AllenLowe Posted January 25, 2006 Report Share Posted January 25, 2006 Actually that's not bad: 1) Irving Berlin - wrote many great songs played by jazz musicians 2) Zez Confrey - excellent rag composer and pianist - as a matter of fact his 1921 recordings are almost identical in sound and feeling and swing to Eubie Blake - 3) Ferde Grofe - great arranger, wrote excellent jazz and jazz/classical pieces for Paul Whiteman 4) George Gershwin - great composer of pop songs, not to mention Concerto in F - Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brownian Motion Posted January 25, 2006 Report Share Posted January 25, 2006 Actually that's not bad: 1) Irving Berlin - wrote many great songs played by jazz musicians 2) Zez Confrey - excellent rag composer and pianist - as a matter of fact his 1921 recordings are almost identical in sound and feeling and swing to Eubie Blake - 3) Ferde Grofe - great arranger, wrote excellent jazz and jazz/classical pieces for Paul Whiteman 4) George Gershwin - great composer of pop songs, not to mention Concerto in F - You've made my point. Now tell me your paypal address again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted January 25, 2006 Report Share Posted January 25, 2006 What an absolute waste of time. Ah, but it will serve Massa's purposes quite well... Marssalis No, not that Massa. Although he's unwittingly in cahoots with the Massa I'm talking about. The "this music and these people have a very specific place in my world and anybody and anything what thinks that they and it don't, or think that it's not my world are gonna find out otherwise in no uncertain terms" Massa, that's who I'm talking about. To which all I can say is - Fuck you, Massa. You can kiss my uppity, self-important, don't give a righteous goddamn about your world ass. You can take you liberation-of-self-by-creating-servitude-for-others bullshit and stick it so far up your ass that it comes out your mouth. Maybe then you can taste it as the pure self-created/self-contaminated taste of death shit that it truly is. But I doubt it. Some people love the taste of their own shit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RDK Posted January 26, 2006 Report Share Posted January 26, 2006 from the table of contents: 1 Oscar Peterson 3 2 Bill Evans 7 3 Bud Powell 11 4 Art Tatum 15 5 Monty Alexander 19 6 Benny Green 23 7 André Previn 27 8 Tommy Flanagan 31 9 George Shearing 35 10 Red Garland 39 11 McCoy Tyner 43 12 Gene Harris 47 13 Kenny Drew 51 14 Hampton Hawes 55 15 Thelonious Monk 59 16 Ahmad Jamal 63 17 Billy Taylor 67 18 Horace Silver 71 19 Hank Jones 75 20 Chick Corea 79 21 Tete Montoliu 83 22 Phineas Newborn, Jr. 87 23 Teddy Wilson 91 24 Nat "King" Cole 95 25 Erroll Garner 99 3 26 Cedar Walton 103 27 Count Basie 107 28 Dave Brubeck 111 29 Cyrus Chestnut 115 30 Lennie Tristano 119 31 Fats Waller 123 32 Dick Hyman 127 33 Wynton Kelly 131 34 Dave McKenna 135 35 John Bunch 139 36 Kenny Barron 143 37 Bobby Timmons 147 38 Duke Ellington 151 39 Earl Hines 155 40 Jimmy Rowles 159 41 Ray Bryant 163 42 Herbie Hancock 167 43 Jelly Roll Morton 171 44 Al Haig 175 45 Derek Smith 179 46 Ralph Sharon 183 47 Mary Lou Williams 187 48 Willie "The Lion" Smith 191 49 Roland Hanna 195 50 Keith Jarrett 199 The problem with a list like this, of course, is that it's really hard to argue that (m)any of these top 50 names don't deserve to be on the list - most of these pianists are pretty damn good. (There are a few, however, that I'm unfamiliar with, such as John Bunch and Derek Smith.) One can definitely argue about the rankings, though, and at least Alexander, Green, and Previn don't belong anywhere near the top 10. And by omitting any of the more "modern" pianists such as Andrew Hill and Cecil Taylor (even though I don't personally care for CT all that much) proves just how conservative the author is in his musical tastes. This is far from a balanced list. And Jarrett down at number 50? Looks like a thrown bone to me. Anyhow, of these fifty men and women, who would you leave out and who would you replace them with? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Gould Posted January 26, 2006 Report Share Posted January 26, 2006 Anyhow, of these fifty men and women, who would you leave out and who would you replace them with? Anyone says "Gene Harris" has got to answer to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neveronfriday Posted January 26, 2006 Report Share Posted January 26, 2006 I like Monty Alexander. Have been getting into his recent stuff, especially the recordings with the former Ray Brown Trio (especially Brown's last recording) and the "Live at the Iridium" CD. Great stuff on there! Just wanted to put that on record. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RDK Posted January 26, 2006 Report Share Posted January 26, 2006 Well, my top ten (though in no particular order and not necessarily for their piano playing) would be: Bill Evans Keith Jarrett Thelonious Monk Bud Powell Horace Silver Chick Corea Herbie Hancock Duke Ellington Jaki Byard Abdullah Ibrahim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kalo Posted January 26, 2006 Report Share Posted January 26, 2006 from the table of contents: 1 Oscar Peterson 3 2 Bill Evans 7 3 Bud Powell 11 4 Art Tatum 15 5 Monty Alexander 19 6 Benny Green 23 7 André Previn 27 8 Tommy Flanagan 31 9 George Shearing 35 10 Red Garland 39 What's really striking about this top ten is how few of the players here brought anything truly new to the table. By that criterion, only Tatum, Powell, and Evans qualify. And I think that few would argue that those three belong on any top ten of most important/influential/best jazz pianists. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kalo Posted January 26, 2006 Report Share Posted January 26, 2006 Well, my top ten (though in no particular order and not necessarily for their piano playing) would be: Bill Evans Keith Jarrett Thelonious Monk Bud Powell Horace Silver Chick Corea Herbie Hancock Duke Ellington Jaki Byard Abdullah Ibrahim Mine would look somewhat different, but this is a heck of a lot better than Rizzo's list! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
birdanddizzy Posted January 27, 2006 Report Share Posted January 27, 2006 I give mine : Art Tatum Bill Evans Wynton Kelly Oscar Peterson Bud Powell Thelonious Monk Hank Jones Michel Petrucciani Martial Solal ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BruceH Posted January 29, 2006 Report Share Posted January 29, 2006 Martial Solal ... One of the main names quite astonishingly missing from the "top 50" list. Talk about "clueless!" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BruceH Posted January 29, 2006 Report Share Posted January 29, 2006 Here's a game for ya: Try to make a fine "top five" using only names not on the list! Here's my stab---(no particular order)---- Sonny Clark Martial Solal Andrew Hill Herbie Nichols Mel Powell Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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