Your Top 5 Jazz Composers 1950-2000

I'm going to take out and disqualify Ellington, Monk, Gillespie and Davis, as OG hall of famers predating this time frame. Others who started in the 40s may pass if they were prolific.

It's about those who provided themselves wth the best material for their craft. Not playing their axe, but more who they were at the piano alone, as songwriters. I usually think in terms of rock or pop songwriting. This must be a different practice.

I don't want to express a definitive opinion right now. I haven't listened to enough yet.

The main names bubbling around for me now are Wayne Shorter, Bobby Hutcherson, Lee Morgan, Horace Silver, and Kenny Dorham.

 

Well, you eliminated most of mine (and Gershwin and Charlie Parker as well, I suppose). John Coltrane, Charles Mingus, Ornette Coleman, Herbie Hancock, Benny Golson.

 

Horace Silver

 

Well the point was to go forward a little. Can't believe I left out Coltrane and Hancock in OP.

 

Shorter
Mingus
Hancock
Zorn
Silver
Coltrane

That’s my top 6, though I don’t really think of Trane as a composer per se.

 

John Zorn
Henry Threadgill
Horace Tapscott
Tim Berne
Marty Ehrlich

 

I got distracted.
to continue :

Chick Corea
Laurindo Almeida
Herbie Nichols
Jimmy Heath

 

Duke Ellington
Charles Mingus
Thelonious Monk
Joe Chambers
Bobby Hutcherson

I love Ellington's 50's and 60's suites. I also think Joe Chambers is a great and somewhat underrated composer.

 

John Coltrane
Andrew Hill
Charles Mingus
Grachan Moncur III
Anthony Braxton

 

You’ve listed some good ones in the OP (esp. Morgan, Silver). I’ll make a list of probably disqualified giants and maybe not disqualified:

Probably disqualified:
Bill Evans
Charles Mingus
Herbie Hancock
John Coltrane
Ray Charles
Cannonball Adderley
Wes Montgomery

Maybe not disqualified:
Red Garland
Kenny Burrell
Keith Jarrett
Oscar Peterson
Vince Guaraldi
Dave Brubeck

 

They're all in for me. I jsut wanted to get past Ellington and Monk because they are always the conventional wisdom choices.

Don't know about Ray as a composer. Everyone loves Vince Guaraldi.

Mingus. Coltrane and Hancock are right up there. Coltrane has so many self composed memorable songs. He might be the top.

 

Mingus is absolutely up there for me with Ellington and Monk, On a second tier I would name, besides some of the names already mentioned, Sun Ra, George Russell, Elmo Hope and Jimmy Heath

 

Chick Corea
Jaco Pastorius
Al DiMeola
Jean-Luc Ponty
John McLaughlin

 

Thelonious Monk
John Coltrane
Wayne Shorter
Keith Jarrett
Pat Metheny

 

Coltrane
Monk
Bud Powell
Clifford Brown
Herbie Hancock

 

Sun Ra
Herbie Hancock
Charles Mingus
Enrico Rava
Terje Rypdal

 

Man.... love your inclusion of Dorham there as a dark horse. Silver, Morgan, Hutcherson and Shorter would also have some overlap with my in my top 5 as well!

Okay, so without repeating you,

The Obvious Choices
Mingus
Coltrane
Hancock
Montgomery
Adderley

My top 5 faves not already mentioned on the thread:
McCOY TYNER!!!
Joe Henderson
Bobby Timmons
Thad Jones
Andrew Hill

 

I can’t make sense of who’s disqualified or not, or how we’re defining “composer” — presumably anyone who wrote his or her own material? My confusion aside:

Charles Mingus
Ornette Coleman
Henry Threadgill
Anthony Braxton
Sun Ra

 

These are the ones who make an impact with me more than any others although it pains me to leave out Sun Ra, Mike Gibbs, Mike Westbrook, Coltrane, Ornette, Gil Evans, Rob Mazurek, Nicole Mitchell etc etc...Mary Halvorson is a good shout too building up an impressive body of work under her own name.

Charles Mingus
Wayne Shorter
George Russell
Anthony Braxton
William Parker

 

Women's History Month may have just ended, but there's no shortage of contenders there:
Alice Coltrane
Toshiko Akiyoshi
Geri Allen
Myra Melford
Mary Lou Williams

 

I'm an ignoramus here, but I like

Keith Jarrett
Pat Metheny
Hiromi
John Zorn
John McLaughlin

 

Mingus
Shorter
Silver
Jimmy Heath
Kenny Dorham

 

Starting a little earlier but continuing post-1950, Tadd Dameron.

 

Don Ellis

 

I think you got it. I just wanted to take the perennial historical answers off the table to find out who else. And naturally no disresepct was intended.