featuring Martin Taylor, Woody Mann, Duck Baker, Jim Nichols & Tommy Crook

The evolution of Fingerstyle jazz guitar continues today with Martin Taylor, Tommy Crook, Jim Nichols, Duck Baker and Woody Mann. Each player has developed a distinctly different approach to interpreting and writing jazz for solo guitar 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.

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. Their performances not only demonstrate their technical brilliance 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.

Song Samples:

Martin Taylor:

1. Shiny Stockings

2. My Funny Valentine

3. Just Squeeze Me

Tommy Crook:

4. Lullaby Of Birdland

5. All The Things You Are

6. It Had To Be You

7. Wave

Jim Nichols

8. Can’t Take That Away From Me

9. East Of The Sun

10. Taste Of Honey

11. Here’s That Rainy Day

Duck Baker:

12. Back Home In Indiana

13. Forty Ton Parachute

14. Out Of The Past

15. Seven Point One

Woody Mann:

16. Mr. Guitar

17. Uptown Tales

18. Spring Is Here