Greatest American jazz musician/band leader
 

Mpfunk said Coltrane.

Personally, I don't even see Coltrane beating out Miles Davis in this horse race.

Longevity, influence, reinvention, chops, originality--I think Davis beats out Coltrane.

Davis certainly had longevity over Coltrane, but I think that is the only thing that Davis had over Trane. Davis is great and certainly I would not criticize anyone who would pick him, but I simply disagree.

I think Trane was a lot more original than Davis. Neither one really started the whole free jazz movement, but Coltrane simply did it better and did it earlier.

You can give Davis credit for the innovation of Kind of Blue, but you had Coltrane as a major driving force on that album as well.

I am not very knowledgeable about jazz, although I have listened to both Coltrane and Davis.

I asked Farrah about this (who is knowledgeable about both jazz and music in general) and she agreed with me.

Davis went through all sorts of innovations and periods that went well beyond just Kind of Blue.

What, Kenny G dosen't get a vote? (Okay, first time in history I have to add TIC.)

Davis.

I don’t know anything about jazz.

I did go through a few years of listening, but I don't listen to it much anymore. Voting with my wallet, based on the count of my Jazz CDs by artistst, here is my list:

1.Monk
2.Coltrane
3.Parker
4.Davis

One checkmark for Coltrane - I think my all-time favorite jazz track is Equinox (pedestrian, I'm sure. I think it's more blues than Jazz)

It's a tough call. I answered Davis, because I thought he was probably more influential simply because he was around longer. But I admit I have more Coltrane albums, and think that A Love Supreme and Blue Trane are at least on a par with Kind of Blue.

That is a tough question to answer. I prefer to break it down into categories:

saxophone - John Coltrane
trumpet - Miles Davis
piano - Bill Evans
guitar - Pat Metheny

Gutless, yes, but I'll stick to that.