In no particular order:
Siguard Rascher – Top tones!
Marcel Mule – The French School
Cannonball Adderley – Amazing tone, technique, and feel
Paul Desmond – Could you be more lyrical on the alto?
Phil Woods – The complete post bop package. Beautiful tone and lyricism on ballads.
Johnny Hodges – There’s only one Johnny Hodges!
Benny Carter – Such great sensitivity in all that he played.
Kenny Garrett – The best of the “young” guys. Unique tone and wonderful technique. Really interesting sense of harmonics and scales.
Greg Osby – Pushes the envelope of jazz/fusion/funk and everything else
Steve Coleman – One of the coolest senses of harmonics and scales around.
You can thank David Sanborn for filling stadium sized arena’s with people who will pay to hear a SAX rather than some guy in a group. He has done more to build and audiance and help employ thousands of sax performers than anyone else in the last 40 years. I’d say hes up there with the “greatest”. Even if you don’t like smooth jazz you have to love an entire radio segment dedicated to primarily US > K
No Charlie Parker?!
No Charlie Parker is right! Phil Woods and Cannonball Adderly without Charlie Parker’s influence!