Yesterday, I received an email from clarinetist and saxophonist Pete Neighbour to wish JazzWax a happy 14th birthday. He also had a question on something I wrote in my Harold Land post. I took issue with Land being described as a genius, since in my mind there were only about 10 true jazz geniuses. Pete wondered who was on my list.
To recap, my definition of a jazz genius is an artist whose playing was so innovative and influential that it created a new jazz style and spawned many imitators. If we can agree on this criterion, then here are my 16 picks and audio clips to illustrate. There are others who were important and continue to be significant, but in terms of those whose playing was remarkable, altered the artform and inspired a school of followers, these musicians qualify:
1. Louis Armstrong, whose trumpet style and improvising approach established jazz's benchmark. Here's Armstrong playing West End Blues in 1928...
2. Earl "Fatha" Hines, whose polished, freewheeling keyboard style revolutionized the stride piano, kicking off a sound that extended into the 1940s. Here's Hines playing Fifty-Seven Varieties in 1928, clearly a play on the Heinz slogan (which dates back to 1896) and his own last name...
3. Duke Ellington, whose romantic ballads and chattering horns and reeds painted a picture of earthy beauty and paid tribute to Harlem with a sound that influenced many artists into the 1960s. Here's Mood Indigo (1931)...
4. Count Basie, whose spare Kansas City piano style masked a highly innovative player and whose big bands continuously set new standards of excellence in playing and arranging swing. Here's One O'clock Jump in 1937...
5. Art Tatum, whose astonishing keyboard speed and gift for improvisation not only raised the stakes for all piano players but also inspired trumpeters and saxophonists to thrill with velocity. Here's Moonglow in 1940...
6. Coleman Hawkins, whose earthy tenor saxophone and eely improvisational style established a new solo style in the swing and bebop eras. Here's I Surrender Dear in 1940...
7. Lester "Prez" Young, whose relaxed and fluid tenor saxophone played high on the register gave birth to several dozen imitators. Here's Prez on These Foolish Things in 1945 and re-inventing the song's melody...
8. Dizzy Gillespie, whose musicianship, development of bebop and zesty respect for individualists made him a bebop pioneer and one of the finest jazz educators among musicians. Here's Groovin' High with Dizzy Gillespie (tp), Dexter Gordon (ts), Frank Paparelli (p), Chuck Wayne (g), Murray Shipinski (b) and Shelly Manne (d) in 1945 (ignore the cover featured in the clip, which features Sonny Rollins, not Dexter Gordon)...
9. Charlie Parker, whose blues-flavored alto saxophone, patent-leather tone and fast mind re-imagined melodies based on the chord changes of standards and who inspired several generations of bebop players. Here's Charlie's Wig in 1947 with Miles Davis (tp), J.J. Johnson (tb), Charlie Parker (as), Duke Jordan (p), Tommy Potter (b) and Max Roach (d)...
10. Thelonious Monk, whose lurching, child-like piano style not only was complex and impossible to duplicate but he also created a wealth of original songs that became jazz standards. Here's Well You Needn't in 1947 with Thelonious Monk (p), Gene Ramey (b) and Art Blakey (d)...
11. Bud Powell, whose lightning-fast fingers and lush improvisational ideas set the gold standard for bebop piano and spawned many imitators. Here's All God's Chillun Got Rhythm in 1949 with Bud Powell (p), Ray Brown (b) and Max Roach (d)...
12. Miles Davis, whose crisp, poetic and introverted attack on trumpet enabled him to be a force in bebop, cool, hard bop, romantic jazz, modal jazz and jazz fusion. Here's A Gal in Calico in 1955...
13. Sonny Rollins, whose tenor saxophone in the 1950s delivered a big brash personal sound that wasn't an offshoot of anyone but himself, influencing everyone who followed, including John Coltrane. Here's Blue 7 in 1956...
14. Art Blakey, whose polyrhythmic drums and signature press rolls in the 1950s expressed Black power before those words were articulated and launched one of jazz's most important and often imitated hard bop groups, the Jazz Messengers. Here's Benny Golson's Are You Real, with Lee Morgan (tp), Benny Golson (ts), Bobby Timmons (p), Jymie Merritt (b) and Art Blakey (d)...
15. Ornette Coleman, whose bone dry alto saxophone and moody abstraction pioneered free jazz with intensity and momentum. Here's W.R.U. in 1961, with Don Cherry (tp), Ornette Coleman (as), Scott LaFaro (b) and Ed Blackwell (d)...
16. Bill Evans, whose unabashed sensitivity and swinging sophistication on the piano launched a conversational trio style among the bass, drums and keyboard in the early 1960s that remains in vogue today. Here's Evans's Very Early in 1962, with Chuck Israels (b) and Paul Motian (d)...
17. John Coltrane, whose tenor saxophone not only set new sonic standards with his sheets of sound but also turned jazz into a pan-African, civil rights and mystical statement. Here's Part 1—Acknowledgment from A Love Supreme in 1964...
