Who is the greatest jazz bandleader of all time?

Running a band is a separate talent from playing in one. Some of these built institutions; others rebuilt their lineup every few years.

1. 1
   Duke Ellington

   Led his orchestra for nearly fifty years and wrote most of its book, treating the band itself as his instrument.
   1000pts
2. 2
   Woody Herman

   Reinvented his Herds through five decades of changing styles without losing the band's identity.
   897pts
3. 3
   Fletcher Henderson

   Wrote the arranging playbook the entire swing era borrowed, including for Benny Goodman's band.
   636pts
4. 4
   Art Blakey

   Ran the Jazz Messengers as a finishing school, launching more careers than any other bandstand in jazz.
   636pts
5. 5
   Dizzy Gillespie

   Took bebop's language into a full big band and opened jazz to Afro-Cuban rhythm.
   538pts
6. 6
   Stan Kenton

   Pushed progressive jazz into orchestral scale, dividing audiences between ambition and bombast.
   538pts
7. 7
   Wynton Marsalis

   Directs Jazz at Lincoln Center and its orchestra, the most institutionally powerful bandstand in the music today.
   538pts
8. 8
   John Coltrane

   His classic quartet with Tyner, Garrison and Jones is the small group most often called the greatest in jazz.
   418pts
9. 9
   Charles Mingus

   Drove his Jazz Workshop through rehearsal, argument and improvisation into some of the most ambitious writing in the music.
   418pts
10. 10
    Thelonious Monk

    Led quartets that bent to his compositions rather than the other way round, most famously with Coltrane in 1957.
    418pts
11. 11
    Sun Ra

    Kept the Arkestra running as a cosmic collective for four decades, complete with costumes, philosophy and communal living.
    418pts
12. 12
    Herbie Hancock

    Led acoustic quintets, the Headhunters and electronic projects, changing the band every time the music demanded it.
    418pts
13. 13
    Chick Corea

    Fronted Return to Forever, acoustic trios and Elektric Band projects across five decades of shifting lineups.
    418pts
14. 14
    Count Basie

    Built the Kansas City swing machine whose rhythm section set the standard for every big band that followed.
    0pts
15. 15
    Miles Davis

    Assembled and dissolved era-defining bands for four decades, from the First Great Quintet to the electric groups.
    0pts
16. 16
    Benny Goodman

    The King of Swing whose 1938 Carnegie Hall concert moved jazz into the concert hall and integrated his own bandstand.
    0pts

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