Your top three jazz artists

[Ken B]

Chet Baker
Charlie "Bird" Parker
Dave Brubeck

and

Julie London

Trivia. Her second husband was the goofy looking doctor Dr Early on the show with her. He wrote Route 66!



I bet you're a Schwarzkopf fan too!

[Henk]

Jazz is so hit & miss with me, but I like a bit from all the eras and major artists I'm sure .. for this exercise, I'd probably pick Miles above all, his output has a nice diversity on all fronts and wasn't locked into any one stylistic cliché for too long, it's like a condensed history of jazz. Wide conception. Electric jazz was really happening for me, groups like Mahavishnu Orchestra & Weather Report (esp. Jaco Era) were very creative, pretty consistent too. Being a guitar noodler myself .. I really got an added kick out of guys like John McLaughlin, Allan Holdsworth, Pat Metheny, Scott Henderson & others.

Check out the oeuvre of Elliott Sharp, James. Essential. Great guitarist.

[jochanaan]

The "usual suspects" above are also among my favorites, but here are some names that haven't been mentioned yet:

Count Basie.  Master of minimal (not minimalist!) keyboard playing.
Rahsaan Roland Kirk.  Experimentor on the level of Miles or Sun Ra.
Chick Corea.  'Nuff said.

[Chaszz]

Louis Armstrong (early work, as in my recent posts on that thread)
Charlie Parker
Miles Davis