This collection could have been better | Progressions: 100 Years of Jazz Guitar

Progressions: 100 Years Of Jazz Guitar | Progressions: 100 Years of Jazz Guitar | Tal Farlow, Les Paul, ...

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	• Progressions: 100 Years of Jazz Guitar Tal Farlow, Les Paul, ... Sony, 2005 average customer review:based on 11 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Great buy for guitar geeks

Part of the fun of these kinds of anthologies is the grumbling over who was left out, what doesn't belong, etc. Taken as a whole however, this is a pretty compelling set of tunes.

I love disc one with some really good finds - like the hysterical Minnehaha by Sam Koki - maybe not the best playing but very fun. But, since these old tunes are so short shouldn't we have gotten more than one Django and Charlie Christian? Disc 2-3 have some nice tracks by players I've kinda ignored: Johnny Smith, Jimmy Raney, Lenny Breau for example. And Grant Green, who I had enjoyed on the old Blue Notes but had seen as a sort of Kenny Burrell lite, is surprising, fresh and swinging here. Good choices of tunes in almost all cases - Wes Montgomery, Hank Garland and others. (Did alot of these players let their chops slacken a bit over time?)

But, do we need Lee Ritenour on a jazz anthology? Jeff Beck? Santana?

Where are Egberto Gismonti, Bireli Lagrene, Stochelo Rosenberg, Sylvain Luc, Pierre Dorge, Scotty Anderson, Jimmy Bruno?

Its funny though, if you listen to one Derek Bailey or Sonny Sharrock tune, you don't realize that all of their solos follow the same frightening descent into hell. I actually like their playing if I hear, like one piece every year or so.

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This collection could have been better

After listening to this 4 cd set several times I've come to the conclusion that it could have been better condensed into 2 spectacular jazz cd's. First of all, cd 1 starts off with what sounds like banjo. Who's bright idea what it to include it on 100 years of jazz guitar? There are also songs that are dominated by saxophone and/or vocals with guitar as a background instrument.
If I wanted to hear vocals and sax I would have purchased cd's with vocals and/or Coltrane or Sonny Rollins, repectively.
There are only a few gems on cd 1 most notably Django Reinhardt and Charlie Christian.
Cd 2 is probably the best with cd 3 close behind. However, can somebody tell me why Jimi Hendrix doing "Manic Depression" is on this cd? If you know the answer then perhaps you may also know why in the world Carlos Santana is on this collection as well.
And Derek Bailey's 1997, "Should Be Reversed" is just garbage!!! THIS IS NOT JAZZ!!! Who's bright idea was it to put this track on the compilation? I keep thinking, another Django tune, another Wes Montgomery, Pass, Ellis, Burrell tune would have been better suited to make this a better compilation.
All that 1970's distorted psuedo-jazz fusion racket by the likes of John McLaughlin and others dominate cd 4. Cd 4 contains all the "really want to play rock, but call themselves jazz guitarists."
There are some great guitarists and tasty licks on this cd package, but there is also NON jazz on this too. Be advised.

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Progressions: 100 Years Of Jazz Guitar

What a shame one never gets to hear Oscar Almen do what he does better
than just about any other Guitarist,Or hear enough Django,Charlie Christen
,Teddy Bunn,To really understand why they are more than just fine Guitarist....they are "Jazz Greats"

Thats because this Collection is more Intrested in getting
non jazz fans to buy this set.
There's a few odd things about this very good box set.The fact
that the cover of the Booklet(which is very nice)is a picture of a flattop
guitar,and there's plenty of Guitars and Guitarist that should be in a rock or pop collection

I guess when they were trying to update the fine two record set
50 years of jazz Guitar,They stuck with the one track pre artist.
This makes for a lot of space for many guitarists,Which is the main
problem with this set.Instead of giving you 2 or 3 cuts from real
jazz greats(not just fine Guitar Players)they fill the four
cds with Pop and Rock recordings that have no place in a jazz Guitar
collection.
I love Santana ,but he's not Jazz,Part of something being jazz in
improvisation,something that Santana doen't do much of .Which
doesn't make "Europa" any less great,.Also just because you
Improvise doesn't mean that a artist is a jazz also.Theres plenty
of Guitarists that have nothing to do with jazz on this set.Some
are jazz players who play pop(Earl Klugh),Others like Hendrix
or Jeff Beck aren't Jazz at all.The last pages
of the booklet are pictures of Strats and Les Pauls and even
a Classical guitar gets a double page spread how silly is That!

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Essential guitar history

A monumental work, this four-CD box set celebrates the evolution of jazz from the perspective of our favorite instrument. Featuring representative cuts from 75 pivotal players, 100 Years of Jazz Guitar offers selections from the dawn of recorded music (originally captured on Edison cylinders) extending to the present day. The adventure begins with a harp-guitarist strumming in 1906 and stretches to Bill Frisell's "Ron Carter," released in 2001. Relatively unsung giants, such as Lonnie Johnson, Roy Smeck, and Eddie Condon rub shoulders with the likes of Django Reinhardt, Charlie Christian, Tal Farlow, Wes Montgomery, and Pat Metheny. The scope is enormous -- shifting from Sol Hoopii's bouncy lap slide to Marc Ribot's skronky sonics is a mind-bender -- but that's what makes this collection so valuable. We hear the entire spectrum of jazz guitar, from swing to bebop to funk to avant-garde. There's plenty to read, as well: John Scofield penned the collection's intro (he also appears musically), there's a bio for every player, and 25 of the included guitarists reveal who they find inspiring and why. "Essential" is an overused word, but in this case, it's wonderfully appropriate.

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Historical Integrity!

Everyone will find something of their own here, be it pre-Charlie Christian or late period Miles. My own contribution (as a reviewer) is to commend the compilers for a keen sense of history. Instead of simply falling into the listmania cliche of "the 100 best X" they have chosen players according to a wide variety of criteria. Two that JUMP out here are: (1) how INFLUENTIAL a guitarist has been regardless of record sales or fame; (2) how HISTORICALLY or MUSICALLY significant a given recording has been. In the first category I note the recognition of Lenny Breau and Sonny Sharrock who are far from household naems. In the second category I note the inclusion of tracks that point to landmarks in the evolution of music and jazz guitar : Birds of Fire, June 15 from Duster (Burton/Coryell), Bright Size Life. This box set will delight you if you are a well-seasoned jazz enthusiast or coming to the genre for the first time. A fantastic value!!!!

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Seventy-eight guitar classics are put together in 100 YEARS OF JAZZ GUITAR, a remarkable 4-CD anthology that yields the absolutely definitive jazz guitar collection ever assembled. The set spans the years 1906 to 2001, from the ragtime banjo of Vess Ossman (originally recorded on an Edison cylinder) to the diaphonous chords of Bill Frisell. In between, virtually every major figure of the jazz guitar weighs in, from Eddie Lang, Django Reinhardt, and Charlie Christian to Les Paul, Tal Farlow, and Wes Montgomery, and right up to Jim Hall, Grant Green, George Benson, Pat Martino, John McLaughlin, Pat Metheny, and John Scofield as well as Jeff Beck, Carlos Santana, and the great Jimi Hendrix.

In addition, the box also contains a book filled with photographs of each of the principles heard herein, an overview essay by guitar scholar Charles Alexander, old guitar ads, photos of classic guitar models and amps, solo transcriptions and technical analysis, testimonials from guitar legends, and precise discographical data. Clearly, 100 YEARS OF JAZZ GUITAR is the set to get if one is even remotely interested in the history and development of guitar over the course of the past century.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3

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