In my lifetime i've played guitar (self-taught) for 12 years, piano for 22 years on and off, and dabbled in every other instrument i can get my hands on, but my 3 favorite guitarists are... in this order Django Reinhardt, James Hendrix (Paratrooper), and Ani Difranco.
Few people have broken wide open the entire concept of sound like these three people. If any of these artists played piano, i'd hope something like Art Tatum would come out.
DR changed the face of the guitar by proving that a two fingered approach can be and is faster than a clumsy four fingered study. He was the fastest guitar in the world, a romanian gypsy raised on a caravan in france his ring and pinky finger on his fretboard hand badly damaged in a fire when he was young. truly an international superstar and innovater of orchestral guitar.
JH took the blues and turned them sub-atomic, astronomical and back to the blues all at the same time. Better than anyone ever has, and potentially ever will. There's too much too say about jimi. i can't even begin.
ADF revolutionized the folk world with Bob Dylan like power, but given the differing distributions of power in the music industry between the 1960s and 1990s, created her own publishing and distribution label (righteous babe records). after a decade of solid artistic and poetic accomplishment, she became a backbone of folk in the northeast, and in many places across america. her style is defined by her keen orchestrative ear and her false fingernails taped onto her strumming hand weaving earthy textures, sweeping motions into unique scales bridging gaps between the silly, surreal, and political.
i've been to 14 of her concerts, and everytime i walk out those doors after the encore, i feel like the world is a better place because of her. she is so unconditionally a positive force in the world.
and this is me blogging... everyone should listen to more ani
and jimi and django and art