Mt. Rushmore of Jazz?
 

Who are the four faces?

What four faces?

Hmmm... How about Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, Louis Armstrong and Jelly Roll Morton?

Davis, Coltrane, Mingus and Monk I say. All well known and very talented.

Oh, I see...

Sidney Bechet, Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, and Thelonius Monk



EDIT: as far as bonafide icons are concerned, I'd go with:

Armstrong, Davis, Monk, & Coltrane

Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Charlie Parker - guys who really influenced the musicians who came after them.

Honourable mentions: Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Dizzy Gillespie

:beer:

Nice. I actually went right to the end of the thread so I didn't see your post at first :)

My Mount Rushmore of Jazz would go something like this.

Louis Armstrong to represent New Orleans Jazz
Duke Ellington to represent Swing
Charlie Parker to represent Be-Bop
Miles Davis to represent just about everything that followed

Since they are building a monument to Crazy Horse near Rushmore, I would put a stand alone monument to John Coltrane because he's my favorite.

I think Jedey's selections are great. If I did it for instruments I guess I'd go with

Armstrong - trumpet
Coltrane - sax
Peterson - piano
Reinhardt - guitar

Mt. Rushmore is an impressive abomination when you think about it. Carving those dudes' faces into a mountain? And those 4 faces? They're not the 4 I'd have chosen, that's for sure.

Anyway, if they carve up a mountain into Jazz faces I'd like to see:

Fletcher Henderson, Bix Beiderbecke, Louis Armstrong, John Coltrane

Who aren't the 4 what you would have chose?

Not to mention that it was a sacred site for the Lakota Sioux before it was defaced by the US government.

The Mount Rushmore faces of course: Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and T. Roosevelt.

The first 3 are standard I guess and if were going to spend a gazillion dollars on carving president busts into mountains I think they're fair choices. My real problem is with TR. I just don't like him. Who to replace him with? If it has to be a US Pres I would stick with the originals and throw John Adams or James Madison up there

Coltrane, Ayler, Taylor, Coleman.

Both based on personal preference and what they brought to the scene.

Cecil Taylor?
I like the list. Mine would have looked more like it if I had listed my 4 favorite artists. Ornette Coleman for sure

I'd love to take this to PM or another thread. But why you would take down TR, I have no idea.

Not to mention, he loved what would become Jazz.

Yup, Cecil. Ornette's more of my 'influence' one - Probably just because I haven't been wowed by much that I've checked out, and becuase I simply haven't checked out enough. Since he played a really big role in Free Jazz and his compositions really helped move it along, I kind of owe a lot to him just for that, since Free Jazz is my favorite subgenre of Jazz.

Plus, in a couple of years when I'm more versed in his music than I am now, I'll definitely have more good things to say about him.

Armstrong, Ellington, Davis...yeah the 4th one is tricky. Who is the Teddy Roosevelt of jazz? Monk or Coltrane would be my suggestion(though Parker is another understandable choice)

Coltrane, Russell, Armstrong, Coleman. Debating whether or not Zorn deserves a place in there, but I figure this is more of a foundations of jazz kind of thing right? Like the founding fathers.

Well, sort of. Two of the presidents were founding fathers, while the other two were not...

Right. But I meant their offices were highly influential. Zorn is influential but it'd be a bit like putting Clinton or Reagan on mt. Rushmore.

I basically consider Zorn an avant-garde composer and visionary . Yeah, a lot of the stuff he's done falls into the jazz vein, but I'm really hesitant to consider him a jazz icon.

See that's what I was getting at, but as far as virtuosity on the saxophone, I think he even surpasses Coleman. I sort of see him as the ultimate saxophonist, but yeah... He's not exactly an icon.

"wait... What that mothe****er just say?"
http://marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00...a8d3970c-300wi

EDIT: Kidding, but seriously, it's fitting that Coltrane's initials are JC.

Haha, I knew I'd get flack for that. Coltrane is great but as far as I know he never approached Zorn's speed.

Yeah, but virtuosity of that nature is oversold on most instruments, but the saxophone is such a legato instrument, that I feel all virtuosity is to be found in the subtleties that players are able to bring out of the instrument, how well they can make it talk and breath.
Listen to the staccato melody in Sonny Rollins' St. Thomas, or Coltrane's 'Breathiness' in his solo on Miles' Flamenco Sketches, or even Coleman Hawkins' vibrato-- yeah, the other great Coleman saxophonist, on Body and Soul and you see that the devil really is in the details, the subtle ones, at least.

That's interesting point and I think on that level alot of people surpass Zorn. At the same time, his abrasive style is a selling point for me. I guess it
Could be compared on some level to the subtle nature of the classical
Guitar to the shredding of an electric.

I think Zorn's abrasiveness is mind staggering in a way that even I can appreciate.

Yeah, it's good stuff. It can get almost indistinguishable from human screams at times. Of course, he's also put out a fair amount of unlistenable material. Duck call albums, namely.

Hm, hard to say.

-Miles Davis
-John Coltrane
-Thelonious Monk
-Charles Mingus

Throw in a drummer, maybe Art Blakey, and you'd have quite the quintet. :laughing:

That's the same names I posted! High five!

Respect. :beer:

Wait, you mean Max Roach, right? :D

Hm, well yeah, I'd take Max Roach. Fuck, I could be the drummer and it would still be an amazing quintet.

Really tough to pick. Hard to distinguish from personal favs to the ones that made the biggest impact. Def Louis & Duke for starters

Hello there, I'm completely new to this forum (1st post!) and completely new to the world of jazz (at age 36, this is my first year that I've really dug deep into the jazz world). Considering that I'm not an old school jazz connoisseur I probably don't have the proper respect and admiration for the "pillars" of jazz (Ellington, Armstrong, Parker, etc.) so my opinion may be pointless but so far it's an easy one for me:

From left to right:

MONK, COLTRANE, MILES and HERBIE HANCOCK

Although, I haven't had the chance to dig into MINGUS yet, so that last spot may be up for grabs... especially since Hancock's greatest contributions have been more of a funk, jazz-funk fusion thing.... but the first 3 are locked in stone

It would probably a good idea to have some variety in terms of instruments. For example, one could make a case for including Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, and Miles Davis, but all three play the trumpet, so it would be rather skewed.

Of the three I mentioned, Louis Armstrong is probably the face to go with.

To represent saxophone, John Coltrane is hard to argue with.

A pianist should be included -- either Oscar Peterson or Thelonious Monk. Somebody more knowledgable about jazz than I can make that decision.

And for the fourth, perhaps a vocalist or a drummer should be represented. Ella Fitzgerald, perhaps? I don't know enough about jazz drummers to nominate somebody.

But my personal favourites are Brubeck, Coltrane, Miles, and Peterson.

Sorry but sax has to go Charlie Parker who changed the face of jazz and music with it.

Piano goes to Art Tatum hands down. Bud Powell was a better combo player though.

Trumpet goes to Miles. Could make an argument for Clifford Brown.

Bass I have to give to either Scott LaFaro or Milt Hinton.

Drums goes to Elvin Jones.

Hmm, for icons
Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Django Reinhart, Louis Armstrong

If were jus picking our favourites
John Coltrane, Rashied Ali, Peter Brötzmann, Eric Dolphy