World ofFingerstyleJazz Guitar

featuringMartin Taylor, Jim Nichols,

Tommy Crook, Duck Baker & Woody Mann

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The World ofFingerstyle Jazz Guitar

From the beginning, the guitar has played a centralrole in the development and expression of jazz.Its evolutionas one of the music’s most ar ticulate and powerfulinstruments could not have taken place without the tasteand precision of Eddie Lang, whose plectrum guitar workwith Joe Venuti and Bing Crosby in the 1920s and 30sdrafted the original musical blueprint for jazz guitar playing.The simultaneous proliferation of phonograph records alsowas crucial to the process. Lang’s early recordsundoubtedly provided the basic direction and vitalinspiration for guitarists such as Django Reinhardt, Oscar

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Aleman and Charlie Christian, who in turn advanced theevolution of jazz guitar by a quantum leap.

Records by Reinhardt (with the Quintet of the Hot Clubof France) and Christian (with the Benny Goodman Sextet)beckoned to an entire generation of new Americanguitarists such as Herb Ellis, Joe Pass, Barney Kessel, TalFarlow, Les Paul, Wes Montgomery and so many otherswho contributed their remarkable creativity and expertiseto the instrument. Jazz guitar soon became a highlysophisticated genre with a host of genial exponents.

The “vinyl tradition” of learning to play was now well-established. Aspiring guitarists bought records by the artiststhey admired, learned to play better by repeated listeningand practice, which helped them find their own voice onthe instrument and ultimately to perpetuate the evolutionof jazz guitar with their own new ideas, innovations and, ofcourse, new records.

The evolution continues today with Martin Taylor,Tommy Crook, Jim Nichols, Duck Baker and Woody Mann.Each player has developed a distinctly different approachto interpreting and writing jazz for solo guitar by listeningintently to numerous other musicians and composers –pianists, horn players, bassists, and singers as well as manyguitarists in jazz, blues and other styles. What distinguishesthem from more traditional jazz guitarists (who more orless function as a linear voice in an ensemble) is their abilityto play (or imply) all aspects of the music – rhythm, chords,bass, and melody – without accompaniment.

Records by Charlie Byrd, Lenny Breau, George VanEps, Laurindo Almieda, and Joe Pass have set a very highstandard for solo fingerstyle jazz guitar, and it is from thisvantage point that the solo flights of Taylor, Crook, Nichols,Baker, and Mann take wing. Their performances not onlydemonstrate their technical brilliance and imagination, theyare a testament to the enduring power and beauty of jazzguitar in its current evolution as a major instrumental forcein American music.

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Martin Taylor

When Martin Taylor picks up a guitar, his intent is notmerely to play music. He wants to entertain, if not dazzle,you. He doesn’t joke or prance on stage, but insteadchannels all his wit and agility to the fingerboard, wherehis fingers fly through dizzying passages and caress elegantchords in ways that command the attention of anyone witha pulse.

In addition to a series of outstanding solo albums andvideos beginning in 1984, Taylor has also made recordswith jazz luminaries such as Buddy DeFranco and StephaneGrappelli. In 1995 Taylor teamed up with mandolinist DavidGrisman for a superb, all-acoustic recording of vintage jazztunes called “Tone Poems II,” and his latest outing featuresTaylor in a trio with Ron Carter on bass and Max Roach ondrums (“The Three Bosses” on Tristan Records).

Taylor grew up in the English countryside of Essex,about 30 miles outside of London. His father, William

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“Buck” Taylor, was a jazz bassist who worked in a band onweekends. Mr. Taylor also played the guitar, and he andhis musician friends would gather at the house and listento records by Django Reinhardt and the Quintet of the HotClub of France, and also Eddie Lang and Joe Venuti.

“That was the kind of guitar playing he really liked,”Taylor says. “Those were the first things I ever heard.”

At age 4 his father gave him a red ukulele with a palmtree painted on it, on which he learned to play chords. Awhile later, his father presented him with his first guitar – abattered relic with terrible action purchased at a local fair.

“It should have put me off for life,” Taylor says. “But Iloved it and loved playing it.”

By age 10, Taylor often accompanied his father towedding gigs and village dances, where he would play tunessuch as “Sweet Georgia Brown” as a novelty with the band.At age 13, Taylor was the band’s regular guitarist.

Taylor says living close to the city was fortunatebecause his father often took him to see jazz concerts, andthat he and his brother would often take the train intoLondon and hang around the music stores. Later his brotherturned him on to Jimi Hendrix and took him to see Hendrixperform at the Albert Hall. Shortly thereafter, he also sawSegovia give a solo concert. Taylor said that while bothconcerts were night and day musically, they were oddlysimilar in that both were unforgettable vir tuosoperformances that forever broadened his own musicalhorizons.

“I’ve never restricted my appreciation of music to whatwould fall into the category of jazz,” Taylor said. “I alwayssee myself first and foremost as a guitar player. It justhappens that I’ve always been in this sort of jazz tradition,so I guess it’s accurate to call me a jazz musician. But Isee myself as a guitar player who plays jazz, as opposedto a jazz musician who’s chosen the guitar as hisinstrument.”

A major opportunity in Taylor’s professional careerbeckoned in 1975, when he met Stephane Grappelli, thebrilliant French violinist who played on all the Djangorecords Taylor listened to as a youth. Ike Issacs was playingguitar with Grappelli at the time, and he introduced Taylorto Grappelli at a concert in London. Four years later,Grappelli, who by this time was familiar with Taylor’s

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reputation as a bright young talent, invited him to play aseries of concerts with him in France and Belgium.Grappelli liked Taylor’s playing enough to ask him alongon the next tour. Their rapport was such that Taylor endedup playing with Grappelli for 11 years.

“I was always very conscious of what a very specialthing it was to work with Stephane,” Taylor says. “Stephaneand Django were, really, the first European jazz musicianswho gave jazz a European voice and European sound. SoI really felt honored and fortunate to be with someone whowas such a big part of that.”

For those who find the notion of playing bass, chordsand melody at once mind boggling, the video opens withTaylor’s demonstration of how he puts together the basicelements of “I Got Rhythm” as a guitar solo. Many ofTaylor’s arrangements, including his version of “ShinyStockings” and Ellington’s “Squeeze Me,” seem to drawmore inspiration from pianists such as Art Tatum and BillEvans than from other jazz guitarists. However, transferringpiano concepts to the guitar isn’t exactly a verbatimprocedure.

“You can’t play on the guitar everything Art Tatumplayed,” Taylor says. “What you can do on the guitar issuggest a lot. That’s actually the whole idea of the guitar –I suggest more than I really play, which has a lot to do withhow I voice things, and rhythmic things that I do that givethe impression of playing a whole lot more.”

Taylor’s Brazi l ian-flavored take on “My FunnyValentine” is a good example of how a well-known standardcan be practically re-invented by arranging it in a differentgroove. He says that although he rarely plays a tune exactlythe same way twice, each arrangement has a basicstructure that’s flexible.

“I’ve always enjoyed the arranging side of it, and sojust about every tune I play solo has some kind of anarrangement as a framework,” Taylor says. “It’s not a strictarrangement – I always like to have some kind ofintroduction, and an ending, and a key change or a twistin the middle. Of course, that doesn’t necessary mean thatI’ll play all that – it’s really like a bit of a safety net. I’llalways remember what Stephane told me. We spent somuch time together, travelling together, we’d sit and talkabout everything from the weather to politics. Once we

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were on a plane and he said ‘I’ll give you a bit of adviceabout playing. It’s a piece of advice that Maurice Chevaliergave me. He said ‘Start well, and end well, and the middlewill take care of itself.’ ”

Tommy CrookDuring an appearance Chet Atkins made on “The

Tonight Show” in the early 1980s, Johnny Carson askedMr. Guitar if he knew of anyone who played as well or betterthan he did. As guitarists around the country who werewatching held their breath, Atkins uttered the followingendorsement: “Yes Johnny. Tommy Crook in Tulsa,Oklahoma.”

Watching Tommy Crook play the four classic jazzstandards included here, it’s easy to see why Atkins wasimpressed by his mastery of the instrument. Playing a 1957Gibson Switchmaster modified with two heavy gaugestrings tuned an octave below regular pitch, Crook oftensounds like a bass and guitar duo. His creative, fullyharmonized arrangements make full use of the fingerboard,with pyrotechnic flourishes such as artificial harmonics thatpush the range of the electric guitar further than CharlieChristian ever dreamed of.

Music seems to come naturally to Crook, whose fatherplayed guitar in a weekend square dance band. Around1950 Crook began learning chords from his dad, whoeventually taught him his entire repertoire of old songsfrom the 1930s and 40s. By the early 60s Crook was inhigh school and had a band of his own with three otherbudding musicians – David Gates, J.J. Cale, and LeonRussell.

“We played a lot of supper clubs,” Crook says. He alsorecalls the group playing as an opener for national acts atthe local roller skating rink.

Growing up in Tulsa, Crook heard plenty of WesternSwing music and undoubtedly learned a lick or two fromEldon Shamblin, who spent many years with Bob Wills andthe Texas Playboys. Crook says he got serious about theguitar when he heard Chet Atkins play “CountryGentleman.”

“I probably wouldn’t be playing the guitar today if Ihadn’t heard Chet,” he says. “I knew then what I wanted to

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do with my life. Chet was my biggest influence.”After a brief stint in college, Crook started playing

guitar regularly with older jazz musicians at localnightclubs.

“All through the mid–1960s and 1970s I worked inbands that had a rhythm section and a good piano playerwho could read,” he says. “We played six nights a week,ten to two.”

To supplement his income, Crook gave lessons andworked at a music store before he landed a job as a factorysales rep for Ampeg in 1968. Eventually he becamedissatisfied with music-related jobs and decided to dedicateall his time and effort to the guitar. After performing inseveral USO tours of Southeast Asia, Crook returned tothe local club scene only to find they could no longer affordfive- and six- piece groups. Fewer dollars meant findingways to get a bigger sound with fewer personnel.

“At that time there were no foot pedals for playingbass,” Crook says. “I got the idea of putting heavier bassstrings on the guitar from Bob Wylie, who’s an inventor inWichita.”

With the bass notes covered, Crook worked as a duowith a drummer before deciding he could make it as a soloinstrumentalist. In 1989 Crook released a self-titled albumrecorded and produced by drummer David Teegarden. Thatalbum, and the performances on this video, are the onlyavailable recordings of Crook to date.

These days Crook teaches 20 guitar students a week,he plays at a popular Tulsa nightspot four nights a week,and he occasionally performs concerts if they’re not toofar from home. Over the years his repertoire has grown toinclude many tunes outside the standard jazz songbook.

“I’m not just a jazz player – I love to play tunes,” Crooksays. “I like guitar music. I’ve never been much of a fan ofother instrumental music.”

Naturally, Crook enjoys listening to the great guitaristswho have inspired him and many others to dedicatethemselves to the instrument.

“I try to listen to just about everybody – HowardRoberts, Johnny Smith, Tal Farlow, George Van Eps,” Crooksays. “I bought all their records. I’ve listened to everyonefrom Bach to Bob Wills, and I’ve went to school oneverybody I could learn a lick from. “

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Jim Nichols

Jim Nichols is living proof that you don’t have to be achild of the big city to become an outstanding jazz musician.Born into a musical family, Nichols’ youth in rural Virginiawas filled with music practically from day one. Nichols’father, a trombonist, toured with big bands led by JimmyDorsey and Charlie Spivak, while his mother made a livingas a professional pianist.

His parents bought him a guitar at age 10, and it wasn’tlong before Nichols was woodshedding.

“I heard a Duane Eddy version of ‘Trambone’ by ChetAtkins, and I thought it was the greatest,” Nichols says. “Islowly figured out the thumb part and finger part. Fromthat day on I was a thumbpicking fool. “

Nichols began studying every old Chet Atkins recordshe could get his hands on, and learned as many of Atkins’fingerstyle solos by ear as best he could.

“Along the way I got a pretty good course in guitarfrom those records,” Nichols says. “Chet has such a greatway of playing things like ‘Liza’ and ‘Heartaches.’ In mymiddle teens I was also listening to the Ventures and ChuckBerry, and my parents had some jazz records as well. Asthey saw my interest grow, they started turning me on toDjango, Joe Pass, Charlie Christian, Oscar Peterson, andWes Montgomery. So I was exposed to pretty broad rangeof music. Howard Roberts was one of the first jazz guitaristsI heard on the radio, those old quartet records of his. In

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this little farm town where I lived, you could listen to HowardRoberts playing ‘The Shadow of Your Smile.’ I thought itwas great.”

In high school, Nichols led a rock band called theSilvertones. By the time he was 18, he was giging withother area bands as well as with his father and brother,John.

“Dad had his own group and played in a big band, so Igot a lot of valuable experience, doing some reading,playing standards, and learning to play electric bass guitar,too,” Nichols says. He continued working in and aroundhis hometown until 1972, when he and John Nicholsdecided it was time to try make it as professional musiciansin California.

“The two choices were New York and Los Angeles,”Nichols says. “We figured you could find a place to park inL.A., and it didn’t snow there. We’d make the big jumpwhen we were young and strong, and if we bombed, we’dcome back home. We drove out there with all our stuff intwo cars. We were in Amarillo, in the parking lot of a hotel,because we were too broke to stay in the hotel. There wasone little, pitiful piece of fried chicken left, and I looked atmy brother and said “What have we done?’ When we finallygot to L.A., we went to the musicians’ union and got a gigright away. That lasted about 3 days, and it was reallyhorrible. We went to see our uncle in San Francisco, andat that point we actually started to make a living playingmusic.”

Nichols had made the right move. Not long afterwardhe met Kenny Rankin, who was so impressed with Nichols’playing that he featured him on his “Silver Morning” album.Once word of Nichols’ talent began to spread, he foundhimself working with accomplished jazz musicians suchas Ar t Pepper, Bud Shank, Red Hol loway, BuddyMontgomery and Huber t Laws, making televisionappearances on “The Tonight Show” and “Don Kirschner’sRock Concert,” and doing session work. In 1982 Nicholsmarried a talented vocalist who was teaching guitar at amusic store where he used to hang out. Jim and MorningNichols have since made three albums for KameiRecordings, and Nichols has recorded several solo albums,including “Jazz & Country,” which was chosen as anEditor’s Pick for 1996 in Guitar Player magazine.

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Nichols’ playing on “A Taste Of Honey” is an obviousnod to Chet Atkins (who recorded a similar version manyyears ago), where the rest of his program are time-honoredstandards every jazz musician knows. His eloquent andtasteful renderings of Gershwin’s “You Can’t Take ThatAway From Me” and Jimmy Van Heusen’s “Here’s ThatRainy Day” show a thorough knowledge of harmony andmelodic structure, not to mention an impeccable technique.

“I play the melody and then I’m usually able toaccompany myself with a chord melody in any key,”Nichols says. “But in the case of solo guitar, I pick a keythat’s sort of in the middle, so you have room to go downthe neck in the bass line, and go up the neck in the melody.I tend to play the melody the same way, but there’s alwayschord substitutes that you can play, depending on whatstrikes you at that second – what grabs you. When you’replaying alone, you’re free to do that. Solo guitar is like ahigh wire act. You’re all alone and you have to make itflow and be in the groove, and never sound like the bottomfell out.”

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Duck Baker

A good question usually deserves a good answer. AskDuck Baker about “Seven Point One,” an originalcomposition included in this compilation, and he’ll probablydismiss it as just another blues in E. But that’s just thebeginning of his reply.

“I think that most people don’t realize how amazinglyprofound the twelve-bar structure is,” Baker says. “It’s thegreat American form. Classical music is made up of longand often unpredictable structures, where the twelve-baris the American equivalent of a haiku. I’ll listen to varioustwelve-bar melody lines and I’m amazed at how thatstructure works. Even Charlie Parker will have a feel likeBlind Lemon Jefferson. That’s deep.”

Baker’s musical education began in his teenage yearsin Richmond, Virginia, where he befriended a ragtime pianoplayer named Buck Evans.

“Every year that goes by I’m more grateful that I metthis guy when I did,” Baker says. “He taught me so muchabout American music and culture. He gave me the ideathat when you’re looking at music you’re looking at culture,and that all things are related, not just country over here,rockabilly over there, writers like Thomas Wolfe somewhereelse. He loaned me records by Louis Armstrong and JellyRoll Morton, and he basically let me know I was a middleclass fool who didn’t know a damn thing about music.”

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Like most kids his age, he was interested in playingelectric rock and roll before his fancy turned to the acousticguitar and fingerpicking.

“I think playing in rock bands is the best way for a kidto learn to play guitar,” Baker says. “You have all thesehigh-brow academic jazz courses for young people, butyou’ve gotta crawl before you can walk. If you can’teffectively improvise a blues in E, how in the hell are yougoing to play ‘Giant Steps’? I learned to play all the dopeystuff 15 year-olds liked to play back then, like ‘Louie Louie.’Buck Evans kicked my ass and said ‘this is shit you’relistening to.’ He got me listening to Eddie Lang and LonnieJohnson. It was actually a logical step to go from playingrock, to playing blues, to improvising on ‘Sweet GeorgiaBrown.’ As I developed my solo thing, it was also logicalfor me to arrange old tunes by Jelly Roll, with improvisedsections. I started doing that around age 17. Fortunately,there are no recordings of me from that period.”

Baker’s version of “Back Home In Indiana” is a perfectexample of his approach to fingerpicking a jazz standard.He plays the melody with a subtle swing feel against thesolid downbeat of an alternating bass. Once the melody isestablished, Baker begins spinning variations of the melodybased on different chord forms while keeping the steadybass in motion, much like a pianist or a horn playerimprovising over a rhythm section.

“I’ve never understood why more guitar players don’tdo that,” Baker says. “When I met Pat Donohue, he hadexactly the same approach – play the melody and improviseoff the chords like a stride piano players does. Get the lefthand, or bass, locked in, and make up melodies andvariations with the right – it’s so much fun to do. I usemore of a folk approach to fingerpicking, which I think ismore appropriate for playing fingerstyle jazz guitar,although it hasn’t been largely accepted by players in thejazz world.”

In addition to saxophonist Benny Golson’s “Out Of ThePast,” Baker also performs “Forty Ton Parachute” byScottish fingerpicker Davey Graham. Baker met Grahamin 1978 during a gig at a London club called TheRoundhouse. Baker and Graham were among the five guitarplayers on the bill.

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“Davey played that tune and I fell in love with it, and Igot him to show it to me,” Baker says. ”I like it becauseit’s not an obvious melody line for guitar. The writing onthat tune was very much influenced by pianists like BobbyTimmons and Horace Silver. Davey just played it through,he didn’t improvise, but I don’t see why not. I asked himwhy he named it ‘Forty Ton Parachute,’ and he said thatthe title came to him while he and a friend were watchingthe end of the lunar mission on TV and he was so impressedwith the parachute that brought the forty ton space capsuledown into the ocean. It’s also interesting that it’s writtenby a Scotsman. Chet Atkins and Merle Travis fans love itbecause they think it sounds like Jerry Reed.”

Bakers’ many solo guitar records and videos, includingtwo recent projects on the music of Thelonious Monk andHerby Nichols, allude to his vast knowledge and insatiableappetite for popular music and culture.

“My interest was always in all kinds of Americanmusic,” Baker says. “Even when I was listening to JellyRoll Morton and Scott Joplin in the mid–sixties, along withall the rock and blues music of the period, I also heardMonk, and then I got into free jazz. I still like listening to allof it. I don’t go along with the notion that jazz is in an ivorytower, that it’s ‘America’s classical music.’ That kind ofconnotation smacks of cultural insecurity.”

Good answer.

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Woody Mann

In a very real sense, the four original compositionsperformed by Woody Mann mark the turning of a fullmusical circle. A native of Long Island, New York, Mannwas 12 years-old when he met the Reverend Gary Davis, ablind guitarist and preacher who set folk music enthusiastson their ear with his amazing fingerpicking and eclecticrepertoire in the early 1960s. Mann, who had studied theclarinet, began taking guitar lessons from Davis, and thetwo continued a close association until Davis’s death in1972.

“I still have about 50 hours of my lessons with him ontape,” Mann says. “I’d spend the whole day at his house. Ithink because I was a kid, he was very patient with me. Hespent hours and hours teaching me to play. Yet one of thethings he always emphasized was to eventually play myown music.”

Mann became intensely interested in early blues, andhad the good fortune to meet meet Nick Perls, the founderof Yazoo Records, a small independent label that reissuedwell-informed compilations of country blues recordingsfrom Perls own record collection. Mann listened, learned,and wrote liner notes for some of the Yazoo albums. Intime he became a proficient acoustic bluesman, but hismusical journey was far from over.

“After Gary Davis died I basically lost interest in blues,”Mann says. “I became interested in jazz, and then I metLenny Tristano. He became my mentor, which opened up

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the whole world of music for me. For 10 years I playedonly straight ahead jazz. I played with Atilla Zoller, andstudied as much as I could with Lenny. Like Davis, Lennywas very big on finding original ideas and developing yourown style.”

Eventually the different musical elements of Mann’sbackground began to connect. He returned to the acousticguitar, and began writing his own music and playing withfingerpicker and visionary John Fahey.

“I felt it was finally time for me to play my own music,rather than ‘here’s a Gary Davis tune’ or ‘here’s a jazz tune,“Mann says. “My own music, that’s what I hear. Use whateverinfluences you have, but try to find your own voice. To geton stage and play a straight copy of a Robert Johnsontune doesn’t work. I’d rather listen to the record.”

Three of Mann’s four originals – “Mr. Guitar,” “GypsyGirl,” and “Cat Burglar” – are also featured on Mann’s“Stairwell Serenade” album on Acoustic Music Records.All of the tunes for that record were written with a particularguitarist in mind, more or less as tributes.

“I tried to think of all the guitarists who have greatlyinspired me – Gary Davis, Eddie Lang, Lonnie Johnson,Joseph Spence – and I tried to write something thatemulates the feeling that makes their playing special,”Mann says. “For me, it was like pulling together all thesebits and pieces I had floating around in my mind for years.I’m very happy with that record. In a way it was verycleansing for me.”

Mann attributes the inspiration for the stylish, vintagejazz lines of “Mr. Guitar” to Eddie Lang.

“It’s not directly based on him, but I was trying to usea little bit of jazz harmony while keeping a kind of bluesyfingerpicking feel in it. The middle is just a three or fourchord improvisation, like a blues.”

“Uptown Tails,” from Mann’s “Heading Uptown” albumon Shanachie, was written in a tuning favored by LonnieJohnson.

“It’s a dropped D and G tuning I learned from hisrecords,” Mann says. “His creativity, tone, and swing, it’sreally inspiring – at least his instrumentals are to me.They’re straight ahead blues, they’re fingerstyle, but theyhave a very different voice. He was one of the first guitaristsI heard outside of the Blind Blake tradition who really made

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it sound complete. I love his sense of improvisation – itjust works!”

Mann uses a low C and G tuning for “Gypsy Girl,” whichhas a kind of Celtic melody but was also inspired, in part,by a gypsy musicians he heard in Portugal. “Cat Burglar”began years ago as just a riff in open G minor. Mannoriginally recorded the tune with a tabla player for TakomaRecords, but the track was never released. Not one to letan idea get away, Mann resurrected and reworked it for“Stairwell Serenade,” and it closes the video.

The next record Mann wants to make will feature hisguitar in a jazz trio setting, although it’s a reasonably surebet that he won’t be cutting songs from any songbook otherthan his own.

“That’s the whole thing in the jazz world, you’re soloshould be your solo,” he says. “It’s a journey.”

Jim Ohlschmidt

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Martin Taylor(Recorded at the Manchester Craftmen’s Guild, Pittsburgh, PA. 1996. Directed by Jay Ashby)

Shiny Stockings 5:40by Frank B. Foster

My Funny Valentine 5:00by Richard Rodgers & Lorenz Hart

Just Squeeze Me 5:14by Duke Ellington

Tommy Crook(Recorded in Tulsa, OK 1997.Directed by Gary Don Rhodes)

Lullaby Of Birdland 3:35by G. Shearing

All The Things You Are 3:20by Oscar Hammerstein & Jerome Kern

It Had To Be You 4:30by Isham Jones & Gus Kahn

Wave 4:40by Antonio Carlos Jobim

Jim Nichols(Recorded in Lexington, KY 1997. Directed by Pat Kirtley)

They Can't Take That Away From Me 4:20by George Gershwin

East Of The Sun 3:48by Brooks Bowman

A Taste Of Honey 5:32by Rick Marlow & Bobby Scott

Here's That Rainy Day 3:34by James Van Hensen & Johnny Burke

Duck Baker(Recorded at the Freight & Salvage, Berkeley, CA 1997. Directed by Jesse Block)

Back Home In Indiana 3:30by Sam Levine

Forty Ton Parachute 2:53by Davey Graham

Out Of The Past 3:30by Benny Golson

Seven Point one 2:25by Duck Baker

Woody Mann(Recorded in Lexington, KY 1997. Directed by Pat Kirtley)

Mr. Guitar 2:04by Woody Mann

Uptown Tales 3:00by Woody Mann

Gypsy Girl 3:00by Woody Mann

Cat Burglar 3:40by Woody Mann

Vestapol 13064ISBN: 1-57940-972-5

0 1 1 6 7 1 30649 0

Martin TaylorShining StockingsMy Funny ValentineJust Squeeze Me

Tommy CrookMelody Of BirdlandAll The Things You Are

It Had To Be YouWave

Jim NicholsCan't Take That Away From Me

East Of The SunTaste Of HoneyHere's That Rainy Day

Duck BakerBack Home In Indiana

Forty Ton ParachuteOut Of The PastSeven Point one

Woody MannMr. GuitarUptown Tales

Gypsy GirlCat Burglar

Running time: 77 minutes • ColorCover photos by Anna Grossman

Nationally distributed by Rounder Records,One Camp Street, Cambridge, MA 02140

Representation to Music Stores byMel Bay Publications

© 2003 Vestapol ProductionsA division of

Stefan Grossman's Guitar Workshop, Inc.

Records by Charlie Byrd, Lenny Breau, GeorgeVan Eps, Laurindo Almieda, and Joe Pass haveset a very high standard for solo fingerstyle jazzguitar, and it is from this vantage point thatthe solo flights of Taylor, Crook, Nichols, Baker,and Mann take wing. Each player hasdeveloped a distinctly different approach tointerpreting and writing jazz for solo guitar bylistening intently to numerous other musiciansand composers – pianists, horn players,bassists, and singers as well as many guitaristsin jazz , b lues and other s ty les . Whatdistinguishes them from more traditional jazzguitarists (who more or less function as a linearvoice in an ensemble) is their ability to play(or imply) all aspects of the music – rhythm,chords , bass , and melody – withoutaccompaniment. Their performances not onlydemonstrate their technical brilliance andimagination, they are a testament to theenduring power and beauty of jazz guitar in itscurrent evolution as a major instrumental forcein American music.