At the beginning of the decade, Grant Green (1931-78) played in a light, positive style with a bright tone, using short bop phrases and a bluesy slant with occasional sustained notes and bends. On Born to Be Blue (1962), the title track shows blues phrasing, while "If I Should Lose You" has a delicate touch and clean bop lines and arpeggios with sustain on certain notes. A major new figure, George Benson (b. 1943) started in rock 'n' roll but soon turned to jazz. Within a short time he was working as a sideman with organist Jack McDuff, and his debut album New Boss Guitar (1964) with McDuff and saxophonist Red Hollway features unison heads as well as riffs, with blues and soul influences, as well as a linear style with bop and pentatonic elements, snappy staccato, and fast exclamatory phrases. "Shadow Dancers" has a funky edge with Benson playing rhythmic chipped chords on the head, and slides and partial chords in his solo, while he shows a bluesy, bop extroversion on "I Don't Know," and plays unison riffs with bubbly guitar fills and solos on "Rock-A-Bye." It's Uptown (1965) contains both jazz and a lighter fusion with popular styles of music. The exceptional "Willow Weep For Me" features improvising of great originality with ideas flowing over the edges, as Benson moves from the slow theme to explosive passages with chattering, speech-inflected contours.

Pat Martino (b. 1944) brought out his debut album El Hombre in 1967, which features bop-style playing and bluesy phrasing. His long transparent lines can be heard on the title track and "A Blues for Mickey-O."

Following this album, Martino took a more cerebral approach, expanding his vocabulary with new harmonies and building in motifs and intervallic ideas. He absorbed ideas from John Coltrane and Indian music and mixed bop with modal ideas on albums such as East (1968).

Larry Coryell

In 1966 Larry Coryell (b. 1943), with his group Free Spirits, was playing in a style based on blues and rock as well as jazz. He joined vibes player Gary Burton's influential quartet for the album Duster (1967), on which he plays modern-sounding, technically constructed lines, blues motifs, and introspective classical harmonies, his refreshing approach complementing the progressive compositions. The album Lofty Fake Anagram (1967) offered an opening for improvisation, notably the solo on "June the IS, 1967," which is made up of blues-guitar and intervallic playing and chords. "Fleurette Africaine" has bluesy additions. He uses inventive strumming for the duet "Lines," which has a touch of country, and plays a searching angular solo on “The Beach.” “General Mojo Cuts Up” is a foray into free jazz, Coryell playing dissonant harmonies and an Asian-flavored solo.