Number 2 is Coltrane. He can do it all: play the melody straight, with almost no embellishment, as in "Aisha." Play very simply, with very few notes, as in his solo on "So What." Paraphrase or lightly embellish the melody, as in his "Ballads" album. Improvise harmonically ("vertically") for an hour, playing a zillion notes. That up-and-down, tensionrealeasetensionreleasetensionrelease style that he plays on a fast blues also has a horizontal, forward moving drive. He is developing motifs even though it seems as though he is only running up and down the changes. That is what Martin Williams failed to see. His rhythmic approach, forged with Elvin Jones, is quite fascinating, since it makes very sparing use of the traditional jazz swung eighth note. It's hard to explain since I don't have the capacity to use musical notation on this blog. When a neoconservative like Crouch says that Coltrane doesn't swing, he is technically correct, to some degree-- but totally off-base in the conclusion he draws from this.

Coltrane also has that huge sound and that emotional force that even non-jazz people respond to immediately. That's why he comes ahead of Ornette on my list, even though on some level I actually prefer Ornette. I'd have to think about whether I ultimately prefer horizontal players (Lester, Ornette, Rollins, Konitz) to vertical players (Hawkins, Coltrane, Dolphy). For me, 'Trane transcends these categories.

Alternate order for the list: switch any two players who appear contiguously. Thus Dolphy is put ahead of Konitz, Young ahead of Hawkins, Ornette ahead of Coltrane, Coltrane ahead of Parker. What shows that my list is impeccably correct, however, is that a player cannot move two or more spaces up. Ornette cannot be switched with Bird, for example. Young cannot challenge Coltrane. This probably only makes sense to me, but I've always loved top ten lists.