All-Time Jazz Greats

Welcome to Week Two of Jazz Appreciation. As an introductory way of getting started

talking about the history and people of jazz, I'll give an overview of the jazz eras and talk
about some of the most highly regarded improvisers in jazz. We'll go over everything in
these two segments in more depth as the course progresses. You also will be presented
with this information in our Cerego courses, which will allow you to learn the
information effectively.
We'll start with all-time greats in this section, and then we'll have a survey of the eras of
jazz. All-time jazz greats are musicians who transcended their instrument to influence all
of the art form. Their contribution to jazz was so remarkable and so major that they went
well past influencing only musicians who played their instrument and influenced and
changed the course of the art form.
The information you'll receive today in this video is the instrument these people played,
their era, and the time period that their most highly regarded music is associated with,
and a few reasons why they are so highly revered. We'll have a good number of videos
dedicated to these musicians as the course progresses.
Our first all-time great is Louis Armstrong, trumpet player from the Early Jazz era from
the 1920s. Louis Armstrong was the first great jazz improviser and brought improvisation
to an art form. He also became the visual image of jazz in the 1920s, the 1930s and
beyond. His popularity extended in the 1960s. Some people call him the great entertainer,
because his visual image was very outgoing and he was very engaging, a great person to
get jazz into the popular culture.
Our second all-time jazz great is Duke Ellington, composer and pianist from the Swing
era from the 1930s. One of America's most prolific and highly regarded composers in any
genre, not just jazz. Duke Ellington led a remarkable, individualistic big band for
decades. And he brought the art of arranging to a high level. He also gave us thousands of
standard songs that have been part of the jazz repertoire that jazz musicians play to this
very day.
Our third all-time jazz great is Charlie Parker, also known as Bird, an alto saxophone
player from the Bebop era in the 1940s. He was a technically amazing improviser. He
developed a new improvisational vocabulary that revolutionized improvisation and
elevated it to a true art form. Bebop was an era that was a dramatic change from the
Swing era that came before. And Charlie Parker, along with Dizzy Gillespie, was one of
the protagonists of that era, bringing jazz to new technical heights.
Our next all-time jazz great is Miles Davis, a trumpet player, innovator in four jazz eras.
So Miles was quite unique. He was an innovator in the Cool jazz era, the Hard Bop jazz
era, the Modal and Free era, and then in the Fusion era. Much of Miles Davis' playing
was about less is more. He often left more space than other improvisers so that his ideas

in between the spaces meant more. He assembled a variety of bands that blazed new trails
in jazz and always was evolving throughout his long and colorful career.
Our final all-time great is John Coltrane, tenor saxophonist from the Modal and Free jazz
era in the 1960s. John Coltrane developed "sheets of sound." These were rapid arpeggios
that gave the impression of playing a chord since they were played so quickly. He took
technical proficiency to new heights. He created unusual chord progressions in music
such as Giant Steps. And then he went on to explore other types of improvisation in the
Free Jazz era before his untimely death in 1967.
So our all-time jazz greats are Louis Armstrong, trumpet from Early Jazz; Duke
Ellington, pianist/composer from the Swing era; Charlie Parker, known as Bird, alto
saxophonist from the Bebop era; Miles Davis, trumpeter who influenced four styles of
jazz; and John Coltrane, tenor saxophonist from the Modal/Free era.
Our next segment will present an overview of jazz eras.