Influential Jazz Artists?

[Sweaty]

Originally Posted by Magic Louis Armstrong Count Basie Charlie Parker John Coltrane Ella Fitzgerald

Jimmy Smith Back at the chicken shack and others

[Abraxas]

Miles Davis
Oscar Peterson
Dizzy Gilespie
Charles Mingus
Buddy Carter
Dave Brubeck
Vince Guaraldi

[gguerra]

Here are some more, some of them from as early as the 20's

Sidney Bechet
King Oliver
Benny Goodman (also Big Band)
Eddie Condon
Bill Davison
Johnny Dodds
Jelly Roll Morton
Tommy Dorsey (also Big Band)
Artie Shaw
Glenn Milller (also Big Band)
Lionel Hampton
Fletcher Henderson
Woody Herman
Earl Hines
Art Hodes
Al Jolson
Gene Krupa
Jess Stacy
Lawson Haggart
Ted Lewis
Turk Murphy
Phil Napoleon
Red Nichols
Jimmy Noone
Kid Ory
Ben Pollack
Bob Scobey
Jack Teagarden
Lu Watters
Johnny Wiggs

[Vintage]

Louis Armstrong
King Oliver
Duke Ellington
Charlie Parker
Charles Mingus
Miles Davis
John Coltrane
Cecil Taylor
Thelonious Monk

[FretBuzz]

A lot of my favorites have been mentioned already...I'm a huge fan of Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Charles Mingus, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Art Tatum, Clifford Brown, Stan Getz....the list goes on and on!

I think that Louis Armstrong is probably the most influential jazz artist ever...as Miles Davis once said, the history of jazz can be summed up in four words, "Louis Armstong, Charlie Parker".

There are some jazz guitarists that I really like which no one has mentioned yet:

Grant Green
Kenny Burrell
Joe Pass
Lenny Breau
Herb Ellis
Barney Kessel
Charlie Byrd
Sonny Sharrock

[hawk11]

Miles Davis
John Coltrane
Charlie Parker
Coleman Hawkins
Stan Getz
Roland Kirk
Wynton Marsalis

[Abraxas]

Originally Posted by Abraxas Miles Davis Oscar Peterson Dizzy Gilespie Charles Mingus Buddy Carter Dave Brubeck Vince Guaraldi

Adding Billy Cobham to my list.

[TheHealer]

There are alot of great artists mentioned in the thread but in my very biased opinion no artist has done more to impact the history of jazz as Miles Davis did.

Albums like Birth Of The Cool, Kind Of Blue, E.S.P., Filles de Kilimanjaro, Bitches Brew, A Tribute To Jack Johnson, On The Corner, were not just influential, the music from those albums changed jazz and totally expanded its boundaries and pushed jazz on to new directions.

For any artist to change music once is a great achievement.

Miles changed music 3 to four times during his career.

I don't think that can be said of any other artist in the history of jazz.

[JakeWasHere]

I think it's best if I stick to the ones that had an influence on my own tastes in jazz:

Dave Brubeck (the first jazz artist I listened to)
Thelonious Monk
Herbie Hancock
Charles Mingus
Paul Desmond
John Coltrane
The Duke

And as far as jazz drummers go, I'd put the late great Joe Morello up against Rich and Krupa any day.

[FunkyDrummer345]

I'll probably add to this later...

Allan Holdsworth
Sonny Rollins
Art Blakey
Max Roach
Hiromi Uehara
Coleman Hawkins
John Coltrane
Miles Davis
Thelonious Monk
Charlie Parker
Wes Montgomery

[FunkyDrummer345]

Sonny Stitt
Ben Webster
Count Basie
Duke Ellington
Bill Evans
Charles Mingus
Wayne Shorter
Art Tatum
Dizzy Gillespie