The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery (1960)

In the history of jazz the guitar just doesn't get a whole lot of respect. Then again the saxophone was considered a "clown's instrument" before becoming central of most of the history of jazz. The guitar, of course, found a lot more love in rock music, but it's always been around in jazz in varying colors. Artists like Charlie Christian and Django Reinhardt were early innovators that lifted the instrument out of its largely rhythmic role. Wes Montgomery showed the world that the guitar was a real double-threat, an instrument that could double up in rhythm and lead all at the same time. Furthermore, this recording abolished the horn section altogether. Montgomery's sparring partner on this album is the versatile pianist Tommy Flanagan. (Meanwhile, Ornette Coleman was taking the opposite approach and eliminating the chord-playing instruments from his combos.)

1960 fell on the early edge of a great transition in music and culture, so this album pre-dates the guitar advancements (e.g. Hendrix) that would make the instrument central to rock and roll, and then by the end of the decade rock guitar was thoroughly infiltrating the jazz scene. However, the hollow-body electric guitar has a really cool sound that the solid-body successors don't quite capture, and listening to Wes Montgomery on the drive in this morning was a real pleasure.