inspite of it all the music veritably roars at times; each member an absolute master of his instrument. Aaaah what might have been.

CD-Charts Position 4
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Djangology

CD-Charts > Music > Guitar
by: Django Reinhardt

Release Date August 29, 2000
Django Reinhardt is without a doubt the finest Jazz guitarist ever to have lived.

Consequently, the jazz he made in the smokey clubs of 1940's Paris, with his quartet, is amazing. Clarinet, Violin, Drums, and Guitar build fantastic layers and tempos that are unparalleled by any jazz group/artist to attempt it.

Buy any Django Reinhardt CD and love it.

CD-Charts Position 5
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Idle Moments: Remastered

CD-Charts > Music > Guitar
by: Grant Green

Release Date October 16, 2000
Im amazed at how cheap these albums are as the musicianship and technical skill are so impressive. Grant Green's guitar with the vibraphone works beautifully tonally and melodically. An album for a jazz fan.

CD-Charts Position 6
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'The Guitar Trio' ; Paco De Lucia, John McLaughlin, Al Di Meola

CD-Charts > Music > Guitar
by: Paco De Lucia, Al Di Meola, John McLaughlin

Release Date September 23, 1996
Brief review -

Can not compare to the Live in San fransisco album (for me). But still damned impressive guitar work. Some sweet melodies and fingerwork. Much more attention to the overall compositions and less on virtuosity. Generally much more laid back than thier live album 16 odd years previous.

But, this album has style, and I like it a lot none the less.

If you're looking for the franticly extreme skills shown on "fiday night in San fransisco" you wont really find it here.

But for beautiful flamenco atmosphere and noodling galore, buy this!

6....or 7/10 for me

CD-Charts Position 7
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Friday Night in San Francisco

CD-Charts > Music > Guitar
by: John McLaughlin, and Paco de Lucía Al Di Meola

Release Date October 20, 1997
...... aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh aaaaahhh ha aaaaaaaaaaahhh aaaaaaaahhhhhh aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!!!

My head!!!! Its going to friggin explode!!!!

Haven't felt goospimples like this after listening to an album for years!

Wooooaaaah!

Intense!!

This is the sh@t!! Dont miss out on this one! Buy it now!!

If you want artistic breakdown - look at the other reviews! - mine's pure emotional reflex to listening to it.

Genius!

CD-Charts Position 8
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Smokin' At The Half Note

CD-Charts > Music > Guitar
by: Wes Montgomery

Release Date March 21, 2005
YES! This really is some smokin Jazz. When the musicians let rip on this it really does take you somewhere else.

If you like Jazz you must own this. If you like the guitar you must own this. If you like music you must own this. If you think you don't like jazz, listen to this record, and if you dont like it, you really dont like jazz.
This is REAL virtuosity on display here rather than pure technical ability. Steve Vai would give anything to play like this!

Brilliant!

CD-Charts Position 9
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Reverence

CD-Charts > Music > Guitar
by: Richard Bona

Release Date September 17, 2001
Richard Bona's undubtely a natural attitude for music, 360° speaking. In this album, the bassist from Cameroon writes songs and melodies, plays guitar, keys, percussion, flute, and bass. Well, very LITTLE bass, actually. Known as Mike Stern's bass player and occasionally singer, Bona turns this routine upside down, leaving much more space to his voice than to his 4 strings. Being a bass player, I admit I was disappointed at first, hoping to hear more dum-du-du-dum, but play it twice and you can't help but relax with his native language lyrics, the afro-fusion groove, the neat sound of every instrument played in the whole album (featuring P. Metheny in the title track). Eventually, buy this album to chill out, to relax a bit, to feel that we can be closer to Africa than ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 10
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Original Album Classics

CD-Charts > Music > Guitar
by: John McLaughlin

Release Date November 12, 2007
I just want to agree with the previous reviewer, Mr McPhee. Crikey, do you buy a box set to hunt the typographical and presentational mistakes?

I well remember putting the vinyl first Shakti album on my turntable and hearing John's quietly uttered, 'Good evening. Friends. Thank you for that (pause) warm welcome'. This was followed by a blistering display of collective musicianship which held me transfixed, and still does.

To put anybody off getting hold of these Shakti albums possibly for the first time, as well as two later albums, which have some nice meditative tracks as well as more souped-up material - well ....

And as Mr McPhee says, the price is irresistible. And the same goes for the Mahavishnu material.

Incidentally, if you are not ... Read More: