Guitar World Greatest Guitarist Poll (django is up today)

Il Trovatore

I don't know how many of you read this or care but our guy Django is up against Wes Montgomery
and I thought we could give him a leg up, not that Wes isn't good.

Here's the link:
http://www.guitarworld.com/poll-greates ... montgomery

klaatu

So far, it's Django at about 60-40.

noodlenot

i don´t know, if they really want "the best" why don´they just make up an algorithm and compute all the relevant data? "django had 27.4% more swing...bip... wes was 15.4% more conversational...bip"

still, thanks for the heads-up.

Elliot

Unless one properly evaluates One String Sam (re: Living Blues Magazine) I would not consider this contest fair. You just never know....

Jazzaferri

For me the fact that Chet Atkins put Django in the list of the 10 most influential guitarists that ever lived speaks many more volumes than another greatest poll

I am sorry guys but I don't think that there is such a thing as greatest when it comes to music

It's not a sport and well in 200 years time I wonder if anyone will remember who Wes Montgomery was

Django will still be remembered as he started a whole type of music that I ssuspect will still be around.

anthon_74

To me, best is definitely not an argument that can be made. Most influential, maybe, but best, not so much.
To me, while my knowledge of Jazz is not nearly is big as my knowledge of rock, I would say Django is easily in the top 3 most influential musicians/bands (if not the singularly MOST influential SINGLE guitarist)

Why ?
Because he created a STYLE of music, which currently has many followers, who look DIRECTLY at him as the founder. Did Wes montgomery CREATE a style of jazz, where many guitarists refer to him as the founder of _________ ? When we say Gypsy Jazz, we really mean django jazz. Is there another style of jazz that is so directly and closely linked to a single person ?

I've heard people say that bluegrass is directly linked to Bill Monroe, but even still, I'm not sure that even he is as closely linked as gypsy jazz is to django. I mean, does EVERY bluegrass website have a picture of bill monroe on it? Do bluegrass players ALL look to Bill Monroe, or is there debate on it's origins ? In Gypsy Jazz, there is NO debate. EVERY Gypsy jazzer site Django as the ONE.

Who else ? Does every "Be bop" jazz player refer to themselves as a disciple of Charlie Parker ? Is there agreement that Charlie Parker created beBOp ?

Even in terms of Rock guitar, you can't really closely link any rock genre to ONE group, or player. Even Jimi Hendrix is not AS directly influential to metal guitarists as Django is to Gypsy jazzers. Even while the Beatles are SO influential to modern pop, I wouldn't say they created it.

Opinions ??

Anthony

Lango-Django

Gotta agree that Django is the father of gypsy jazz just as Bill Monroe is to bluegrass and Charlie Parker is to bebop...

I'd also include Louis Armstrong as the father of dixieland style jazz and Elvis Presley as the father of rock-n-roll...

All these musicians took existing previous styles, revolutionized them to create new genres and attracted countless imitators.

I don't know that much about Wes Montgomery--- yes! he's definitely a good player, but nowhere near as exciting as our boy Django... nor did he set the musical fashion as Django did...

OK, perhaps I am a BIT biased...

Jazzaferri

Charlie parker didn't invent bebop. Bebop was the outcome of a number of players of that time. Dizzy and bird being the best known

Jazzaferri

Chet Atkins, a pretty fine player and great producer. He would be on my list of top 10 influential guitarists who ever lived. That's going back nearly 300 years. Fernando Sors would be on that list and probablly Tarrega as well.

IMO Django had the broadest influence. Not only did he create a whole style of music he had huge influence on jazz, country, rock and a number of its modern derivatives. He was the man who took guitar from the rhythm section and put it in the spotlight.

To my ear his playing is still among the most lyrical of any guitarist I have heard. I go away from listening to him for a while and get into say classical or right now it's Paul Desmond and Grappelli. Then I go back and my breath gets taken away again at the things I hear. I confess I don't love everything he did but there's nothing I have heard I don't like.

I played a latenrcording of. Blues for Ike to the kids at jazz history class without them knowing who. They thought it was really cool and couldn't believe that it was 60 yrs ago it was recorded by a guy playing with two fingers.

noodlenot

Jazzaferri wrote:

Charlie parker didn't invent bebop. Bebop was the outcome of a number of players of that time. Dizzy and bird being the best known

well, but he did come out with the articulation that really "clicked" and launched all the younger sax players on a bird-frenzy. i believe that if it wasn´t for Parker things would have taken more time to coalesce and would probably went a different direction. you can perhaps hear hints in guys like Lucky Thompson. boy, i love when thinks drift away...

On another note, this sort of discussions (the best/the 3 more influential/the 10 ___/...) always reminds me of what Schopenhauer liked to say to dismiss Kant: "he all subdued to a symmetrical frenzy" (my translation, symmetrical being related to the subdivision of categories) - but of course Kant´s shadow went on to haunt him for the rest of his life. Sorry for this tangent.

As for Django creating a style of music, broadly, that´s my view of an accomplished jazz musician: he creates a style of music all his own (as did bird, Monk, Tatum, Bix, Trane, Herbie Nichols, Randy Weston, and countless others...). He was the creator of Gypsy Jazz as much as Christ was the creator of Christianity. He was necessary, but not sufficient. It´s not Django´s fault that so many people spent their lifetime emulating him - down to the moustache.The reason why Gypsy Jazz crystallized into what it is today (a genealogy of sorts) would probably be very interesting, but maybe out of place here. Anyway, i´d like to know your opinions.

Elliot wrote:

Unless one properly evaluates One String Sam (from Living Blues Magazine) I would not consider this contest fair. You just never know....

touché.

Jazzaferri

From what I have learned in jazz history I'd have to say that the three most influential beboppers were Charlie Christian Dizzy Gillespie and Bird. All three brought critical pieces to the bebop language. CC rhythmic inventions,,,,Dizz ...Harmonic inventions and Bird melodic inventions. Not really that clean and simple but for the purposes of academic study .......well it's clean anyway

I think Django would have been flattered by the attention of but bored by the idea of gypsy Jazz. He was certainly reinvigorated by bebop and had he lived another 40 years I think he would have continued to be one of the leaders and innovaters of jazz