I’ve loved the guitar since I was a kid listening to Duane Eddy playing "40 Miles of Bad Road" and "Pepe". Then one day I saw an LP with a bright red Gretsch on the cover and I thought I might see what someone else played on the guitar Eddy used.
I was amazed at the sounds coming from Chet Atkins’s fingers, completely unlike the single note twang of Duane Eddy. My dad even liked it and let me play it on his Fisher stereo. I started trying to learn finger style playing after that and left old Duane behind.
In my freshman year in college a friend turned me on to jazz and I started to listen to Joe Pass, Django Reinhardt, Johnny Smith and my favorite, Kenny Burrell.
Which takes me to my pick for "Aficionados".
Burrell recorded a brilliant album called "Guitar Forms" with arrangements by Gil Evans. The tunes range from a Gershwin prelude transcribed for a classical guitar, to a version of Greensleeves which begins as a classical guitar solo, then Burrell switches to electric as Evans and the orchestra come in with a powerful swinging arrangement. There are also small group tracks and two beautiful Gill Evans arranged big band tracks.
Still my favorite record of all, Kenny Burrell, "Guitar Forms"...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qp50jQ_mPAg&list=PLvxWibFr0wiLXaegSULNzwUcrz5c4K5Pm
And see what reviewers had to say about these pure silver interconnects:
https://silversolids.com/revbuysB.html