Glad someone included Ben Webster in this discussion. I didn't neglect him deliberately - just had to put some limits on my discussion. Ben, of course, was one the great tenor players who were part of the Coleman Hawkins stylistic legacy. Some of the recordings he did for Verve in the 1950's were very good, such as his recording with Gerry Mulligan. There is also a recent re-release of Ben and Art Tatum (Pablo label) as part of JVC's XRCD series. By the 1950's, Ben was playing very few notes, particularly on ballads, and his breathy intonation became a major part of his style. He sure could say a lot with less. That, infact, is one of the characteristics I've noted about a lot of jazz greats -- they seem to distill their style as they grow older, and while they play fewer notes they manage to convey great content and depth of feeling. Clark Terry (trumpet) is one of jazz's "living treasures", and his recent album on Chesky (duets with some 14 great jazz pianists) is a great example of distilled expression. Perhaps one of the traits I find lacking in many of the young jazz musicians is that personal sense of style, of individual voice, that many of the jazz greats had. Louis Armstrong's phrasing, for example, was almost identical to the way he sang; Coltrane's phrasing, particularly during his "sheets of sound" phase, was unmistakable; I can pick out Art Pepper's sound and phrasing in an instant -- and the same with Phil Woods. Until the young players begin to develop a distinct, individual identity, they won't be true jazz artists.
