The Best Jazz Pianists of All Time
Ask ten jazz musicians to name the greatest piano player who ever lived and you will get ten arguments — which is exactly why the ranking below is worth reading. It comes from The Fifty Greatest Jazz Piano Players of All Time, a book in which jazz journalist Gene Rizzo polled leading players, educators and critics and then committed to an actual order, one through fifty. We have kept his ranking and his verdicts, refreshed every fact to 2026, and linked each pianist to sheet music you can play.
This guide gives you Rizzo's full Top 50 in one scannable table, explains the criteria the ranking was built on, sketches the eras of jazz piano so the names have context, and points you to the next twenty players and the leading women at the keyboard. Every pianist links to a fuller profile and to scores you can open on MuseScore.
The short version: Rizzo's top five are Oscar Peterson, Bill Evans, Bud Powell, Art Tatum and Monty Alexander — a mix of supreme technicians, harmonic innovators and the bebop pioneer who rebuilt how the instrument is played. The full fifty span nearly a century, from ragtime and stride through bebop, hard bop, modal jazz and fusion.
How the ranking was made
Rizzo did not rank in a vacuum. For the book, Hal Leonard assembled a panel of respected players, educators and critics, and the choices were weighed on three qualities: command of the instrument, originality, and influence on other musicians — with special weight where all three converge. That is why a flawless technician and a spare, idea-driven stylist can sit close together: they are being measured on different strengths, and each one counts.
It is one writer's synthesis of expert opinion, published in 2005, and Rizzo says so plainly — you will not always agree with the order, and that is part of the fun. We present it as his list, not ours. What we have added is currency: many of these players have died since the book appeared, and those dates are corrected in the table below.
The eras of jazz piano
The fifty names make more sense grouped by the styles they grew out of. The roots are in ragtime and stride — Jelly Roll Morton, Fats Waller, Earl Hines and the harmonically fearless Art Tatum. The swing era gave us Teddy Wilson, Count Basie and Nat "King" Cole. Bebop arrived when Bud Powell and Al Haig moved the piano's language closer to the saxophone's. Hard bop and soul jazz followed with Horace Silver, Bobby Timmons and Red Garland; modal and post-bop playing peaked with Bill Evans and McCoy Tyner; and fusion broke the doors open through Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock. A living mainstream — Monty Alexander, Kenny Barron, Cyrus Chestnut — carries the tradition forward today.
The 50 greatest jazz pianists
Here is Rizzo's complete ranking, with corrected life dates and a one-line note on what each player is known for. The order is his; open any name's profile for the full story and playable scores.
| # | Pianist | Years | Known for |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Oscar Peterson | 1925–2007 | Supreme technical master |
| 2 | Bill Evans | 1929-1980 | Understatement, singing tone, intricate harmony |
| 3 | Bud Powell | 1924-1966 | Revolutionized jazz piano technique |
| 4 | Art Tatum | 1909-1956 | Virtuosic, harmonically daring solo giant |
| 5 | Monty Alexander | b. 1944 | A sunny, high-spirited unabashed romantic whose Caribbean roots and burning technique make… |
| 6 | Benny Green | b. 1963 | A prodigy who moved swiftly from novice to master, prized for his reverence for tradition,… |
| 7 | André Previn | 1929–2019 | A dual classical/jazz virtuoso whose symphonic-tinged harmony and blues undercurrent make… |
| 8 | Tommy Flanagan | 1930-2001 | A supreme accompanist whose own soloing |
| 9 | George Shearing | 1919–2011 | A blind British-born master whose Bach-like voice leading and impeccable ear made his… |
| 10 | Red Garland | 1923-1984 | A cheeky, hard-swinging bluesman-pianist and one-third of Miles Davis's classic rhythm… |
| 11 | McCoy Tyner | 1938–2020 | Coltrane's pianist who forged a percussive, quartal, modal language that made him the most… |
| 12 | Gene Harris | 1933-2000 | A proudly blues-and-gospel-rooted, groove-driven crowd-pleaser (of Three Sounds fame) whose… |
| 13 | Kenny Drew | 1928-1993 | A gifted hard-bop pianist and prized accompanist whose expatriation to Europe was a clear… |
| 14 | Hampton Hawes | 1928-1977 | A hard-swinging, fiery Los Angeles bebopper whose best playing refutes the cliche that West… |
| 15 | Thelonious Monk | 1917-1982 | A singular composer-pianist whose vital, swinging music was unfairly overshadowed by a… |
| 16 | Ahmad Jamal | 1930–2023 | An understated, hugely influential stylist whose tight trio arrangements and use of space… |
| 17 | Billy Taylor | 1921–2010 | Not a great innovator but a polished, swinging bebop stylist whose larger legacy is decades… |
| 18 | Horace Silver | 1928–2014 | The self-taught architect of hard bop and soul jazz, a gospel-blues antidote to cool, and a… |
| 19 | Hank Jones | 1918–2010 | A supremely versatile, elegant accompanist and harmonist who bridged swing and bebop and… |
| 20 | Chick Corea | 1941–2021 | A classically trained, restlessly reinventive fusion pioneer and prolific composer, one of… |
| 21 | Tete Montoliu | 1933-1997 | A blind Catalan bebopper who overcame Franco-era isolation to become Europe's premier… |
| 22 | Phineas Newborn Jr. | 1931-1989 | A phenomenally gifted virtuoso whose dazzling technique drew 'no soul' criticism, and whose… |
| 23 | Teddy Wilson | 1912-1986 | An elegant swing-era stylist whose walking-tenths approach was hugely influential, though… |
| 24 | Nat "King" Cole | 1919–1965 | A jazz pianist who defected to pop stardom, yet his supple, riffing touch and… |
| 25 | Erroll Garner | 1921-1977 | A joyous, self-taught non-reader whose orchestral, always-swinging style and the ballad… |
| 26 | Cedar Walton | 1934–2013 | A hard-bop survivor and gifted composer whose personal, blues-savvy, well-scaffolded style… |
| 27 | Count Basie | 1904-1984 | A towering bandleader whose spare, perfectly economical stride-rooted piano is routinely… |
| 28 | Dave Brubeck | 1920–2012 | A hugely popular, classically-schooled experimenter in odd meters and polytonality whose… |
| 29 | Cyrus Chestnut | b. 1963 | A gospel-rooted, dynamically nuanced young pianist heavily modeled on Ahmad Jamal, still… |
| 30 | Lennie Tristano | 1919-1978 | A blind, fiercely intellectual innovator whose free-improv and overdubbing experiments… |
| 31 | Fats Waller | 1904-1943 | The joyous stride master, showman, and prolific songwriter whose comic entertaining… |
| 32 | Dick Hyman | b. 1927 | A dazzlingly versatile technician and re-creator of past styles whose own original voice… |
| 33 | Wynton Kelly | 1931-1971 | A supremely swinging, groove-driven accompanist whose years of sideman 'grunt work' long… |
| 34 | Dave McKenna | 1930–2008 | A supremely swinging solo mainstay whose deep songbook and self-contained left hand make… |
| 35 | John Bunch | 1921–2010 | A durable, tasteful mainstreamer who bridged Wilson and Powell and only fully came into his… |
| 36 | Kenny Barron | b. 1943 | A seamlessly versatile bridge between bebop tradition and modern frontiers, prized equally… |
| 37 | Bobby Timmons | 1935-1974 | A gifted soul-jazz composer of enduring anthems whose promise as a pianist-leader went… |
| 38 | Duke Ellington | 1899-1974 | Set apart from his towering composing, Ellington the pianist was an utterly original,… |
| 39 | Earl Hines | 1903-1983 | The founding 'Fatha' of modern jazz piano, whose trumpet-style innovations made ragtime… |
| 40 | Jimmy Rowles | 1918-1996 | A witty, harmonically singular accompanist-to-the-stars turned distinctive soloist whose… |
| 41 | Ray Bryant | 1931–2011 | A versatile, blues-rooted pianist who balanced tradition and modernity and was most… |
| 42 | Herbie Hancock | b. 1940 | One of his generation's most influential pianists, wedding modern European harmony to a… |
| 43 | Jelly Roll Morton | c. 1890–1941 | A boastful but genuinely skilled early pioneer whose ragtime-rooted solos swung with… |
| 44 | Al Haig | 1924-1982 | A thoughtful, lyrical bebop pianist and superb accompanist to Parker whose clean,… |
| 45 | Derek Smith | 1931–2016 | A technically formidable, eclectic Oscar Peterson disciple equally at home in bebop and stride |
| 46 | Ralph Sharon | 1923–2015 | A supremely knowledgeable Songbook accompanist (long Tony Bennett's pianist) whose own… |
| 47 | Mary Lou Williams | 1910-1981 | A self-taught pianist-composer-arranger who evolved through every jazz era and opened the… |
| 48 | Willie "The Lion" Smith | 1893–1973 | A flamboyant Harlem stride master and the most harmonically intriguing of the… |
| 49 | Roland Hanna | 1932-2002 | A classically trained, versatile Detroit-school pianist, composer and teacher who fused… |
| 50 | Keith Jarrett | b. 1945 | A transcendence-seeking prodigy whose vast solo-concert output and lyrical textural clarity… |
The next twenty
Beyond the fifty, Rizzo lists twenty more players worth knowing. Unlike the main ranking, the book prints these without an order, so they appear here alphabetically:
- Warren Bernhardt
- Joe Bushkin
- George Cables
- Bill Charlap
- Russ Freeman
- Sanford Gold
- Barry Harris
- David Hazeltine
- John Hicks
- James P. Johnson
- Pete Jolly
- Lou Levy
- John Lewis
- Marian McPartland
- Bill Mays
- Mel Powell
- Eric Reed
- Richard Twardzik
- Kenny Werner
- Richard Wylands
Women in jazz piano
Only one woman appears in Rizzo's main fifty — Mary Lou Williams, at number 47, a composer and arranger whose writing shaped the bands of Andy Kirk, Benny Goodman and Duke Ellington. The book profiles ten women separately, acknowledging how long social convention kept women out of professional jazz careers. We cover them in a companion guide to the greatest women jazz pianists.
Start playing what they played
Reading about these players is one thing; getting their music under your fingers is another. A handful of pieces below are open on MuseScore in arrangements from beginner to advanced — start with a melody you know, then work toward the harmony. If you want the theory behind the sound, our guides to jazz chord progressions and jazz piano are the natural next step.
Frequently asked questions
Who is the greatest jazz pianist of all time?
In Gene Rizzo's expert ranking, the top spot goes to Oscar Peterson for his monumental technique and swing. It is worth noting that many musicians — Peterson among them — have called Art Tatum (Rizzo's number 4) the greatest of all, so there is no single official answer; it depends on whether you prize technique, originality or influence most.
Who are the most influential jazz pianists?
By influence on how the instrument is played, the usual names are Bud Powell (who invented the bebop piano vocabulary), Art Tatum, Bill Evans (harmony and trio interplay), McCoy Tyner (modal voicings) and Herbie Hancock (post-bop and fusion). Thelonious Monk sits slightly apart as the great original.
Is this an official ranking?
No. It is jazz journalist Gene Rizzo's synthesis of an expert panel's opinions, published by Hal Leonard in 2005. We keep his order and verdicts and update the facts; the ranking is his considered opinion, not a scientific measurement.
Who is the greatest living jazz pianist?
Of the players in Rizzo's fifty, Herbie Hancock (number 42) is the highest-ranked who is still active as of 2026. Chick Corea held that distinction until his death in 2021, and Keith Jarrett (number 50) remains a towering figure though strokes ended his performing career.
Who was the first jazz pianist?
Jelly Roll Morton (number 43) is often called the first great jazz pianist and composer, bridging ragtime and early jazz, while stride players like Fats Waller and Earl Hines built the piano's early solo language.