That is my honest opinion I have formed after having listened to many of his recordings. He was nowhere near the player that Clifford Brown or Baker were. In fact, on top of rather mediocre I find a lot of his playing annoying and not in sync with everyone else around him.
I think his true talent lied in assembling a band as well as composing. The cat could put a band together like no one else on earth, but he couldn't even hang with the people he hired.
Paul Bley had said that that Miles Davis was nothing more than a sit in who turned famous because he was classically trained and could compose well. To my surprise, he said a lot of cats who came up during the same time didn't think an awful lot of him either.
What do you guys think about this? Am I the only one or are there others?