This era isn't in the polls but i do like the jazz in the 30s and 40s. Artists like Billie Holiday and Duke Ellington.

Very tough question... Proabbly too hard to answer :p: (You know the deal, when you think of one band in an era you think of another etc etc etc) but it would probably be a toss up between 57/63 (Mingus baby :D) and 90/96 (Dead Can Dance) as well as others...

I'll vote 57-63 just to be different :p:

1997-2003 Without a doubt. Nearly half of my music collection comes from that time.

Aesop Rock - Labor Days
Ani Difranco -Little Plastic Castles
Bjork - Vespertine
Massive Attack - Mezzanine
Mars Volta - De-Loused In The Comatorium
The Crystal Method - Vegas
Refused - The Shape Of Punk To Come
Rage Against The Machine - Battle Of Los Angeles

Sleater Kinney, Pretty Girls Make Grave, At The Drive In, Incubus, Elliott Smith and many others put out their best work in this time period. Hands down my favorite time for music.

For me, it's close between a few "eras": 1963-1969, 1977-1983 and 1989-1995.

Very rough eras, of course. But the '60s psychadelic pop era, the British punk and post-punk era and the Madchester/Britpop/shoegaze era are all vying for my favourites (depending on mood). And by "Britpop" I don't mean Blur or Oasis, I mean Teenage Fanclub, Suede, Pulp primarily, but also Boo Radleys, Another Sunny Day and Soup Dragons.

Of course, 1970-77 is also great, with Led Zeppelin, Bowie, later Who, Stevie Wonder and Big Star.

And late-50s/early-60s had doo-wop and Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons, early Motown, the Spector girl groups.

Plus, the later-90s and this decade had Radiohead, White Stripes, Shins, Outkast, Unicorns, New Pornographers, Decemberists.

So, overall, it's a close race between the first three for absolute favourite, but I wouldn't say that I define myself by any particular era primarily.

I've found that most of my favorite jazz albums are between 1957 and 1965. Of course, this was second-wave jazz, different from the bebop and swing that dominated the '30s and '40s.

Mingus Ah Um (1959)
Jimmy and Wes: The Dynamic Duo (1959)
Sketches of Spain (1963)
Getz/Gilberto (1964)

...and so on.

Yeah, I like the Blue Note scene the most, by and large, in jazz. Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Thelonius Monk, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, etc.

Gonna agree with you on this one sir.

Oh, and the eighties were great too. They get too much hate, it's silly.

Because popular music was terrible in the eighties. People who actually gave a damn about music certainly got their ears' worth.

Oh, I know that. But so many people dismiss the eighties without doing any work to discover the good that they had to offer.

who voted 2004-present?

I have to go with the 60's for my major love of Hendrix and Janis...the 90's for Nirvana and the grunge movement, and the newer indie bands I've been listening to for the past 4 years...

^Another Janis lover? ... I love you.

Yes....fed on and loved since I could recognize great music (roughly age 5 :p)

This was extremely hard to choose from. I choose '90-'96 though because i'm really enjoying that era of music it was so diverse not saying any of the other era's weren't, but that one just stuck out. Bands that come to mind are Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, The Verve, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Marilyn Manson, Sheryl Crow ect.

all time.