All the guys mentioned are great (though in all of the Grant Green stuff I've heard I have NEVER heard him play rhythm - he's like the BB King of jazz guitar). Let me throw a couple more out there.
OLD SCHOOL DUDES - this stuff is definitely not everyone's cup of tea, but these four were pretty big in their day for a reason:
Tal Farlow - look for solo stuff on Verve, or early stuff with the Red Norvo Trio (Charles Mingus on bass, Red Norvo on vibes). Tal could fly, and played some crazy chord voicings.
Jimmy Raney - Contemporary of Tal's and replaced him in the Red Norvo Trio. Made some great early albums with Stan Getz, and has great early work on Verve and Prestige.
Johnny Smith - he was one of the coolest pure guitarist/musicians to ever live. His standard tuning was to drop the low E to D for EVERYTHING. Chops to burn and great chord melody stuff. Just up and stopped around 1970.
Kenny Burrell - the only one of these four still active (only he and Johnny Smith are still alive). Kind of a contemporary of Wes and Jim Hall. Like Wes and Grant Green (and later George Benson), a great mix of a soul/blues mentality and a jazz sophistication. Both he and Wes have discs with the late
Hammond B-3 monster Jimmy Smith. Check out "Organ Grinder Swing" on Verve, or "John Coltrand and Kenny Burrell" on Prestige.
Three more recent dudes that haven't been mentioned:
Bireli LaGrene: a French gypsy child prodigy who early on specialized in "Hot Club" Django Reinhart-styled music, but branched out into fusion (discs with Jaco Pastorius), and straight-ahead hard-bop styled stuff. This guy is ridiculously good, but ESPECIALLY on acoustic. Check out "Acoustic Moments" on Blue Note if you can find it. I guarantee it is NOT as mellow as the title would suggest.
Martin Taylor: he's kind of linked with Bireli by the fact that Bireli was a Django-like prodigy who played in that style, and Martin used to play with the Hot Club of France's violinist, the great Stephane Grapelli. Martin Taylor playing solo guitar is incredible. He plays mostly fingerstyle, but you'd never know it. He can fly.
Tuck Andress: Martin has more harmonic sophistication, but Tuck is really a one man rhythm section and a great jazz-influenced player. I walked away after seeing him when I was 30 feeling very much the same as I did after seeing Randy Rhoads on the "Blizzard" tour when I was a teenager. Incredible player. No distortion, no whammy bar, just a hollow-body Gibson ran clean, a super-inventive mind and unbelievable execution. The studio Tuck & Patti stuff does not even begin to show what this guy is capable of.
