Jake Reichbart – 5 Desert Island Album Picks

1) Intercontinental – Joe Pass: Although I am, obviously, a huge follower of Joe Pass from a solo guitar standpoint, this trio record is by far my favorite album of his. Recorded in Germany in 1970, the album is not particularly known in the US but to my ear it has the best recorded guitar tone he ever had. His playing is absolutely at peak level and the set list is a masterclass on how to program your own set list at your next club date.

2) I.O.U. – Allan Holdsworth: While each of his subsequent albums showed continued development of his sound, compositions and playing, that development was incremental as the standard has already been established. However, I.O.U. came absolutely out of nowhere. There was nothing to compare this album to when it came out. Nobody ever played harmonies on the guitar like on this album and at times sounding like a brass section. The lead guitar, a cross between a sax and violin. The ghostly quality of the compositions still takes my breath away almost 40 years later.

3) Travels – Pat Metheny: Similar to Allan Holdsworth above, this album was followed up by a trio of albums that were the ultimate in Pat Metheny‘s work, first Circle, still life talking and letter from home. However, travels is where it all came together, the huge, lush sound that will be his trademark, with a full band featuring the full use of synthesizers, multiple percussion instruments and the use of the human voice as an instrument. Then you have the amazing compositions, unbelievable playing, and forget that it was all recorded live.

4) Gaucho – Steely Dan / Nightfly – Donald Fagen: Although these are obviously two separate albums, in a funny way they are one to me because I had them each on a side of a 90 minute cassette tape and I would listen to them back to back nonstop as if they were one album. This is some of my favorite Pop music ever. Other than the music itself, the guitar work on both albums is staggering, performed by a multitude of some of the finest players, not the least Larry Carlton. Larry Carlton‘s work by the way had inspired me to become a session guitarist myself and I was one of the busiest session guitarist in Detroit in the 90’s.

5) Rubber Soul – The Beatles: The list could never be complete without a Beatles album, the Beatles being the most important pop/rock band in music history, in my world at least. Rubber Soul in particular is my favorite Beatles album as it sits in an interesting period, right at the end of the Beatlemania but before the big studio days, as exemplified by Sergeant Pepper. On Rubber Soul, the songs feature a maturity but not yet the clutter of the huge production. The sound of the recording is brilliant, the guitar playing is on a new, higher level and the drums were beautifully recorded.