Jazz guitarists are guitar players who play jazz music using an approach to playing chords, melodies, and improvised solo lines which is called jazz guitar playing. The guitar has a long history in jazz music, both as an ensemble instrument performing chordal accompaniment, and as a solo instrument. In jazz ensembles of the 1920s, the banjo was the standard stringed, chord-playing rhythm instrument. Even as late as the early 1930s sophisticated jazz orchestras such as the Duke Ellington band still used a banjo to provide a rhythmic pulse.

In the late 1930s, guitar began being used in jazz ensembles to provide rhythmic chordal accompaniment. By the 1940s, some guitarists began also playing a solo role in big bands, playing single note melodies and solos. In the 1950s and 1960s, jazz guitarists routinely played in small combos and organ trios. In the 1970s, jazz guitarists began to blend jazz playing styles with the pop sounds of rock and funk to create a variety of jazz-rock fusion styles.