This one’s it for me. Gumbo Variations.
I prefer instrumentals that feature keyboards (though a good guitar shred, groovin’ bass walk or Buddy Rich style drum solo is nothing to sniff about either). But, there’s nothing quite like the big fat sound of a Hammond B-3 with Leslie speaker:
I listen mostly to classical music these days, but I’ve always been a sucker for the progressive rock bands of the 70’s with talented keyboardists, especially ELP and Yes. Most of my favorite songs of theirs, though mainly instrumental, do include lyrics, so they’re disqualified as per the OP. I will, however, submit another ELP cover—Prokofiev’s Dance of the Knights:
But, for sheer virtuosity, nothing beats Horowitz’s 1953 performance of Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody #2 (hey, technically it’s an instrumental and it rocks!). His cadenza is superhuman:
The Sixties were wonderful like that. The 60 versions of Batman listed on this page doesn’t come close to the actual number of versions out there.
RTF is (was) awesome!
I recently rediscovered a bunch of cassettes that I had made probably late 70’s. I dug my cassette deck out of the closet. Had to replace belts — one of them had melted into oblivion. Got it running and have been going through these old cassettes. Most sound awful. Tape stretched etc and the deck may no longer be running at an accurate speed but it was a nostalgia thing and when I’m done the tapes will be tossed.
Anyway, I came across a tape simply labelled Return To Forever. No recollection of making the tape and I know I never owned the record. There was horns & woodwinds. Not your typical RTF.
I located the recording online. Live, The Entire Concert, from 1977. Lenny White & Al DiMeola are nowhere to be found. Gerry Brown on drums. He’s awesome!
Some of those cuts are my favourite instrumentals of the moment. Not keen on the cuts with vocals though. Never been keen on jazz vocals.
Also been listening to Art Pepper.
Next week my favourites could be something else.
I’d still like to know how I got that RTF onto tape. Forever a mystery I guess. But I now own the CD 
Soulful Strut, which is kind of rock/pop I guess, but kind of not.
I listen to a lot of jazz, which is mostly intrumental. There’s no way I can narrow it down to one favorite, but here’s one I’ve listened to and enjoyed many times: Well, You Needn’t by Thelonious Monk:
And also anything by the Dixie Dregs.
You said we could have classical, so here’s the theme tune to ‘The Lone Ranger’ (with apologies to Rossini!)
A great song, but I’m not sure how it qualifies as an instrumental?
Brian Eno reminded me of Neu! (he was a frequent collaborator) and their Motorik sound. It’s unbelievable that their signature song “Hallogallo” is from 1972. Nobody else did anything like that in 1972. It’s hypnotic.
Just like this:
I like some good guitar work.
Eric Johnson, Cliff of Dover.
Eric Johnson - Cliffs Of Dover [HQ Studio Version] - YouTube
Two guitar gods, Glen Campbell and Roy Clark, Ghost Riders in the Sky.
Glen Campbell & Roy Clark Play “Ghost Riders in the Sky” - YouTube
So do I…
absolutely, great choice, one of my favourites.
I love Seeland as well, Less driving, not so urgent, but with more than a hint of Eno about it.
We often drive in Germany on our way to Austria and I have a playlist for the autobahn with lots of Neu! on it (and Tangerine Dream)
When we get to the mountains I switch to something more fitting which brings me to another great quasi-instrumental band, Mogwai.
Here are a couple of crackers.
How to be a werewolf - great for sweeping mountain roads
The sun smells too loud - ditto
Yeah, Mogwai is a great instrumental band. The whole Post Rock genre owes a lot to Neu! (and other Kraut Rock bands).
My favorite part? The grin at the end.
This reminded me of the few instrumental bands in my dad’s collection of singles and LPs from the sixties. Like Swedish guitar band The Spotnics:
Gouryella by Gouryella
there is an instrumental version https://youtu.be/zAGCDvesHJU
Sorry if it’s a bit off topic, just wanted to share…