Prior to the advent of electrical amplification, the role of the guitar in jazz was strictly that of a chorded rhythm instrument, chugging along with the bass and drums and helping to propel whatever ...

In France in the early-'30s there was a young gypsy guitarist who had burnt two fingers of his fretting hand to the state of useless (?) appendages, in a caravan fire; Django Reinhardt. Possibly still ...

The instrument hasn’t always been a central player in jazz, but the best guitarists have taken up the challenge of finding their own way. Fourteen musicians and writers share their favorites. Credit..