With nothing else but the PolyGram archives to comb through, Jazz-Club's pocket history of the guitar does offer a fairly representative list of post-World War II greats, at least. Though
Eddie Lang,
Charlie Christian and -- surprisingly for a European survey --
Django Reinhardt are early omissions, the set kicks off with a concise example of Les Paul's influential pre-pop swing manner on Willie Smith's "Moten Swing." The CD continues through Christian disciples
Chuck Wayne,
Herb Ellis,
Barney Kessel, and
Tal Farlow, and the cool school's
Billy Bauer and
Jimmy Raney before arriving at the stylistic break of Wes Montgomery's ecstatic "Tear It Down." The collection then jumps around from mainstreamers
Kenny Burrell (excellent choice, "Downstairs"),
Jim Hall and
Joe Pass to Brazilian advocates
Baden Powell and
Charlie Byrd (with
Stan Getz), soul-jazz stars
George Benson and
Grant Green, and jazz-rock's
John McLaughlin and
Larry Coryell (the latter in a Hot Club Quintette re-creation with
Philip Catherine and
Stephane Grappelli; they snuck in Django after all). Musically, a strong grab-bag of things. ~ Richard S. Ginell