yorolpal


Bit's got it about right.  Many of the greatest players of all time are not that well known.  And many who populate the lists above are very good at what they do...but not nearly the avatar of their instrument.  Have you heard of Lenny Breau?  Chuck Loeb?  Chris Theile?  Jimmy Herring?  Oteil Burbridge?  Art Tatum?  Just to name a few off the top of my head.  I've got nothing against most all of the folks listed above but the list should pretty long, really, before you get to folks like Jon Anderson, Jack Bruce or Ian Anderson.  V-e-r-y long indeed.

But those choices are only relative still, and even then you'd get the, can the Guitar even be classed as a 'real' instrument folk making for even more pedantry (if there is such a word).  Some may say that Jack Vettriano be the greatest painter of all time and the long standing captain of an industrial trawler being the greatest fisherman ever.  They would not be 'wrong' anymore than any of the choices laid down here in this thread.

Any type of listing is only ever going to amount to some type of favouritism, whether it be that you like your composers to be some vaunted, long-haired dead blokes, your guitarists to be able to play the equations off a slide-rule, or indeed that your singers have the greatest pair of legs in a micro skirt.

Feedback:
Jimi Hendrix
Pete Townshend
Tie - too many soundmen/FOH-mixers to mention.

Theramin:
Clara Rockmore
Jimmy Page
Brian Wilson

Silence:
John Cage
Tie - librarians everywhere
Tie - audiences everywhere after an epic drewfx bass solo - apparently they're too awed (stunned?) to applaud wildly.

drewfx

Hi,
 
Overall musician for our time?
 
Probably Mike Oldfield ... who plays more instruments and composes more than most and is probably the inventor of what a DAW does these days ... maybe you all should go listen back to Tubular Bells and realize that is one on one on one on one ... all by his lonesome except some drums and Vivian Stanshall on voice. And we're talking almost 40 years ago! .. sorry Sonar/Cakewalk!
 
Original Keyboards (not conventional crap and oversized Griegg impressions!):
Riuichi Sakamoto
Rolf U. Rogner (Amon Duul 2)
Irmin Schmidt (Can)
 
Guitar (true originals ... not copies!):
Frank Zappa
Michael Karoli (Can)
Terje Rypdal
Ax Gehrnrich (ex Guru Guru)
John Weinzierl (Amon Duul 2)
Jimi Hendrix
Egberto Gismonti
 
Bass:
Eberhard Weber
Holger Czukay (Can)
Don Schiff (Rocket Scientists)
the late John Glascock (Carmen and then Jethro Tull)
 
Drums:
Bonzo
Keith Moon
Peter Leopold (Amon Duul 2)
Christian Vander (Magma)
Pierre Moerlin
 
Singer and screamer:
Peter Hammill
Jim Morrison
 
Poet Extraordinaire:
Roy Harper
 
Lady singer of yonder:
Sandy Denny
Janis Joplin
 
Lady Singer:
Annie Haslam
 
Lady Whisperer:
Shakti Yoni (Gilly Smith)
 
Crazy musician:
Roy Wood
 
Glissando Extraordinaire:
Daevid Allen
 
Hopefully some of you have heard a couple of these as I have provided a link for them ... but ... hit music does not necessarily mean good or great music ... and there is a whole lot of stuff out that that most of you and I have never heard ... and they deserve a voice ... someday!

Hopefully some of you have heard a couple of these

Actually, and it may well be a sad reflection of my life, but I've heard of (and heard) nearly all those mentioned.

Time for me to borrow my daughters iPod I think.

drewfx1


Feedback:
Jimi Hendrix
Pete Townshend
Tie - too many soundmen/FOH-mixers to mention.

Honorary mention for Ted Nugent?

Jonbouy

Hopefully some of you have heard a couple of these

Actually, and it may well be a sad reflection of my life, but I've heard of (and heard) nearly all those mentioned.

Time for me to borrow my daughters iPod I think.

If there is something you would like to hear ... just let me know.

Moshkiae


Hi,
 

Bass:

the late John Glascock (Carmen and then Jethro Tull)
 

Good choice, a very lyrical and melodic player, sadly missed.

If you'd like a bass player slightly out of the norm, try Mick Karn (Japan, Rain Tree Crow) or Alan Thompson (John Martyn)

As per Jonbouy, I'm old and sad enough to be familiar with all your list, apart from;

Ax Gehrnrich (ex Guru Guru) and Shakti Yoni (Gilly Smith)

Good choice, a very lyrical and melodic player, sadly missed.

IIRC, wasn't it a dental problem that finished him off?

Not that my mouth is still giving me gyp or nothing you understand. 

I last saw him on the 'Heavy Horses' tour I think he perished not long after that, excellent pairing with Mr Barlow I thought.

If you'd like a bass player slightly out of the norm, try Mick Karn (Japan, Rain Tree Crow) or Alan Thompson (John Martyn) As per Jonbouy, I'm old and sad enough to be familiar with all your list, apart from; Ax Gehrnrich (ex Guru Guru) and Shakti Yoni (Gilly Smith)

 
Mick Karn played with ... Richard Barbieri ... who has been the keyboard player with Porcupine Tree for nearly 20 years ... and I probably should have mentioned him in the keyboard area.
 
Ax was in Guru Guru .... and you want to get "Kanguru" ... their 3rd album, although the first two are fine too. It is as free form, get crazy long cut rock'n'roll with the guitar all over the place ... and I have always thought ... this is probably what Jimi wanted to do that people did not let him do ... or Americans simply did not know enough music to expand on "blues" ...
 
Shakti did all the voicings and some songs for Gong ... and you can catch some of them on the net. Look for "I am your witch ... " and then you must listen to Gong's album "You" ... and if you can find on the net one of her solo albums there is a song called "Wild Child" ... which is special! She is a true poetess and can dish it out free form as good as Daevid ... and she fits in the "beat poets" group ... like Daevid. Not sure that too many folks can even appreciate that connection ... specially here!  She is also one of the very first new age feminists, European style, but I am not sure that feeling is appreciated a whole lot in America at all ... where freedom here sometimes only means another bottle of beer, or another toy ... and oocasionally a new version of Sonar!

piano

      Frederic Chopin 


                  Sergei Prokofiev    




                  
                           Johann Sebastian Bach