Compared to the centuries-long history of Western classical music, jazz music — what some would call the greatest art form of America — is a much younger art form that dates back to the early 20th century.
Beginning in New Orleans as dancing music, inventive musicians such as Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, and Duke Ellington helped propel jazz into a wide variety of popular music styles.
And today, many consider jazz to be the classical music of America. So we’ve compiled this list of the greatest and most famous jazz musicians of all time to understand this rich music genre better. Let’s get started.
1. Louis Armstrong (1901–1971)
Louis Armstrong, nicknamed Satchmo, was born in New Orleans, the birthplace of jazz music, in 1901. Raised by his grandmother in a poor neighborhood, he grew up in poverty.
Armstrong was a talented vocalist and trumpet player who helped popularize jazz in America. He got his first trumpet — technically a cornet — at age seven and learned from Joe Oliver.
After touring with top jazz musicians, Armstrong settled in Queens, where he passed away in 1971. One of his most famous recordings is “What a Wonderful World.”
2. Charlie Parker (1920–1955)
Charlie Parker, nicknamed Bird and Yardbird, was an American jazz saxophonist who created bebop.
Known for his clean tone and impeccable technique on the alto saxophone, Parker played the intricate harmonies and fast solos of bebop.
Born in Kansas City in 1920, he started playing saxophone around age 11. After touring with various bands, he moved to New York in 1939 to pursue music.
In New York, he became famous for playing at Harlem jazz clubs with other famous bebop musicians like Dizzy Gillespie and Thelonious Monk.
3. Miles Davis (1926–1991)
Miles Davis is an iconic figure in the history of jazz, and he is one of those names that people know even when unfamiliar with jazz music.
Born in Illinois in 1926, Davis moved to New York City to study at Juilliard but left in 1944 to join Charlie Parker’s group. Four years later, he left to write his music and record solo albums like Birth of the Cool, which helped start cool jazz.
Another reason Davis is iconic in jazz history is he pushed the boundaries of harmony in jazz music by exploring modal jazz.
4. John Coltrane (1926–1967)
John Coltrane, like Miles Davis, helped establish modal harmonies in jazz music. He led many recording sessions that are now classic in the jazz recording literature.
The most famous composition by Coltrane would have to be “Giant Steps,” a remarkable song of complex harmony. Aside from “Giant Steps,” he is also well known for his album A Love Supreme.
Sadly, Coltrane’s career was not very long-lived. He passed away in New York in 1967 at the age of 40 due to liver cancer. His work was posthumously acknowledged with a Pulitzer prize in 2007.
5. Duke Ellington (1899–1974)
Duke Ellington, born Edward Ellington in Washington D.C. in 1899, was a renowned jazz composer and pianist and was an equally gifted bandleader.
In terms of jazz, Ellington’s home was New York City, where he connected with many of the top jazz musicians of the time. By the 1930s, he was famous for leading big bands and jazz orchestras.
In his over five-decade career, Ellington wrote and co-wrote over a thousand pieces. Some of his most well-known are “Mood Indigo” and “Cotton Tail.”
6. Ella Fitzgerald (1917–1996)
The First Lady of Song, Ella Fitzgerald, was a legendary female jazz singer whom people also deservedly call the Queen of Jazz. Her singing was so unique and smooth that she often sounded like an instrument when doing scat improvisations.
Fitzgerald toured with an orchestra for many years before starting her solo career in 1942. She was well known for the purity of her singing tone and the unique ability to float lyrically over the rhythms and harmony underneath her singing.
By the time she passed away in 1996, Fitzgerald had earned 13 Grammy awards, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and a Presidential Medal of Freedom, among other recognitions.
7. Dave Brubeck (1920–2012)
Jazz pianist Dave Brubeck was another one of those musicians who became known for pushing the boundaries of jazz by using uncommon rhythms and harmony.
He was both a composer and a jazz piano player who became famous for hits such as “In Your Own Sweet Way,” “Take Five,” and “Unsquare Dance.”
Brubeck led his group, the Dave Brubeck Quartet. The group toured throughout the world, and they eventually recorded the jazz album Time Out, which sold over a million copies.
The hit from that album, “Take Five” — which has the unusual time signature of 5 beats per measure — is the top-selling jazz single of all time.
8. Dizzy Gillespie (1917–1993)
Dizzy Gillespie, whose legal first name was John, was a famous American trumpet player who made influential contributions to the development of jazz music as a genre.
Born in 1917 in South Carolina, Gillespie is probably most well-known for his iconic look of big cheeks puffing out as he played his trumpet.
Besides trumpet playing, Gillespie was also a singer, composer, bandleader, and educator — he was a gigantic influence on Miles Davis.
Gillespie helped popularize bebop while inventing new musical techniques such as the syncopated bass line in his famous song “A Night in Tunisia.” As a result, syncopation is now commonplace in jazz music.
9. Thelonious Monk (1917–1982)
North Carolinian Thelonious Monk was a composer and jazz pianist famous for his unique piano style with dissonant harmonies and surprising melodies.
Before this though, as a teenager, he worked as a church organist before diving into jazz in the 1940s at Manhattan clubs.
Monk recorded nearly as much music as Duke Ellington, but he was also notable for always wearing a suit, hat, and sunglasses.
In terms of music, some of his most famous compositions — now standards in the jazz repertoire — include “Round Midnight,” “Blue Monk,” and “Ruby My Dear.”
10. Billie Holiday (1915–1959)
Born in Philadelphia in 1915, Billie Holiday would later grow up in Baltimore and had a rough childhood. But by the time she was a teenager in 1929, Holiday had moved to Harlem and had begun singing in nightclubs.
In the mid-1930s, she began collaborating with other artists. The first was with the pianist Teddy Wilson, then with Count Basie, and with Artie Shaw.
Holiday, often called Lady Day, eventually became well-known for her ability to improvise profoundly and emotionally. Her recordings of note include “I Must Have That Man” and “Summertime.”
11. Chet Baker (1929–1988)
Next, we have the famous male jazz singer Chet Baker, who was famous for his smooth and lyrical vocal ability.
Born in Oklahoma in 1929, Baker was equally skilled at singing and trumpet playing and had the nickname Prince of Cool due to his influence on the cool jazz movement.
He started singing in a church choir and then formally trained in trumpet playing after joining the Army Band in 1946. After leaving the army in 1951, he pursued a music career and played many concerts with Charlie Parker.
Unfortunately, Baker struggled with heroin addiction, which led to multiple stints in jail and contributed to his death in 1988.
12. Count Basie (1904–1984)
Count Basie, born William Basie in New Jersey in 1904, was an American jazz pianist and composer. As a child, he played piano and drums but focused on the piano by age 15. In the 1920s, he moved to Harlem to be around top jazz performers.
Basi was also a famous bandleader, most well-known for the Count Basie Orchestra, which he formed in 1935. He led this orchestra for over 50 years, helping many young musicians along the way.
Four of his recordings — “One O’Clock Jump,” “April in Paris,” “Everyday (I Have the Blues),” and “Lester Leaps In” — are in the Grammy Hall of Fame.
13. Mary Lou Williams (1910–1981)
Jazz pianist Mary Lou Williams, born in Atlanta in 1910, was also a talented composer and arranger. She recorded over a hundred records and wrote music for jazz legends like Benny Goodman and Duke Ellington.
Williams was musically gifted, starting piano at age 3. By her teens, she was performing in theaters and with musicians like Ellington. In the 1940s, she moved to New York City and joined his orchestra.
Surprisingly, Williams took a break from the piano in her later years to focus on converting to Catholicism and later made a comeback with more religiously themed music.
14. Ray Brown (1926–2002)
Born in Pittsburgh in 1926, Ray Brown was a legendary jazz double bassist who performed regularly with the jazz icons Oscar Peterson and Ella Fitzgerald.
Starting from the age of eight, Brown took piano lessons but would later switch to the double bass by the time he was in high school.
After gaining fame in the Pittsburgh jazz scene, Brown moved to New York City and played with stars like Dizzy Gillespie, Art Tatum, and Charlie Parker.
He later joined Oscar Peterson’s trio before leading his own trio in the 1980s. Brown’s composition “Gravy Waltz” won Best Original Jazz Composition at the 6th Annual Grammy Awards.
15. J. J. Johnson (1924–2001)
Jazz trombonist J.J. Johnson was one of the first American jazz trombone players to embrace the bebop tradition fully. Born in 1924, he studied the piano first before devoting his time to the trombone at age 14.
Johnson’s professional career began in 1941, and by 1945, he was playing with Count Basie’s big band. By the 1950s, after playing with many different groups, Johnson established himself more as a soloist by leading small jazz combos around the country.
Also a composer, Johnson focused more on composition in the 1960s. His works during this time were a huge contribution to jazz’s Third Stream movement.
16. Benny Goodman (1909–1986)
The King of Swing, Benny Goodman, was a famous jazz clarinetist. Born in Chicago in 1909, he started taking music lessons with his siblings and performed in local dance halls as a teenager.
He made his first recordings in 1926 and had hits like “He’s Not Worth Your Tears” and “Ain’t Cha Glad?” On top of this, he is credited for helping make jazz a respected genre in America.
His 1938 Carnegie Hall concert is considered one of the most significant events in jazz history. Goodman also led one of the first racially integrated jazz groups in the country.
17. Django Reinhardt (1910–1953)
You don’t have to be American to be a jazz great, and Django Reinhardt, a Belgian jazz guitarist, proves that. Born in 1910 as Jean Reinhardt, he loved music from a young age and played the violin, banjo, and guitar.
While touring France, he discovered jazz and began collaborating with jazz musicians. He eventually became famous in the jazz scene under the nickname Django.
Though jazz is American music, Reinhardt was one of Europe’s first and most famous jazz players. He recorded with notable American jazz artists, like Benny Carter and Duke Ellington, when they visited France.
18. Coleman Hawkins (1904–1969)
The American tenor saxophone player Coleman Hawkins, nicknamed Hawk, was one of the first people to popularize the tenor saxophone in the jazz world.
Born in Missouri, he moved to New York City in the early 1920s and quickly began playing with the top players there, like Fletcher Henderson and Henry “Red” Allen. Around the 1930s, he toured Europe and performed with Django Reinhardt, mentioned earlier.
In between the two eras, Hawkins was well known both in the world of swing jazz and in the bebop music of the 1940s. One of his most famous recordings was that of “Body and Soul,” which he recorded in 1939.
19. Cannonball Adderley (1928–1975)
You won’t find a more colorful name on this list than Julian “Cannonball” Adderly, a Tampa, Florida, jazz alto saxophonist from the hard bop jazz era. The man played alongside contemporaries like Miles Davis and John Coltrane.
At its essence, Adderly’s music conveyed happiness. With music that could lift the mood in a room, the saxophonist toured the world as an early champion of jazz music.
Adderly is perhaps most famous for the 1966 hit “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy” with the Cannonball Adderley Quintet. The song peaked at #11 on the Billboard Hot 100.
20. Dexter Gordon (1923–1990)
Saxophonist Dexter Gordon was a major figure in early jazz who helped pioneer the bebop sound. Nicknamed Long Tall Dexter and the Sophisticated Giant, he became one of the greatest saxophonists ever, creating classics like “Blue Bossa.”
After making his mark in New York City with Billy Eckstine’s band, Gordon moved to Copenhagen, Denmark. He began leaving his footprint all over Europe while establishing an international jazz presence.
Gordon returned to the US in 1976. His homecoming sparked renewed interest in swing and acoustic-based jazz after the fusion jazz era.
21. Oscar Peterson (1925–2007)
Canadian Oscar Peterson is on the short list of the greatest jazz pianists of all time. Over a career spanning six decades, he was exceptionally prolific, recording hundreds of songs, touring nonstop, and leaving an indelible print on the industry.
Peterson was an ever-present fixture of the jazz genre from the early days of the Oscar Peterson Trio of the 1950s until his DVD recordings in the mid-2000s. His style was up-tempo, thumping, and full of energy.
Over his remarkable career, Peterson took home seven Grammy Awards, including the coveted Lifetime Achievement Award. Many modern jazz pianists cite him as an inspiration.
22. Freddie Hubbard (1938–2008)
Hard bop, bebop, post-bop — if you like bop, Freddie Hubbard was your man. The Indianapolis, Indiana, trumpeter was influential in all these genres with his work that started in the late 1950s.
After Miles Davis’s endorsement, he joined Blue Note Records and began his prolific career. He then went on to release over 50 solo recordings in his nearly six-decade career.
Hubbard’s 1962 album, Ready for Freddie, is one of the most iconic bebop albums ever, while the 1970 track “Red Clay” is undoubtedly his signature song.
23. Gerry Mulligan (1927–1996)
Gerry Mulligan, a.k.a. Jeru, could do it all. The versatile musician pioneered modern jazz and, at times, was an arranger, composer, and conductor.
However, he is best known for his incredible skill as a baritone saxophonist. According to the Library of Congress, Mulligan has consistently been voted the number one jazz musician in polls worldwide.
Mulligan collaborated with the who’s who of jazz heavyweights, including Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, and Billie Holliday. Even casual jazz fans have likely heard and enjoyed his signature songs, “Walkin’ Shoes” and “Young Blood.”
24. Wayne Shorter (1933–2023)
Composer and saxophonist Wayne Shorter was a titan of the jazz genre for seven decades. National Public Radio states that his vision and improvisation helped shape 20th and 21st-century jazz, pop, world, and classical music.
Shorter rose to prominence alongside John Coltrane in the 1950s. He later joined Art Blakely’s Jazz Messengers and famously collaborated with Miles Davis.
As part of Blue Note Records, he released Grammy Award-winning albums; in fact, he would go on to win 12 Grammys in his legendary career. Shorter’s signature song, “Footprints,” is one of the greatest songs in American culture.
25. Stan Getz (1927–1991)
Up next, we have another tenor saxophone player famous in the American jazz scene: Stan Getz. His beautiful tone earned him the nickname the Sound.
Born in Philadelphia in 1927, Getz went to high school in New York City and, by the age of 16, was playing with big jazz names such as Nat King Cole, Lionel Hampton, and Chick Corea.
Besides bebop, Getz also performed cool jazz and other jazz fusion genres. His famous song “The Girl from Ipanema,” written in 1964, helped to make bossa nova rhythms popular in America.
26. Charles Mingus (1922–1979)
Charles Mingus is perhaps one of the greatest jazz musicians ever, due in part to his long career of pushing the boundaries of improvisation in jazz music.
Born in Arizona in 1922, Mingus studied the cello when he was younger but struggled with reading classical music. He later switched to double bass and was writing pretty advanced music by his teens.
After this, his career slowly picked up, and by 1943, Mingus was touring with Louis Armstrong and collaborating with almost all the other big names in jazz.
27. Art Tatum (1909–1956)
Born in Ohio, Art Tatum was a unique figure in the jazz piano world because of how technically gifted he was, even against the skills of classical pianists. What’s even more impressive is that he was blind!
Famous classical pianists Sergei Rachmaninoff and Vladimir Horowitz both described Tatum as one of the best piano players in any style of music.
Because of Tatum’s superior technique, people respected his playing whenever they heard it. He was an inventive player who followed his style and did not follow the rules of what jazz pianists were supposed to do.
28. Ornette Coleman (1930–2015)
Born in 1930, Ornette Coleman was a jazz saxophone player whose main contribution to jazz was developing the genre of free jazz. Besides saxophone, the Texan musician also played the violin and trumpet and was skilled at composition too.
In 1959, Coleman released the album The Shape Of Jazz to Come and, the year after, Free Jazz, which would both have a crucial effect on the development of the free jazz genre. “Broadway Blues” and “Lonely Woman” were songs of his that defined the genre.
29. Art Blakey (1919–1990)
Jazz drummer Art Blakey was born in Pittsburgh in 1919 and established himself initially by playing in some popular big bands during the 1940s.
By the end of that decade, he began working with some of the most skilled bebop musicians of the time, such as Thelonius Monk and Charlie Parker.
In the 1950s, Blakey and pianist Horace Silver formed the Jazz Messengers. He played with this group for over 30 years. His works with them, and others, have made him an inductee of both the Grammy Hall of Fame and the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame.
30. Wes Montgomery (1923–1968)
Jazz guitarist Wes Montgomery was born in Indianapolis in 1923. Growing up in a big family with little money, his older brother bought him a four-string guitar in 1935, which Montgomery played a lot.
It wasn’t until many years later that Montgomery bought himself a proper guitar and tried to learn to play with the six strings.
By the late 1940s, Montgomery was playing around Indianapolis and would eventually go on tour with Lionel Hampton. He became well known for his playing style of plucking the guitar strings using the side of his thumbs.
However, despite his jazz background, Montgomery’s more successful albums were more in the pop genre.
31. Paul Chambers (1935–1969)
Double bassist Paul Chambers was an American jazz musician who heavily contributed to developing the role of the double bass in the jazz genre.
He was equally skilled at timekeeping in the rhythm section and at improvising during solos. He was also skilled at using the bow like a classical player.
Chambers recorded as both a backup player and as a leader. He toured with Bennie Green and J. J. Johnson before playing in the rhythm section for Miles Davis.
32. Stéphane Grappelli (1908–1997)
Few jazz violinists have been more influential than the late, great Stéphane Grappelli. The French sensation began playing the violin as an adolescent and forged a remarkable career spanning over seven decades.
Grappelli, the Grandfather of Jazz Violinists, founded the Quintette du Hot Club de France with guitarist Django Reinhardt. The all-string group helped popularize jazz music in Europe.
In Grappelli’s legendary career, he collaborated with artists from Paul Simon to Yo-Yo Ma. Young jazz violinists practicing the genre today are sure to study the great Frenchman.
33. Anita O’Day (1919–2006)
Iconic jazz singer Anita Bell Cotton, known as Anita O’Day, amazed the world with her unique style, covering swing to early bebop and excelling at both ballads and playful scatting.
From Kansas City, she started in the early 1940s with Gene Krupa’s big band in Chicago. She soon became famous worldwide, performing across Europe and Japan and working with jazz greats like Benny Goodman.
Some of O’Day’s most notable songs include “Let Me Off Uptown,” “Thanks for the Boogie Ride,” and “Is You Is or Is You Ain’t My Baby.” The latter was featured in the 2006 film Shortbus.
34. Sarah Vaughan (1924–1990)
Earning a nickname as powerful as the Divine One means you’ve done something right. Jazz singer Sarah Vaughan, also known as Sassy, had one of the most iconic voices in the history of jazz music.
The Newark, New Jersey, native is one of the pioneers of jazz singing, similar to her contemporaries Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday. The National Endowment for the Arts describes her voice as “rich, controlled tone and vibrato” with bop-oriented sounds.
Over Vaughan’s illustrious career, she recorded hits like “Send in the Clowns” and “Broken-Hearted Melody.” She won four Grammy Awards, including the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award.
35. Lee Morgan (1938–1972)
Like many of the names on this list, Lee Morgan was a true prodigy. By the time he was a teenager, he had mastered the trumpet, appeared on a John Coltrane album, and was helping popularize hard bop jazz that exploded in the 1960s.
Biographers describe Morgan’s music as emotionally charged and exuberant yet effortless at the same. A virtuoso, he commanded the stage and used all types of improvisation and unique sound effects.
Morgan’s life and career ended tragically when his wife shot and killed him after a dispute outside a bar in New York City. A documentary was made about Morgan in 2016 titled I Called Him Morgan.
36. Bud Powell (1924–1966)
Bud Powell was the living embodiment of the bebop subgenre of jazz music. A master of improvisation, the pianist played with an up-tempo, emotional fury that captured audiences.
Powell was a contemporary of, and often collaborated with, other legends on this list, including Dexter Gordon and Sarah Vaughan. Miles Davis even called Powell “the greatest pianist in this era.”
In his career, Powell released over 30 recordings. Some of his classic songs include “52nd Street Theme” and “All God’s Chillun Got Rhythm.”
Powell did not have as long a career as others on this list. In 1966, he passed away from tuberculosis after three years of ill health.
37. Jimmy Smith (1928–2005)
The master of the Hammond organ, Jimmy Smith, was a fixture of the 1950s and 1960s jazz scene in New York City. The Norristown, Pennsylvania, sensation studied the piano as a child but soon found his instrument of choice.
Like many of the famous jazz musicians on this list, he was a part of the Blue Note Record company, collaborating with the best artists of his time and displaying an incredible prolificity — he released over 30 albums in his career.
Smith was awarded the Jazz Masters Award from the National Endowment for the Arts in 2005. Sadly, he passed away that same year.
38. Sonny Rollins (1930–)
Walter Theodore Rollins, whom most know as Sonny, is a tenor saxophone born in New York City in 1930. He began on piano first before switching to alto saxophone and then to tenor. After high school, he started playing professionally as a sideman.
Over his career, Rollins recorded more than 60 albums, and many of his compositions are now jazz standards. Some of his big hit songs include “St. Thomas,” “Oleo,” and “Doxy.”
Along with John Coltrane, many people think of Rollins as jazz’s most influential tenor saxophone player. Now 93, the musician is happily retired.
39. Herbie Hancock (1940–)
Chicago native Herbie Hancock is a jazz pianist who has some of the most famous songs in jazz literature, including “Chameleon,” “Maiden Voyage,” and “Watermelon Man.”
Born in 1940, Hancock began piano lessons as a child, and after college, he would eventually join the Miles Davis Quintet, where he helped further the mission of moving jazz past its bebop roots and into new territory.
Hancock experimented with other music genres (fusion and funk) throughout his career, and his works would gain him 14 Grammy awards from 34 nominations.
40. Chick Corea (1941–2021)
A keyboard virtuoso, Chick Corea composed music, led jazz bands, and was a stellar solo artist. He did everything from old-school bebop to modern jazz fusion.
Corea was there for it all, from the Miles Davis era in the mid-20th century to the jazz evolution of the 2000s, blending classic, Latin, and modern jazz styles.
He was nominated for 71 awards and won 27 of them. Sadly, Corea passed away in 2021 due to a rare cancer, but his recordings and influence continue to inspire contemporary jazz musicians.
41. Joshua Redman (1969–)
Moving to modern jazz musicians, Joshua Redman is one of the best. Growing up in Berkeley, California, around famous jazz musicians, including his father, Dewey Redman, he initially planned to pursue a law career. However, the New York City jazz scene in the 1990s drew him in.
Redman started on the clarinet but quickly switched to the tenor saxophone, his signature instrument. His debut album “Redman” in 1993 earned him his first Grammy nomination.
Known for his improvisational style that blends classic jazz with a modern twist, Redman still performs today with his group, the Joshua Redman Quartet. In 2020, they released the acclaimed album RoundAgain.
42. Wynton Marsalis (1961–)
In the trumpet world, Wynton Marsalis is a famous name. He is most well-known for his jazz music, although he has also put out high-level classical albums.
Three of Marsalis’s 1980s albums — Think of One, Hot House Flowers, and Black Codes (From the Underground) — won him each Best Jazz Instrumental Solo Grammys. He also received more Grammys for his performance with groups and in orchestras.
Besides trumpet playing, Marsalis is also a composer and a teacher, and in the education space, he is well known for promoting jazz and classical music to younger students.
43. Robert Glasper (1978–)
Houston, Texas, native Robert Glasper is not your traditional jazz musician. He incorporates a modern jazz sound that fuses several genres, including rock, soul, and hip-hop.
The multitalented pianist writes music for other artists, produces records, and manages to release solo content. Glasper has formed multiple groups in his young career, including the Robert Glasper Trio and the Robert Glasper Experiment, and has 14 Grammy nominations to date, with five wins.
In recent years, Glasper has been recording and performing with the supergroup Dinner Party with fellow jazz musicians Kamasi Washington and Terrace Martin and rapper 9th Wonder.
44. Pat Metheny (1954–)
Disregard the Kenny G hair and appreciate the fact that Pat Metheny is one of the all-time jazz legends. The guitarist-composer is a Grammy Award magnet, winning a record 20 awards in 10 different categories.
Metheny is unafraid to experiment, mixing Afro-Latin, Brazilian, rock, funk, and soul elements in his classic guitar riffs.
The Kansas City native has collaborated with some of the most iconic artists in jazz over his five decades in the genre. His 1985 joint effort with David Bowie, “This Is Not America,” remains in regular American and European radio rotation.
Summing Up Our List Of Great Jazz Musicians
Hopefully, you now have a much richer idea of the history of jazz music and the various musicians who contributed to its evolution over the last hundred years.
From its early roots, jazz has undergone many changes, and modern jazz music is almost entirely different today from the early bebop style.
But when you learn the music of some of these great jazz musicians, you can slowly trace how the music changed and appreciate this truly American art form.
