Acclaimed jazz guitarist Joshua Breakstone was only 27 when he recorded his first album as a leader. While Wonderful! was released early in his career, Breakstone already displayed the attributes of a seasoned jazz player. His swinging quartet featuring the great Barry Harris on piano, Earl Sauls on bass, and stalwart Leroy Williams on drums infuses the music with panache and excitement. The original record, out of print for almost 40 years, is due for reissue on August 21, 2026 via Capri Records. The re-release marks the recording’s first time on CD.
Breakstone was playing regularly with saxophonist Warne Marsh around the time Wonderful! was recorded. Pianist Lennie Tristano was a major influence on Marsh, which inspired Breakstone to include Tristano’s composition “Two Not One” as one of the tracks on his album. The great Django Reinhardt also gets a nod with a spirited performance of “Django’s Castle.”
The album also shows off Breakstone’s already impressive composing skills with two of his originals, “Sevens-Up” and “This Is It!” The remaining three tracks are outstanding interpretations of classic tunes by classical composers. George Gershwin’s “S’Wonderful” opens the album with a bang, followed by an extended track featuring Tadd Dameron’s “Soultrane.” Filling out the recording is “Time on My Hands” by Vincent Youmans.
While any listener of Wonderful! can hear Breakstone’s prodigious talent as a guitarist, he looks back on the album with the self-critical eye of a master. “When I hear the young guitar player that I was,” he says, “I can’t help but think, if I only knew then what I know now.”
Listeners will have no such regrets after listening to this gem of an early recording. In Breakstone’s performances, it’s easy to hear the elements that led the Santa Fe New Mexican to describe his playing as “fire in velvet” and DownBeat to call him “among the best” of young jazz guitarists.
Full of great jazz, Wonderful! is an important recording chronicling a young lion at the start of a major career. As Breakstone says, “This recording documents the germ of musical ideas that were just beginning to flower in my approach to playing jazz.” Seven scintillating tracks, four exceptional musicians, a simply superb quartet. What else could it be but Wonderful!
photo by Nathalie Breakstone
Joshua Breakstone was born July 22, 1955 in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Through his music loving parents he was exposed to Broadway shows, Broadway show cast recordings, and The New York Philharmonic. Through his older sisters he was exposed to all kinds of other music including jazz and rock and roll. At 14, he picked up the guitar and began playing with a high school group called Moon Unit featuring guitar, bass, drums, organ, and flute. “It wasn’t your typical late 60s rock and roll instrumentation,” says Breakstone.” Upon hearing Lee Morgan and Charlie Parker, Breakstone became irresistibly drawn to jazz. He attended the New College of the University of South Florida and Berklee College of Music, later moving to New York City where he performed, taught, and worked on a recording with Canadian saxophonist Glen Hall, Joanne Brackeen, Cecil McBee, and Billy Hart. Before recording his debut Wonderful! in 1983, he worked with Vinnie Burke, Warne Marsh, Emily Remler, and Aaron Bell. After Wonderful! he released 4/4= 1 featuring pianist Kenny Barron. In 1986, Breakstone went on his first tour of Japan and continued to tour there multiple times a year. He’s released well over a dozen albums, including tributes to Thelonious Monk, Wes Montgomery, and Bud Powell, and is one of the most prominent jazz guitarists playing today.