Jazz and the Ambiguity of Influence, Pt. 18: Those Essential Unsung Heroes
Seen one way, jazz is a music of giants. This is the way I've largely been approaching it in this series. In fact, when I have thought about publishing it as a collection, I have considered titling it Notes on Greatness . This was the angle Stanley Crouch took in his superb gathering of essays called Considering Genius . We know the beloved roster of the creators, prophets, and seers who established this great American art form that now is global in scope: Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Lester Young, Coleman Hawkins, Billie Holiday, Charlie Parker, Django Reinhardt, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, Charles Mingus, Sonny Rollins, Clifford Brown, Ornette Coleman, Bill Evans, Miles Davis, Art Blakey, Dexter Gordon, John Coltrane, Ella Fitzgerald, Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Charles Lloyd, John McLaughlin, Keith Jarrett, and on and on and on. One could go ever-so-slightly down a tier and encounter masters galore. Where to begin? Horace Silver? Freddie Hubbard? Ro
