Which of these Jazz players do you know?

[wasteofo2]

I recently went to a Charlie Parker Jazz Festival with a friend. We decided to go spur of the moment when we were at my friend's house, and her dad was very impressed that we even knew who Charlie Parker was. I didn't get that; I thought that besides Miles Davis and Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker was one of the most famous jazz musicians ever.

So I'm just going to see which of these jazz musicians people actually know, to get some sort of idea about who's popular and whatnot.

 

[Ki Man]

:0 how did you make a poll?

and louis armstrong isn't up there >:[

 

[Smurf]

Miles Davis, Theolonius Monk, John Coltrane.

Okay, who can see the pattern?

 

[The_Professional]

No Gene Krupa? great drummer if you're into that.

 

[Gokul43201]

Haven't heard of Christian or Reinhardt. Know the others, but haven't listened to any Mingus, only heard of him.

 

[mattmns]

Davis, Parker, and Coltrane are the only ones I have heard of.

 

[loseyourname]

I've never heard of Charlie Christian, but am familiar with all the others.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Speaking of Django Reinhart, you forgot Emmett Ray.

Actually, for the first two-thirds of Sweet and Low Down I was convinced he was a real person. Then I started to have doubts. After the film I had to google to find out Woody Allen had invented him from scratch.

 

[wasteofo2]

:0 how did you make a poll?
and louis armstrong isn't up there >:[

There's an option at the bottom of the page when you're making a thread that you check off to make a poll. And I thought Louis Armstrong was just too obvious, even people who've never listened to any Jazz know him.

No Gene Krupa? great drummer if you're into that.

Unfortunately, only 10 options on the poll are allowed, though I've never heard of Gene Krupa.

Haven't heard of Christian or Reinhardt. Know the others, but haven't listened to any Mingus, only heard of him.

Christian and Reinhardt are both guitarists, guess maybe they're more guitar-player specific. It's weird, I thought at least that Christian was more well known than Reinhardt...

And you've probabally listened to plenty of Charles Mingus if you've listened to any old bop albums from back in the day, he played a lot with the likes of Gillespie and Parker.

 

[z-component]

Right now, 100% of people polled know of Miles Davis.

 

[ron damon]

I like your choice; have CDs from all of them. The greatest one is Coltrane. Genius is the word for him.

 

[TheStatutoryApe]

I know Davis, Parker, Gillespie, Monk, Coltrane, and Goodman.
I wouldn't necessarily know most of them if I heard them though. I only have two jazz cds but I mostly only listen to the jazz stations on the radio so I know the names and know I have heard them before.
I'm a bit more partial to blues myself.
I laughed when I brought up Jazz to one of my co-workers and the only musician he could name was Kenny G.

 

[pattylou]

Also forgot Rick Trowles.

And of course you forgot ALL the great female vocalists. Horne, Holliday, Fitzgerald, Vaughan...

And JJ Johnson, who we saw play at the Hollywood bowl shortly after Ella died.

It looks like it was *great* line up!

 

[wasteofo2]

I like your choice; have CDs from all of them. The greatest one is Coltrane. Genius is the word for him.

Is that so? I've heard a good deal of Coltrane, specifically stuff he did with Parker and Davis, and I never really thought he could be described as "Genius." I would generally describe Parker and Davis as Genius, and when hearing Coltrane next to them, he didn't seem to really live up to their standards. He was definitely an amazing player, but I've never heard anything of his that really struck me as particularly Genius. I always thought of him as comprable to someone like Angus Young or Eric Clapton. Those guys are all really proficient musicians and are great players, but not as creative as some of their peers. Davis and Parker seemed more like Page and Hendrix (respectively) to me.

I know Davis, Parker, Gillespie, Monk, Coltrane, and Goodman.
I wouldn't necessarily know most of them if I heard them though. I only have two jazz cds but I mostly only listen to the jazz stations on the radio so I know the names and know I have heard them before.
I'm a bit more partial to blues myself.
I laughed when I brought up Jazz to one of my co-workers and the only musician he could name was Kenny G.

If you don't own it, you should definitely own Kind of Blue by Miles Davis. If you only own 1 Jazz CD, in my opinion, it should be Kind of Blue. If you own 2 Jazz CD's, and one of them isn't Kind of Blue, you're really missing out.

 

[Smurf]

If you don't own it, you should definitely own Kind of Blue by Miles Davis. If you only own 1 Jazz CD, in my opinion, it should be Kind of Blue. If you own 2 Jazz CD's, and one of them isn't Kind of Blue, you're really missing out.

That definitely seems to be the most popular Jazz cd recently. It's a pretty amazing CD too, totally improvised. All the musicians showed up with no idea what to play, were given only brief instructions and then played every song on the first take (1 exception "Flamenco Sketches" took two). Awsome stuff.

 

[Smurf]

Also forgot Rick Trowles.
And of course you forgot ALL the great female vocalists. Horne, Holliday, Fitzgerald, Vaughan...
And JJ Johnson, who we saw play at the Hollywood bowl shortly after Ella died.
It looks like it was *great* line up!

I'm usually not a big fan of women vocalists, but I Ella Fitzgerald - :!) I love her music to no end.

 

[ron damon]

Is that so? I've heard a good deal of Coltrane, specifically stuff he did with Parker and Davis, and I never really thought he could be described as "Genius." I would generally describe Parker and Davis as Genius, and when hearing Coltrane next to them, he didn't seem to really live up to their standards. He was definitely an amazing player, but I've never heard anything of his that really struck me as particularly Genius. I always thought of him as comprable to someone like Angus Young or Eric Clapton. Those guys are all really proficient musicians and are great players, but not as creative as some of their peers. Davis and Parker seemed more like Page and Hendrix (respectively) to me.

That's not how I see Coltrane at all. He went through many stages: in Giant Steps he is the consummate virtuoso, and reaches orgiastic climaxes of sheer intensity. In A Love Supreme, he takes the listener to the limits of experience, but it is a different kind of high, meditative, even philosophical.

What strikes me most about him is that even though I'm feeling the music rip me apart, I can't for the life of me understand what the hell he is doing. And I listen to Schoenberg and Webern for crying out loud!

Thelonious Monk is another one I'm starting to really listen to and like. Some of these people are really beyond the pale when it comes to musical genius, and Coltrane is the greatest of them all, in my opinion.

 

[wasteofo2]

That definitely seems to be the most popular Jazz cd recently. It's a pretty amazing CD too, totally improvised. All the musicians showed up with no idea what to play, were given only brief instructions and then played every song on the first take (1 exception "Flamenco Sketches" took two). Awsome stuff.

Kind of Blue seems to be popular recently? I was under the impresison that since it was released it was held in very high acclaim straight on through the modern day.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Some of these people are really beyond the pale when it comes to musical genius...

I think you may be confused about what the term "beyond the pale" means. It's a bad thing.

Questions & Answers: Beyond the pale
Address:http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-pal2.htm

 

[Anttech]

I recently went to a Charlie Parker Jazz Festival with a friend.

wow you are a very lucky indeed!

recently I had the privalege of seeing Enrico Rava in Italy with a VERY talented 4 piece band! It was amazing! ! ! And I only wish I could play music like these people can...

I love Jazz (good Jazz) second to Electronic soul music!

 

[ron damon]

I think you may be confused about what the term "beyond the pale" means. It's a bad thing.

Not in an artistic context. It's like referring to a heavy metal band as "brutal", a term very frequently applied to great metal music.

 

[Anttech]

Kind of Blue seems to be popular recently? I was under the impresison that since it was released it was held in very high acclaim straight on through the modern day.

Only reason why "Blues" in white america is popular is because of UK blues bands

 

[loseyourname]

Only reason why "Blues" in white america is popular is because of UK blues bands

Kind of Blue is very far removed from anything the British invasion brought us, and it's also a lot better. He's also right to say that it's always been held in very high regard since being released.

 

[wasteofo2]

wow you are a very lucky indeed!

Eh, I thought the same thing while I was going there, but when I got there, it wasn't particularaly good. The first act I saw when I got there was this 20 or so piece band that was being conducted in no particularaly creative manner. How antithetical can you get? If you're going to take the improvisation out of bebop, you should at least make sure it's masterfully conducted, but that wasn't the case with this act.

 

[Anttech]

Kind of Blue is very far removed from anything the British invasion brought us, and it's also a lot better. He's also right to say that it's always been held in very high regard since being released.

I didnt say UK blues was better... Most Black America blues is far better. But White America in those days didnt listen to Black music, which Blues is. We didnt have this problem in the UK. We absorbed your BEST music and spat it back at you, then you listened. Anyway Miles davis is a genius

 

[Anttech]

Eh, I thought the same thing while I was going there, but when I got there, it wasn't particularaly good. The first act I saw when I got there was this 20 or so piece band that was being conducted in no particularaly creative manner. How antithetical can you get? If you're going to take the improvisation out of bebop, you should at least make sure it's masterfully conducted, but that wasn't the case with this act.

Shame, Bebop is great when done right... Ever heard of Squarepusher? Bebop gone nuts, and I love it

 

[TheStatutoryApe]

If you don't own it, you should definitely own Kind of Blue by Miles Davis. If you only own 1 Jazz CD, in my opinion, it should be Kind of Blue. If you own 2 Jazz CD's, and one of them isn't Kind of Blue, you're really missing out.

I remembered you mentioning this when I was in the music store the other day and picked it up. Thank you for the recomendation, it's quite good.

 

[Ouabache]

I have heard of all of them and enjoy their music too. I learned more about them from The History of Jazz, documentary by Ken Burns. The video goes into some detail about each of the jazz artists you mentioned. Charlie Christian became famous by teaming up with Benny Goodman in his small combo. Before Charlie, electric guitar was not considered a serious jazz instrument.
I found a quote that describes Charlie's first experience in Goodman's Group"

(Charlie) soon won a reputation as a guitarist of rare talent and was heard by legendary jazz producer and talent scout John Hammond in 1939. Thinking that Christian would be an ideal addition to Benny Goodman's small jazz groups, Hammond arranged in that year for a meeting between Christian and Goodman. Goodman, however, was reluctant to hire a young, unknown musician playing an obscure electric instrument and paid scant attention to Christian's audition, not even allowing the guitarist time to plug in his amplifier. The same night, Hammond surreptitiously maneuvered Christian onstage during a Goodman performance; angered, Goodman launched into “Rose Room,” a demanding number he thought the young guitar player would either not know or have trouble following. Christian was instead a sensation, breezing through a difficult and lengthy solo. This overwhelming tour de force compelled Goodman to hire Christian on the spot as a permanent member of his small group.

ref