Who is your favorite (or favorites) Jazz musician or group, what is their key tune for you, and what does their music feel like to you?
Obviously, answer however you like, but for example, these are mine (let's face it: everybody who asks for an opinion has one of their own):
Charlie Parker. Key tune: Ornithology His fast tunes feel like driving through the wine country in a convertible.
Miles Davis. Key Tune: Blue in Green. His slow tunes make me think of city streets after a rain, the pavement reflecting the lights from the streetlamps.
You've hit two of mine right there.
Ella Fitzgerald: Key Tune: can't pick one just now. One of the best jazz vocalists ever and the standard to which many even today aspire. Besides her solo work, she had a great professional and personal relationship with Louis Armstrong and their duets are a hoot to listen to.
Which, of course, brings us to:
Louis Armstrong. Hell, the guy wrote the book on jazz trumpet, originated skat singing (basically, per Ken Burns' Jazz, he tried to sing the way he played). Many people know him from his more pop-oriented work like "What a Wonderful World" but those are just the tip of iceberg. There's nothing like hearing Louis in his prime.
Coltrane for later Jazz. Blue Train is my favorite.
Duke Ellington for earlier / Big band. (Count Basey is great too)
Miles Davis for Traditional Jazz
Chris Botti, Rick Braun and Greg Adams for more Contemporary Jazz
Gato Barbieri or Eumir Deodato for Brazillian jazz. Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman or Glenn Miller for Big Band. Dave Brubeck Quartet, Lionel Hampton, Wynton Marsalis, Charlie Parker or Wes Montgomery for jazz instrumentalists. Billie Holiday for vocals.
The Modern Jazz Quartet (MJQ)
Ella Fitzgerald
Carmen McRae
Sarah Vaughan
Shirley Horn
Nat King Cole
Charlie Parker
Wayne Shorter
Dexter Gordon
Coleman Hawkins
Bill Evans
Dave Brubeck
Pat Metheny
Dave McKenna
to name a few
Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Marc Seales. Not technically 'jazz' but I have always liked Benny Goodman. Dave Brubeck is another favourite of mine.
I just watched Ken Burns "Jazz." About 20 hours.
I don't love any of them. I think this is the worst music ever made. I did enjoy the doc and the historical aspects, but this style of music is just fucking terrible.
As a musician myself, I just can't get into this meandering garbage.... It's background music. And the background musicians need to be on various drugs in order to do this shit for hours and hours.
I get that it takes skill... but it sounds like shit. The music the singing... I recently listened to Billie Holiday and it sounded like a homeless crack head blurting out shit in an alleyway behind my apartment.
If anyone wants to dispute me, please post anything recorded before 1950 and try to convince people that it doesn't sound like absolute garbage.
I get it that its old... But old doesn't mean good.
I'm a great hard bop fan, especially Blue Note from the 50s and 60s, such as Lee Morgan, Hank Mobley, Dexter Gordon, Horace Silver, Art Blakey, and Billy Higgins. More recent jazz musicians I love are Eliane Elias, Christian McBride, Antonio Hart, Roy Hargrove, Lynn Arriale, Geri Allen, and Cassandra Wilson. This is in addition to many of the musicians people have listed already.
Nels Cline, Brad Mehldau and Barrett Martin
John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, Wynton Marsalis, Ben Webster, Horace Silver, Wayne Shorter, Oscar Peterson, Ella Fitzgerald, Nat “King” Cole, Johnny Hartman, Diana Krall, just to name a few.
Norah Jones. I just love her soft sexy voice! I have several of her songs!
Jazz is central to my life now. It was not when I was a kid.
Charlie Parker, KC Blues, Now's the Time, Bloomdido, Confirmation. (Curiously, I care less for his tune written over 'rhythm changes'; Confirmation is the exception.)
Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald's duet recordings are among my favorites. Their version of "Stompin' At the Savoy" is a romp, though the one that steals my heart is their version of "They Can't Take That Away From Me."
Miles Davis: Dig, Serpent's Tooth, Freddie Freeloader, All Blues, Doxy, Tune Up... Miles recorded in many styles over a long career. I tend to prefer the stuff from the '50s.
Wes Montomgery. I play guitar and Wes was a guitar giant. Great tone, incredible time feel, and intensely melodic solos.
Dinah Washington
Peggy Lee
Modern Jazz Quartet
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Also love Ella Fitzgerald. In fact I love most jazz, blues, soul, any type of music to be honest. You said jazz is old but the likes of Amy Winehouse (yes, she is dead now) and Gregory Porter etc still keep this type of music current. 
