In today's VINYL VIBRATIONS podcast, I tour some LP records that showcase guitarist greats in the emerging jazz fusion music era. These performances are found on Vinyl LP and today’s show is called GUITARISTS - JAZZ FUSION GREATS. In today’s podcast, we will hear jazz and jazz fusion guitarists from the 17-year period of 1960 to 1977, including…   1 Charlie Byrd Trio The Guitar Artistry of Charlie Byrd Nuages (Rheinhardt) Riverside 1960 2 Wes Montgomery Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery Four On Six (Montgomery) Riverside-OJC 1960 3 Frank Zappa Chunga’s Revenge Chunga’s Revenge (Zappa) Reprise-Warner Bros 1970 4 Mahavishnu Orchestra Birds of Fire Open Country Joy (McLaughlin) 1973 Columbia 5 Pat Metheny Bright Size Life Missouri Uncompromised (Metheny) ECM 1975 6 Larry Coryell Philip Catherine Twin-House Guitar Duos Mortgage on Your Soul (Keith Jarrett) WEA Musik 1977 7 Al Di Meola Elegant Gypsy Suite Elegant Gypsy Suite (Di Meola) Columbia 1977 We will hear examples of guitarists playing various forms of jazz, leading up to the emerging jazz-rock fusion genre of the 1970s. These are LP records, produced between the years 1960 and 1977. We will hear influences of gypsy jazz in Reinhardt, ear-trained Montomery, zany Zappa, mahavishnu McLaughlin, modal Metheny and elegant gypsy DiMeola …as composers of the songs in this podcast. M1 Charlie Byrd Trio, Nuages. Charlie Byrd was born in Suffolk, Virginia, in 1925. He was an American guitarist playing the genres of bossa nova, brasilian jazz, latin jazz and swing. Byrd played fingerstyle on a classical guitar. His father, a mandolinist and guitarist, taught him how to play the acoustic steel guitar at age 10. In 1943 he was drafted into the United States Army for World War II, and was stationed in Paris in 1945 where he played in an Army Special Services band. Byrd's greatest influence was the gypsy guitarist Django Reinhardt, whom he saw perform in Paris. After the war, Byrd returned to the United States and went to New York, where he studied composition and he began playing a classical guitar. In 1954 he became a pupil of the Spanish classical guitarist Andres Segovia and spent time studying in Italy with Segovia. Byrd was best known for his association with Brazilian music, especially bossa nova. In 1962, Charlie Byrd collaborated with Stan Getz on the album Jazz Samba, a recording which brought bossa nova into the mainstream of North American music. This song, Nuages is one of the best-known compositions by Django Reinhardt. Reinhardt recorded about thirteen versions of the song, and today it is a jazz standard and a main portion of the gypsy swing repertoire. It was originally an instrumental piece. Charlie Byrd Trio, The Guitar Artistry of Charlie Byrd , Nuages (Django Rheinhardt) , Riverside OLP 1960, 3:05 Personnel Charlie Byrd guitar  1925-1999 Keter Betts  bass Buddy Deppenschmidt  drummer M2 Wes Montgomery , Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery , Four On Six (Montgomery) , Riverside-OJC 1960, 6:14 Personnel • Wes Montgomery- electric guitar • Tommy Flanagan - piano • Percy Heath – bass • Albert Heath - drums Wes Montgomery was born in Indianapolis. and came from a musical family. Two brothers were also jazz performers. Monk on bass and Buddy on vibraphone and piano. The brothers released a number of albums together as the Montgomery Brothers, on the Pacific Jazz label. As a band leader, Wes produced many albums, 31 albums over a 10 year period, with three labels, Riverside, Verve and A&M. He also is recorded only three times as a guitar sideman- - showing that Wes Montgomery preferred to lead his own band. Montgomery toured with Lionel Hampton early in ...