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47 albums · 1949–2025

The guitar, from the blues and jazz to rock, the concert hall, Kinshasa and Rio

· 1 min read · by 1001 Albums

A small guitar with a pale spruce top, a round sound hole, an ebony fingerboard and a slotted headstock, against a grey background
A Fender Stratocaster with a grey-green body, a white pickguard with three pickups and a maple neckAli Farka Touré in a hat, glasses and a scarf, seated on a stage with an acoustic guitar, in black and white
A guitar made by C. F. Martin in the United States before 1867, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Photo: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons. · A Fender Stratocaster, the solid-body electric guitar Fender first sold in 1954. Photo: Stra2caster and Atlantictire, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. · Ali Farka Touré with his guitar, 2005. Photo: Tagles, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

The guitar has six strings, plucked with the fingers or a pick, over a fretted neck. The acoustic guitar sounds from its hollow wooden body, bright with steel strings and softer with nylon. The electric guitar, made in the United States in the 1930s, is heard through an amplifier and can be played as loud as a band.

Robert Johnson and B.B. King played it in the blues, Django Reinhardt and Wes Montgomery in jazz, and Jimi Hendrix in rock. John Fahey and Bert Jansch played the steel-string guitar alone, and Julian Bream the classical guitar in the concert hall. In Kinshasa Franco led TPOK Jazz from the guitar, Ali Farka Touré played it in Mali and Baden Powell in Brazil; Julian Lage, Mdou Moctar and Reentko Dirks are some of the players of today.

The list has 47 records from 1949 to 2025; Django Reinhardt's record is dated by his Rome sessions of 1949, and Franco's, a later collection, by the first year of its recordings. The Spanish guitar of flamenco and the Portuguese guitar of fado have lists of their own, and records where the guitar backs a singer are left out. About 36 hours of music, 5 days of a few records each.

What it sounds like

Sarita, a mazurka of his own, an Odeón record of 1924Agustín Barrios, guitar

Recording, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

By genre

Rock 23%Jazz 20%Blues 18%Other 39%
  • Rock 23%
  • Jazz 20%
  • Blues 18%
  • Other 39%

The genres named most: jazz, blues, rock, folk, classical, electric blues.

The colours of the covers

A stripe for each cover, in the colour Tidal picks from it, sorted by hue; the greys at the end.

Where the music comes from

Music from 12 countries: United States 29, United Kingdom 5, Brazil 3, Mali 2, Australia 1 and 7 more. The deeper the colour, the more albums: one, two to four, five to nine, ten and more.

The 1940s

The 1950s

The 1960s

The 1970s

The 1980s

The 1990s

The 2000s

The 2010s

The 2020s

More lists

Lists of Instruments first, then others; all of them on the blog. The blog.

29 albums · 1976–2024

The kora of Mali, the harp-lute of the jeli

· 1 min read

The kora is the harp-lute of the jeli, the griots of Mali, Guinea, Senegal and the Gambia: 21 strings over a large calabash covered in cowhide, played with the thumbs and forefingers of both hands.

World 89%Blues 3%Classical 3%Other 5%
  • World 89%
  • Blues 3%
  • Classical 3%
  • Other 5%

Read and see the list