??? 4 Andy: “Who are your musical influences?”

One question my students ask me from time to time is “who are some of your main musical influences?” Never made a list until now, and although incomplete, these are among the innovators and acknowledged masters who have sent me flying with their sound and story throughout decades of loving listening:

CLASSICAL COMPOSERS
  • J.S. Bach
  • Mozart
  • Beethoven
  • Chopin
  • Brahms
  • Ravel
  • Rachmaninoff
  • Prokofiev
JAZZ PIANO INNOVATORS
  • Art Tatum
  • Erroll Garner
  • McCoy Tyner
  • Dwike Mitchell
  • Ahmad Jamal
  • Billy Strayhorn
  • Duke Ellington
  • Bill Evans
  • George Russell
  • Oscar Peterson
  • Fats Waller
  • Earl Hines
  • Nat “King” Cole
  • George Shearing
  • Monte Alexander
JAZZ ORGANISTS
  • Shirley Scott
  • Larry Goldings
JAZZ LEGENDS
  • John Coltrane
  • Miles Davis
  • Dizzy Gillespie
POP and R&B ARTISTS
  • Stevie Wonder
  • Lennon/McCartney – The Beatles
  • Joni Mitchell
  • James Taylor
  • Take 6
BLUES and BOOGIE WOOGIE LEGENDS
  • Memphis Slim
  • Otis Spann
  • Albert Ammons
  • Pete Johnson
  • Meade Lux Lewis
BROADWAY COMPOSERS
  • Richard Rodgers
  • George Gershwin
  • Harold Arlen
  • Frank Loesser
  • Irving Berlin
CLASSICAL PIANISTS – past and present
  • Olga Kern
  • Angela Hewitt
  • Idil Biret
  • Vladimir Horowitz
  • Alicia de Larrocha
  • Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli
  • Krystian Zimerman
  • Ivan Moravec
  • Glenn Gould
  • Evgeny Kissin
JAZZ ROCK FUSION
  • Tribal Tech
  • Dirty Loops
  • The YellowJackets
THE 21st CENTURY NEW GENERATION
  • Jacob Collier
  • Eddie Brown
  • Quennel Gaskin
  • Doobie Powell
  • Cory Henry
  • Bubby Fann
DRUMMERS
  • Papa Ladji Camara
  • Elvin Jones
  • Idris Muhammad
  • Tony Williams
  • Bill Stewart
  • Nasheet Waits