Seeing as I tried last time, here's my guess:

1) Coleman Hawkins
2) Lester Young
3) Ben Webster
4) Don Byas
5) Dexter Gordon
6) Sonny Rollins
7) John Coltrane
8) Stan Getz
9) Joe Henderson
10) Johnny Griffin

I've missed loads...Zoot Sims, Stitt, Mobley, Rouse, Clifford Jordan, Wardell Gray, Warne Marsh, Illion Jacquet, Stanley Turrentine

Edit: Nice video, Jay produces such great content. I appreciated the inclusion of historical context, and the reference to current and historical injustices

 

My choice as well.

 

YOU SHOULDN'T RANK THEM IT'S NOT A COMPETITION HE LEFT OUT IMPORTANT MUSICIANS THE VIDEO WAS TOO LONG THE VIDEO WAS TOO SHORT RAWWWWWARHRHASDGHGHASDLAKSDG


...am I doing it right?

 

YOU SHOULDN'T RANK THEM IT'S NOT A COMPETITION HE LEFT OUT IMPORTANT MUSICIANS THE VIDEO WAS TOO LONG THE VIDEO WAS TOO SHORT RAWWWWWARHRHASDGHGHASDLAKSDG

...am I doing it right?

Why, yes. Rant early, rant often. rotest:

 

Excellent and a major improvement over the alto video; his sensitivity and caring treatment of the BLM movement was the perfect tone as well. Great job, Jay...

 

BLM movement was the perfect tone as well.

Black Lacquer Matters?

 

There was only one of Jay's 10 tenorists whom I had reservations about. I sat down to try and work up my own list. I gave up when I got to 20 (on top of Jay's original 10). The players I would most like to have found room for are Chu Berry, Arnett Cobb, Lee Allen, Roland Alphonso and Tubby Hayes but 15 into 10 won't go. Good man, Jay - great job.

Black Lives Matter.

 

There was only one of Jay's 10 tenorists whom I had reservations about. I sat down to try and work up my own list. I gave up when I got to 20 (on top of Jay's original 10). The players I would most like to have found room for are Chu Berry, Arnett Cobb, Lee Allen, Roland Alphonso and Tubby Hayes but 15 into 10 won't go. Good man, Jay - great job.

Tubby Hayes -- British player who died way too young. CRAZY technique.

 

The list is exclusive to those active before 1960. Joe Henderson, Sal Nistico, and Eddie Harris did not record before the early 60s but if the cut off was extended a few years they would make my list.

 

I'll put it in caps:

WELL SAID JAY!

Excellent video...

 

Besides the great players he mentioned by name and in the closing statement these players could also have been mentioned: Herschel Evans, Joe Thomas (from the Lunceford band), Bud Freeman, Ike Quebec, Flip Philips, Wardell Gray, Teddy Edwards, Budd Johnson, Harold Land, Jimmy Forrest, Al Cohn, Red Holloway and probably many more!

 

I think Jay Metcalf did a fine job of narrowing down a huge field of contenders to a manageable list, producing a video that people can actually sit through.

Lists like this in other contexts tend to be huge. For example, in rock, Rolling Stone has published lists of the 100 Greatest Guitarists and the 100 Greatest Drummers (100! drummers!). Fair enough, but I wouldn't expect one guy to try to document something like that for a YouTube video. So far, combining alto and tenor players, Jay has 20 great jazz saxophonists. If he repeats this work for the period after 1960 to the present, he'll be up to 40. Maybe he'll throw in a handful of soprano and/or bari players; maybe he won't. I doubt that he'll take a serious look at saxophonists outside jazz. But in any event, that would be plenty of work for one archivist. Viewers can make up the difference with their own nominations, as he recommends.

 

While it's very hard to narrow to a short list of ten players in this two videos of him, I think that if he wanted to do a video of ten players that played two or more instruments at the same time and were influential, he would have a hard time getting those ten!

All a matter of perspective.

 

If you mean literally played 2 or more instruments at the same time, I think that list is "Rashaan Roland Kirk." I'm sure there are couple others, but it's a VERY short list.

If you mean skilled woodwind doublers who solo on multiple instruments (not occasional doublers like in Duke's band), as someone who was mainly a flutist for a long time, I can name a decent selection:

Eric Dolphy (alto sax, bass clarinet, flute)
James Moody (tenor sax, flute)
Frank Wess (teno sax, flute)
James Spaulding (alto sax, flute)
Bennie Maupin (just list the woodwind section here)
Rashaan Roland Kirk (you know)
Yusef Lateef (tenor sax, oboe, flute, and more)
Jimmy Giuffre (clarinet, tenor sax, bari)
Bud Shank (alto sax, flute)
Sidney Bechet (soprano sax, clarinet)
Charles Lloyd (tenor sax, flute)
Joe Farrell (flute, soprano sax, tenor sax)

That's 12, if you put Bud Shank with alto and Sidney Bechet with soprano as they were less persistent doublers, you get 10 solid woodwind doublers... And I'm SURE my list is short.

 

I haven't watched the video yet, I will eventually. I noticed immediately that one name was missing from the list and there may be a reason stated in the video for that. Where is Michael Brecker in all this? He pretty much consumed every player on this list for breakfast as far as technique and style are concerned. I'm just saying...

 

Title says (Classic Jazz Era). Brecker is from a newer generation IMO. Just saying...

 

My bad, The fact that Brecker has been gone for over a decade makes me think of him as a classic player but you are correct. Otherwise several other names are missing from the list...Bergonzi, Berg, Grossman, Trane, Rollins...just to name a few. All great players
Cheers

 

Apart from doubling on woodwind, you can have Benny Carter, Joe McPhee and Ira Sullivan as sax players doubling on trumpet (much as I love Ornette I’m not going to count him here), and the aforementioned Tubby Hayes who doubled on vibraphone.

 

Benny Carter (Alto Sax, Trumpet).

 

Albert Ayler, John Gilmore , Pharoah Sanders, Archie Shepp

 

Uncle Pee Bee, atta boy for mentioning old Herschel, you don't see that everyday. The forgotten man, somewhat deliberately so. He was the leading tenor for influence at the time when jazz was the most popular music for that New York minute, as well in his time the tenor emerged and remains the leading voice of jazz.