LPCDreissues: Looking forward to the past

Here at last is the ultimate 3-CD box set that illumi-nates guitarist Jimmy Bryant’s fretboard genius once and for all, spotlighting the dizzying technique, the flu-ent lines and the electrifying flights of improvisation that have made Bryant a legend with guitar cognoscenti everywhere. To say Jimmy Bryant was as important to country-guitar picking as Charlie Parker was to bebop is a tribute to both legends. This deluxe-edition, 75-track, career-spanning collection is loaded with the gravity-defying, Capitol-era duets of Bryant and Speedy West, the never-reissued Bryant solo material from the Imperial and Dolton labels, as well as a large handful of ultra-rare singles, unissued material and previously unheard alternate versions. Blessed with the heart of a country boy and the soul of a ground-breaking jazzman, Jimmy Bryant is of that rare breed whose work will always sound ahead of its time