Originally Posted by Skaligojurah

Too many to name, really.

Sun Ra I think could be the one figure I'd love who I definitely would label as a musical genius. As all of the traits of true genius.

A) Prolific - lasted from late 1940s to early 1990s, and was only stopped by death. Through this time he produced over 60 albums.

B) Not bound by genre - Sun Ra worked in pretty much every genre of Jazz from free bop to big band to the avant Jazz he was popular for. He also worked heavily in Jazz-rock fusion, and even moreso in Jazz-classical fusion. He did his hands in noise ambiance, classical, free jazz, avant-classical, and general avant garde.

C) Visionary - Sun Ra was a visionary, he truly was. He was doing synth-ambient in the 70s. His work on keyboard basically was ahead of his time as he was exploring it as a serious instrument in the 50s and 60s. He was so well known for this that he was the first one ever sent a prototype of the first minimoog, because it was believed he would explore the most out of it. No matter what era, he took the instrument to the next extreme. Even at massive commercial failure, he also heavily experimented in everything from home made drums to bizarre string instruments.

D) Technical brilliance - Before Sun Ra was Sun Ra he made a reputation for himself among friends as a very skilled player. He learned to site read apparently at the age of 10, and taught himself composition. Some of his earliest experiences involved going to jazz shows, and then transcribing the entirety by memory. Whether or not he was accurate, or not, to simply have that good of a grasp on music from an analytical level, lead to him being a virtuoso pianist(which he showcases very rarely).

E) Regardless of Technical Brilliance will push the bounds - this one is obvious.

I think anyone who has most of those traits is a genius. Miles Davis, Bela Bartok, Frank Zappa, etc. Then again, that's just my opinion, but it lends to a very large group of people who I personally adore being presented.