[quote name='bubinga5' post='816646' date='Apr 23 2010, 08:07 PM']Shakin Stevens
the word genius is so over used...theres immense talent and then there is genius...[/quote]
Just testing, right?
[quote name='lowdown' post='816703' date='Apr 23 2010, 08:51 PM']Of course all the usual suspects.
But for me, Leornard Bernstein - West side story score was genius.
And his amazing conducting on a lot of the Classical stuff.
A link here for studio out takes of West side story.
And Musician skills of the highest quality.
[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gf_pBHMcyHQ"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gf_pBHMcyHQ[/url]
Garry[/quote]
+1 for Bernstein, though in the documentary of the remake of West Side Story about 20 years ago, Bernstein himself addressed the question of musical genius and in his opinion, Motzart was up there alone in that category!
I also think that it's dependent on the genre or era of music and the skill or talent you're choosing to assess.. So for example, in classical music we might talk of Mozart, Bach, Stravinsky etc but in terms of songwriting we might consider Cole Porter (another favourite of mine), Stevie Wonder, Paul Simon, Dylan Lennon etc.. As for performers, then what about Elvis, Sinatra, Callas, Prince and so on..
Can't think of many bass (guitar) players that I would consider as being genius to be honest; maybe Jamerson and Entwhistle perhaps in the 60s? I don't really consider musical dexterity to be the same thing as musical genius though, so a lot of the noodlers and widdlers tend to leave me cold..
Good thread though!