Greatest/most influential *living* jazz musician?

Cafe Society
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I was thinking today about how many (all?) of the pioneers of jazz have died, many within the last ten years or so. So, aficionados, who do you think is the greatest/most influential jazz musician still living? Of course, this is two separate questions, and all the normal “IMHO” caveats apply.

To help out a bit, I think the following are still alive: Herbie Hancock, Ornette Coleman, Max Roach, Cecil Taylor, Oscar Peterson, Hank Jones, McCoy Tyner, Sonny Rollins, Freddie Hubbard, Keith Jarrett, Kenny Burrell, Ron Carter… and probably many others I’m forgetting.

For greatest I would have to say Herbie Hancock, with Freddie Hubbard and Oscar Peterson not far behind. But I’m not sure Hancock has been terribly influential, in part because he’s tried his hand at so many different things. For most influential, I’d probably have to go with Ornette, though whether or not this is a good thing could be a matter of some contentious debate. :wink:

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Don’t forget Fritz Jones, a.k.a. Ahmad Jamal, Ellis Marsalis and Dave Brubeck.

I would have to go with Oscar Peterson as one of the remaining greats of jazz. Sonny Rollins has played with the greats and has been a force on his own, although he’s not one of my favorites.

“Influential” is certainly a relative term. Brubeck experimented with time signatures, which influenced the way people hear music. His pop/jazz pieces such as Take Five introduced a lot of people to jazz for the first time (me included) in a form they could understand more easily.

Ellis Marsalis sired an entire musical family that is presently influencing musicians. Wynton Marsalis does a lot of work with young musicians, encouraging them and teaching the art.