Jazz, Guitar

Here you will find reviews of some of the jazz guitar records we’ve played.

Stan Getz & Joao Gilberto – Getz-Gilberto #2

More Bossa Nova

  • With solid Double Plus (A++) live jazz sound throughout, this copy is guaranteed to blow the doors off any other Getz – Gilberto #2 you’ve heard
  • This vintage stereo pressing is one of only a handful to make it to the site in over three years – boy, are these hard to find in this kind of clean condition with good quality sonics
  • The music is so good that most of the early Van Gelder-mastered pressings were played to death
  • Fortunately a few survived the record players of their day – here is one of that will put any other pressing of the album you’ve heard to shame
  • Rich, tubey and musical, the sound is wonderful for these live performances of the two very different groups – one side features Getz, the other side Gilberto
  • 4 stars: “Getz/Gilberto #2 holds its own with an appealing selection of fine jazz and Bossa Nova cuts.”

The Odds Are Stacked

This is an All-Time Jazz Classic and it’s a cryin’ shame that we can’t find more copies. Most are in mono, upwards of 80% of them, and we simply do not care for the sound of this music in mono. If you want to experience a live recording properly, you need space, ambiance, and imaging, three things mono does not do well.

And nine out of ten copies we see are simply not in the condition most audiophiles would find acceptable. Multiply 20% (the stereo copies) by 10% (the decent copies) and you’re left with a pool of 2% — one out of fifty — to pick from in order to acquire enough copies with which to do a shootout. Ouch.

Those are so pretty long odds, and they go a long way toward explaining why this is the first Hot Stamper pressing of this title to hit the site in years.

If you love this Brazilian-flavored cool jazz as much as we do, you might want to snap this one up. Who knows when we’ll find another one?

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Laurindo Almeida – Virtuoso Guitar

More of the Music of Laurindo Almeida

  • A killer copy of this 45 RPM direct to disc recording featuring Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound or close to it on both sides – fairly quiet vinyl too
  • Some of the tubiest, warmest acoustic guitar sound you could ask for from a “modern” record – this is the sound of analog done right
  • It has the kind of sound we prefer, with none of the razor sharpness that you get on some direct to disc recordings
  • One of the best Almeida albums we know of and probably the best Crystal Clear title (which we know isn’t saying much)

Volume Is Key

This recording has very little processing or EQ boost, and the studio is somewhat dead sounding (all too common in the late 70s). That combination can mean only one thing: If you don’t play this record loud enough, it will not sound right.

The famous Sheffield S9 is exactly the same way. It sounds dead and dull until you turn it up. When you do, lookout — it really comes alive.

The best pressings can sound shockingly like live music, something one just does not hear all that often, even when one plays records all day long as we do.

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The Poll Winners – Exploring the Scene

More Contemporary Label Jazz Recordings

  • Exploring the Scene makes its Hot Stamper debut on this early Black Label Contemporary pressing with KILLER Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound from first note to last
  • Tubier, more transparent, and more dynamic than all the other copies we played, with plenty of that “jumpin’ out of the speakers” quality that only The Real Thing ever has
  • As a matter of fact, no other copy in our shootout earned a 3+ grade on either side
  • The right reissues can be very good sounding, but they don’t stand a chance in a shootout with the best early pressings
  • Roy DuNann always seems to get phenomenally good sound in the sessions he records – amazingly realistic drums in a big room; Tubey Magical guitar tone; deep, note-like string bass, and on and on
  • 4 stars: “The trio performs creative versions of such songs as ‘Little Susie,’ ‘So What,’ ‘Doodlin’,’ ‘This Here,’ and Ornette Coleman’s ‘The Blessing.'”

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Grant Green – Am I Blue

More Jazz Recordings Featuring the Guitar

  • Green’s 1964 release, here with solid Double Plus (A++) grades on both sides of this vintage Blue Note pressing
  • Only one copy had better sound than this one — our shootout winner — and the sad fact of the matter is that no other copy earned a 2+ grade on either side other than this one — a tough shootout, and one we are unlikely to do again soon
  • Feel free to explore whatever reissues might suit your fancy, but one pressing you should probably steer clear of is anything on the Music Matters label — they really made a mess of Grant’s Green Street album, so unless you have return privileges, you are asking for trouble buying any of their records
  • A copy like this is a real audiophile treat – here are the punchy, clear, natural and lively sonics you want for Am I Blue
  • Rudy Van Gelder was masterful at this kind of spacious, low-distortion, dynamic, energetic sound

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Kenny Burrell – Midnight Blue (2024)

More Jazz Recordings Featuring the Guitar

  • Midnight Blue is back on the site for the first time in years, here with incredible Nearly Triple Plus (A++ to A+++) grades on both sides of this vintage 60s pressing – just shy of our Shootout Winner
  • One of our All Time Favorite Blue Note albums for music and sound – is there a better bluesy jazz guitar album?
  • 5 stars on AMG – if there were a Top 100 Jazz List on our site, Midnight Blue would be right up at the top of it
  • It’s taken us at least five years to get this shootout going, and none of the top copies we managed to get hold of did not have condition issues of some kind, so good luck finding one of these on your own, you are going to need it
  • Jazz Improv Magazine puts the album among its Top Five recommended recordings for Burrell, indicating that “[i]f you need to know ‘the Blue Note sound,’ here it is.”
  • Problems in the vinyl are sometimes the nature of the beast with these early pressings, but once you hear just how excellent sounding this copy is, you might be inclined, as we were, to stop counting swooshes and just be swept away by the music

Midnight Blue is our favorite Kenny Burrell album of all time, at least in part because it’s one of the All Time Best Sounding Blue Notes. 

If you already own a copy of Midnight Blue and you don’t consider it one of the best sounding jazz guitar records in your collection, then you surely don’t have a copy that sounds the way this one does! In other words, you don’t know what you’re missing. (And if you own the Classic Records release, or any other Heavy Vinyl pressing from the modern era, then you really don’t know what you are missing.)

Top 100 Jazz?

Don’t think this is just another 60s jazz guitar album. With Stanley Turrentine on sax and Ray Baretto on congas, this music will move you like practically no other. When Turrentine (a shockingly underrated player) rips into his first big solo, you’ll swear he’s right there in the room with you.

And if you do have one of our better Hot Stamper copies and it still isn’t the best sounding jazz guitar album in your collection, then you have one helluva jazz collection. Drop us a line and tell us what record you like the sound of better than Midnight Blue. We’re at a loss to think of what it could possibly be.

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Wes Montgomery – The Alternative Wes Montgomery (Revisited)

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Wes Montgomery Available Now

UPDATE 2025:

Many years ago, back in our pre-shootout days, we played a copy of this album and liked what we’d heard.

We just got another copy in and thought the sound was not worthy of a Hot Stamper shootout.

We judge it to have middling sound quality.

If you see one for cheap, pick it up, but don’t expect the sound to be anything special.

Our Old Review

This Milestone Two-Fer LP with EXCELLENT sound has 14 unreleased alternate versions of songs recorded in a variety of settings by guitarist Wes Montgomery during his period with Riverside. In many cases, the versions here are dramatically different from the versions that appear on his original albums. 

Producer Orrin Keepnews, who assembled this collection, notes, “With an artist who insisted on several takes, and the obvious need to eventually pick only one for release, we had to make some rather arbitrary, borderline decisions that at the time seemed to have doomed some excellent music to oblivion.”

This set helps to rescue some of that excellent music. The tracks feature Montgomery playing with notable musicians such as include Milt Jackson, Wynton Kelly, Kenny Burrell, Philly Joe Jones and Victor Feldman.

On compilations of unreleased material such as this, the master tapes are used to make the record. There’s no need for a copy tape to have ever been made.

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John McLaughlin, Al Di Meola, and Paco De Lucia – Passion, Grace and Fire

More Guitar Jazz

  • Passion, Grace and Fire makes its Hot Stamper debut with Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound or close to it throughout – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • Fast and clean, yet still full-bodied and natural, this is exactly the way you want your analog guitar battle to sound, which is why this copy won our Shootout!
  • The guitars are surprisingly real here – energetic, solid and present
  • 4 stars: “Passion, Grace and Fire, If this can be considered a guitar ‘battle’ (some of the playing is ferocious and these speed demons do not let up too often), then the result is a three-way tie. This guitar summit lives up to its title.”

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Barney Kessel / Barney Kessel Plays Carmen

More Barney Kessel

  • Solid Double Plus (A++) grades bring Kessel’s inspired jazz album to life on this early Contemporary stereo LP (one of only a handful of copies to hit the site in years)
  • Tubey Magic, richness, sweetness, dead-on timbres from top to bottom – this is a textbook example of Contemporary sound at its best
  • The sonics are gorgeous – all tube, live-to-two-track, direct from the Contemporary studio to you, on glorious un-remastered analog vinyl
  • Marks in the vinyl are sometimes the nature of the beast with these early pressings – there simply is no way around them if the superior sound of vintage analog is important to you

The Sound We Love

For those of you who appreciate the sound that Roy DuNann (and Howard Holzer on other sessions) were able to achieve in the 50s at Contemporary Records, this LP is a Must Own (unless you already have it, which is doubtful considering how hard it is to find a copy in clean condition). Their stuff just doesn’t get any better than this.

From an audiophile point of view, how can you beat a Roy DuNann recording of so many instruments? It’s audiophile heaven.

Talk About Timbre

Man, when you play a Hot Stamper copy of an amazing recording such as this, the timbre of the instruments is so spot-on it makes all the hard work and money you’ve put into your stereo more than pay off. To paraphrase The Hollies, you get paid back with interest. If you hear anything funny in the mids and highs of this record, don’t blame the record. (This is the kind of record that shows up audiophile BS equipment for what it is: audiophile BS. If you are checking for richness, Tubey Magic and freedom from artificiality, I can’t think of a better test disc. It has loads of the first two and none of the last.)

Two of the best sounding jazz guitar records in the history of the world were made by Barney Kessel for Contemporary: this one, and Music To Listen To Barney Kessel By. I used to have them both in my collection, but they long ago were sent to good homes.

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Carlos Montoya – From St. Louis to Seville

Living Stereo Titles Available Now

  • Flamenco meets Jazz in this extraordinary Living Stereo all analog recording from 1958
  • Both of these sides are exceptionally big and rich, with clear guitar transients, an abundance of three-dimensional space and Tubey Magic that will have your jaw on the floor
  • …”Carlos Montoya, the great flamenco guitarist, played for the first time on record with a jazz rhythm accompaniment, giving his unique and expressive interpretation of five pop tunes, best of which is a virtuoso treatment of ‘St. Louis Blues.’ The rest of the album spotlights the exciting flamenco guitar work on three Montoya originals, and a couple of Spanish popular gypsy songs.” – Fresh Sound Records.com
  • The three-dimensional space and Tubey Magic are superb on this copy
  • An amazing Webster Hall Living Stereo all analog recording from 1958 – nothing else sounds like it
  • It’s yet another recording we’ve discovered with (potentially) excellent sound
  • When you’ve played as many Living Stereo titles as we have (250+ and counting), you’re bound to run into this kind of Demo Disc sound from time to time – it’s what makes record collecting fun

Ed Begley is the engineer here and he knocked this one out of the park. What an amazing sounding Living Stereo recording.

Need a refresher course in Tubey Magic after playing too many modern recordings or remasterings? This record is overflowing with it. Rich, clear, natural, sweet, overflowing with space and ambience, absolutely correct tonality — it’s all here.

The rhythm accompaniment is made up of three top players from New York. Sally Montoya noted at the time: “Carlos just recorded the first Flamenco jazz record for Victor, with Osie Johnson and Milt Hinton and Barry Galbraith on electric guitar. A most relaxed and informal session. The other musicians said it was unique in their experience.”

It’s certainly a unique record in my experience, with mind-blowingly good sound and engaging music.

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Gabor Szabo – The Best of Gabor Szabo

More Jazz Recordings Featuring the Guitar

  • With outstanding Double Plus (A++) grades on both sides, this vintage Impulse pressing is doing just about everything right – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • Clean, clear, full-bodied and present with an abundance of Tubey Magic and right-on-the-money instrumental timbres, the originals may be a bit better sounding, but both are they expensive these days and rarely can be found in audiophile playing condition
  • For some reason, the guitar sound from this era of recording seems to have died out with the times – it can only be found on the better copies of these vintage pressings, such as this one

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