The piano has been an integral part of the jazz idiom since its inception, in both solo and ensemble settings. Its role is multifaceted due largely to the instrument's combined melodic and harmonic capabilities. Jazz piano technique and the orchestral scope instrument itself offer soloists an exhaustive number of choices. Jazz piano has played a leading role in developing the sound of jazz. Here is a quick list of the greatest players and composers.

1. Top 10 Jazz Pianists
Of All Time

2. Keith Jarrett
• Huge Repertoire
• Rehabilitated the Great
American Songbook
with his Standards Trio
• Solo long-form
improvisations
• Melds melodic song
structures with avant-
garde abstract playing

3. Chronology
• Charles Lloyd quartet
– With Jack DeJohnette
• Miles Davis
– Electric piano
• Solo
– The Koln Concert
• Standards Trio
• World’s major concert halls
• ECM’s premier artist
• Also many classical piano
works by Bach,
Shostakovich, Mozart

4. Standards Trio
• Gary Peacock bass
• Jack DeJohnette drums
• The premier working
group in jazz
• Great American Songbook
• Sweeping repetoire
• Primarily Straight ahead
playing
• Head-solo-head
• Since 1983

5. Solo
• Solo Concerts:
Bremen/Lausanne (1973), Time
Magazine gave its 'Jazz Album of
the Year' award;
• The Köln Concert (1975), which
became the best-selling piano
recording in history;
• Sun Bear Concerts (1976) – a 10-LP
(and later 6-CD) box set;
• The Melody at Night, With
You (1999) studio recording;
• Jarrett's 100th solo performance in
Japan was captured on video at
Suntory Hall, Tokyo on April 14,
1987, and released the same year.
The recording was titled Solo
Tribute. This is a set of almost all
standard songs.

6. Duets
• Charlie Haden
– Legendary Artist
– One of the best jazz bassists of
all time
– For a time, he shared an
apartment with the bassist
Scott LaFaro (Bill Evans).
• Began recording
with Ornette Coleman
– including the seminal The
Shape of Jazz to Come.[
• Quartet West
– Cinematic “Noir” Albums
• Two wonderful duet CDs
with Keith

7. The same strengths that made Jasmine such a wonderful diversion
from Jarrett's solo and trio releases remain definitive on Last Dance.
Haden demonstrates his usual unerring ability to find the absolutely
perfect note—played with equally impeccable tone—whether it's in
the spare yet ambling swing of his support for Jarrett's solo on the
mid-tempo "Everything Happens to Me" or his own more intrinsically
lyrical feature later in the same song; there's never a note wasted or
a note out of place. As for Jarrett, while his career has been
predicated on both virtuosity and an ability to spontaneously pull
music from the ether, and as consistently superb as his solo and
Standards Trio work has been over the past three decades, here in
this context, he's never sounded so relaxed, so unfettered in a way
that's different from his inimitable freedom in live performance.
There's something about the unconstrained freedom of playing at
home with a longtime friend who shares your language. There's
nothing to prove, only music to make, and while Jarrett has visited
songs like Thelonious Monk's classic ballad "'Round Midnight" and
Thomas Adair and Matt Denis' slightly brighter "Everything Happens
to Me" before, they've never sounded this tender, this affectionate.

8. Bill Evans
• Marvelous interpreter of
Songbook Standards
• Invented modern jazz
piano
• Rootless chords
• Impressionistic harmony
• Hip lines
• Interactive Trio playing
– Scott LaFaro bassist
• How My Heart Sings
– biography

9. Bill Evans

10. Thelonius Monk
• Original compositions
• Quirky playing style
• Dissonance
• Crunchy minor seconds
in harmonies
• Modern with roots in
older styles such as
stride
• Sui Generis

11. Monk
• A brilliant composer
and a criminally
underrated pianist
whose sense of
rhythm, space, and
harmony made him
one of the founders of
modern jazz

12. Great Monk Classics
• Well You Needn’t
• Blue Monk
• Straight No Chaser
• In Walked Bud
• Round Midnight
• Ruby, My Dear

13. Herbie Hancock
• Blue Note as a leader
• Composer of jazz classics:
– Watermelon man
– Cantaloupe Island
– Maiden Voyage
– Dolphin Dance
• Miles Quintet
– Hippest Band in Modern
Jazz
• Headhunters
– Funk
– Electric

14. Duke Ellington
• Icon
• Legend
• Great American
Composer
• Superb Jazz Pianist
• a clever, quirky,
thoughtful, and bold
improviser

15. Billy Strayhorn
• Sweet Pea
• Duke’s collaborator
• Composer of the
highest order:
– Lush Life
– Chelsea Bridge
– Take the A Train
– Satin Doll
• Marvelous jazz pianist
• Urbane

16. Bud Powell
• Bebop originator
• Composer
– Bouncin’ with Bud
– Dance of the Infidels
• Brilliant player
• When people talk about
the giants – Bird, Bud,
Dizzy, and Miles – I think
they underestimate Bud.
— Bill Evans

17. Kenny Barron
• One of the absolute
best contemporary
players
• Hundreds of albums as
sideman and leader
• Great duet albums with
– Dave Holland
– Charlie Haden

18. McCoy Tyner
• Coltrane
• Stacked 4ths
• Fifths in the base
• Modern Muscular
Sound
• Also beautiful; check
out Coltrane quartet
backing Johnny
Hartman

19. Hank Jones
• Eloquent, lyrical, and
Impeccable
• On May 19, 1962, he played
piano as actress Marilyn
Monroe sang her famous
"Happy Birthday, Mr.
President" song to then U.S.
president John F. Kennedy.
• His two younger brothers—
Thad, a trumpeter, and Elvin,
a drummer (Coltrane)—also
became prominent jazz
musicians.

20. Oscar Peterson
• Canadian
• Herb Ellis and Ray Brown;
drummer-less trio
• Joe Pass
• Virtuoso player
• Some of the artists who
influenced Peterson's music
were
– Teddy Wilson,
– Nat "King" Cole,
– James P. Johnson and
– Art Tatum, to whom many
tried to compare Peterson in
later years

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