Is there anybody around we could truly call a musical genius?

Again driving to work this morning listening to Monk and I thought, this man was a musical genius, or is that too strong? Was he just a great musician? I believe he was a musical genius because he was off the wall in the way he thought and his music shouldn't sound great but it does. To my ears anyway.
Others I would apply the term musical genius to must include Mozart and Beethoven. They both deliberately changed the course of music. I'm sure there are others but off hand I can't think of them
Controversial I'm sure, but I wouldn't use the term for Lennon & McCartney. They may have made a step change in music but I don't believe it was deliberate nor would it have happened without George Martin.
Anyway I welcome your opinions but as I said Musical Genius and not Great Musician.

 

Stevie Wonder
Ray Charles

 

I vote Django Reinhardt

 

I could sort of agree but what are your reasons?

 

Again why was he a musical genius?

 

J. S. Bach. His command of polyphony and structure outstrips the gifts of Beethoven and Mozart.



Iannis Xenakis. A polymath, also a mathematician and architect. The most accomplished composer after Beethoven. He applied math to musical form with emotionally devastating results. I suppose that Stockhausen might be mentioned in the same breath but I sense that the work of Xenakis is more consistently of high quality.





Hildegard von Bingen, another polymath. Her ecstatic song really got the ball rolling for western art music.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9uMd1ap51A

 

Mozart
Beethoven
Bach

 

When it comes to modern rock/pop, there aren't too many that truly rise to the level of genius for me. Brian Wilson comes to mind. At his peak, he was just operating at a totally different level: His musical ideas were often very unusual and yet they worked so well as to sound natural. His work continues to exert a huge influence over modern performers and there's no mistaking his very distinctive compositional voice.

Though he's not to everyone's taste, I would also mention Frank Zappa. The breadth of his musical knowledge was extraordinary--from doo wop to avant garde classical and jazz, he was able to meld it all together into a uniquely modern brew.

 

Thelonius Monk?
Yea. He would qualify.

 

How many have proof, via concert poster?

 

Frank Zappa

Phil Lesh of the Grateful Dead.

 

'Tis far too early to claim any twentieth Century musician as a genius, in my opinion, as we are yet to realize their long-term impact on music as a whole. Changing music fundementally takes time, as people will always have a musical consciousness based on past music, and necessarily create new music out of this consciousness.

 

charlie parker--bop changed all of jazz--a major inspiration decades after his death

 

To me artistic geniuses are different from intellectual geniuses. Artistic genius are the sorts of people who almost compulsively follow their muse powering through all kind of convention and resistance to achieve real breakthroughs in their forms that change the face of the music forever, their minds always focused beyond the horizon of what we normal folk see -- they make us, and their peers, see things in a new way and confront even the basic premises of their art. I think Sun Ra was a genius of that sort. Ornette Coleman.

There are other sorts of artistic geniuses I suppose -- those who seem to learn and synthesize and create and such an astounding rate, in all kinds of different media, with such ease -- that it can only be genius. I think of a guy like Steve Martin who seems to be able to be a brilliant actor, novelist, playwright, musician and standup comic and makes it look easy. Maybe a guy like Prince fits that kind of category in popular music, maybe, I'm not sure though I'd go that far. These types of geniuses I think are harder to identify because unless you've actually worked with them it's hard to judge that kind of genius.

But I think either kind of genius is really rare. That's okay. Plenty of brilliant, beautiful music made over hundreds of years by humans who were just great artists but not necessarily artistic geniuses of either sort.

 

Along with the other two M's: Miles & Mingus. All sadly not around.

 

If you listen to his music you will understand..
Stephane Grappelli said he never heard Django play any wrong on the guitar, neither musical wrong or technical wrong.
When Django played with Duke Ellington Orchestra he never practiced, he just showed up an played - impressing his american peers with his musicality and astounding technique.
Seems Django could hear a musical piece once and then could instantly play it and improvise around it.

 

Ray Charles hasn't been "around" for 10 years.

 

I love your argument. I don't necessarily agree but you definitely understand what I'm looking for.

 

That was my first thought. Nobody has ever 'heard' bass like him. He approaches the instrument like a grand piano.

 

Miles Davis - a trendsetter and innovator many times over a two decade period.

Bob Dylan - took the ages old folk singer / narrative artist thing and popularized it to the point of creating an entire genre and influencing an untold number of artists.

Along with Coltrane, Mingus, Monk, Ellington, Armstrong, Beethoven, and Mozart.

 

Brian Wilson

 

Apologies. That sounds awfully condescending.

 

I know about Django and I have some of his music with Grappeli. However what you are describing is an amazing musician not a genius IMHO.

 

Your point?

 

DON VAN VLIET

BRICK BAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTSSSSSSS!!!!!!!