Welcome to my listening list.
It is ever changing but i will try to keep you informed of how mine is changing and why:
Ahhh the top of the heap... this guy keeps coming up because he throws the rule book away every time I hear him. WE NEED TO THROW THE RULE BOOK AWAY AND CRASH THROUGH THE PAGES OF THE RULE BOOKS...
Without further adieu:
Art Tatum - Because you will hear every style and something only found in his playing whenever he plays. IF YOU LISTEN ENOUGH (not just a little) you will experience a range like none other-- from the schlock to sublime, from extreme mastery to banal lounge jazz ( I think he may have invented it). The rate of invention is incredible. The hybridizing and what are called "transformations" by analysts (ingenious modulatory passages that he uses to travel all over the harmonic map at will) of his style show that he treats jazz like a true melting pot for all styles, not a static collection of idiomatic riffs that sound "jazzy". There is Chopin to Bach, Parker to Rubinstein. It is a feast. Sometimes the sound picks you up with such musically tsunamic force that your ears get stuffed and you want to turn it off, BUT DON'T. Let him keep cracking open his harmonic eggs, cooking, eating, digesting, then transforming them into more flavors than a greek food festival.
For your ears' sake, try to cop to his licks. Try to approximate his style. Just to exercise your mind at that speed. I will let him speak:
http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2011/08/22/three-great-blind-jazz-pianists/
Don Pullen:
Will always hold a special place for me.
Showing us his version of throwing the rule book away, listening to what you bring to the world, and channeling it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVZDC6XukS8
Talmage Farlow (the godfather of fast playing) but FAST WITH TRUE MUSICALITY.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxXAw-T5hSs
Charlie Parker:
Many of you have heard him play so you know what I mean, but here is an interview with him speaking:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QExic3uc934
Here he is doing something that sounds like multiphonics (way before it caught on):
Unusual sound even for him, but a sign on what was to come:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHiPQpUv2c0
Chord Melodists:
Ted Greene:
http://www.youtube.com/watchv=3sYAoRj_Fro&feature=related
Joe Diorio:
You cannot underestimate what the modern jazz line owes to this guitar god.
Here is an unbelievable collaboration with Joe and Pat Metheney- incredible!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTw5dv3G2j4
Steel string gods:
Tommy Emmanuel:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrUaIdA0JJg
Tune in for more...
Thanks for checking in