Glad you asked!Who is/was the one living artist that had the strongest, most lasting effect on your musical perception? How? What was it about that and how did you discover him.her/them?
It was John Coltrane. When a drummer I was playing with ruined me for life after playing jazz albums for me in his basement, I heard a sound. A lot of sounds, in fact. There are probably at least ten tenor players whose work I love, but none touches me the same way as Coltrane's story telling in Spiritual, Ballads, Crescent, Equinox, Naima, Softly as in a Morning Sunrise, Wise One. There's a quote on one of Coltrane's album sleeves where he mentions the "many beautiful things in the universe" he was searching for. I hear that in his playing. He was a good and then a great saxophonist when he played with Miles. When he went on to become leader, with his harmonic concepts framed by McCoy Tyner, with Elvin Jones' crazed jungle, he achieved true greatness for me. And if I had to pick one song to listen to forever, it would be that live take of Spiritual at the Village Vanguard with all fourteen people clapping at the end.