WHAT DO YOU MEAN BEETHOVEN WASN'T SO GREAT???"

[crgildart]

You mean like

Fixed!

 

[Ogg]

Fixed!

 

[wyowindrunner]

I personally would add Gershwin and Dizzy Gillespie.

Also keep in mind we seem to be focused on “Western great music” so this overlooks compositions from the rest of the world, like Babatunde Olantunji, or layered and complex music from India such at that from Zakair Hussein. I mentioned Dizzy Gillespie because of his influence of incorporating Afro Cuban music into contemporary jazz, in addition to his masterful playing.

A Zappa fan since high school ( a lot of the folks I ran with thought he sucked. A couple years later, when overnite sensation came out, many thought Zappa was the bomb.
Pete Townsend is overlooked both as a composer and a musician. But Gershwin's " Rhapsody in Blue" is one of the gretest things ever written. My favorite recording of this piece is pianist Roger William's version. The repetition of the themes building to the climax are fantastic.

 

[Tominator]

Why Beethoven - Leonard Bernstein