It was about 25 years ago that the first ceramic pickup, which would work with nylon strings, was developed. And a good many guitarists began experimenting with use of the instrument in jazz, most prominently at the time, Charlie Byrd. One of the first I heard was Gene Bertoncini. Gene was in fact still a student at Notre Dame (an architecture major) when I encountered him; he appeared there in an intercollegiate jazz festival. That was in 1959. Two or three years later he was back in New York, his home town, a professional musician. And he was already committed to the development of the classical guitar in jazz.
Gene was hypothesizing even then that guitarists should cease thinking in terms of "grips" -- the various positions of the left hand by which you make different chords on the instrument -- and start thinking about it somewhat as keyboard players think about their instruments. The effect of this can bheard throughout this recording. Pianists must achieve the independence of the left hand from the right. The classical guitar requires another kind of independence within the two coordinated hands. It is impossible to describe to anyone who doesn't play the instrument and unnecessary with anyone who does.
