Hard Bop artists
 

Along with just about any good old trad, hard bop is my jazz style of choice, claiming as it does a great number of iconic artists. Which do you prefer?

Hard Bop

The Sidewinder lee morgan and i voted for blakey too, man that mofo had some drum chops

I like a bunch of the old Blue Note musicians. Tina Brooks is a great and often overlooked one. Try his True Blue.

Others on Blue Note: Dexter Gordon, Art Blakey, Horace Silver, Lee Morgan, Cannonball Adderly, Lou Donaldson.

Also, of course, the late-50s/early-60s stuff by Coltrane, Miles Davis, and Monk.

coltrane is superior.

Hard Bop probably contributed to more great music than any other jazz style.

Horace Silver's website is quite good.

I like all of those artists, I love Monk and Blakey, but I really love Horace Silver! Horace started out as one of Blakey's Jazz Messengers.

wow, looks like we got a 4 way split... I had to go for Thelonius though, just great stuff.

I didn't see the poll before. I voted for "a different one," and that is Tina Brooks. I strongly recommend True Blue. Probably the best Blue Note record I've heard.

Silver's Songs for my father is brilliant

On this board, you write and post the message before making the actual poll, so the post appears first! You were probably experiencing a post-post, pre-poll limbo land.

I like late coltrane, the atonal human sounding records he did, very underrated time period of his....

Cool poll Hip Priest....tuff decision but I went with Miles. Tuff to vote against Blakey, Coltrane, and Monk though.

Uhm, not all of these are truly "hard bop" musicians.

And it's funny...the ones that truly are Hard Bop, have the fewist votes.

(Hint, the first two and last two on the list.)

mingus.

I wouldn't classify him as a hard bop artist.

While his bassplaying often incorporated elements of hard bop, his complex compositional style incorporated way too many elements to be called "hard bop". His style is a fusion of many different styles.

And I'd be hard pressed to call a bassist the best as a hard bop player.

I'm thinking it's a toss up between Silver and Rollins (I voted for Silver).

Anyone who votes for Miles Davis as best hard bop artist is probably ignorant as to what the style entails (as Miles' lack of dexterity on the horn which contributed to his incredible style of playing doesn't lend itself well to the hard bop form).

i agree completely. i wouldn't classify him as hard bop either. i just voted for my favorite on the list.

monk also doesn't belong on that list, as he was a genre unto himself.

That was kinda obvious from your screenname... heh.

Coltrane doesn't belong either and I'm surprised the Adderley bros. aren't on the list.

John Coltrane (absolute faves are Giant Steps & My Favorite Things)
Miles Davis (his hard bop with Hancock/Williams/Tyner/Carter as on My Funny Valentine + Four More & Live at the Plugged Nickel)
Sonny Rollins (favorites are his work with Miles, Blakey & Bud Powell although I have no Sonny Rollins records or cds)
Charles Mingus (favorite is Mingus Ah Um)
Art Blakey (favorite is first Jazz Messengers album)
Thelonius Monk (favorite is 'Round Midnight)
Horace Silver (favorites are Song for My Father & Opus de Funk)
Donald Byrd (favorite is Black Byrd)
Joe Henderson (I have no Joe)

the neglected:
Herbie Hancock Quartet (Empyrean Isles which features Mr. Freddie Hubbard)
Freddie Hubbard (Hub-Tones)
Bud Powell & Art Tatum (everything they touch)
Lennie Tristano & Warne Marsh (Crosscurrent/Intuition --- the true Birth of The Cool before Lee Konitz spread it over into Davis' camp.)

Possibly the most difficult poll I've voted on here. Mingus because he's my current favourite, although Art Blakey got me into jazz in the first place.

I agree that the genre is a bit elusive to encompass all these & would actually rather see polls for the best on certain instruments, but of course then Coltrane would be a shoo-in for best tenor sax & Mingus has no competition on bass. The big battles would be amongst drummers & piano players; Blakey & Roach once has a drum battle hehe.

anyway, it's still a very cool poll.

Atari-Joe Henderson is the Tenor Sax on Horace Silver's "Song of my Father".

but I have none with his band...just like with Sonny Rollins who I really love a lot...should have noted that.

Strange, I definitely consider Mingus hard bop.

perhaps the most underrated jazz record of all-time:
Warne Marsh Quartet - Release Record, Send Tape

I can see how seeing Miles on a "hard bop" poll is kind of weird since he didn't really have but a few "hard bop" albums compared to his entire body of work. However, any jazz poll with Miles and the word "bop" in it gets my vote.

all in all, I think I prefer Freddie's trumpet to Miles' although it would be ridiculous to argue that he had more influence.

Miles was really a better modal and slow blues player than he ever was a bop/hard bop player.

Like I said before, he didn't really have the chops for hard bop (which is not to say that his style of playing wasn't awesome!)

Miles developed his signature style partially as a compensation for a lack of chops.

(I wonder how many times I'm going to say this on this thread :)

Nobody said which he did better.

Ok, I'll put it bluntly.

Miles Davis wasn't a very good Hard Bop player.

That'll work.

Whew! I've been a bit busy while this thread has been going...

Did the Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers record (recorded 10/13/1958 by Rudy Van Gelder, Blue Note) usher in Hard Bop, or was it the first really important Hard Bop album, or am I just totally twisted around on the whole thing?

Anyway, more that deserve a mention:

Cannonball Adderley (w/ Miles & Blakey) - Somethin' Else (also released in 1958 & recorded by Rudy Van Gelder (in his parents Englewood Cliffs, NJ home, Blue Note)

&

Out to Lunch & Out There - Eric Dolphy

I appreciate that point, and all I can say is that I checked a few websites and some literature to make sure that the people I listed were considered to be 'hard bop' exponents. Those who aren't at least touched upon the genre, so it can be a vote for greatest ever performer to play some hard bop.


It is. He has made (and long may he continue to make) some of the most consistently high quality recordings of any artists. I never hesitate to say that 'Blowin THe Blues Away' is one of my top three LPs, and one of the finest ever recordings.

The Jazz Messengers first album was released in 1954 (entitled "Horace Silver and the Jazz Messengers") The Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers album was the third in the series. Sonny Rollins released a hard bop album in 1953. I don't know if these are the first or not.

Question answered, thanks. Thanks for pointing out to me some records that I need badly apparently. So Sonny was first (most likely)...that's cool. That artist lived jazz.

It's just so damn refreshing to see a jazz thread that's not about free jazz.


Hard Bop is definitely my favorite.

Thank You