Who's your favorite Jazz Musician?

3 Guesses who mine is

Miles, Miles, and Miles.

thread, the poll was not there. When I came back, there was the poll. I have voted now.

sorry

No Louis Armstrong?!

I just rattled the people off the top of my head. All hail Sachmo!!

but we probably wouldn't know who any of those people in your list ARE if it weren't for Armstrong.

Wayne Shorter has to be my favorite if I had to pick only one jazz-ster. I think his blue note albums are almost too beautiful to listen to!

you hear that live album that just came out? Awesome!

I would have seen him here in Philly a few weeks back but the kid had a ballet recital or some such thing (she rocked!)...Oh well I did get to see him a few times in the 80s.

he had a real slump for a while but that album is a breath of fresh air.

Yeah, that would be it.

Pure and simple.Maybe that's why there's a church dedicated to his music.

I love it. Great name

:toast:

You don't have my favorite listed here. But, I bet he knows who he is. ;-)

Picking a fave depends on the day and the mood, but... I'll go with Sun Ra for now...

Speaking of the man, Mr. C. I love this bit from a piece in the summer 2003 Jest, which has been republished in the current Utne Reader. It's titled:

What your favorite album says about you!

"It is said that one should never judge a book by its cover. That seems like sound logic, but what about album covers? A Celine Dion album, for instance, that someone tells you is there favorite? I think it’s safe to say that you have every right to judge that album and, moreover, the person who enjoys it.

...(the piece then lists a number of albums, with statements about what these albums say about those who love them...for example:)

John Coltrane — A Love Supreme: I tell anyone who’ll listen what an avid jazz fan I am. But the truth is, if not for that Ken Burns documentary, I wouldn’t know John Coltrane from The Dukes of Hazzard’s Roscoe P. Coltrane."

I can't find a link to the full piece, but these quotes are from...

http://www.howardism.org/thoughts/001062.html

:)

How can I pick between Coltrane and Monk?

Almost

Maiden Voyage - I love it!

Was one of my alltime favorite National Lampoon headlines. From back in the 70s.

Dave Brubeck's always been my favorite.
Love Parker and Coltrane. Monk = 2 MFs.
On the newer side, I've consistently found John Scofield interesting.

(on edit: gotta mention Horace Silver.)

Cool poll.
cheers,
ronzo

:toast:

:toast:

He was stellar on Tranes great albums but made some damn good ones on his own. Check Inception - it's quite hot.

...like many people who self-release (I should know), he put out a lot of crap on Saturn Records. His Impulse! output is on a par with anybody's ("Space Is the Place" is right up there with "A Love Supreme" and "The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady" for me).



So, Chavez -- did I meet you at Random Koolzip's party?

He and I are close close friends from high school.

It was originally Yardbird but was shortened

:silly:

Parker was on tour in the deep South. At that time "on tour" meant that four or five guys loaded all their shit in a car and drove around looking for gigs. Yardbird is southern slang for a chicken, and Parker loved eating chicken.

The driver ran over a chicken in the road, and Parker made him go back to get it so that he could have it for dinner. His friends thought that was so funny, they started calling him "Yardbird" and it stuck. As you pointed out, it was later shortened to "Bird".

i have more Ellington and Coltrane material though, go figure.

Ray Brown, Keith Jarrett, Bill Evans, Django, Oscar, Wayne Shorter, McCoy Tyner, Sonny Stitt, Sonny Rollins, Joe Farrell, Chick Corea, Phil Woods and so many others ... how the heck do you choose among the gods???

Because I've spent my life as an aspiring (or shall I say expiring) jazz guitarist, I've above all listened to and admired the likes of Joe Pass, Django, Barney Kessel, Wes Montgomery, Tal Farlow. Lately I have been listening to two truly phenomenal guitar players, Gene Bertoncini and the French guitarist Roland Dyens. Dyens I think is the best guitar player in the world. He's like Keith Jarrett on the guitar.

Especially when Ella sang his tunes! :-)

nm

...it's hard to pick a favorite. I voted for Eric Dolphy because no one else has at this point. His playing with the Coltrane Quartet is formidable. I like the fact that he's a multi-instrumentalist and his playing spans the whole spectrum from the roots to the far reaches of the avant-garde...

He was playing at a local venue many years ago. My jazz mentor and vibes-player, Johnny Lytle (God rest his soul) saw me at the concert and invited me backstage to meet Dizzy.

Never in my life have I encountered a more beautiful soul that John Birks Gillespie. I was a freshman in college and a music major. Dizz made a point of listening to me, and giving encouragement and advice. I figured that he'd say "Hi. howya doin?" and move on, but instead he listened to me and gave his encouragement.

It was like being blessed by a saint. What a wonderful man he was. What an inspiration. He actually cared about what I was doing, musically. That 45 minutes of my life, I'll never forget.

... for a while was a guy named John Campbell. I dated him for a while.

So far, nobody's mentioned Maynard Ferguson, Woody Herman, Glenn Miller ... so I'll mention them! Or any drummers like Gene Krupa and Buddy Rich. Ain't no jazz without the beat :-).

:toast:

Some Jazz critics knock him for 'having no swing', but he's had an incredible influence on jazz piano--up-and-coming artists rip his voicings off all the time.

He is the only one I ever saw live. Also love Bird, Diz, Pat Metheny, Al DiMeola, Larry Coryell, and lately cannot get enough of Dianna Krall.

You can't connect musical thoughts and emotions any better than on "A Love Supreme".

Thelonius Monk, Ornette Coleman, Sun Ra, Coleman Hawkins, Sonny Rollins, Gil Evans' arrangements....off the top of my head.

Jon Hassel (?) did some mesmerizing electronic recordings with sort of middle eastern rhythms, I think in the late 70's.

I love Rahsaan Roland Kirk's work. But that's just me.

Rahsaan Roland Kirk link
http://student-www.uchicago.edu/~narusso/shack/data/rk_link.htm

:toast:

the one, the only, the original . . . Louis Armstrong . . . or "Pops", as his friends used to call him . . . greatest jazz trumpeter ever, originator of the jazz solo as an art form, the man who made individual improvisation the backbone of the genre . . . everyone who has followed -- in jazz, in blues, in pop, even in rock -- owes a debt to Louis Armstrong . . . definitely my all-time favorite . . .

Mr Coltrane's not-so-secret weapon

Tranes playing sax in heaven. No Dis to Miles - he's my runner up

The ones listed are great as well.

I got turned on to his music, actually the classical albums, but I can listen to both his jazz and classical works. He's one of a family of talented musicians.

Branford and Wynton walking down the hall together at a Jazz Educators festival in Chicago a few years back. They were going into a room just down the hall from Ed Shaunessy (long-time drummer on The Tonight Show). I was there to partake of the Gene Puerling Tribute night. Vocal jazz - that's my favorite. Let's start with Ella Fitzgerald ;-).

Aside from Bird, one of the gods of the alto sax.
And for trumpet player (I'm a high-note freak at heart) it's the Boss himself, Maynard Ferguson.

2) Oscar Peterson

3) Stan Getz

Earl Kluge

Followed closely by Miles Davis.

Is that clear enough?
The Professor

... on the strength of Summertime and Petite Fleur.

The Skin

Thelonious Monk and Oscar Peterson. Two best jazz pianists ever, no comparison.

Monk for the crazy harmonies and dissonance (that sounded oohhhh so sweeet)

Oscar for the mad technique pure blues loving.