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Peter Ind
Peter Ind
British jazz musician, painter and nonfiction writer
1
Lee Konitz
Lee Konitz
American jazz musician
2
Paul Motian
Paul Motian
American jazz drummer, percussionist, and composer
3
Warne Marsh
Warne Marsh
American tenor saxophonist
4
Paul Bley
Paul Bley
Canadian free jazz, post-bop pianist and keyboardist
5
Bengt Hallberg
Bengt Hallberg
Swedish musician
6
Ronnie Ball
Ronnie Ball
British musician
7
Art Tatum
Art Tatum
American jazz pianist
8
Dave Cliff
Dave Cliff
British musician
9
Denzil Best
Denzil Best
American jazz drummer
10
Al Levitt
Al Levitt
American musician
11
Tony Campise
Tony Campise
American musician
12
Charlie Parker
Charlie Parker
American jazz saxophonist and composer
13
Brad Mehldau
Brad Mehldau
American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger
14
Gary Foster
Gary Foster
Musician, Instrumentalist
15
Elmo Hope
Elmo Hope
American musician
16
Jimmy Giuffre
Jimmy Giuffre
American clarinet and saxophone player
17
Jimmy Garrison
Jimmy Garrison
American double bassist
18
Billy Bauer
Billy Bauer
American jazz guitarist
19
Arnold Fishkind
Arnold Fishkind
American musician
20
Jaki Byard
Jaki Byard
American musician
21
Sheila Jordan
Sheila Jordan
American jazz singer
22
Jutta Hipp
Jutta Hipp
Jazz pianist (1925-2003)
23
Horace Silver
Horace Silver
American jazz pianist and composer (1928–2014)
24
John Lewis
John Lewis
American jazz pianist, composer and arranger
25
Tommy Flanagan
Tommy Flanagan
American jazz pianist
26
Clare Fischer
Clare Fischer
American keyboardist, composer, arranger, and bandleader
27
John Esposito
John Esposito
American musician
28
Thelonious Monk
Thelonious Monk
American jazz pianist and composer
29
Joe Henderson
Joe Henderson
American jazz tenor saxophonist
30
Martial Solal
Martial Solal
French-Algerian jazz pianist
31
Borah Bergman
Borah Bergman
American pianist
32
Cecil Taylor
Cecil Taylor
American jazz pianist and poet
33
Dodo Marmarosa
Dodo Marmarosa
American musician
34
Richie Powell
Richie Powell
American pianist
35
Mal Waldron
Mal Waldron
American jazz pianist and composer
36
Craig Taborn
Craig Taborn
American musician
37
John Hicks
John Hicks
American jazz pianist and composer
38
Bud Powell
Bud Powell
American pianist and composer
39
Kenny Clarke
Kenny Clarke
American jazz drummer
40
Ornette Coleman
Ornette Coleman
American jazz saxophonist, violinist, trumpeter, and composer
41
Ahmad Jamal
Ahmad Jamal
American jazz pianist
42
Tom Ranier
Tom Ranier
Musician, Instrumentalist
43
John Gilmore
John Gilmore
American tenor saxophonist
44
Al Haig
Al Haig
American pianist
45
Alain Jean-Marie
Alain Jean-Marie
French pianist
46
Sal Mosca
Sal Mosca
American musician
47
Willie Dennis
Willie Dennis
jazz musician
Lennie Tristano
American jazz pianist and composer

Lennie Tristano

Intro
American jazz pianist and composer
Record Labels

Leonard Joseph Tristano (March 19, 1919 – November 18, 1978) was an American jazz pianist, composer, arranger, and teacher of jazz improvisation.

Tristano studied for bachelor's and master's degrees in music in Chicago before moving to New York City in 1946. He played with leading bebop musicians and formed his own small bands, which soon displayed some of his early interests – contrapuntal interaction of instruments, harmonic flexibility, and rhythmic complexity. His quintet in 1949 recorded the first free group improvisations. Tristano's innovations continued in 1951, with the first overdubbed, improvised jazz recordings, and two years later, when he recorded an atonal improvised solo piano piece that was based on the development of motifs rather than on harmonies. He developed further via polyrhythms and chromaticism into the 1960s, but was infrequently recorded.

Tristano started teaching music, especially improvisation, in the early 1940s, and by the mid-1950s was concentrating on teaching in preference to performing. He taught in a structured and disciplined manner, which was unusual in jazz education when he began. His educational role over three decades meant that he exerted an influence on jazz through his students, including saxophonists Lee Konitz and Warne Marsh.

Musicians and critics vary in their appraisal of Tristano as a musician. Some describe his playing as cold and suggest that his innovations had little impact; others state that he was a bridge between bebop and later, freer forms of jazz, and assert that he is less appreciated than he should be because commentators found him hard to categorize and because he chose not to commercialize.