Haha - it's a good point, but unfortunately the wrong example. Mozart was not only a piano virtuoso, he was also a very fine fiddle player and could play his own violin parts well. Mozart was in fact his own bad-ass session player.

Regarding the originality versus technical proficiency thing. There's room enough in life for both innovators and consolidators, and I think we benefit from both and all shades in between. Long before any of the "bluesmen" named on this thread Louis Armstrong was innovating away at the blues in a way that left most of his contemporaries standing. But there came a moment in his career when he made a deliberate and open decision to stop innovating and start exploring more deeply the ground he'd already covered. He switched from innovator to consolidator - in his own words.

In Louis Armstrong we have that combination very unusually in one individual: with Jimi and Stevie it is spread across two. Interesting, and worth having.

Cheers - C

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ahhh but even the baddest-ass session player can't play while they conduct. Or at least not without an extra set of hands. The point was he had 'session musicians' whose job was to parrot the notes he wrote as accurately as possible. That might not be original or innovative, but it's still playing music. Technical proficiency does have its place.

Also, remember just because something is new and original doesn't mean it's good....

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Ah - it feels almost churlish to mention it, but Mozart conducted from the keyboard or with the violin bow, accordingly. To the extent anyone was conducting at all - they didn't really have conductors as such till much later. Though of course I take your point, he'd have been a bit stuck without all the other orchestral players.

More interesting is that Mozart and most other soloists of the time took it for granted that their playing included plenty of improvisation. And people continue that to the present day to differing extents in the classical field. Interpretation can include innovation.


Ah-ha! Never was a truer word spoken!

Cheers - C

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What did he wave his elbows at them?

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Yes, it is, but when I started it back in 2007 there were only a few of us here and I was just curious...a lot has happened since 2007.

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Being able to play and enjoy music is a gift that's often taken for granted.

Don't leave home without it!

Part of the foolishness of this thread is how it's really narrowly confined to one, or at best two, genres - Rock/Blues, Pop.

I suspect only a select few will know any of these names, though a true guitar afficiando would know most of them:

Pepe Romero, Sharon Isbin, Leona Boyd, Andres Segovia, Julian Bream, Grant Green, Paco De Lucia, Pat Martino, Andrew York, Charlie Byrd, Alvin 'Youngblood' Hart, Amos Garrett, Anson Funderburgh, Cesar Rosas, Wes Montgomery, Charlie Christian, Joe Pass, Al DiMeola, Earl Klugh, Barney Kessel, Ed Bickert, John McLaughlin, John Scofield, Herb Ellis.... and waay too many others to name here.

Start adding some of these guys into the mix and many of the 'Greats' previously mentioned in this thread would fade to obscurity...

If you're walking around thinking that any 'Best of...' List is restricted only to shuffling Hendrix, Clapton, Townshend, Keefer, Vai, Gallagher, Cooder, Slash, SRV, EVH, and such into some kind of pecking order, you REALLY need to do a whole lot more listening !!


cheers!

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'11 FSR Am. Vtg. Ltd. Ed. CAR '57 Stratocaster (SN# LE02639)
'14 American Deluxe Ash Stratocaster
'12 Telebration Empress Telecaster
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'10 Heritage H-535
'99 Martin DC-1E
'13 Lanikai Tenor Ukulele

It never fails to amaze me how the context is always about the fastest gun in the west ...
Even more ridiculous is that both of these guys are dead, so that all the data is rather redundant.

Today I would likely expect Hendrix to be playing with, Chick Corea or the likes, as for Stevie Ray, I also doubt he would be as we know him at his untimely abrupt halt....

As For the Mozart enlightenment, seems to me that someone should put down their strings and go take a live listen to .... Nigel Kennedy, Anne Sophie Mutter, Hillary Hahn, Gil Shaham, Nadja Salerno Sonenberg, Natalie MacMaster and a host of contemporary string players that play fretless string instruments, but most importantly usually play on pitch ....

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"C'est parti mon Kiki "

Esteban blows them all away!!!

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You dig?

Hmmm ...Sharon Isbin Didn't she just recently collaborate with Steve Vai

It's just that where popular ( Generic Mass Appeal Kool Aid ) music and a poll like this is concerned it rarely strays from it's myopic confines of " The Top Of The Pops "

There really should be a #1 rule.... The artist(s) must still be breathing....

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"C'est parti mon Kiki "

OK ... That's it ... I'm off to listen to Depeche Mode and Karma Karma Chameleon ...

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"C'est parti mon Kiki "

Although in retrospect .....Neither SRV or Hendrix can hold a candle ( no puns intended )
To this modern times shredder.....

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"C'est parti mon Kiki "

Yep - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIGYsLeESV4

cheers!

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'11 FSR Am. Vtg. Ltd. Ed. CAR '57 Stratocaster (SN# LE02639)
'14 American Deluxe Ash Stratocaster
'12 Telebration Empress Telecaster
'99 Deluxe Nashville Telecaster
'12 FSR Telecaster HH
'10 Heritage H-535
'99 Martin DC-1E
'13 Lanikai Tenor Ukulele

After all these years this thread raises its ugly head again,this is another question to which there there can be no definitive answer as it is all subjective.If you asked a 14 year old girl who was the better entertainer or even guitarist Jimi Hendrix or Justin Beiber, you know the doe-eyed girlie-boy would be her choice.Trying to be entirely objective I'd have to give Jimi the nod for the simple fact that he was the innovator of many of the riffs and guitar tricks that SRV used then again someone else could be totally objective and pick SRV for different reasons.I choose to appreciate the virtuosity of both and not knock my self out trying to figure out who's best.I will always prefer Jimi over just about any other , but SRV's,Vai's,Satriani's etc. music may make a connection to someone else.

I appreciate virtuosity in any genre and have a pretty good collection of classical guitarists such as Fisk,Romero,Williams,Segovia,Bream and countless others and I also have the music of many or the world's greatest violinists and pianists.With these musicians I don't put them through my own who's best competition but just sit back enjoying the beauty of the music that they are making.That's what it's all about.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

I have a headache.

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Gary

BTW, Popa Chubby is better than Jimi.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8tC6qf5chA

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Gary