Stravinsky and Davis are my all time favorite classical and jazz artists.  In my heart, they are equal.  

A really hard choice, since all three were the "fathers" of something new ... a new expression in music that was not heard before ... and both Ellington and Davis gathered faster accolades than Stravinsky because of the media, and the selling of records, although the movie industry did their best to prevent black music (Tom Dowd Special!) for a long time, until such a time in the 60's when the sales of the black music was getting way too big for it to be ignored by commercial interests!

Stravinsky survived the time and even worked as a conductor for some of his pieces, and it ended up endearing his work to the audiences, and the recordings, that surfaced later, showed that this was indeed different and not only very good, but far out.

In all honesty, Stravinsky deserves the vote, but I do not like to not think that the other two do not deserve a vote. Miles sure does, even if some do not like him, because he is all over the place and many times folks think it is disjointed, but his improvisational style is far out, and something that only "krautrock" was able to do in both jazz and rock music.

I think weird sometimes ... I really think that Tangerine Dream deserves to be in that list ... because they really helped define and show that electronic music was far out and valuable, and a lot of the electronics before them were not as serious and well defined as they became ... most of it, like Tomita, were excellent documents that electronics could be used for classical music and very well at that ... however the ability to make other music with the electronics was still in its infancy, although Vangelis, should be in the mold with TD since he was doing it at the same time on his own!

It's a tough thing ... but one needs to put all of this on a piece of paper like a huge map over 100 years of music to see how "big" some of these folks deserve to be in terms of their contributions. 

They are all 5 star folks in my book, for different reasons!

Hi,

No shame in that ... the hard part being that radio and the local orchestras never did a lot of classical music justice, by sticking to the "top 5" pieces over and over and over again. In the past 30 to 40 years, even here, it is really hard to see many folks like classical music ... not just one favorite ... but all classical music and its massive history ... and then stick to just one person a few years ago.

In the Miles special on the stream, there is a fun bit ... some guy joined them and he was really good and very academic and all that ... so Miles saw one of the scores for something or that and said something like ... will do variations on that until we fall off the stage, or something like it ... and the guy was surprised, when Miles was not kidding, and every night he had to adjust. Good music lesson, if you ask me!

The folks that "turned music" upside down, are always very valuable ... and Miles deserves to be listed, and although your ear is not yet acquainted to Stravinsky, in the end, one can only say one thing ... there is music ... and then there is more music ... and the difference is? ... When you stop choosing "sides" or "favorites", that you find a new universe out there ... and it is ENDLESS.

Symphony of Negro Life probably had more impact than anything Stravs or Miles did...

The question was not “Who do you think was most important/impactful?”, but rather more simply, “Who do you prefer?”. Given this, it is a little disingenuous to make the assumption that those who have not voted for Ellington think him not “musically esssntial” or that he is “unappreciated”.

I am quite certain that a lot of the people who have voted DO appreciate Ellington, and ARE aware of how much impact and import he had. But preference pays no attention to such matters.

I can recognise influential and important albums and artists, but it doesn’t mean I necessarily like them, or (if I do), that I will prefer them. 🤷🏻‍♂️

This poll is like asking me to pick between my three children.