The most original musician of all time is....

[realtrance]

I'll throw in Hector Berlioz. He just doesn't "fit" within the confines of the time he was writing in, or the time before, or the time after. Be it Symphonie Fantastique or Les Troyens, I do feel his music is original in its context.

 

Cecil Taylor is another. He takes the concept of streams of energy in jazz performance and brings his playing to places no-one's gone before, or since. Certainly original.

 

Jan Garbarek. Is it jazz, or folk music? Or ambient, or what? It doesn't really categorize, but is beautiful all the same.

 

Those will do for my addition.

[rasputin1963]

I've always loved the harmonies-- or should I say, the "re-harms"-- that George Shearing has come up with.

 

They're based on Bop theory, no doubt, but he puts his own curious spin on each chord he plays... Each chord he plays is so "wrong", yet it's so right.

 

He always keeps jazz "friendly", witty and "audience pleasing", as well, and that's a talent in itself. Henry Mancini had this gift as well.

[blue2blue]

I don't try to do be eclectic for the sake of it, but you know what it is? You know when you get that "ear-opening" sense of awe when you hear something for the first time that really gives you goose bumps? I'm addicted to that, so I'm always searching out new stuff. I listen to anything from Led Zeppelin to System of a Down, the usual rock stuff, which I grew up loving. But I also really love the music of Madagascar, Afro-Peruvian and Afro-Colombian stuff (I'm obsessed with finding really great stuff like this), and '70s Nigerian funk. Awesome stuff. And Ethiopiques stuff (Ethiopian series of music put out by Buda Musique). I'm really curious to hear what his newer production is like. I haven't really loved anything he's done by himself since "Shutov Assembly", an underrated CD, with the exception of the Japanese split CD that he released with a Japanese shakuhachi player somewhere around 2000 or 2001, which was a return to his more ambient stuff. Since you like bluegrass...are you a Ralph Stanley fan? I've seen him three times since about 2000, and am always utterly enthralled. Here's a photo I took of him at Pappy and Harriet's last year, out in the desert by Joshua Tree:

 

Bringing up the music of Madagascar brings a bittersweet story to mind from a friend who spent a few years there administering an English school.

 

He'd work all day, take a nap in the early evening and then, as the bars and restaurants were closing up he'd go out and collect his musician friends and bring them back to his place, where they would often jamin his kitchen until dawn. He said he'd often have the biggest stars in Madagascar all jamming along on each other's songs...

 

The good news: he recorded a lot of it onto DAT. The crushingly bad news: when he got back home, someone broke into his tiny bungalow in Santa Monica and stole his portable DAT and almost all his tapes.

 

But I DID hear some of it beforehand and it was BLINKIN' BLOODY BRILLIANT... some simply gorgeous playing... In the clubs these guys had to play tourist trap stuff... but afterhours they really opened up, playing everything from seriously ethnic versions of James Brown to real, live deep, deep roots music. It was... wow.

 

Everything's ephemeral, I guess.

 

I just hate to think of what got recorded over all that great music... some tweaker rock or gangsta? Sigh.

___________________

 

On a happier note -- yeah, I'm a HUGE Stanley Brothers fan and lately I've been catching up with Ralph's solo career (so much great music back then, it takes me a few decades to catch up sometimes).

 

BTW... my newest bluegrass enthusiasm is the Osborne Brothers. For some idiotic reason, I'd been thinking they were Nashville pop people, but when they kept turning up with the Stanleys and other classic BG people, I finally dropped the dime on some of their stuff... wow... it's really sweet. I love their version of Shiloh Hill.

 

And -- on a more contemporary note -- I just got done listening to a recent BG/Gospel collection called White Dove that has a lot of newer folks I wasn't familiar with, as well as a nice ensemble piece with Allison Krauss and the Cox family. It doesn't all have the same bite as some of the classic stuff but it's very listenable and pretty rootsy.

 

_____________

 

 

I know that hair on the back of the neck/musical ecstasy thing, for sure. It's what keeps me coming back.

 

First time I clearly remember feeling it was watching Louis Armstrong with a small, trad-jazz (New Orleans/Dixieland, if you will, and many won't ) combo -- on the occasion of Cal-Disneyland's tenth anniversery. Pops was at the peak of his mainstream popularity with pop hits like Hello, Dolly, but this was strictly trad (OK... I think he might have done "Dolly," Armstrong had a hard time disappointing his audiences) -- in keeping with the venue: the main deck of the Mark Twain paddlewheeler as it rounded Tom Sawyer's island. The set lasted three trips 'round and... holy bananas... I was just grinnin' the whole dang time. It was... amazing. Just damn amazing.

 

Some other hair raisers/musical ecstasy live music esperiences for me were Astor Piazzola, Magazine, Fela Kuti, Elvis Costello (on his first gig at the Whisky -- it was Watchin' the Detectives that really got me going)... Jimi Hendrix at the Newport '69 pop festival... actually a bunch others that are escaping me right now, including a few folks that few have probably heard of.

 

Music gets me like nothing else.

 

(Er... like almost nothing else.)

[JohnnyDMonic]

Delia Derbyshire has gotta be among the top most original musicians!

I think Alvin Lucier was quite original but I don't know if I could call him a musician, as most of his works seem to just demonstrate various scientific principles.

I was thinking about this the other day. I've been trying to experiment with glitchy IDM style music recently and I was pondering whether I was doing anything original, as a lot of it comes out sounding like venetian snares only not as good. But then I thought, does it matter as long as I'm learning new techniques and pushing myself to create more?

[girevik]

My votes:

 

Harry Partch - 'nuff said

 

Ivor Darreg - lesser known than Partch, but also promoted microtonality, invented Electronic Keyboard Oboe in 1937, built drum machine in the 1940s, created other electronic and acoustic microtonal instruments

 

John Cage - 'nuff said

 

Pablo Casals - changed cello playing

 

Charlie Christian - Early electric guitar god

[tradivoro1]

Many responses here are all VERY accurate (although I woul dprobably say AL Webber is probably not very original for the most part. The most original musicians are somtimes those that, at the time of their "reign," are hailed as the most outlandish and avant garde. I studied this stuff pretty extensively in college, and find it all quite interesting. In my book, Bach is IT. there is probably noone else that did the amazing things he did. His counterpoint, harmonic progression and melody is still to this day unsurpassed. BUT - was he original or merely a genius building on that which came before him?

 

 

I would deifinitely agree with Bach too and I think he just summed up everything that was great of that particular genre at that time and took it to a whole other level... After him, there really couldn't be any more baroque, he just did it better than anybody before him...

[peeder]

Haydn is the most original musician of all time, although he gets relatively little respect. Which may be understandable, given he only had a handful of inventions: classical music, the symphony, and the string quartet. And his students didn't do very much...some guys named Mozart and Beethoven.

After Haydn, Schoenberg would probably qualify, taking what he was seeing in the art world around him (e.g. Picasso) and applying its concepts to music. Stravinsky's rite of spring came after Schoenberg already had published his innovations.

I would argue CPE Bach was more innovative than his father.

Of the more popular moderns, I would agree with Miles/Dolphy/Ornette/Mingus etc...Robert Fripp may be the biggest innovator in the pop genre although Frank has an argument...Joni Mitchell's confessional song was a rather important innovation... And the commercial success of Sgt. Pepper opened popular music up to just about anything goes and should always be honored for doing so.

[syncretism]

John Oswald, hands-down.

 

Edit,

 

I can't credit anyone dropped here, Partch and Cage included, with "originality", and I strongly suspect that they'd agree with me. All they did was work in more obtuse forms and cite more obscure contemporaries and antecedents. They'd probably object to labels like "experimental", as well.

 

If we're talking about aesthetic rigor, ideological completeness or finding artistic {and other kinds of...} success outside the mainstream, well, that's something else. But I believe that a successful artist in any medium who is not deeply culturally literate {in as broad or as narrow a sense as you like} and likewise informed is an anomaly.

[Bob Olhsson]

I don't get out much but my wife pointed this thread out to me.

I totally understand why nobody has mentioned Chick Webb because those who know what he did take him for granted and those who don't know aren't likely to read very much about him. He is the person who invented what we now call swing. He was so overshadowed by Ella Fitzgerald who sang in his band that few noticed that the band was also doing things that were every bit as original as Ella's approach to singing. He took the next step after Dixieland and it was a giant one that forever changed the world's idea of what music might be.

[Rudolf von Hagenwil]

Bob Olhsson
Junior Member

Join Date: Mar 2006
Posts: 1

Wow, Bob Olhsson's first post !!!!

Now we can ask questions about recording and mastering at Motown etc.

Here a little intruduction to the Gentlemen:
http://www.prosoundweb.com/recording/tapeop/olmo/olmo.php

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[Flowtilla]

This thread was so interesting it prompted me to actually join as a new forum member. (Instead of just lurking, checking classifieds and product reviews). Partch, Cage, Stravinsky, Hendrix, Residents and Beefheart are all posts I have to agree are top contenders. I would only like add a few that have not been mentioned but certainly should not be overlooked. How about Ianis Xenakis, Oskar Sala, Derek Bailey or Hans Reichel ?

[Rudolf von Hagenwil]

Flowtilla
Junior Member

Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 1

Wow, Flowtilla's first post !!!!

Now we can ask questions about Xenakis

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[catmandoo]

My vote goes for Moondog Just run a Google search and check him out .I started following his work in the 70's.He was most likely the very first longhair hippy of all time.HE WAS BORN IN MY HOMETOWN too cool! He used to dress as a viking and was quite the sight in New York in the 60's.Catmandoo

[Rudolf von Hagenwil]

Wow, Moondog, I think I still have two albums from then of that beard, or was he Santa Claus, what's next most original, maybe the the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band...

[catmandoo]

Sorry, just my first gut opinion,I think that the question could be disscussed forever,If my answer was not good enough for you I guess I could Lie and say something else.Catmandoo

[syncretism]

 

I would only like add a few that have not been mentioned but certainly should not be overlooked. How about Ianis Xenakis, Oskar Sala, Derek Bailey or Hans Reichel ?

 

 

No more or less original than Vladimir Ussachevsky, Paul Hindemith, Evan Parker or Fred Frith, I daresay!

[Rudolf von Hagenwil]

... I could Lie and say something else. Catmandoo

 

 

Give it a try please.

 

It's always interesting what people make up when lying.

 

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[girevik]

No more or less original than Vladimir Ussachevsky, Paul Hindemith, Evan Parker or Fred Frith, I daresay!

 

 

Frith and Reichel made a GREAT CD together. One of the best free-improv guitar recordings ever.

[MDLMUSIC]

One name I haven't seen yet who, to me, is a true musical original is Spike Jones.

If you get a chance, see one of his videos.

Some of his stuff is really out there.

[Flowtilla]

I agree with the additional considerations of Evan Parker and Fred Frith. As soon as I posted my votes for Xenakis and Oskar Sala, I realized those choices were based on the fact that I currently listen more to 20th century classical music than Jazz , which I play professionally and used to be one of my main styles I would listen to for pleasure. So, aside from the already mentioned and logical choices of Monk and Coltrane ,I think that Cecil Taylor and definitely Ornette Colman rate as true originals.

[Flowtilla]

I agree with the additional considerations of Evan Parker and Fred Frith. As soon as I posted my votes for Xenakis and Oskar Sala, I realized those choices were based on the fact that I currently listen more to 20th century classical music than Jazz , which used to be one of the main styles I would listen to for pleasure. So, aside from the already mentioned and logical choices of Monk and Coltrane ,I think that Cecil Taylor and definitely Ornette Colman rate as true originals.

[syncretism]

Try as one might, this is just gonna be a laundry list of names, innit....

[neoloop]

KRAFTWERK

[KB Gunn]

Here's my suggestion - Stanley Jordan - I first heard him last night and was blown away - about as original as you can get IMO. his MySpace is here http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=46170186 you can see how he plays here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baDM3_6w8-E

 

 

I saw Stanley Jordan in a solo concert in Albany NY 6 years ago. It was on a Tuesday night in a small night club. I sat at a table seven feet from him. Even close up, I could not understand the complexity of his playing. The tapping was perfectly producing the bass line, rhythm and lead notes without hesitation. I think he must be a split brain or something. A Bassist named Wooten ( I can't remember his first name) also does a lot of tapping on a conventional bass sounding much like Jordan and octave lower.

 

I would now like to say who I feel were two of the most original musical entertainers of all time. First: Spike Jones. His WW2 music got many through the war when a sense of humor was hard to find.

 

Second: PDQ Bach. Professor Peter Sheleke(sp) satirized classical music with outstanding skill. He invented instruments and came out with songs such as, "Eine Kliene NICHT Music"

[Rudolf von Hagenwil]

 

 

STAUDAMM

 

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