Hm, hard to say.

-Miles Davis
-John Coltrane
-Thelonious Monk
-Charles Mingus

Throw in a drummer, maybe Art Blakey, and you'd have quite the quintet. :laughing:

That's the same names I posted! High five!

Respect. :beer:

Wait, you mean Max Roach, right? :D

Hm, well yeah, I'd take Max Roach. Fuck, I could be the drummer and it would still be an amazing quintet.

Really tough to pick. Hard to distinguish from personal favs to the ones that made the biggest impact. Def Louis & Duke for starters

Hello there, I'm completely new to this forum (1st post!) and completely new to the world of jazz (at age 36, this is my first year that I've really dug deep into the jazz world). Considering that I'm not an old school jazz connoisseur I probably don't have the proper respect and admiration for the "pillars" of jazz (Ellington, Armstrong, Parker, etc.) so my opinion may be pointless but so far it's an easy one for me:

From left to right:

MONK, COLTRANE, MILES and HERBIE HANCOCK

Although, I haven't had the chance to dig into MINGUS yet, so that last spot may be up for grabs... especially since Hancock's greatest contributions have been more of a funk, jazz-funk fusion thing.... but the first 3 are locked in stone

It would probably a good idea to have some variety in terms of instruments. For example, one could make a case for including Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, and Miles Davis, but all three play the trumpet, so it would be rather skewed.

Of the three I mentioned, Louis Armstrong is probably the face to go with.

To represent saxophone, John Coltrane is hard to argue with.

A pianist should be included -- either Oscar Peterson or Thelonious Monk. Somebody more knowledgable about jazz than I can make that decision.

And for the fourth, perhaps a vocalist or a drummer should be represented. Ella Fitzgerald, perhaps? I don't know enough about jazz drummers to nominate somebody.

But my personal favourites are Brubeck, Coltrane, Miles, and Peterson.

Sorry but sax has to go Charlie Parker who changed the face of jazz and music with it.

Piano goes to Art Tatum hands down. Bud Powell was a better combo player though.

Trumpet goes to Miles. Could make an argument for Clifford Brown.

Bass I have to give to either Scott LaFaro or Milt Hinton.

Drums goes to Elvin Jones.

Hmm, for icons
Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Django Reinhart, Louis Armstrong

If were jus picking our favourites
John Coltrane, Rashied Ali, Peter Brötzmann, Eric Dolphy