Musical taste is a subjective subject. Music affects us all differently and in a very personal way.
I would not say that I am deeply knowledgeable on jazz when discussing the nature of the "actual music" but I understand it layman terms. The personal lives of many of our jazz greats I do have extra knowledge because I have read their individual biographies, which anyone can do.
So when I say Tina Brooks is a great tenor player I am not saying that Tina is better then Hank Mobley or Booker Ervin. Nor will I say they are better then Tina Brooks. I like them all equally and Booker and Hank have a larger catalogue in which to chose from.
My observations are based on my subjective personal musical tastes as a "knowledgeable listener" and not a musician. When @frogman , himself a musicians peer, who I'm sure has countless musician peers as friends in the same line of work states that the musicians consensus of the best tenor players is Coltrane, Rollins and Henderson in that order he is not saying that we should all accept that as the "written law" and forgo others as second rate imposters.
As an example or two, we have the early "expert critics" reviews from the most popular jazz magazines of that era such as Down Beat, Jazz Review, ect...
When Coltrane quit dope and subsequently started a quest in 1957 and to become a tenor sax player par excellence, he received many bad reviews from these critics.
When Rollins was in his early 20s, the critics, Nat Hentoff comes to mind gave him bad reviews as well but his peers, the actual musicians playing the music all sought him out to play tenor on there recording dates. Miles Davis was one of Sonny's biggest supporters. In the late 40s and early 50s Rollins, even though just a young 20 year old, knew the "language of be bop" and his playing was more like someone with decades of experience then just a few years.
After Rollins recorded Saxophone Colossus and Way Out West, Hentoff and the rest of Rollins' detractors came around....
After Coltrane's Giant Steps, the bad reviews all started to flip to good. There is a 6 minute long live Coltrane review in between sets on the Miles Davis live in Stockholm Complete 4 CD set. It is on track 4 disc 1. This set is awesome and features Coltrane on tenor 2 nights and then Sonny Stitt, who took Coltrane's place when he left Miles to pursue his quest, as tenor player (you can compare the 2 styles!).
I highly suggest that any JFA members get this set. Its free on Spotify and includes the Coltrane interview.
Stockholm 1960 Complete - Album by Miles Davis | Spotify
