These are the most popular jazz guitar players right now according to Spotify statistics.
George Benson- I’d assume lots of his 5.3M listeners are listening to his pop songs, but his jazz guitar albums are highly influential and I’m sure lots of people listen to them. I have a hard time figuring out where to rank him.
Wes Mongomery 804K monthly listeners on Spotify
Pat Metheny 600k
Jim Hall 530K
Django Reinhardt 518K
Charlie Byrd 478K
Charlie Hunter 471K
Kenny Burrell 362K
Gabor Szabo 357K
Norman Brown 352K
Julian Lage 329K
Joe Pass 318K
Earl Klugh 317K
Grant Green 324K
John Scofield 270K
Al Di Meola 269K
Les Paul 261K
Bill Frisell 247K
John McLaughlin 214K
Kurt Rosenwinkle 197K
Johnny Smith 154k
Pat Martino 160k
Barney Kessel 128K
Larry Coryell 115K
Tal Farlow 115K
George Van Eps 115K
Honorable mention to Charlie Christian (36K) because he popularized jazz guitar.
These 27 players have over 100,000 monthly listeners on Spotify. I've included sub-genres like fusion or smooth jazz. You might not like those genres but these guys put out records on jazz labels and charted on the billboard jazz chart of their era. This is not about my personal taste or what you or I consider "real jazz," it's just a list of what people actually listen to. I'm including people who put out records under their own name (no side players or hired guns).
This list can be useful because we get a lot of beginners around here who have not listened to much jazz before. You can use this list to find out what jazz guitar actually sounds like. If you don't know what to play over a 2-5-1 you can check what these guys played. If you want to know what chords to use you can listen to these records and at least you will know if you're in the right ballpark.
Thanks to those who helped improve this list since I posted it the first time, especially cxgvxc.
It's a simple list. It's not perfect but I think it's accurate to get an idea of what people listen to in the real world (jazz fans, not just guitar players). If your favorite guitar player is not on the list don't be mad at me, be mad a the universe. It's not my opinion it's just statistics. Peter Bernstein, for example, has 36,000 monthly listeners so he is not on this list. If I missed someone who is over 100k, we would all appreciate it if you would add that player in the comments.
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sco is criminally low on this list.
Seriously
Very surprised to see Charlie hunter at number 5
More surprised at Charlie Byrd!
probably that d'angelo connection
Have I slept on Norman Brown? Never heard of him
He’s got some good tunes, really early 2000’s smooth jazz. Kinda a nostalgic sound for me, reminds me of malls and shit. Check out Just Between Us
Yeah, his songs got me interested in playing jazz guitar to begin with.
I’m curious about the methodology. Did you include other spellings/configurations?
For example, “Django Reinhardt” versus “Django Reinhardt and the Hot Club de France.” Or “Johnny Smith Quartet” versus “Johnny Smith Trio.”
I know Spotify does this data cleanup to some extent, but it’s not perfect — sometimes the same musician is represented in different ways.
I'm keeping it pretty basic and I don't claim the list to be perfect. I looked them up and used the players main profile. You are welcome to re-do if you have improvements. I welcome the improvements. I'm not a super meticulous person, yet somehow I have arrived here on the jazz guitar sub where I'm sure many of you are far more meticulous than me.
No Pasquale Grasso?
nope, he does not have the numbers. It's not my opinion, it's numbers.
so sad not to see mike stern on this list!
He doesn't have the numbers, it's all artists with over 100,000 monthly listeners.
yeah i know.. but he would deserve them imo
Masayoshi Takanaka?
I'm normally in the "city pop isn't jazz" camp, but I still feel like I would accept calling Masayoshi Takanaka a jazz guitarist.
696k monthly listeners, so he'd currently be in second place.
I took a quick listen, are you sure it's jazz? Can you explain? Sounded like latin and world music but maybe I'm missing it or listening to the wrong stuff?
Jazz fusion
God I love Pat metheny
Tuck Andress is a monster player
it’s crazy Julian Lage is above Joe Pass… I would’ve thought Joe pass would be much higher since he’s more of a household name and everyone listens to autumn leaves or all the things you are when they’re first learning chord melodies.
Well the numbers are what they are.
My guess is that Julian Lage being on tour, on youtube, and not dead yet means he will be stimulating listenership more than Joe Pass. Blue Note is pushing his stuff, not the case for Joe. I also find that more effort is being put into JL's recordings. Some of the Joe Pass stuff is really poorly done in terms of guitar tone and recording engineering... and this is coming from a Joe Pass fan.
We've got Norman Brown (and Benson of course, lol), but a lot of other smooth jazz guitarists didn't make this list:
Lee Ritenour 467k
Chris Standring 300k
Paul Brown 259k
Nick Colionne 192k
Jeff Golub 183k
Chuck Loeb 146k
There's probably more, I'm just not that familiar with that scene.
Edit: a few more
Peter White 265k
Tim Bowman 170k
Nils 125k
Steve Oliver 124k
I don't know any of these guys except for Nils, who I know because we rag on my friend Nils using the artist's picture.
I will do another crack at this and add these guys. I have never heard of them. Sorry about that, will re-do it when I get time.
Smooth jazz isn't really my thing, but if we're going to consider it jazz then it's going to have a huge showing on any "most popular" chart.
yes Im with on all of this.
Looks like I am re-doing this again. I have gigs all weekend and monday but will re-post by next wednesday. Please get all your suggestions in by then so I don't miss anyone this time.
Surprised Bill Frisell is not higher. Sad to not see John Abercrombie.
Where do you get these stats? I'm skeptical.
Just open the spotify app, all the numbers will be visible.
Lenny breau should be at the top at least that’s where everyone on the list would put him
Chet Atkins
Luis bonfa is playing on the biggest streamed song ever
Lenny Breau- there's really no "should be," it's just numbers. Lenny aint got the numbers.
Chet Atkins- always thought he was a country guitarist, according to Wikipedia he's responsible for the "Nashville sound" but I'm open to hear your opinion.
Luis Bonfa is a tough call cause he has lots of numbers but it's mostly because of other people's albums. He does have some records under his own name but they are lesser known. Again, I'd be interested in hearing more opinions on this.
Your top 3 all said ‘we can’t play, Lenny is the best’
Chet was Mr. Guitar, that includes jazz, he made records with like I dunno half your list ?
Luis bonfa is sampled on the gotye song, the most viral song ever? You’ve got benson on there, I don’t think you can count give me the night as a jazz guitar song, but if you do, Luis should be on there by numbers
Geez. I’m Ashamed to not know some of the names
Edit: Ok. I know why. Because some of the names are Kenny g smooth jazz lobby jazz like. And some are not even jazz, but some sort of 70s instrumental.
I would add Kevin Eubanks to the list. Which has been a long time in the scene and has great respect and skill from the tradition.
Which guitarist on that list is "not even jazz"?
Gabor szabo? At least on his greatest hits.
George Benson is mostly known for pop hits where he's singing, so I suppose you'd want to leave him off as well. Garbo's jazz cred is legit.
No I don’t want to leave him off, Do you have any link to his jazz stuff?
George is legit bop player with tons of respect for the tradition.
According to his Spotify page, Kevin Eubanks only gets 4k monthly listeners, which is 96k short of the cutoff. That boggles my mind, because he's done some great stuff and he was very much in the public eye for a long time.
so does mike moreno, a matter of taste perhaps, but i prefer him alot over abundance of the above guitarists.
but I'm actually pleased to know that some of the great are still on top of the playing list. its quite encouraging that jazz guitar is still alive!
kenny burrell, george van eps! i didn't know he was that known. and that frisell is that loved, or that charlie byrd is that loved?? he's good though. deserve it.and joe pass too :) really good hear that so many listeners around the world and that good oldies are alive in our hearts!