Top 10 Influential Jazz Musicians

With trademark swollen cheeks, trumpet player Dizzy Gillespie was a groundbreaking bebop performer and master improviser as well as a pioneer of Afro-Cuban and Latin jazz. With a deep passion for music rooted in African traditions, Gillespie collaborated with a variety of Caribbean and South American performers, fusing new styles into his modern jazz interpretations. Gillespie’s long career saw him tirelessly touring, captivating audiences with horn-rimmed, virtuoso spectacles and becoming jazz’s unofficial ambassador to the world in the process.

Though she never composed her own music, Billie Holiday is considered to be one of jazz’s greatest performers. Holiday turned “Embraceable You,” I’ll Be Seeing You” and “I Cover the Waterfront” into famous jazz standards, while her rendition of “Strange Fruit” is considered to be one of the most important songs in American history. Though her life was fraught with tragedy, Holiday’s improvisational genius, combined with her raspy, somewhat fragile voice showcased a depth of emotion unparalleled by other jazz singers.

With an expansive career that saw him compose everything from a classical ode to Bach and one of the first jazz ballets, Oscar Peterson’s work was as socially significant as it was musically innovative. Peterson opened one of the first jazz schools in Canada. And his “Hymn to Freedom” was a major anthem of the Civil Rights Movement. Deemed the “Maharaja of the Keyboard” by Duke Ellington, Oscar Peterson was one of the most talented and important jazz pianists of his generation.

A piano player and electrifying performer, Thelonius Monk’s jarring, and dissonant compositions featured the melodic twists synonymous with contemporary jazz. Monk’s style played with sound and the lack thereof, featuring energetic, percussive attacks on the keys, juxtaposed with periods of drawn out silence. Composing classics like “Round Midnight” and “Straight, No Chaser,” Monk ended his days in relative obscurity, yet his influence on modern jazz remains to this day.

Heralding free jazz, John Coltrane was constantly experimenting with new instrumentation, composition and style. Creating “sheets of sound” with his alto sax, Coltrane played multiple chords at once, manipulating traditional harmonic progressions. His contribution to Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue captures Coltrane’s originality when it comes to phrasing and rhythm. Though his life was cut short due to illness, Coltrane is considered one of jazz’s most important musical innovators.

Known for his silky vocals, Nat King Cole infused popular American music with jazz sensibilities. Cole’s smash hit, “Straighten Up and Fly Right,” was based on an African-American folk story, proving that traditional material could have wide appeal. Cole was also one of the first African-Americans to host a variety TV program, which featured jazz greats like Ella Fitzgerald and Eartha Kitt. A phenomenal pianist and standout improviser, Cole was one of the first jazz greats to become a true pop icon.

A virtuoso saxophonist, Charlie Parker is known for his rapid-paced chord progressions and the interpolation of his own melodies over traditional jazz standards. His use of classical, Latin and Blues styles helped lead to the development of bebop. Having a personal style and expression that epitomized the iconoclast sensibility of the Beat Generation, Charlie Parker was a true artistic intellectual, whose contributions to jazz music are as important as his cultivation of jazz culture.

At the helm of almost every major jazz innovation in the late twentieth century, Miles Davis’ seminal 1959 recording, Kind of Blue, ushered in the era of cool jazz. Playing alongside many jazz greats throughout his career, Davis also collaborated with artists outside the genre, cultivating what is now called “jazz fusion.” Tirelessly pushing the boundaries of artistic expression, Davis is often characterized as one of the coolest men to have ever lived and a true musical genius.

Pianist, bandleader and composer, Duke Ellington was as gifted as he was prolific. Composing thousands of songs over his fifty-year career, Ellington penned many famous standards like “Cotton Tail” and “It Don’t Mean a Thing.” Classically trained, Ellington and his brilliant musicianship always considered the skill and style of his fellow performers. With arrangements that were more formal and sophisticated in structure than other jazz compositions, Duke Ellington elevated jazz to a bona fide art form.

Before we unveil our pick for number one, here are a few honorable mentions:
- Dave Brubeck
1920 – 2012
- Benny Goodman
1909 – 1986
- Charles Mingus
1922 – 1979
- Herbie Hancock
1940 –
- Wynton Marsalis
1961 -

Trumpet player Louis Armstrong is celebrated for his lively virtuoso style, inventive musical expression, and dynamic showmanship. Known for his signature raspy voice, Armstrong also helped to give scat a wider audience with his recordings. The American musician’s “Hot Five” and “Hot Seven” groups produced multiple true jazz classics. With a career spanning over five decades, Armstrong’s impact on popular music is immeasurable. For this reason, Louis Armstrong is usually considered the greatest jazz musician of all time.

Do you agree with our list? Who’s your favorite jazz musician? For more entertaining top 10s published every day, be sure to subscribe to WatchMojo.com.