Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
Hi-Fi News & Record Review	A
MusicHound Jazz	5/5
The Penguin Guide to Jazz
Spin Alternative Record Guide	10/10
The Village Voice	A

Guitar is a 1986 solo studio album by American jazz guitarist Sonny Sharrock. He recorded the album with producer Bill Laswell at RPM Sound Studios in New York City. As the project's sole instrumentalist, Sharrock performed and overdubbed his guitar improvisations onto other sections of a song he had recorded beforehand.

Guitar was released by Enemy Records to received positive reviews from critics, who praised Sharrock's compositions, playing, and use of distortion. The album was named the eighth best record of 1986 by rock critic Robert Christgau, while jazz writer Ian Carr said it epitomized the electric guitar's range as an instrument.

Guitar was viewed by Sharrock as the culmination of a period in his career spent developing his sense of composition. After releasing his first record—Black Woman—in 1969, he experimented with different influences during the 1970s. When he recorded "Dance with Me Montana" in 1982, the song's chord progression changed his perspective on composing and inspired him to pursue more melodic ideas. "You listen to [it], and it's like a blind man struggling to get out of a room", Sharrock recalled. "Guitar was a crystallization of all of the things that I had discovered in that song." In the early 1980s, he had also worked on projects with Material, an experimental band fronted by Bill Laswell, who helped Sharrock produce the album.

Sharrock recorded Guitar at RPM Sound Studios in New York City. As the sole instrumentalist for the project, he first recorded his performance of a song's introductory passage and chord statement before overdubbing his improvisations onto the finished recording. His compositions on the album included a blues piece called "Black Bottom", the berceuse "Broken Toys", "Devils Doll Baby"—which featured Sharrock's frenzied slide guitar playing—and "Princess Sonata", a suite showcasing his range of techniques. Sharrock cited Guitar as the first time he was able to play both powerfully and melodically in the same way saxophonists John Coltrane and Albert Ayler had late in their careers.

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Wikipedia