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