Jazz Top 10

Another odd list that caught my eye:  Top 10 Jazz artists. Came up with this real quick. No surprises in the top 10.  If I could have gone up to 20, then the list might have been more eclectic.  But these are pretty much the titans of my Jazz listening experience.

1. Miles Davis
2. Ella Fitzgerald
3. Louis Armstrong
4. Duke Ellington
5. Billie Holiday
6. Ornette Coleman
7. Sonny Rollins
8. Charlie Parker
9. Thelonious Monk
10. Charles Mingus

Close calls:  Count Basie, Fats Waller, Dizzy Gillespie, Herbie Hancock.

Now for a anti-Jazz/Critic/Canon Top 10.  These names are popular with Jazz fans, but not Jazz critics.  Most get lukewarm notices from the Jazz elite.  They either strayed too far R&B or too far Pop or too far Rock.  And except for Chick Corea (Return to Forever) as a solo act, none are in the Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame, and none have even gotten close as of 2013 (and most will never get close).  These 10 names always come to mind when I think of this category.

1.  George Benson
2.  Grover Washington Jr.
3.  Weather Report
4.  Return To Forever
5.  David Sanborn
6.  Crusaders
7.  Chuck Mangione
8.  Al Jarreau
9.  Larry Carlton
10. Lee Ritenour