Great Pianists of the 20th Century

[happyfilmluvguy]

Scott Joplin!


Oscar Peterson!


Duke Ellington!


Ray Charles!


There's plenty more but I will leave that up to everyone else

 

[LizzieMaine]

James P. Johnson!

Teddy Wilson!

Fats Waller!

 

[Dinerman]

Victor Borge!

 

[Cousin Hepcat]

Thelonious Monk

and... (must... stop... editing...)

Sergei Rachmaninoff
Mary Lou Williams (greatly underrated/overlooked pianist/composer)
Bud Powell

 

[Fletch]

Art Tatum!!!

 

[Nick Charles]

 

[Dixon Cannon]

Wladziu Valentino Liberace

-dixon cannon

Oh yeh, and Dave Brubeck!

 

[LadyStardust]

Well, I'll take up for the classical pianists:

Arthur Rubinstein
Vladimir Horowitz


And of course Gershwin & Berlin! :eusa_clap

 

[Fletch]

Hate to break it to you, but praising Irving Berlin for his piano playing is like complimenting Proust on his handwriting. Berlin practically never played for an audience because he could only play on the black keys. He needed a special piano that could shift gears to put the black notes into any key he needed. Even then, he usually had an arranger harmonize his melodies.

 

[feltfan]

There were so many great 20th century jazz players...
Nevermind the Chick Coreas, Herbie Hancocks, and Keith
Jarretts who get so much ink (though I do like some of
their recordings). The true innovators included some mentioned
already and:

Art Tatum ("God is in the house", said Fats Waller, and the
album by that name is a must have). Can't be mentioned
too many times.

Jelly Roll Morton

Cecil Taylor

Paul Bley

Sun Ra

Lennie Tristano

Andrew Hill

And so many others... jakibyardmarilyncrispellmarilynmcpartland
alexanderschlippenbachcarlableygeriallenireneschweizer...and so on...

If we open this to classical performers, there
are a great many, but let's not forget:

Egon Petri

John Ogden

 

[dhermann1]

Tatum

Fletch: You win. Art Tatum. No competition. There are many players in many styles, but I truly believe anyone who doesn't pick Tatum just hasn't heard him.

 

[CharlieH.]

Count Basie!

Jess Stacy!

Raymond Scott!
(well, actually I think he was a better composer than a pianist)

 

[Vladimir Berkov]

Vladimir Horowitz

Sergei Rachmaninoff

 

[Curt Chiarelli]

For sheer mastery it's a tie between Josef Hofmann and good ol' Sergei Rachmaninov. When asked who was the world's greatest pianist both offered up the name of the other!

 

[JazzBaby]

Because I play piano myself, I've really come to appreciate the sheer mastery and skill of Rachmaninov and the incredible technical difficulty of his pieces really speaks to his talent.


And I'm Gershwin's biggest fan!


Also, Daniel Barenboim. [sp?]

 

[DeeDub]

Eubie Blake

See http://chnm.gmu.edu/courses/magic/saloon/blake.html and hear http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/music/artist/listenwatch/0,,404983,00.html#artist_name

He may be less well known, but I'd also like to nominate Rod Miller. He played for years at Disneyland. See http://www.thedisneyblog.com/tdb/2006/01/rod_miller_main.html

 

[52Styleline]

Van Cliburn
Peter Nero
Dudley Moore - Yes the comedian. He was an outstanding jazz pianist.
Steve Allen - Again, a better than average jazz artist.

 

[kools]

1. Art Tatum!
2. Art Tatum!!
3. Art Tatum!!!

the rest are in no particular order...
Nat King Cole
Mary Lou Williams
Pete Johnson
Albert Ammons
Meade Lux Lewis
Little Willie Littlefield
Charles Brown
Floyd Dixon
Amos Milburn
Johnny Guarnieri
Otis Spann

 

[kools]

 

[moustache]

Oh boy,where do i start::

Rachmaninov
Horowitz
Josef Hoffmann
Artur Rubenstein
Benno Moiseiwitsch
Gilels
Arrau
Alfred Brendel
Paderewski
F.Lamond
Dinu Lipatti
V.Ashkenazy
M.Argerich
Backhaus
J.Bolet
A.Cortot
Gyorgy Cziffra
Ignaz Friedman
Walter Gieseking
Leopold Godowsky
Josef Lhevinne
Sviatoslav Richter
Artur Schnabel

just to name a few

I could go on and on and on....

THIS is my favourite subject!!Of the above,Rachmaninov was THE best at his own music and a few others.But as an artist and not a composer,i pick Josef Hofmann,Godowsky and Horowitz as the most influential on my playing and education.My piano teacher's teacher's teacher(say that fast) was a pupil of Liszt.Guess i can claim a little of that!!!

Thanks for getting me started lol

JD