Musicians are supposed to work for years on developing their own sound as well as their own conception. Some truly succeed, but a lot (IMO) fail, often because they are too enthralled with idols (a lot of Bird clones come to mind here-really, even if Stitt did develop independently, how easy is it to distinguish his tone from Parker's?)

So my question is, who have/had the absolute most recognizable "sound" on their instrument? Who could you recognize in the fewest notes?

It occurs to me that Miles might be it for fewest notes; my other choice would be Dexter Gordon, but you'd have to hear a phrase before realizing its Dex, with Miles, you might recognize him in even fewer notes.

Miles, Ornette, Don Cherry, Dolphy, Coltrane, Pharoah...

Hodges, Nance, Carney.

MONK.

Pee Wee.

To me, there's only one and that's Bird. His tone is like no other. I don't think it's that hard to distinguish Sonny from Bird, there's just a little bit of a different sound. I don't think Miles is necessarily that identifiable because his tone changed after he hurt his throat and even if you don't agree with that, his tone from the mid 40s is quite distinct from later periods.

Other candidates: Dizzy, Milt Jackson and Coltrane.

Lester!!!
Bud Powell, Kenny Dorham, Lee Morgan, Jimmy Giuffre, Wilbur Ware, Walt Dickerson...
Many more...

Some great suggestions have been made, but no drummers yet mentioned - so I'll put Blakey's name in the hat. At least in the 50's-60's period, hard to mistake him for anyone else (those press rolls and his sock cymbal counter-rhythms are a dead giveaway)! Elvin and Jo Jones deserve mention too, and Roy Haynes (mostly a matter of the "snap, crackle, pop" sound of his drum tunings).

GRANT GREEN! One note and you know it's him!

Stanley Turrentine

In addition to those mentioned, what about

Ayler

Bechet

Webster

Lockjaw

Pops (especially 1940s-1950s vintage)

Shepp

Getz

Max Roach.

I would have loved to have a recording of Max and Ornette.

Anybody who's truly a "heavyweight" has their own, readily identifiable, tone. You can be a great player w/o it, but you're not worthy of consideration for inclusion in "the chosen ones" if you don't have a tone that is yours and yours alone. The entire purpose of this music is (or used to be, anyway) to speak in your own voice, to tell your own story about your own life (and how that life relates to any/everything else), and unless and until you have developed your own tone, you're still speaking in somebody else's voice to one degree or another. Doesn't mean you're not a bad mutherphukker, it just means that you ain't all the way there yet. And yes, there are players with lesser "skills" who nevertheless have their own tone, and I personally prefer them to more skilled players with less personal tones. Skills is the result of physical labor, anybody can get them if they put in the time and do the work, but tone is the result of physical labor and soul-searching, of finding out who you are. Ideally you get both, eventually, but this ain't a perfect world...

That's just my criterion, my opinion, but that's the way I was raised, jazzically, and the people who instilled it in me staked their life on it.

I guess I do too.

You can't join the throng until you sing your own song.

To the 'worthies' already mentioned, I'd add Clark Terry, Eddie Lockjaw Davis, Lester Young (wait, I think he was mentioned), Ben Webster, Hank Mobley, Bill Evans, Zoot Sims...

Lee Konitz, Warne Marsh, Arthur Blythe, Albert Ayler, Fathead Newman, Duke Ellington, Paul Desmond, David Sanborn, Kenny Dorham, Bill Dixon, Charles Mingus, Plas Johnson....

Two not yet mentioned, Benny Carter and Erroll Garner.

Ben Webster and Oscar Peterson.

I hesitate to point out that I asked for "single most recognizable tone".

Who is the absolute schitt for you when it comes to recognizable tone?

For drummers, the ones I can always immediately identify are Art Blakey and Elvin Jones.

Okay singlemost, for me. . . wow. . . you ask some difficult questions sometimes Dan. . . .

I'm gonna say Monk, because it is HARD to have that distinctive a sound on the piano!

Just so the trombonists don't go unnoticed I'll say JJ. With Teagarden and Bill Harris close behind.

With a lot of musicians it depends on how much time the listener has spent listening to them. After awhile it's not just the tone, but the way the musican approaches the music with identifiable phrases etc.. Harry Edison is an immediate one who comes to mind..

So a newcomer to the music might have a tough time with even those we think the most obvious.

All the above mentioned are easy for even the relatively new to the music.

Hard to make only one choice..but I think Ruby Braff is a strong candidate.

DEEP if here, would probably say, Booker Ervin.

Another mention for Paul Desmond.

For single mmost identifiable, I would go with Stanley Turrentine as well.

Jackie Mclean is VERY recognizable for me.

There are many players that I and many of us on this board can spot immediately. However, since Dan asks us to just pick one, I'd have to say in my case it would be Sonny Rollins, in all his tonal manifestations from the '50s through the present day.

In the spirit however of most who have responded here with a plethora of heavyweights and keeping in mind JSngry's point that there are also quite a number of players who haven't achieved giant stature yet nevertheless have made their mark by having developed a unique, musically interesting sound, I would also nominate this mix of musicians:

Bennie Wallace
Anthony Braxton (on alto only)
Harold Land
John Tchicai
Sam Rivers (tenor only altho his soprano sound is generally distinctive)
George Adams
Artie Shaw

Obviously, I'm more confident with the reed players.

We all realize, don't we, that Dan is compiling this list so that he can try to f**k each of us up on his next BFT.

If the choice is down to one, Prez gets my vote!
Instant recognition! Instant gratification!

I'm glad to see CT on this list. I usually can identify Clark after a couple of notes. He was "my man" as I grew into being a trumpet player/musician. Thanks to Free For All, Blue Mitchell became instantly recognizable, not only for his sound but his soulfulness as well. I think Lester Bowie also has a very unique sound, not to mention approach and should be included on my "trumpet only" list and I can always indentify Dave Douglas from a mile away. I would also add Paul Smoker to my list...man, HUGE sound and an undeniably unique vocabulary!

I think it depends very much on the instrument - you need to hear pianists and drumers "speak" a few phrases before recognizing. With wind istruments it's much easier for me : Coltrane, Miles, Steve Lacy, Stan Getz
Also guitarists have very distinctive tones because it depends on many unrelated factors: Playing with a pick/thumb/fingerstyle, the place where they produce the sound with the right hand (close or far to the neck), use of legato, type of guitar (electric acoustic), use of effects and etc.
Metheny, Scofield, Wes, Jim Hall all have very personal sound.

We're three pages into this and nobody's mentioned Coleman Hawkins! The godfather of all saxophone tone. Another one you can recognize right from the first note.

I am tempted to join Brownie and pick Pres. But what about Bechet and Ayler? How can a tone be more distinctive than that?

For me it´s Johnny Hodges.

A few others...

Paul Desmond, Charlie Christian, Shelly Manne. If I have to pick one it's got the be Charlie.

If it's only one, it's Bird but Monk is a close second. No one sounds or sounded like him.

I still can recall when I first noticed their unique sound.

Number one: Hodges...even if you are deaf.

Armstrong

Hawkins

Basie

Morgan
I like listening to those Verve/Clef ballad medleys. Individual tone/sound is really in stark relief

Cecil Taylor hasn't been mentioned, and he's very recognizable to me.
Billie Holiday, while not an instrumentalist as such, was most definitely a musician, and is very recognizable.

I started the car today and turned on the local jazz station--almost instantly I recognized Art Tatum. A few bars later a trumpter entered and it was immediately clear the player was Roy Eldridge. It's a truism--the greats really do have unique and identifiable tones (and phrasings) as this thread attests.

I suppose it's a cliche to say this, but the dificulty I have with a lot of the university-trained players today is that they all sound so similar. But maybe if I listened to the new guys more (which I'm trying to do) I could pick up some of the identifiers.

People are interpreting the question in different ways.

There are a lot of artist who are highly distinctive and always recognizable not because of their tone, but because of their phrasing, their rhythm, their overall approach to improvisation. I would put Monk, Cecil Taylor, Charlie Parker, and John Coltrane in that category, for example. Not that Bird and Trane didn't have great individual tone. But I would say that their genius lay elsewhere. Other artists like Ayler, Bechet, Webster, Pres, Getz, Hodges, Lockjaw et al hit you right away with tone alone. That was a huge part of the whole package.

Monk hits me with TONE, one note from Monk can usually signal "Monk in da house." His very touch, the very positioning of his body, I don't know, maybe the HAT, something makes him that distinctive, at least to my ears.

Have Jug and Arnette Cobb been mentioned?

RRK!

Of course his tone is most recognizable 'cause there's two or three at once!

Whether from their tone, rhythm, phrasing etc, these are the musicians I recognise easily (and who always have an impact on me):

Alto: Benny Carter and Hodges
Tenor: Hawk and Pres
Soprano: Sidney Bechet
Trumpet: Satch, Kid Thomas (that jabbing trumpet sound-unmistakable)

I find it impossible to pick out any of the drummers and bassists (probably haven't been paying enough attention to them).