One of her greatest achievements is her Song Book series, a selection of albums released between and that took detailed looks at individual songwriters and lyricists.
For anyone looking to learn more about this legendary jazz singer , the biography The First Lady of Jazz by Stuart Nicholson comes highly recommended. Nat King Cole is undoubtedly one of the most popular and important entertainers of the 20th century, selling over 50 million records as an African- American jazz musician and singer. Hugely influential as a jazz pianist and cultural icon, his legacy continues to inspire countless musicians to this day.
His early trio sessions usually in the piano- bass -guitar format influenced future legends such as Oscar Peterson and Ahmad Jamal, whilst his countless hit records as a smooth toned balladeer showcase his enduring taste and class. Despite rising to prominence during the bebop era of the s where he played with both Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie legendary jazz drummer Art Blakey will always be known for his role in the emergence of Hard Bop and, more specifically, his work with his Jazz Messengers band.
Few people have changed the vocabulary of jazz as drastically as Charlie Parker , and few have proved so influential. The Kansas-born alto saxophonist was at the forefront of the bebop movement in New York in the mids and created a new way of playing over chord changes, with chromatic passing notes linking chord tones together, and a fresh rhythmic vocabulary.
The music was also a resolutely intellectual affair, partially in response to the more populist Swing era that had dominated American music since the s. A number of his compositions — often new melodies written over the chord sequences of existing songs — have become part of the standard repertoire. Sadly, he struggled with substance addiction, and was just 34 when he died in But this album , with Parker accompanied by a classical string section and jazz rhythm section is essential.
Pianist Dave Brubeck was an important jazz musician in the s Cool Jazz movement and carved out a niche for himself playing in unusual time signatures. The Dave Brubeck Quartet , with Paul Desmond on alto sax, achieved massive fame across America and their album Time Out , featuring the iconic track Take Five, became the first album in jazz history to sell a million copies.
Fact: Dave Brubeck was only the 2nd musician to be featured on the front cover of Time Magazine. Any guesses who the first was? Not only one of the best bassists and most creative jazz musicians of all time, Charles Mingus also broke ground with his compositions.
Whilst he is mainly remembered for his work as a soloist and bandleader , he did play with some of the greats in his early days, including Charlie Parker, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington briefly, until he got fired for fighting… and Lionel Hampton. It culminates in a solo by tenor saxophonist Booker Erwin where he plays like a preacher over the clapping of the entire band.
With his unconventional playing style and frequent use of octaves, he was able to develop a highly distinctive voice that was always joyous, soulful and swinging. His infectious brand of hard bop and soul jazz would later undergo a stylistic shift towards a smoother, more populist aesthetic, helping him achieve a level of popular success that very few jazz musicians managed, before his life was sadly cut short at the height of his popularity.
As the pioneering jazz drummer of the Bebop era, Max Roach laid the foundations of modern jazz drumming , by formulating a style where the pulse is stated primarily on the ride cymbal, rather than on the hi-hats or bass drum.
Perhaps the best known jazz trombonist of all time, J. Johnson was the first one of the earliest musicians on the instrument to play in the bebop style. However, in the mids, he was spurred on by trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie to embrace the new bebop style. The following years saw him capitalise on his status as the go-to jazz trombonist, appearing around the world with most of the jazz legends, including Clifford Jordan, Nat Adderley, Freddie Hubbard, Tommy Flanagan, Cedar Walton, Elvin Jones, Paul Chambers and Max Roach — as well as stints with the Jazz at the Philharmonic show.
After a hiatus from playing that started in the s he moved to Hollywood to write for film and television he returned to touring and was turning out critically acclaimed recordings well into the mids.
Aged just 10 he was apparently able to imitate stride pianists like Art Tatum and Fats Waller and, later, counted Thelonious Monk as an early mentor figure.
Married to Ella Fitzgerald and performing in one of the greatest jazz piano trios of all time , Ray Brown is surely one of the most legendary bassists in the history of the music. Whilst the Ray Brown discography contains some of the best records made, bass players and fans should also check out his work from the 90s as part of Superbass, alongside Christian McBride and John Clayton.
You can find that — and several more — in our round up of the best books to learn jazz. One of the most important and influential jazz musicians of all time, Miles Davis was a relentless innovator who was a key player in numerous stylistic developments in jazz.
He featured on classic bebop sessions with Charlie Parker in the mids, fronted the nine-piece Birth of the Cool band , made some of the best hard bop records of the s with his First Great Quintet and pioneered modal jazz on Milestones and Kind of Blue. While other jazz trumpeters could play higher and faster than Miles, his ability to put together fabulous bands and create classic albums is virtually unmatched. Regularly named as the best jazz album ever, Kind of Blue features Miles at his cool, considered best.
Saxophonist John Coltrane was a relentless practiser who never stopped searching and striving to develop as a jazz artist. A relatively late bloomer amongst his fellow saxophone players , he did not make his first album as a leader until he was 30 years old.
His s quartet is considered one of the all-time great jazz groups, while his work in his final years embraced the new free jazz movement and took on a deeply spiritual direction. However, this spell with the saxophone great in the 60s was one of just several periods of jazz history to which Elvin Jones contributed on drums….
As he launched a career as a soloist, his light, Lester Young-inspired sound saw him categorised in the press as a Cool jazz player , although he was equally comfortable playing with bebop musicians like Sonny Stitt and Dizzy Gillespie. Pianist Bill Evans took the influence of bebop players like Bud Powell and added a flavour of impressionist classical music harmony and an introspective sensibility.
Tommy Dorsey was also noted as an eagle-eyed talent-spotter who gave opportunities to young musicians. Soon afterwards, however, it also became the soundtrack to a new, and more serious, problem — World War II.
While the war raged, jazz records — particularly those by big bands — dominated the US pop charts. Indeed, most of the US chart-toppers between and were by big bands, among them those led by Jimmy Dorsey who scored nine No. But while on the surface big bands still seemed to flourish, the economic reality of being at war meant that the days of the large ensembles were numbered. With increased costs in transportation, big bands were just too expensive to maintain and keep on the road. The situation was compounded in when the American Federation Of Musicians, a powerful union, initiated a strike against royalty rates paid by record companies that lasted until All union musicians were prevented from not only recording any kind commercial sessions but also playing on the radio.
It was, perhaps, the final nail in the coffin for the big band. Some, however, such as those led by Duke Ellington and Count Basie, soldiered on regardless — and would keep going for many years or, in the case of Count Basie, even after their leader had died.
Crooning The US charts reflected the waning influence of the big bands during the final two years of the war, when pop vocalists began to thrive and prosper.
In the big band age, singers were usually added to augment the sound, and got a feature spot to perform a few numbers, but now they were branching out on their own. There were also vocal groups such as The Mills Brothers and The Ink Spots, who were beginning to find favour with the public and light up the charts. While this was going on, instrumental jazz music was undergoing a revolution.
He recruited some forward-thinking musicians in his band — notably alto saxophonist Charlie Parker and trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie — and together they began developing a new, complex jazz language where they improvised at a terrific speed over advanced harmonies. Bebop: jazz as intellectual art This was the start of jazz being perceived as intellectual art music as opposed to its previous role as functional dance music.
He would eventually go on to become a profoundly influential figure in the development of what became known as modern jazz. The advent of the long-playing record, in , aided the evolution of bebop, allowing jazz musicians to play much longer, more ambitious pieces that featured extended passages of improvisation.
While the major labels were suspicious of this new music, smaller independent companies, run by jazz enthusiasts, emerged to spread the bop gospel, among them Blue Note, founded in , and, later, Prestige, Riverside, and Verve, all of which built up impressive catalogues.
But jazz music, in a less challenging and cerebral form, was still dominating the hit parade. Come the 50s, the jazz scene in America was still a vibrant one. Though veterans the likes of Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and Count Basie were still plying their trade and selling plenty of records and concert tickets to enthusiastic fans, it was bebop that was dictating the course of jazz music.
It had cast a hypnotic spell upon many young, up-and-coming musicians who all aspired to blow their horns like Gillespie and Parker. But while bebop was still the hot currency, Miles Davis, having felt he had reached a creative dead end with bop, came up with the concept of cool jazz, which was a less intense take on bebop, as evidenced by a series of singles for Capitol that were eventually collected and released as the game-changing album Birth Of The Cool.
Cool jazz and hard bop While California was the capital of cool jazz, New York became the foundry where hard bop was forged. Hard bop had much more heat and intensity than the West Coast sound and was a variant of bebop that drew on blues and gospel. When Silver left to pursue a solo career, Blakey took over leadership of the group and its vibrant, horn-laden sound, powered by his thunderous polyrhythms, came to define the essence of hard bop, arguably the most dominant and popular form of jazz music in the 50s.
From onwards, Sinatra made a remarkable transition. There was no better interpreter of standards — especially ballads — than Miles Davis, whose fragile tone had a haunting beauty to it. At Columbia, Miles took modern jazz forward with a quintet that included saxophonist John Coltrane in its ranks. Coltrane, too, was an innovator and pathfinder, and, as the 50s became the 60s, he would go on to make as big an impact in jazz as Miles.
Creatively, at least, jazz music seemed in a healthy state, but its audience was rapidly shrinking. It shrank even further in the 60s, mainly due to the advent of The Beatles and the British Invasion, which spawned a plethora of pop groups adored by screaming fans.
What was a jazz musician to do? For some, the answer was to plug in and embrace the zeitgeist. Though fusion helped to revive jazz and was incredibly popular for a while, by the late 70s it was in terminal decline.
The jazz revival Since then, jazz music — especially the instrumental variety — has largely remained a minority concern. Though it has witnessed an occasional revival or two, there is nothing to suggest that it will regain its long-lost crown.
But thanks to the rise of charismatic singer Gregory Porter, jazz has seen some healthy mainstream chart action recently. No top 50? Where is Chet Baker? Why is Dinah Washington always overlooked when it comes to these polls? Especially Jamie Cullum. Some people have short memories or are clueless. Buddy Bolden. I know…everyone has their own opinion.. I was getting worried till I saw Oscar peterson at no. But all things considered i thing its a pretty good list.
You have Nina simone? This list is overcrowded with mediocrities who have no business being on there. It is quite clear that those who made this list were either not players, or not knowledgeable about what Jazz really is about. Robert Nuckels, you make some very good points which I agree with but Dave Brubeck a terrible pianist? I play piano and I play many Brubeck compositions. His improvisations were unique and very inventive. And I got to meet him and talk to him when I did a jazz radio program.
More glaring omissions. Oh well. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder…. I agree putting Miles Davis on top was boss but after that it gets fuzzy….. No Sarah Vaughn??? Charles Mingues Presents Charles Mingus alone is just on the next level. Where is Tigran Hamasyan? In addition to those already named: Archie Shepp? Jack DeJohnette? Andrew Cyrille? Elvin Jones?
Lester Bowie? Cecil Taylor? Ben Webster? As it is a UK complied list I can understand why several obvious omissions and a few unusual inclusions in the list of 50 , but its strange for the UK to leave out Stan Tracey , their excellent and innovative pianist. From the omissions surely there could have been included at least one guitarist , but would that be Charlie Christian or Django Reinhardt?
I see 60 names altogether with some names repeated Oscar Peterson?!?! Just reading the comments speaks to the incredible range of talent in this genre. He called it all Jazz, never wanting to over analyze what he said was the joy and emotion this great music brought to him. As for this list — you cannot respectfully limit it to a top ten or Your email address will not be published. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Search uDiscover Music.
Format: UK English. Umm…where is McCoy Tyner? David O'Donnell November 16, at pm. John Michael September 7, at am. You must really be a noob at Jazz music if you think Goodman deserves a spot in the top Fabrizio Sebastiani November 16, at pm. Christopher Nowak September 30, at pm. Pete Hittle November 16, at pm. MV November 17, at am. Jean Davis November 16, at pm.
Mel Torme, Gene Krupa … this is an impossible list. Kai Winding and Bill Harris. You dont feel a bit stupid creating a top 10 of jazz, seriously how silly. BBJ February 4, at am. I agree. It should be at least a top 25 if not a top 50! Hal November 16, at pm. Bert Dobben November 16, at pm. Ed Applebaum November 16, at pm.
B3 November 16, at pm. Not on the Top Ten, fine…. Ned Rodgers November 18, at am. Steven Tanenbaum November 16, at pm.
Brian Coates November 16, at pm. Ana Lucia Bizinover November 16, at pm. Yimmy November 16, at pm.
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