5 jazz guitarists you must hear if you love classical music

Classical and jazz often are thought of as separate ends of the musical spectrum. While this assumption might generally be true, the boundaries we draw between between genres likely do more harm than they are worth. Here are five jazz guitarists who use different elements of classical composition to create beautiful music that deserves to be heard outside the confines of any genre.

Bill Frisell

Recommended album: Epistrophy (ECM)

This Bill Frisell album, recorded live with bassist Thomas Morgan at the Village Vanguard in New York, taps into a lightness that is found with such ease in classical music but often lost in the ranks of big bands or even smaller combos in jazz. Frisell and Morgan take on a somewhat bizarre setlist for a jazz duo, reworking classics from the American Songbook, such as “All in Fun,” as well as classic pop tunes, like “Save the Last Dance for Me” and “In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning,” and even the folk tune “Red River Valley.” These familiar melodies are unveiled in fragments, eventually revealing themselves in the context of entirely new compositions. The instrumentalists rarely take delineated solos but participate in a constant exchange, making the whole improvised setup feel highly composed. Frisell doesn’t rely on dense textures or heavy syncopation to qualify his music as jazz; he simply plays from the heart, and the results are stunning.

Emily Remler

Recommended album: East to Wes (Concord)

Emily Remler is a musician whose legacy continues to live on, although her life tragically ended at 32 in 1990. She was a master of synthesis, constantly referencing her predecessors but never losing sight of her distinctive character. Her strength lay in her improvisation, in which she used elements of classical composition, including controlled repetition and temporization, to create sheer melodic genius. Her 1988 album, East to Wes, is primarily a nod to Wes Montgomery and some of his most quintessential works, each of which she reharmonizes and reinvents with fresh, modern energy. The penultimate track, “Softly as in a Morning Sunrise,” remains the best jazz guitar recording of all time.

Romero Lubambo

Recommended album: Duo (Sunnyside)

Each note that Romero Lubambo and pianist César Camargo Mariano play on this 2003 album resonates with intention, resulting in an intense and energetic album that keeps listeners on the edge of their seats. Lubambo plays a beautiful nylon-stringed Spanish guitar, forgoing the pick to use all five fingers, reminiscent of classical technique. His Brazilian heritage is present in every composition, but he melds it seamlessly with American jazz styles to create an entirely new sound. This fusion becomes apparent as he shifts quickly between Latin grooves and a straighter hard-bop feel, or even more legato classical styles, without ever missing a beat.

Grant Green

Recommended album: Idle Moments (Blue Note)

Grant Green is one of the defining artists of the hard-bop era. The style evolved from bebop, which is known as the only jazz style that comes from the mind, not the heart. Much like classical music, it is a highly intellectualized art form, intended to display virtuosity. Bebop has its own language, established by masters such as Charlie Parker and Thelonious Monk, and players are expected to lift directly from these pre-established rhythms and melodies. Hard bop retains some of these intellectualized tendencies but reintroduces soul and blues language to the mix. Green’s iconic 1965 album, Idle Moments, contains only four tracks, but they represent 40 minutes of emotional composition. Green and his fellow musicians putter between the classic blues riffage and analytical arpeggiation that now characterize hard bop as we know it.

Mary Halvorson

Recommended album: Searching for the Disappeared Hour (Pyroclastic)

Mary Halvorson is playing the music of the future. Combining jazz, rock, classical and avant-garde composition, she creates astounding new and beautiful records each time she sits with a guitar. On her 2021 record, Searching for the Disappeared Hour, she plays with classically trained pianist Sylvie Courvoisier. The two build off each others’ melodic ideas incessantly and often clash intentionally with dissonant pitches and timbres. This music strays far from the easy-listening ambience that jazz is known for, but for listeners willing to adventure further into spatial compositions that are ahead of their time, this is an excellent album to explore.