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The piano has been central to the development of jazz music<\/a><\/strong>, but just who are the best jazz pianists of all time? Here are, or what we think are, the greatest jazz pianists ever, but have we ever missed your favourite?<\/p> Dave Brubeck<\/a><\/strong> was incredibly well known for most of his career. His early success with college audiences \u2013 the Brubeck Quartet virtually invented the campus circuit \u2013 catapulted him on to the cover of Time<\/i> magazine in 1954. (The pianist\u2019s reaction was embarrassment: he felt Duke Ellington deserved the honour.)<\/p> In 1960 his star status increased with the album Time Out<\/i>. Brubeck\u2019s mixture of asymmetrical rhythms and catchy tunes won international renown, though the disc\u2019s biggest hit, the sinuous \u2018Take Five\u2019, was written by the quartet\u2019s alto saxophonist Paul Desmond, with some structural advice from his boss.<\/p> But, as all too often in jazz, popular celebrity inspired critical condescension. He was slated for his \u2018academic\u2019 approach \u2013 he had studied with Darius Milhaud, classical composer and member of the French collective Les Six<\/a><\/strong> \u2013 his use of such classical devices as counterpoint and polytonality, his sometimes thunderous keyboard attack and disinclination to swing in a conventional manner.<\/p> Critics damned his lyricism with faint praise and dismissed him from the jazz tradition. However, over the years, as the idea of a monolithic tradition has become suspect, Brubeck has come to be seen as a remarkable, original talent.<\/p>
Best jazz pianists: the top 15<\/h2>
15. Dave Brubeck (1920-2012)<\/h3>