World's Greatest Tenors

"It's really interesting that a jazz colossus such as Miles was in absolute awe and near worship of Bird"

Charles that's probably because technically he wasn't as good. As great as Miles was as a musical innovator I just don't hear the greatness in his playing, certainly not in the realm of Armstrong, Hawkins, Coltrane, Monk, Beiderbecke (YES, Bix) or a host of others as a musician's musician. I'm sure he well knew it but that wasn't his legacy. Miles was a great facilitator and a very creative tinkerer and innovator, THAT is his genius. IMHO. Funny, I remember almost 50 years back as a freshman band member in HS having the SAME arguments with fellow trumpeter, head tilted down with his mute in hand, who absolutely idolized Miles. Well before some of his milestone achievements, Bitches Brew and Tutu albums.

Waiting for the sparks to fly! All I can say is, it's a matter of taste and nothing is absolute! Oh Charles, we're in agreement on the Monk/Peterson comparison.

Hi Tubegroover,
No need for sparks to fly and others have said the regarding Mile's technical facility, I'll just respectfully disagree with you on this one. Mile's point was no matter the status or reputation of the musicians their feeling of Bird amongst them was universal.
Tubegroover I always appreciate your contributions on this site. No law says we have to always agree (that'd be no fun). This is no different than if we were discussing who are the most beautiful women or the best athlete ever.
Informed opinions are great.
Charles,

While it certainly could be argued that Miles didn't quite have the "chops" of some of the other great jazz trumpeters, he certainly had enough. I would agree with Tubegroover that he was not the technician that players like Clifford Brown or (later) Freddie Hubbard were, but he could definitely play the trumpet. His contribution was much more than being a conceptualist band leader; there are few jazz trumpet players whose playing is completely free of Milesisms. Anyone who could keep up with Bird in a bebop setting clearly had a lot of chops. I think that in keeping with his enigmatic persona, his playing, from a technical standpoint, reflected a certain "attitude" that is sometimes misconstrued as lack of chops. It is sometimes pointed out how often he "fracked" (missed notes) or played with a sloppy and less than perfectly focused sound. I think a lot of that was by choice and not because he couldn't play otherwise. It's an attitude of "the feeling is what matters and if the note doesn't come out, well, whatever..." This attitude is in keeping with another aspect of his concept that defined him: "the spaces between the notes (the silence) is more important than the notes themselves". This is why his playing was so sparse at times; it wasnt about playing a lot of notes, but letting a single note "tell the story". Wayne Shorter is the same way, his playing got less and less notey over the years; perhaps it was Miles' influence.

Yep!
Miles played the way he 'felt' the music and via his unique interpretation. He mentioned that himself when talking about his great 1950s group that included Coltrane and Julian "Cannonball". Saying that Coltrane played "sheets" of sound and that he (Miles) was much more inclined to play fewer notes and instead use space (which he did beautifully). Listen to his playing with his second great quintet in the 1960s, there's no lack of technique. Clifford Brown is of course on the Mount Rushmore of trumpeters and was influenced by the nearly forgotten (but superb) Fats Navarro . I'd say in terms of similar technical approach Thad Jones was closer to how Clifford played.
Mingus thought Thad was better than Clifford and Miles. We all have opinions don't we?
Charles,

How does a discussion of tenor players get so far off the point?