Here is a list of 10 Jazz musicians to help mold your playing and your overall jazz guitar.

1. Charlie Parker

One of the most important Jazz musicians to study to shape your playing would be saxophonist Charlie Parker one of the founding fathers of the bebop era of jazz. Many musicians transcribe and learn to play his solo’s to delve into the style of Parker, his rhythmic language, in particular, was superb and many players learn to try and phrase like him, he moved away from the simple four and eight bar divisions of the swing genres rhythmic vocabulary and introduced a complex rhythmic style that was exceptionally difficult to master.

2. Bill Evans

One of my all time favourite jazz musicians which is also hugely influential is pianist Bill Evans, his harmonic content is an endless fascinating study. Evans developed a very melodic approach which was in a different stride to the other pianists of his time, who played in a funkier or even abrasive manner. His voicings tended to melt into each other and he brought into his playing the influences of masters of classical piano such as the impressionist Claude Debussy and others such as Scriabin, Satie, Ravel and Faure.

3. John Coltrane

John Coltrane is another important saxophonist to study some people follow his playing and some don’t it’s a taste thing really. He was the first jazz musician to move key centres in major 3rds for an entire tune and was well known for his harmonic revolution “Giant Steps” and created what is known today as Coltrane changes.

Check out the progression in Giant Steps to view the changes which is a collection of II-V-I’s and V-I’s that move in major thirds to the harmonic target. This idea of Coltrane changes can also be applied into your improvisation vocabulary and used to reharmonize tunes. By simply taking a tune that has II-V-I progressions that last at least four bars and applying his changes to it. You can ignore the original II-V-I harmony and instead soloing around or replacing the chords with harmonic movement that shifts key centres in major thirds.

EG: II-V-I progression “E-7,A7,Dmaj” becomes “E-7, F7, BbMaj, Db7, Gbmaj, A7, Dmaj” which will add the Coltrane sound to your solo and the tune’s harmonic content.

4. Charlie Christian

An important early influential jazz guitarist to study would be Charlie Christian, whom played with Benny Goodman. He is a great influence even in blues and blues based rock ‘n roll to! He influenced Scotty Moore Elvis’s guitarist and Chuck Berry. He played in the early swing jazz era when there was a closer relationship between jazz and blues and played on a hollow-bodied Gibson ES-150. He marked one of the formal emergencies of the electric guitar and with his Texas blues and swinging sax, inspired lines influenced many other musicians.

5 & 6. Larry Coryell and John Mclaughlin

Jazz guitarists to study in terms of fusion, would guitarists such as Larry Coryell and John Mclaughlin who are two of the first that showed in interest in rock and helped with the fusion genre of Jazz. McLaughlin developed a staccato approach to his playing with each note individually attacked. Yet most of the new fusion guitarists that came out drew more on rock guitarist’s method of stringing their strings close to the fingerboard. This was to adopt a smoother more flowing legato style. A guitarist to check out with regards to this style would be Allan Holdsworth who achieved an unrivalled fluidity.

7. John Abercrombie

John Abercrombie would also be another jazz/fusion guitarist to check out. With regards to this style of playing he tried to re-introduce the idea of space into his playing which was a notion dear to pianist Bill Evans.

8. Mick Goodrick

Mick Goodrick is a jazz/fusion musician. A very worthy and notable guitarist, if you are interested in harmonic minor harmony. He utilises harmonic minor harmony and its relative modes in his improvisation.

9 & 10. Pat Metheny and John Scofield

Two of the biggest and most well-known jazz/fusion musicians to check out are Pat Metheny and John Scofield, check out the YouTube links. I attached a link of a video of Metheny live in Switzerland and of Scofield who did a collaboration with John Mayer  on a cover of Ray Charles’s “I Don’t need no doctor” which he also did on his 2005  album “That’s what I say : John Scofield plays the music of Ray Charles” (John Scofield).