And I mean alone. He pulled up to the back door, unloaded his own equipment, and went to work setting it up while we watched and experienced a renewed interest in the bar. I determined where he was setting himself up on the stage and stood directly in front of it, and waited. Another half hour, and he stood in front of us with a couple guitars, a few amps, and his own little mixing board on a little mixing board stand. No band and tons of empty space.

And he proceeded to blow our fucking minds. One may argue that other players are as good or even better than Stanley, but there is no one, no one, that plays like him.

Stanley makes exclusive use of the tapping technique invented by Jimmie Webster (most folks say) and popularized by Eddie Van Halen, Steve Hackett, and Michael Hedges among others. While most rock guitarists use the technique to play faster, Stanley uses it to elevate the instrument's capabilities. Using this technique as he does, he not only gets every finger on both hands involved, but he enables the instrument to create chords and melody at the same time.

To illustrate this, I'm going to go into new ground here and post a video. This is because you really, really, need to see this to understand how incredible it is. I really can't explain it to you. Also, I'm holding out on you a little, as this video shows a guitarist doing something that I, in all my extensive audience experience, have never seen anyone else do. The song is a familiar one - I'm certain you know it-  and it is just past three minutes into the song that my point should be made for me (if it hasn't been already by that time), and the point is that no discussion of great guitarists or of technically astounding musicians of any type is complete without the name Stanley Jordan.