Who Are the Greatest Composers in the History of Jazz?

The "Mount Rushmore" of jazz composers is Ellington, Monk, Mingus, and Shorter

We are going to explore some great jazz composers in our Jazz Studio class at WVU this semester, so this week I have been pondering the greatest composers of the history of jazz. There are four jazz composers that are at the top of everyone’s radar: Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, Charles Mingus, and Wayne Shorter. We have the “Mount Rushmore” of jazz composers, but what about the other greats?

HISTORIOGRAPHY

After a few days of contemplation, I have started to think about historiography of jazz—how we tell the history of jazz. Is there an “over-European-ification” happening when we talk about the history of jazz? Are we forcing our opinions what we think of the history of Classical music — the “Great Composers” including Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, and Brahms — in a way that does not suit jazz music? Maybe jazz does not have giants the way that Classical music does, but instead movements of musicians that have similar ideas and goals and musical aesthetics? After all, there is no inventor of African drumming. It exists as a tradition with no founder’s name attached, so why can’t jazz exist similarly?

I first thought about this when I was teaching a Jazz History course and used the Scott Deveaux and Gary Giddins text, which was born from a wildly popular course taught at the University of Virginia. The cover of one of the previous editions featured the tenor saxophonist Dexter Gordon, while not even a page or

maybe more than a sentence or a mention of Dexter Gordon was included in the text. It made me start to realize that towering figures in jazz are ignored by jazz history.

A STUDY BY SUBGENRES
There are two really important subgenres of jazz music that would be better taught by topic than by composer. At the top of this list is free jazz. First of all, Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor, the Art Ensemble of Chicago (and others) are all composers, but it would be disingenuous to attribute all of the realm of free jazz to one single composer. Another genre best studied by topic would be fusion, which would include Herbie Hancock, Jaco Pastorius, Weather Report, and others.

I have wondered, too, if we just cannot find a way to escape the misogyny of academia too—why are the contributions of Abbey Lincoln and Nina Simone so often left out of the history of the music? Is it a bias against singers or a bias against women? Or both?

HOW TO PRESENT THE “COMPOSERS” OF JAZZ

I have chosen to move forward in this fashion:
1. Duke Ellington (and Billy Strayhorn)
2. Thelonious Monk
3. Charles Mingus
4. Wayne Shorter
5. large ensembles (Fletcher Henderson, Don Redman (born in the Eastern panhandle of West Virginia!), Thad Jones, Maria Schneider)
6. small ensembles (Tadd Dameron, Mary Lou Williams, Horace Silver, Benny Golson, Carla Bley)
7.free jazz and beyond (Ornette, Art Ensemble, Sun Ra, Anthony Braxton, Henry Threadgill)
8. vocal (Billie Holiday, Abbey Lincoln, Nina Simone)
9. fusion (Herbie Hancock, Jaco, Miles Davis)
10. Latin (Machito, Paquito D’Rivera, Eddie Palmieri)

Of course, I might look at this later today or tomorrow and make changes. Aren’t we allowed to change our minds later?!?!?! I am curious what opinions my friends have reading this.