Using whatever criteria seem most relevant to you, what’s your vote for the jazz musician without whom Jazz as we (you) know it just wouldn’t be what it is?
My vote is: Miles Davis
Others I considered but decided Miles was more important than:
Charlie Parker
Duke Ellington
Dave Brubeck
Louis Armstrong
Bill Evans
Count Basie
Dizzy Gillespie
John Coltrane
Lester Young
If you’re up to it, try to point out why your choice is more important than Miles.
No. My choice is equal to Miles. Although 'Trane runs a close second.
IMO, Ellington and Brubeck don’t even belong on the list.
A world of difference between NO jazz, bop, swing and fusion. Without the prolific writing of Ellington, jazz would be much poorer today; without Diz and his horn, bop may not have been elevated to its proper status. Like most jazz records, I prefer the idea of a collective effort, rather than trying to decide on one musician.
Well, yeah, trying to choose one representative of all of jazz is like trying to pick one representative dish for all of food.
I still say Miles. 
From a listening standpoint, I agree. But if we hadn’t had the likes of these people, Jazz as we know it today wouldn’t be anything like it is. I picked Miles mainly because of his contributions to at least the mainstream movements starting with Bop, through Cool, the Modal thing and to those orchestral things with Gil Evans, into the Fusion era, and even a dabbling with Hip Hop. No other figure has as many credits in as many genres as Miles, as far as I know.
Brubeck helped to popularize Jazz in the period when it was getting stale or at least stuck in an “insider” groove. He was reviled during most of the 60’s as being too “pop” by other musicians, but as he has outlived most of his detractors his standing has increased. His efforts in integrating bands is also noteworthy.
Louis Armstrong elevated Jazz well past it’s regional dance hall roots and created a legitimate art form. His trumpet playing was of the highest quality, his improvisation was bolder, more daring and far more innovative than anything before it. It has been argued that he invented scat singing. Technically, he was without peer.
Dang. Gangster Octopus beat me to it.
Louis Armstrong is as close as you can get to an actual *inventor *of Jazz. Miles is Miles, no doubt, but his “branch” comes later, and further up the tree. Louis is down near the roots. To stretch this metaphor to the embarrassing point, I’d say as much as any one person has a claim to being the taproot, Louis does.
After a few fits and starts, I just can’t do it. I don’t see myself as an authority on jazz. I love most forms of it, and I have a lot to choose from. I can think of a double handful who were influential, that is, took jazz to a new place.
I know that Miles Davis is highly regarded, but I just don’t get it. Most of his work that I’ve heard confuses me. I can’t figure out what he’s up to. This is surely my failing, not his. It’s kinda like my take on Chopin. I can’t see what all the excitement is about. I’d rather hear Chet Baker than Miles, and I’d rather hear Dvorak than Chopin.
To be honest, I prefer Chet’s sound myself. Especially after reading the biography Lost In A Dream.
Thelonius Monk belongs on any short list.
There are a lot of folks without whom jazz wouldn’t be like it is today, but without Louis Armstrong, there wouldn’t even be any jazz. He gets my vote, hands down.
When the criterion is one of nostalgia: Satchmo
When the criterion is sophisticated: Brubek
When the criterion is cool: Miles
When the criterion is contemporary: Soulive
When the criterion is to be psychologially affected: John Zorn & Naked City
I bit overstated, but many jazzists agree with his role as father of jazz.
That should read:A bit overstated…
ANyone here of Buddy Bolden, aka “The Founder of Jazz”?
It is generally agreed that Buddy Bolden was the first musician to play what later became known as jazz. But, because his achievement occurred over a 100 years ago, what we know about the man was primarily by word of mouth; stories that usually referred to Bolden as “mysterious” or “enigmatic.”
Jazz great, Louis Armstrong claims that, as a very young boy, he would often sneak into dance halls and conceal himself in the back of the room so he could listen to Buddy Bolden. Armstrong, who played the cornet himself, was profoundly influenced by Bolden and always recalled his power and improvisational creativity. Like Armstrong, most musicians can usually point to a role model, someone whose musical style influenced theirs. But Buddy Bolden had no one to emulate. No one else had done what he did. Bolden’s improvisational style was nonexistent until it occurred spontaneously.
Louis Armstrong has to be the man. Even Miles acknowledged that in his autobiography.
Of course, if there was no Satchmo, we’d be sitting here talking about Sydney Bechet or Bix Biederbeck or Coleman Hawkins or Lester Young because they’re the guys who laid the pathways.
If we’re talking about essential musicians and not just personalities (because it could be argued Miles’ greatest value was as a talent scout and a bandleader even above his ability as a musician, then I’d like to nominate the great Tony Williams - the man who put possibilites back into jazz into, IMO, as far more meanigful and listenable way than the Ornette Colemans* of the world did, at a time when jazz was looking really short on ways to go forwards.
mm
Try you some Clifford Brown. If not for his untimely death at 25, he could have been one of the all-time greats.
I’ll second that - Brown is awesome. And Miles opined in his auotbiography that Brown was the best player onthe scene in the mid 50’s.
Freddie Hubbard is very very good to, and close to Brown in style.
mm
I do have some Brownie records (with Max Roach and Richie Powell et al) that do impress me greatly. As for other trumpets I have loved hearing, include Donald Byrd, Kenny Dorham, the Candoli Brothers (hear the soundtrack from Bell, Book and Candle), Don Ellis, and even Doc Severinsen. Dizzy comes closest after Miles of being THE Essential Musician, though, from the trumpet section. I was lucky enough to see Diz in concert at MTSU not long before his passing. Amazing show. Never did see Miles live. Did see Brubeck and Desmond.
That thing about Miles versus Brownie was that until Brownie’s death Miles was just #2 trumpet man. But almost as soon as Brownie’s accident took him off the scene, Miles was credited with saying, “Now I’m the best trumpet.”
Similar quotes are attributed to Paul Newman after James Dean’s death.
I can MAYBE understand your comment about Brubeck, but why no love for Ellington? Jazz musicians would have a poor repertoire indeed, if not for the Duke.
Those who sneer at Brubeck have not heard his Carnegie Hall concert, which was phenomenal. He did some innovative things with time signatures, and did a lot to popularize jazz.
I guess in the end I would have to go along with Louis Armstrong as “the” major driving force in jazz. His popularity and skill were phenomenal. As a black man during times of racial intolerance, he made serious inroads to a white listening audience, educating all in the beauty of the blues and jazz. While this seemed like pandering at times, particularly in the films in which he appeared, he was getting the message out and making a good living, which was uncommon for a black jazzman. I think it gave hope to struggling artists who may not have persisted otherwise.
Well said about Louis, Chefguy, and you make solid points. The main reason I can’t endorse Louis as The Most Essential Jazz Musician for the way Jazz is heard today is his antipathy (if not hate) for “modern jazz” since Bird and Diz brought Bop into the consciousness of the jazz world. Louis referred to it as Chinese music and thus aligned himself with the “Moldy Figs” of the 40’s and 50’s who have asserted that unless one pays homage to “trad” one is not a true jazz fan. Even Wynton Marsalis carries such a torch.
Since almost all of us posting here are post-bop and are thus several generations removed from the Armstrong era, I submit that we must recognize the quantitative (if not qualitative) leaps made since the 40’s. I have never been able to relate to the “avant garde” movement of Coleman, Coltrane, Cecil Taylor, and others in that vein, nor to the Hip Hop branch of “modern music.” For me, the sound that still means “Jazz” to me is what came from the Cool School and West Coast Jazz of the 50’s. Miles was the main figurehead in that movement.
I’m all for acknowledging Louis as the most important figure in Jazz (as a genre of music) but I contend that Miles’s contributions are most relevant to Jazz As We Know It.