Just for her solo on “It’s as if you’d been There”, she ought to be top of ANYONE’S list.

The only entry in this list of the best jazz saxophonists to have been born in the 1800s, Bechet has the distinction of being the first significant saxophonist in jazz.Though Dolphy died at a relatively young age (he was 36 when he tragically succumbed to a fatal diabetic coma), the reverberations from his pathfinding music can still be felt today. Erik Nelson's gorgeously restored Pacific War color footage in There is so much wonderful creative music these days that even an apartment-bound critic misses too much of it. As for the list: one person’s opinion; nothing else.John Gilmore? He hit on a commercially successful formula with his 1987 debut Najee's Theme and has stuck closely to it ever since. "There used to be scores of these groups -- you'd hear 'Georgia on My Mind' done by an orchestra with no saxophones, then you'd hear a vocal by Engelbert Humperdinck or Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme. Courtney Pine, Andy Sheppard, Tubby Hayes?Bullshit list and chronologically provincial. That kind of purist argument is easy to make but finally counterproductive. A supremely versatile musician, Getz could play bop, bossa nova (which he helped to take into the US mainstream, not least on A form of lung disease has silenced Rollins’ tenor saxophone since 2012, but he remains the last great saxophonist of jazz’s golden age. For me, number two is Lester Young : much to say with a minimum notes. uDiscover Music celebrates the 50 best jazz saxophonists of all time.There’s no doubt that, if he were alive today, 19th-century Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax would be extremely surprised – and pleased, too, no doubt – at how the saxophone, which he invented and then patented back in 1846, has become universally popular, and was crucial in defining the sound of a 20th-century-born musical style called jazz. He at least was recorded and published, which is more than the Blue Note execs did for Tina Brooks, perhaps the best of the Coltrane challengers with something original to say. John Zorn? (Check out some of the greatest movies lists – # 1 The Matrix! Placement of the musicians will always be a never ending disagreement. The label plainly generated a model for most simplistic of jazz formats, but it also was home to some fine albums by genuine jazz masters: Dizzy Gillespie, Chick Corea (and not just the electric Chick), and Gary Burton, for example. Jaws was the best, and there are many here, Pepper, etc, who are no way as good as the list is saying. But to mourn the "smooth" variety, we have to ask -- what the heck Smooth Jazz is probably best understood as a kind of easy-listening contemporary R&B without vocals. Chu Berry? He played on a raft of pop and rock sessions in the 70s (for everyone from This eminent Norwegian composer and saxophonist (who’s a master of both the tenor and soprano varieties of sax) has enjoyed a long and fecund association with the ECM label, where he’s been since 1970. It lingers in the air, absolutely, but it can't last.

I like Stan Getz but in the top ten I dont’t think so. He played on Miles Davis’ iconic modal jazz manifesto A Memphis-born musician, Benny “Hank” Crawford, was one of the premier soul-jazz alto saxophonists of the 60s and 70s. Like many of the best jazz saxophonists, Land’s brooding tenor sound, with its intense level of expression, was indebted to Coltrane.Unique among the best jazz saxophonists to come up in the late 40s and early 50s, Konitz was one of the few altoists who wasn’t infected by Charlie Parker’s bebop sound. Despite regretting that Rouse is not there (and glad to see I am not alone with this), I was very happy to see Griffin rate so well, and even more Hank Mobley. But I must remind you that leaving out a true giant like Hermione Barnsfather is INEXCUSABLE.