I have to say Gilmour, since Pink Floyd is my favourite band; but Akkerman was close second. I think that Jan is very underrated, as is Focus. He was a guest of Vlatko Stefanovski (Leb i Sol, Macedonian jazz fusion/prog rock band, check it out) last year in Slovenia (of course I saw the concert), he was great.

My vote would've gone to Steve Howe if Gilmour hadn't been on the list. I love his guitar sound, but none of these that I've heard can conjure up the kind of emotion in their guitar playing quite like Gilmour I think. He's distinctive and although his style has been mimicked, he does it best.

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And to generate some discussion, McLaughlin's guitar playing is overrated, I think. He's good of course, but listening to Mahavishnu's Orchestra or the albums he did as part of the guitar trio (with Paco De Lucia and Al Di Meola), I tire of it quickly. Soemtimes, it's so in your face it becomes almost vulgar and annoying I think. :p:

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Here's an example .. Listen to it f.ex after the 1 minute mark :



Is it musical splendor or guitar wankery? I think there is a too big element of wankery in there and I find it somewhat disruptive. Because of this, I prefer Weather Report and Return to Forever over Mahavishnu actually.

i don't think it's an issue of wankery so much as a bad production decision to mix the lead guitar track in a way that it overpowers the rest of the band. is this supposed to be a solo piece? it gets kind of wank-ish around 4 minutes in when he starts repeating himself more than anything.

the multi-tracked fuzz guitar is kind of excessive as well. it's great if you want to ripoff Black Dog, but in a group with a horn section to accentuate melodic passages it's superfluous.

Well, all guitarists from good jazz fusion bands are geniuses, since jazz fusion is the hardest thing to master on guitar. McLaughlin is not underrated, it's just that people in majority don't listen to jazz fusion, so he is little known (I guess?). Those who DO know Mahavishnu Orchestra (or Shakti) think of John as one of the best.

That song is from Birds of Fire from 1973 which is one of the (if not the) most appreciated Mahavishnu Orchestra albums. That trademark sound is what you find on the whole record basically.

I agree that the guitar is way ahead in the mix. It's almost vulgar .. You wanna sit down in your couch and relax with a little jazz fusion and you get the impression McLaughlin is standing on the table with the guitar up in your face. Okay, that's a bit exaggerated, but I find it a bit disruptive. :p:

The way it's mixed is of course a concious choice and it's not the only Mahavishnu album with that sound.


I don't think he's little known - or at least not around here. I was wondering earlier why people hadn't responded more in anger to my post :p: Anyways, much of his playing doesn't sound aesthetic to me and then genius skill becomes just an interesting word or something. There's an incredible amount of amazingly skilled guitar players in the world - it's not that rare - and I tend to think of technical ability itself as a poor way to actually rate players as musicians.

I should rephr point out though, I like some of John's stuff, particularly the stuff he did with Lucia and Meola .. but I can only take so much of it in one sitting and while good, I definetly think of him as overrated and a bit of a guitar wanker in a skill over overall quality kind of way.

I could listen to Gilmore wail all day, but Howe is more versatile. Edge to Howe. Manzanera was very tasteful in Roxy and his side project 801.

McLaughlin is a little over the top, but it was his decision as a bandleader to emphasize the guitar in a sort of rock medium rather than the jazzy feel most other fusion bands inspire. while he's definitely not the best at it, there are certain times when the driven sound of his guitar actually works really well:



don't forget, McLaughlin was also part of the band that brought fusion to life with Miles Davis' Bitches Brew.

Or Trilogy, especially the second half - extreme guitarin'. I am not saying that he is the best; I prefer Di Meola all the way, as well as others, but I think of John as better than most of these modern prog guitarists.

Buckethead. Bloke's a virtuoso.
Martin Barre or Jim Matheos come in second though.

I don't think Buckethead fits in this list, really. He plays a lot of stuff, nice acoustic songs, experimental rock , funk metal and even almost ambient stuff. But while some of it may have a proggy flavour, I still don't think he's prog. I mean by including him, at the same time you're excluding all the people who could just as well be in the list by the same criteria .. all those guitarists that are not labeled as prog but have sometimes sounded a bit proggy.