Best musician of all time????

[bubinga5]

Quite interested to hear the different views on this subject. Not really bass related but im bored at work and it fun all the same .Who do you think is the best musician of ALL time.
Its Stevie Wonder for me, the man has music flowing through his veins!(or beethoven even)....Any others?

[morf]

Charlie Mingus, Jimi Hendrix

[Correlli]

I once heard this bird that sounded pretty cool.

[Sonorous]

My first two thoughts upon reading the title to this thread were "Stevie Wonder" and "Charles Mingus".

[GM60466]

Guitar -tied Barry Galbraith and Michael Bloomfield
Bass - Mingus

Musician?
John Coltrane

[sinophysiker]

All time??
J.S.Bach of course bien sur natürlich...

[Sutton]

Coltrane or Miles Davis.

[steveb98]

Miles, Coltrane, Bird, Hancock, Monk. They all were inovating all the time. Not afraid to experiment.

[syciprider]

The Ramones.

[The Golden Boy]

William Hung.

Talent. Vision. Charisma.

[Snarf]

Originally Posted by Kiwi Kid

I once heard this bird that sounded pretty cool.

+1.

[davetakis]

Originally Posted by The Golden Boy

William Hung.

Talent. Vision. Charisma.

are you drunk!?!??!

[The Golden Boy]

Originally Posted by davetakis

are you drunk!?!??!

I'm working on it- it's not quite noon yet.

[IanStephenson]

First and foremost, I think the idea of a single greatest musician is a joke - it's not a contest, and the idea of singling one person out is just a stupid idea.

On the other hand I've had a few drinks so what the...

It leads into something I was thinking about recently (and i've had in my head on and off for a while), that there are great players and there are those that just can't be judged because they DEFINED greatness.

For example I think Stu Hamm, Dave LaRue, Billy Sheehan etc are great bass players. Jaco on the other hand is a legend that rises above great.

Guitar wise I love Steve Morse, Satriani, and a whole bunch of others, but Hendrix and Van Halen defined the instrument. You can listen to rock guitar from any band post Van Halen and KNOW that it wouldn't have sounded like that without Van Halen.

It's not about what I like - I'm not a huge Hendrix or Jaco fan, but I'm smart enough to know that these guys are so special that it really doesn't matter if I like them or not - they are the real greats which transcend mere like or dislike.

In Jazz you've got guys like Mingus, Parker and Davis - they're just bigger than we can understand as individual listeners.

I think a better question would be who are the REAL greats - not they guys you like. Not who do you think is a great guitarist/bassist, but rather who would you not be able to imaging music without:

I'll submit Eddie, Jimmi and Jaco...

Ian

[Gard]

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

[PunkerTrav]

Originally Posted by Gard

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

I'll have to (very) respectfully disagree.

Tie between Bach and Tchaikovsky.

[nad]

Robert Fripp

[burk48237]

Originally Posted by Gard

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

I can assert with some certainty that wolfgang never laid down a funky grove with a P Bass! When I think of musicians, I think of song-writing, the knowledge to transcend various styles, ability to play fluently on more then one instrument, and the mastery of at least one instrument. Also their careers need to span more then one era. So my nominations go to Stevie Wonder, Sting, Jaco, Pat Metheny and Miles Davis.

[Alex]

You can't compare raw musicianship. It's all relative.

Compare Jimi Hendix to Mozart.

[Scott McC]

J.S. Bach and Charlie Parker. I think these two guy played every combination there is of 12 notes. If not the "greatest", they are certainly the most influential.