Davis created modal jazz and fusion, and he helped transform bebop.
Bill Evans (1929-1980) A key participant on Miles Davis's Kind of Blue, and a major influence in modal jazz and on modern pianists including Herbie Hancock, Keith Jarrett and Brad Mehldau.
Here Coltrane is reaching into modal jazz and raga tonalities, using the soprano saxophone more and more, and also solidifying the band; it's the sound of a group that knows what it's doing.
"Columbus Stockade Blues" began with the dizzying counterpoint of banjo picking from Tony Trischka and soprano-saxophone arpeggios from Bill Evans; "When the Golden Leaves Begin to Fall" turned a bluegrass waltz into a modal jazz ballad; and Mr. Glaser started an old fiddle tune, "Cluck Old Hen," with a quotation from John Coltrane's "Giant Steps".
Traditional African instruments, James Brown style funk, Afro-Caribbean rhythms, modal jazz improvisation and politically conscious lyrics all synthesized to create an original sound that influenced people all over the world.
The hard-hitting drummer from Living Colour, who has worked with musicians from Wayne Shorter to Mos Def, leads a group that can tilt from modal jazz to fusion, and includes Stanley Jordan on guitar and Alex Foster on saxophone.
Morrison's dark charisma and unstoppable chutzpah held together the band's improbable amalgam of earthy blues, high-flown poetry, modal jazz, sardonic cabaret and Top 40 rock.
Drums and Tuba (plus a third band member on guitar) vamps its way through funk-bottomed instrumentals that New Orleans brass bands, modal jazz, Nigerian juju and whatever else its members feel like trying, keeping the dance floor busy.
A prolific and daring recording artist, he not only was a major hard-bop figure but also played free jazz with Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane, and Eric Dolphy and modal jazz with Wayne Shorter.
Coleman and others had continued to popularize so-called free jazz, a confrontational, instinctive response to bebop and modal jazz.
He'll be remembered fondly as a musician of genius who was at the forefront of bebop, hard-bop, orchestral jazz, modal jazz, jazz-rock fusion and techno-funk.
