Its hard to put a finger on my single favorite but here a couple I hold in really high regard.
1.Ben Harper, not forgeting the original inoccent criminals
2.Pearl Jam
3.Counting crows
4.Micheal franti and spearhead
5.Jack Jonson
6. G-love and special sauce
well thats the list of my favorite contemporary artists any ways,
Sounds of silence is a great call blueangel
Originally posted by GABRIEL05
Count Basie, Duke Ellington
Wow! I was certain I was the only one who was going to come close to this genre...
My absolute favorite artist of all time is Joshua Redman - jazz saxophone monster (primarily tenor), phi beta kappa, suma cum laude at Harvard, class of 91 with some sort of social sciences degree meant to be pre-law (which would have been done at Yale)... His technical prowess is really second to none, his composition is phenominal, his harmonic approach to soloing is unique, and his lines are rather Desmond-like in their lyricism.