Qualities of a Musician

On the drive back from boulder today I started wondering what we listen to when we hear a soloist. What makes Mark Turner different from Lee Konitz different from Thelonius Monk different from John Coltrane. I started listing musicians and tried to put each into group with similar musicians. I decided on four basic categories of musical mastery (there are undoubtedly more, but for the sake of argument I've chosen four). All great musicians have hold on at least one. Many have control over a few. Here are the categories and musician who fits mostly in that category:

Melodic - Lee Konitz
Harmonic - Mark Turner
Rhythmic - Thelonious Monk
Spiritual - Late Coltrane

Of course, we tend to listen to musicians who have at least one category "mastered."

Why, then, don't we listen to some one like Mikey Brecker? He is a very powerful melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic player. Tears shit up, you might say. He has a deficiency in the spiritual sense.
If a player is just average in one category but genius in another we are able to overlook their obvious short comings in favor of their brilliance. BUT, a player who has a deficiency in any category (below average) we are unable to overlook their fatal flaw.

Is any category more important than the rest? No! A deficiency in any category is unacceptible. Ned Gould was a very interesting Harmonic and Rythmic player, but melodically he played a whole lot of bullshit. There are examples of artists who have fallen in each category. They are also each prime examples of musicians we do not listen to.