• 1999 Pulitzer Prize
• 50 State Quarters
• A Drum Is a Woman
• Aaron Bell
• Abdullah Ibrahim
• Academy Award
• Adams Morgan
• Afro-Bossa
• Al Hibbler
• Al Jolson
• Al Killian
• Al Sears
• Alice Babs
• All Too Soon
• Amos 'n' Andy
• Anatomy of a Murder
• Andre Previn
• André Previn
• Art Baron
• Arthur Whetsol
• Assault on a Queen
• Atlantic City
• Azure (song)
• Bandleader
• Barney Bigard
• Barry Ulanov
• Bebop
• Beggar's Holiday
• Ben Webster
• Benny Carter
• Benny Goodman
• Betty Roché
• Big band
• Big band music
• Big-band
• Billie Holiday
• Billy Strayhorn
• Black and Tan (film)
• Blood Count
• Blues
• Blues in Orbit
• Bob Dylan
• Booty Wood
• Britt Woodman
• Bubber Miley
• Buster Cooper
• Butch Ballard
• C Jam Blues
• Cabin in the Sky
• Capitol Records
• Caravan (song)
• Carmen McRae
• Carnegie Hall
• Cat Anderson
• Center for Jazz Arts
• Central Park
• Change of Mind
• Charles Ives
• Charles Mingus
• Charleston (dance)
• Charlie Parker
• Chick Webb
• Chromatic scale
• Clark Terry
• Classical music
• Claude Bolling
• Claude Debussy
• Claude Hopkins
• Cliff Jackson
• Cocktails for Two
• Coleman Hawkins
• Columbia University
• Constant Lambert
• Cootie Williams
• Cotton Club
• Cotton Tail
• Count Basie
• Creole Love Call
• Dance to the Duke!
• Dave Brubeck
• Day Dream
• Detroit Free Press
• Diatonic scale
• Dick Hyman
• Diegetic
• Dizzy Gillespie
• Dorothy Fields
• Double Bass
• Down Beat
• Duke Ellington
• Duke Ellington House
• Duke's Big 4
• Earl Hines
• Eddie Foy, Jr.
• Eddie Preston
• Edvard Grieg
• Ella at Duke's Place
• Ella Fitzgerald
• Ellington '65
• Ellington '66
• Ellington at Newport
• Ellington Indigos
• Ellington Showcase
• Ellington Uptown
• Ellington ‘55
• Elmer Snowden
• Ernie Royal
• Eubie Blake
• Everything But You
• Fargo, North Dakota
• Fats Domino
• Fats Waller
• Festival Session
• Film score
• Find a Grave
• Florenz Ziegfeld
• Frank Sinatra
• Fred Guy
• Freddie Jenkins
• Frederick Delius
• French New Wave
• Gary Giddins
• Gennett Records
• George Gershwin
• George Shearing
• Get Up with It
• Gospel music
• Grammy Award
• Gramophone record
• Great Times!
• Gunther Schuller
• Gus Kahn
• Happy Reunion
• Harlem
• Harlem Renaissance
• Harold Arlen
• Harold Ashby
• Harry Carney
• Harry Truman
• Hayes Alvis
• Herb Jeffries
• Herbie Jones
• Hilton Jefferson
• Hoagy Carmichael
• Impulse! Records
• In a Mellow Tone
• Irving Mills
• Irving Townsend
• Ivie Anderson
• Jack Towers
• James "Bubber" Miley
• James P. Johnson
• Jazz
• Jazz Party
• Jet (magazine)
• Jimmie Lunceford
• Jimmy Blanton
• Jimmy Dorsey
• Jimmy Durante
• Jimmy Forrest
• Jimmy Hamilton
• Jimmy McHugh
• Jimmy Stewart
• Jimmy Woode
• Joe Benjamin
• Joe Pass
• John Coltrane
• John Steinbeck
• Johnny Coles
• Johnny Hodges
• Joseph Haydn
• Joya Sherrill
• JSTOR
• Juan Tizol
• Jukebox
• Junior Raglin
• Kay Davis
• Kenny Burrell
• King Oliver
• Latin American Suite
• Le Seuil
• Legion of Honor
• Liberian Suite
• Live at the Whitney
• Lou Blackburn
• Louie Bellson
• Louis Armstrong
• Louis Metcalf
• Luckey Roberts
• Lush Life (song)
• Légion d'honneur
• Major Holley
• Martial Solal
• Martin Williams
• Mary Lou Williams
• Maurice Chevalier
• Maurice Ravel
• Max Roach
• Mayan Theater
• McHenry Boatwright
• Mercer Ellington
• Michael Langham
• Miles Ahead
• Miles Davis
• Milt Jackson
• Milton Babbitt
• Minnesota Twins
• Molefi Kete Asante
• Money Johnson
• Money Jungle
• Mood Ellington
• Mood Indigo
• Murray McEachern
• Music genre
• Nelson Williams
• New Orleans Suite
• Newport 1958
• Norris Turney
• Oklahoma!
• Orchestral jazz
• Orchestral Works
• Oscar Hammerstein II
• Oscar Peterson
• Oscar Pettiford
• Otto Hardwick
• Otto Preminger
• Paris Blues
• Parlor song
• Paul Gonsalves
• Paul Newman
• Percy Grainger
• Perdido (song)
• Peter Giger
• Philadelphia
• Popular music
• Pratt Institute
• Pulitzer Prize
• Queen Esther Marrow
• Quentin Jackson
• Ralph J. Gleason
• Randy Weston
• Ray Bradbury
• Ray Nance
• Rent party
• Reprise Records
• Rex Stewart
• Rhythm and Blues
• Richard Nixon
• Richard Rodgers
• Rick Henderson
• Rocks in My Bed
• Roger Sessions
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• Rosemary Clooney
• Roulette Records
• Royce Hall
• Ruby Keeler
• Russell Procope
• Sam Woodyard
• Sathima Bea Benjamin
• Satin Doll
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• Serenade to Sweden
• Sheet music
• Shorty Baker
• Shuffle Along
• Sidney Bechet
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• Sir Duke
• Skippy Williams
• Slave
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• Sonny Greer
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• Sophisticated Ladies
• Sophisticated Lady
• Soul Call
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• Spingarn Medal
• Stan Kenton
• Stanley Silverman
• Steinway & Sons
• Stereotypes
• Stevie Wonder
• Stride (music)
• Such Sweet Thunder
• Swing music
• Symphony in Black
• Taft Jordan
• Take the "A" Train
• Tchaikovsky
• Ted Koehler
• Teddy Roosevelt
• Teresa Brewer
• The Andrews Sisters
• The Boston Globe
• The Bronx
• The Cosmic Scene
• The Ellington Suites
• The Far East Suite
• The Great Summit
• The Jaywalker
• The Pianist (album)
• The Real Ambassadors
• Thelonious Monk
• Time (magazine)
• Timon of Athens
• Togo Brava Suite
• Tommy Dorsey
• Tony Bennett
• Toshiko Akiyoshi
• Tricky Sam Nanton
• Turner Layton
• Tyree Glenn
• United States Mint
• United States Navy
• Unknown Session
• Victor Gaskin
• Washington, D.C.
• Wellman Braud
• Wendell Marshall
• Wikipedia Link rot
• Wikipedia Persondata
• Wilber Sweatman
• Wilbur De Paris
• Wild Bill Davis
• Will Marion Cook
• Will Vodery
• William Schuman
• William Shakespeare
• Woodley Park, D.C.
• Wynton Marsalis
• Yale Concert
• Zoot Sims
• 
  

• 
  Atlantic City
  Atlantic City is a city in Atlantic County, New Jersey, United States, and an internationally renowned resort city for gambling, conventions and leisure. The city also served as the inspiration for the American version of the board game Monopoly. Atlantic City is located on Absecon Island on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010 United States Census^[update], the city has a population of 39,558. There were 274,549 people living in the Atlantic City–Hammonton Metropolitan Statistical Area as of the 2010 Census.
  Atlantic City officially became a city in 1854. The new city contained portions of Egg Harbor Township and Galloway Township.
  The three routes into Atlantic City are the Black Horse Pike/Harding Highway (US 322/40), White Horse Pike (US 30) and the Atlantic City Expressway. Atlantic City is roughly 132 miles (212 km) south of New York City by road, 55 miles (89 km) southeast of Philadelphia. The city borders Absecon, Brigantine, Pleasantville, Ventnor City and West Atlantic City (part of Egg Harbor Township).
  
  wn.com/Atlantic_City
• 
  Columbia University
  Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is an American private Ivy League research university located in New York City, New York, United States. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution. Today the university operates seven Columbia Global Centers overseas in Amman, Beijing, Istanbul, Paris, Mumbai, Santiago and Nairobi.
  The university was founded in 1754 as King's College by royal charter of George II of Great Britain. After the American Revolutionary War, King's College briefly became a state entity, and was renamed Columbia College in 1784. The University now operates under a 1787 charter that places the institution under a private board of trustees, and in 1896 it was further renamed Columbia University. That same year, the university's campus was moved from Madison Avenue to its location in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, where it occupies more than six city blocks, or 32 acres (0.13 km²). The university encompasses twenty schools and is affiliated with numerous institutions, including Teachers College, Barnard College, and the Union Theological Seminary, with joint undergraduate programs available through the Jewish Theological Seminary of America as well as the Juilliard School.
  
  wn.com/Columbia_University
• Cotton Club
  The Cotton Club was a famous jazz music night club located in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City which operated from 1923 to 1940, most notably during America's Prohibition Era lasting from 1919 to 1933. The club was a white-only establishment even though it featured many of the greatest African American entertainers of the era including Fletcher Henderson, Duke Ellington, Adelaide Hall, Count Basie, Bessie Smith, Cab Calloway, The Nicholas Brothers, Lottie Gee, Ella Fitzgerald, Fats Waller, Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, Nat King Cole, Billie Holiday, and Ethel Waters. During its heyday, the Cotton Club served as a hip meeting spot featuring regular "Celebrity Nights" on Sundays which featured celebrity guests such as Jimmy Durante, George Gershwin, Sophie Tucker, Paul Robeson, Al Jolson, Mae West, Richard Rodgers, Irving Berlin, Eddie Cantor, Fanny Brice, Langston Hughes, Judy Garland, Moss Hart, and New York City Mayor Jimmy Walker, among others.
  
  wn.com/Cotton_Club
• 
  Fargo, North Dakota
  Fargo is the largest city in the U.S. state of North Dakota and the county seat of Cass County. In 2010, its population was 105,549, and it had an estimated metropolitan population of 208,777. Fargo, along with its twin city of Moorhead, Minnesota, as well as adjacent West Fargo, North Dakota and Dilworth, Minnesota, form the center of the Fargo-Moorhead, ND-MN Metropolitan Statistical Area. Founded in 1871, Fargo is the crossroads and economic center of southeastern North Dakota and a portion of northwestern Minnesota. Fargo is a cultural, retail, manufacturing, health care, and educational hub for the region. Fargo is home to North Dakota State University.
  The area that is present-day Fargo was an early stopping point for steamboats floating down the Red River during the 1870s and 1880s. The city was originally named "Centralia," but was later renamed "Fargo" after Northern Pacific Railway director and Wells Fargo Express Company founder William Fargo (1818 - 1881). The area started to flourish after the arrival of the Northern Pacific Railroad and the city became known as the "Gateway to the West".
  
  wn.com/Fargo,_North_Dakota
• 
  Harlem
  Harlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, which since the 1920s has been a major African-American residential, cultural and business center. Originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands. Harlem was annexed to New York City in 1873.
  Harlem has been defined by a series of boom-and-bust cycles, with significant ethnic shifts accompanying each cycle. Black residents began to arrive en masse in 1904, with numbers fed by the Great Migration. In the 1920s and 1930s, the neighborhood was the focus of the "Harlem Renaissance", an outpouring of artistic and professional works without precedent in the American black community. However, with job losses in the time of the Great Depression and the deindustrialization of New York City after World War II, rates of crime and poverty increased significantly.
  New York's revival in the late 20th century has led to renewal in Harlem as well. By 1995, Harlem was experiencing social and economic gentrification. Though the percentage of residents who are black peaked in 1950, the area remains predominantly black.
  
  wn.com/Harlem
• 
  Philadelphia
  Philadelphia ( /ˌfɪləˈdɛlfiə/) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States, with a population of 1,526,006 as of the 2010 U.S. Census. Philadelphia is also the commercial, cultural, and educational center of the Delaware Valley, home to 6 million people and the country's fifth-largest metropolitan area. The Philadelphia metropolitan division consists of five counties in Pennsylvania and has a population of 4,008,994. Popular nicknames for Philadelphia are Philly and The City of Brotherly Love, the latter of which comes from the literal meaning of the city's name in Greek (Greek: Φιλαδέλφεια ([pʰilaˈdelpʰeːa], Modern Greek: [filaˈðelfia]) "brotherly love", compounded from philos (φίλος) "loving", and adelphos (ἀδελφός) "brother").
  
  wn.com/Philadelphia
• 
  Roseland Ballroom
  Coordinates: 40°45′49″N 73°59′03″W / 40.763627°N 73.984122°W / 40.763627; -73.984122
  The Roseland Ballroom (also referred to as Roseland Dance City) is a multi-purpose hall, in a converted ice skating rink, with a colorful ballroom dancing pedigree, in New York City's theatre district, on West 52nd Street.
  The venue, according to its website, can accommodate 3,200 standing (with an additional 300 upstairs), 2,500 for a dance party, between 1,500 and 1,800 in theatre style, and 800-1,000 for a sit-down dinner.
  The quirky venue has hosted everything, from a Hillary Clinton birthday party, to annual gay circuit parties, to movie premieres, to musical performances from all genres.
  The rear of the venue faces West 53rd Street and the Ed Sullivan Theater. It is seen virtually every time that comedian David Letterman has outside antics during taping of the Late Show with David Letterman beside his theater (prompting various attempts to paint the industrial-looking wall to make it look better on national television).
  
  wn.com/Roseland_Ballroom
• 
  Royce Hall
  Royce Hall is a building on the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Designed by the Los Angeles firm of Allison & Allison (James Edward Allison, 1870-1955, and his brother David Clark Allison, 1881-1962) in the Italian Romanesque Revival style and completed in 1929, it is one of the four original buildings on UCLA's Westwood campus and has come to be the defining image of the university. Named after Josiah Royce, a California-born philosopher who received his bachelor's degree from UC Berkeley in 1875, the building's exterior is modeled after Milan's Basilica of Sant'Ambrogio.
  Severely damaged in the 1994 Northridge earthquake, it underwent a $70.5 million restoration that was completed in December 1997. The hall, post renovation, covered 191,547 square feet (17,795.3 m²).
  Its unique Romanesque architecture prompted the State Historic Preservation Office to select it for restoration to its original design. In 1936, University of California President Robert Gordon Sproul appointed a committee to oversee programming and in 1937, Royce Hall's first performing arts season was born. The first subscription series included the great contralto Marian Anderson, the Budapest String Quartet, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. In addition its world-renowned acoustics, the monument is a must-see for anyone who visits UCLA, especially because of its asymmetrical features.
  
  wn.com/Royce_Hall
• 
  Smithsonian
  The Smithsonian Institution ( /smɪθˈsoʊniən/ smith-SOH-nee-ən) is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, and licensing activities. The Smithsonian has requested $797.6 million from Congress in 2011 to fund its operations. While most of its 19 museums, its zoo, and its nine research centers facilities are located in Washington, D.C., sites are also located in Arizona, Maryland, New York City, Virginia, Panama, and elsewhere. The Smithsonian has over 137 million items in its collections, publishes two magazines named Smithsonian (monthly) and Air & Space (bimonthly), and employs the Smithsonian Police to protect visitors, staff, and the property of its museums. The Smithsonian Institution is the largest museum complex in the world, and many of its buildings are historical and architectural landmarks. In addition, 168 other museums are Smithsonian affiliates.
  
  wn.com/Smithsonian
• 
  The Bronx
  The Bronx is the northernmost of the five boroughs of New York City. It is also known as Bronx County, the last of the 62 counties of New York State to be incorporated. Located north of Manhattan and Queens, and south of Westchester County, the Bronx is the only borough that is located primarily on the mainland (a very small portion of Manhattan, the Marble Hill neighborhood, is physically located on the mainland, due to the rerouting of the Harlem River in 1897). The Bronx's population is 1,400,761 according to the 2010 United States Census. The borough has a land area of 42 square miles (109 km²), making it the fourth-largest in land area of the five boroughs, the fourth most populated, and the third-highest in density of population.
  The Bronx is divided by the Bronx River into a hillier section in the west, closer to Manhattan, and the flatter East Bronx, closer to Long Island. The West Bronx was annexed to New York City (then largely confined to Manhattan) in 1874, and the areas east of the Bronx River in 1895. The Bronx first assumed a distinct legal identity when it became a borough of Greater New York in 1898. Bronx County, with the same boundaries as the borough, was separated from New York County (afterwards coextensive with the Borough of Manhattan) as of January 1, 1914. Although the Bronx is the third-most-densely-populated county in the U.S., about a quarter of its area is open space, including Woodlawn Cemetery, Van Cortlandt Park, Pelham Bay Park, the New York Botanical Garden and the Bronx Zoo in the borough's north and center, on land deliberately reserved in the late 19th century as urban development progressed northwards and eastwards from Manhattan with the building of roads, bridges and railways.
  
  wn.com/The_Bronx
• 
  Washington, D.C.
  Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a federal district to become the national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution. The District is therefore not a part of any U.S. state. It was formed from land along the Potomac River donated by the states of Maryland and Virginia; however, the Virginia portion was returned by Congress in 1846.
  A new capital city named after George Washington was founded in 1791 to the east of the preexisting port of Georgetown. Congress consolidated the City of Washington, Georgetown, and the remaining unincorporated area within the District under a single municipal government in 1871. The city shares its name with the U.S. state of Washington, located on the country's Pacific coast.
  Washington, D.C., had an estimated population of 617,996 in 2011. The city was the 24th most populous place in the United States as of 2010. Commuters from the surrounding Maryland and Virginia suburbs raise the city's population to over one million during the workweek. The Washington Metropolitan Area, of which the District is a part, has a population of nearly 5.6 million, the seventh-largest metropolitan area in the country.
  
  wn.com/Washington,_D.C.
• 
  Woodley Park, D.C.
  Woodley Park is a neighborhood in Northwest, Washington, DC. It is bounded on the north by Woodley Road and Klingle Road, on the east by the National Zoo and Rock Creek Park, on the south by Calvert Street, on the southwest by Cleveland Avenue, and on the west by 34th Street.
  Adjoining neighborhoods are Cleveland Park to the north, Mount Pleasant and Adams Morgan to the east, Kalorama to the south, Woodland-Normanstone Terrace to the southwest, and Massachusetts Heights to the west.
  Woodley Park is served by the Woodley Park-Zoo/Adams Morgan Metro station, between Dupont Circle and Cleveland Park on the Red Line.
  Straddling Connecticut Avenue south of the National Zoo is a neighborhood of fine early 20th-century row houses, a throwback to the days more than a century ago when developers hoped that this wide avenue that runs northward to the Maryland border would be a boulevard lined with elegant homes. Modern-day Connecticut Avenue north of the small Woodley Park historic district, however, is now mostly filled with high rent, high rise apartment houses — although the city's height limitation restricts them to no more than eight stories, they are considered high-rise by Washington standards. To the east, the neighborhood's curved streets overhang Rock Creek Park. On the west, they bend on the slope leading to the heights of Mt. Saint Albans, the site of Washington National Cathedral. The stately rows of meticulously designed houses are preserved intact, presenting streetscapes that have changed little for nearly a century. Though busy Connecticut Avenue is always just around the corner, the residential streets are leafy, green and serene.
  
  wn.com/Woodley_Park,_D.C.

• Aaron Bell
  Samuel Aaron Bell (April 24, 1921, Muskogee, Oklahoma - July 28, 2003) was an American jazz double-bassist.
  As a child, Bell played piano, and learned brass instruments in high school. He attended Xavier University, where he began playing bass, and graduated in 1942; following this he joined the Navy, completing his service in 1946. He was a member of Andy Kirk's band in 1946 but enrolled at NYU in 1947. After completing a master's degree he joined Lucky Millinder's band and then gigged with Teddy Wilson.
  In the 1950s, Bell appeared on Billie Holiday's album Lady Sings the Blues and with Lester Young, Stan Kenton, Johnny Hodges, Cab Calloway, Carmen McRae, and Dick Haymes. In 1960 he left Hayes' band after being offered a position in the Duke Ellington Orchestra, opposite drummer Sam Woodyard. He left in 1962, spending time with Dizzy Gillespie before taking jobs on Broadway as a pit musician. He and Ellington collaborated once more in 1967, on a tribute to Billy Strayhorn.
  Bell held a residence at the La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club in New York City from 1969 to 1972. He also began teaching at Essex College in Newark in 1970, remaining there until 1990. Later in the 1970s he toured with Norris Turney, Harold Ashby, and Cat Anderson; in the 1980s he returned to piano playing, and retired from active performance in 1989. He died in 2003.
  
  wn.com/Aaron_Bell
• Al Hibbler
  Albert George "Al" Hibbler (August 16, 1915 – April 24, 2001) was an American baritone vocalist, who sang with Duke Ellington's orchestra before having several pop hits as a solo artist. Some of his singing is classified as rhythm and blues, but he is best classified as a bridge between R&B and traditional pop music. According to one authority, "Hibbler cannot be regarded as a jazz singer but as an exceptionally good interpreter of twentieth-century popular songs who happened to work with some of the best jazz musicians of the time."
  Hibbler was born in Tyro, Mississippi, United States, and was blind from birth. At the age of 12 he moved to Little Rock, Arkansas where he attended Arkansas School for the Blind, joining the school choir. Later he began working as a blues singer in local bands, failing his first audition for Duke Ellington in 1935. However, after winning an amateur talent contest in Memphis, Tennessee, he joined a band led by Jay McShann in 1942, and the following year joined Ellington's orchestra, replacing Herb Jeffries.
  
  wn.com/Al_Hibbler
• 
  Al Jolson
  Al Jolson (May 26, 1886 – October 23, 1950) was an American singer, comedian, and actor. In his heyday, he was dubbed "The World's Greatest Entertainer".
  His performing style was brash and extroverted, and he popularized a large number of songs that benefited from his "shamelessly sentimental, melodramatic approach". Numerous well-known singers were influenced by his music, including Bing CrosbyJudy Garland, rock and country entertainer Jerry Lee Lewis, and Bob Dylan, who once referred to him as "somebody whose life I can feel". Broadway critic Gilbert Seldes compared him to "the Greek God Pan", claiming that Jolson represented "the concentration of our national health and gaiety."
  In the 1930s, he was America's most famous and highest paid entertainer. Between 1911 and 1928, Jolson had nine sell-out Winter Garden shows in a row, more than 80 hit records, and 16 national and international tours. Although he's best remembered today as the star in the first (full length) talking movie, The Jazz Singer in 1927, he later starred in a series of successful musical films throughout the 1930s. After a period of inactivity, his stardom returned with the 1946 Oscar-winning biographical film, The Jolson Story. Larry Parks played Jolson with the songs dubbed in with Jolson’s real voice. A sequel, Jolson Sings Again, was released in 1949, and was nominated for three Oscars. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Jolson became the first star to entertain troops overseas during World War II, and again in 1950 became the first star to perform for G.I.s in Korea, doing 42 shows in 16 days. He died just weeks after returning to the U.S., partly due to the physical exertion of performing. Defense Secretary George Marshall afterward awarded the Medal of Merit to Jolson's family.
  
  wn.com/Al_Jolson
• Al Killian
  Albert H. (Al) Killian (15 Oct 1916 Alabama – 5 September 1950 Los Angeles) was an American jazz trumpet player and occasional bandleader during the big band era, also known for playing jump blues and East Coast blues. He was born in Birmingham, Alabama, United States.The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, Second edition, Three volumes, edited by Barry Kernfeld, Macmillan Publishers, London (2002)</ref> Killian got his start playing with Charlie Turner's Arcadians (mid-1930s) and went on to play with big bands led by Baron Lee, Teddy Hill, Don Redman, Claude Hopkins, Count Basie (1940–1942), Charlie Barnet (off and on from 1943 through 1946) and Lionel Hampton (1945). In 1946 Killian started his own big band, but soon quit bandleading to tour with Norman Granz's Jazz at the Philharmonic concert series, where he played alongside such musicians as Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and Lester Young. Following this he briefly toured with bands led by Billy Eckstine, Earl Spencer, and Boyd Raeburn, before landing a spot in Duke Ellington's band, where he toured and recorded for the last three years of his life. During this time he also led his own record session in Stockholm, and took part in one led by Lester Young, as well as participating in several jam sessions which were also recorded.
  
  wn.com/Al_Killian
• 
  Al Sears
  Al Sears (February 21, 1910, Macomb, Illinois-March 23, 1990, New York City) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist and bandleader.
  Sears's first major gig came in 1928 when he replaced Johnny Hodges in Chick Webb's ensemble. Following this he played with Elmer Snowden (1931-32), then led his own groups between 1933 and 1941. In the early 1940s he was with Andy Kirk (1941-42) and Lionel Hampton (1943-44) before he became a member of Duke Ellington's Orchestra in 1944, replacing Ben Webster. He became one of Ellington's best-known soloists, and remained in his employ until 1949, when Paul Gonsalves took over his chair. He played with Johnny Hodges in 1951-52, and recorded the tune "Castle Rock" with him; the tune became a hit, but was released under Hodges's name. He played as a studio musician on a variety of R&B albums in the 1950s and recorded two albums for Swingville Records in 1960.
  
  wn.com/Al_Sears
• 
  Alice Babs
  Alice Babs (born Hildur Alice Nilsson on 26 January 1924) is a singer and actor from Kalmar, Sweden. While she has worked in a wide number of genres - e.g. Swedish folklore, Elizabethan songs and opera - she is best known internationally as a jazz singer. Making her breakthrough in Swing it magistern (Swing It, Teacher!) (1940), she appeared in more than a dozen Swedish language-films. Despite playing the well-behaved, good-hearted, cheerful girl, the youth culture forming with Alice Babs as its icon caused outrage among members of the older generation. A vicar called the Alice Babs cult the "foot and mouth disease to cultural life".^{[citation needed]}
  In 1958, she was the first artist to represent Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest, finishing in 4th place with the song "Lilla stjärna" ("Little Star"). The same year, she formed Swe-Danes with Ulrik Neumann and Svend Asmussen. The group would later tour the United States together, before dissolving in 1965. A long and productive period of collaboration with Duke Ellington started in 1963. Among other works, Alice Babs performed his second and third Sacred Concerts that were originally written for her. Her voice had a range of more than three octaves; Duke Ellington said that when she did not sing the parts that he wrote for her, he had to use three different singers.^{[citation needed]}
  
  wn.com/Alice_Babs
• 
  Amos 'n' Andy
  Amos 'n' Andy is a situation comedy set in the African-American community. It was very popular in the United States from the 1920s through the 1950s on both radio and television.
  Amos and Andy began as one of the first radio comedy series, written and voiced by Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll and originating from station WMAQ in Chicago. After the program was first broadcast in 1928, it grew to become a huge influence on radio series that followed. The show ran as a nightly radio serial from 1928 until 1943, as a weekly situation comedy from 1943 until 1955, and as a nightly disc-jockey program from 1954 until 1960. A television adaptation ran on CBS-TV from 1951 until 1953, and continued in syndicated reruns from 1954 until 1966.
  Amos 'n' Andy creators Gosden and Correll were white actors familiar with minstrel traditions. They met in Durham, North Carolina, in 1920. Both men had some scattered experience in radio, but it was not until 1925 that the two appeared on Chicago's WQJ. Their appearances soon led to a regular schedule on another Chicago radio station, WEBH, where their only compensation was a free meal. The pair's hopes were that the radio exposure would lead to stage work; they were able to sell some of their works to local bandleader Paul Ash which brought them enough name recognition to be offered jobs at the Chicago Tribune's station WGN in 1925. The offer was steady and lucrative enough to allow them to now become full-time broadcasters. Victor Talking Machine Company was also interested enough to offer them a recording contract.
  
  wn.com/Amos_'n'_Andy
• Andre Previn
  André George Previn, KBE (born Andreas Ludwig Priwin; April 6, 1929) is a German-American pianist, conductor, and composer. He is considered one of the most versatile musicians in the world and is the winner of four Academy Awards for his film work and ten Grammy Awards for his recordings.
  Previn was born in Berlin, Germany, the son of Charlotte (née Epstein) and Jack Previn, who was a lawyer, judge, and music teacher. He is said to be "a distant relative of" the composer Gustav Mahler. However, In a pre-concert public interview at the Lincoln Center, in May 2012, Previn laughed at the suggestion that he is related to Mahler. The year of his birth is uncertain. Whilst most published reports give 1929, Previn himself has stated that 1930 is his birth year. This situation is a consequence of his the family losing Previn's birth certificate when they left Germany in 1938.^{[citation needed]} His elder brother was director Steve Previn.^{[citation needed]} The Previn family, which was Jewish,^{[citation needed]} emigrated to the United States in 1939 to escape the Nazi regime in Germany.^{[citation needed]}
  
  wn.com/Andre_Previn
• André Previn
  André George Previn, KBE (born Andreas Ludwig Priwin; April 6, 1929) is a German-American pianist, conductor, and composer. He is considered one of the most versatile musicians in the world and is the winner of four Academy Awards for his film work and ten Grammy Awards for his recordings.
  Previn was born in Berlin, Germany, the son of Charlotte (née Epstein) and Jack Previn, who was a lawyer, judge, and music teacher. He is said to be "a distant relative of" the composer Gustav Mahler. However, In a pre-concert public interview at the Lincoln Center, in May 2012, Previn laughed at the suggestion that he is related to Mahler. The year of his birth is uncertain. Whilst most published reports give 1929, Previn himself has stated that 1930 is his birth year. This situation is a consequence of his the family losing Previn's birth certificate when they left Germany in 1938.^{[citation needed]} His elder brother was director Steve Previn.^{[citation needed]} The Previn family, which was Jewish,^{[citation needed]} emigrated to the United States in 1939 to escape the Nazi regime in Germany.^{[citation needed]}
  
  wn.com/André_Previn
• Art Baron
  Art Baron (b. January 5, 1950 in Bridgeport, Connecticut) is an American jazz trombonist. He also plays didgeridoo, conch shell, penny-whistle, alto and bass recorder, and tuba.
  Baron is an alumnus of the Berklee College of Music. He joined the Duke Ellington band in August 1973, at the age of 23, during the last year Ellington led the band, and was the last trombonist Ellington ever hired. He leads The Duke's Men, a band made up of Duke Ellington band alumni. He has performed and/or recorded with Buddy Rich, Bruce Springsteen, Lou Reed, Stevie Wonder, James Taylor, Illinois Jacquet, Sam Eckhardt, Roswell Rudd, Mel Tormé, Charlie Musselwhite, Andy Harlow, Fontella Bass, Sam Rivers, Glen Velez, John Tchicai, Wilber Morris, Alan Silva, George Gruntz, Joey DeFrancesco, Bobby Watson, Elliott Sharp, Annea Lockwood, Matt Glaser, and Cyro Baptista.
  Baron lives in New York City.
  
  
  
  wn.com/Art_Baron
• Arthur Whetsol
  Arthur Whetsel was an early "sweet" trumpeter for Duke Ellington's Washingtonians. Leaving the band in 1923 to study medicine, he returned in 1928 to perform on a number of Ellington's most recognizable pieces during Ellington's stint at the Cotton Club, including "Black Beauty", "Black and Tan", and "Mood Indigo". His sound provided a contrast with Bubber Miley, Ellington's other trumpeter during the period.
  
  wn.com/Arthur_Whetsol
• Barry Ulanov
  Barry Ulanov (April 10, 1918 – April 30, 2000) was an American writer.
  Ulanov's father was Nathan Ulanov, concertmaster in Arturo Toscanini's NBC Philharmonic. His father taught him violin, but after a car crash in which he broke both wrists, he ceased studying the instrument. He studied at Columbia University, taking his BA there in 1939, and wrote about jazz as a student. Soon after graduating he edited several magazines and journals on music. He edited the journal Metronome from 1943 to 1955, and shifted its focus from Western art music to cover more jazz music, especially black musicians, who had heretofore received little notice in the journal.
  Ulanov was an early advocate of bebop, especially Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, and Lennie Tristano (who wrote a composition, Coolin' Off With Ulanov). He organized several concerts of bop stars for WOR radio in 1947. He received his Ph.D. from Columbia in the 1950s. From 1955-58 he wrote for Down Beat, and published several biographies of jazz musicians in the 1940s and 1950s. In his autobiography Miles Davis referred to Ulanov as the only white critic who ever understood him or Charlie Parker. He taught at Juilliard (1946), Princeton (1950–51), and Barnard College (1951–1988) as well as at Columbia University and Union Theological Seminary. In 1962 he received a Guggenheim Fellowship.
  
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  Ben Webster
  Benjamin Francis Webster (March 27, 1909 – September 20, 1973), a.k.a. "The Brute" or "Frog," was an influential American jazz tenor saxophonist. Webster, born in Kansas City, Missouri, was considered one of the three most important "swing tenors" along with Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young. Known affectionately as "The Brute", he had a tough, raspy, and brutal tone on stomps (with his own distinctive growls), yet on ballads he played with warmth and sentiment. Stylistically he was indebted to alto star Johnny Hodges, who, he said, taught him to play his instrument.
  Webster learned to play piano and violin at an early age, before learning to play the saxophone, although he did return to the piano from time to time, even recording on the instrument occasionally. Once Budd Johnson showed him some basics on the saxophone, Webster began to play that instrument in the Young Family Band (which at the time included Lester Young). Kansas City at this point was a melting pot from which emerged some of the biggest names in 1930s jazz, and Webster joined Bennie Moten's legendary 1932 band that included Count Basie, Oran Page and Walter Page. This era has been recreated in Robert Altman's film Kansas City.
  
  wn.com/Ben_Webster
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  Benny Carter
  Bennett Lester Carter (August 8, 1907 – July 12, 2003) was an American jazz alto saxophonist, clarinetist, trumpeter, composer, arranger, and bandleader. He was a major figure in jazz from the 1930s to the 1990s, and was recognized as such by other jazz musicians who called him King. In 1958, he performed with Billie Holiday at the legendary Monterey Jazz Festival.
  The National Endowment for the Arts honored Benny Carter with its highest honor in jazz, the NEA Jazz Masters Award for 1986. He was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1987, winner of the Grammy Award in 1994 for his solo "Prelude to a Kiss", and also the same year, received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2000 awarded the National Endowment for the Arts, National Medal of Arts, presented by President Bill Clinton.
  Born in New York in 1907, the youngest of three children and the only boy, received his first music lessons on piano from his mother. Largely self-taught, by age fifteen, Carter was already sitting in at Harlem night spots. From 1924 to 1928, Carter gained valuable professional experience as a sideman in some of New York's top bands. As a youth, Carter lived in Harlem around the corner from Bubber Miley who was Duke Ellington's star trumpeter, Carter was inspired by Miley and bought a trumpet, but when he found he couldn't play like Miley he traded the trumpet in for a saxophone. For the next two years he played with such jazz greats as cornetist Rex Stewart, clarinetist-soprano saxophonist Sidney Bechet, pianists Earl Hines, Willie "The Lion" Smith, pianist Fats Waller, pianist James P. Johnson, pianist Duke Ellington and their various groups.
  
  wn.com/Benny_Carter
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  Benny Goodman
  Benjamin David “Benny” Goodman (May 30, 1909 – June 13, 1986) was an American jazz and swing musician, clarinetist and bandleader; widely known as the "King of Swing".
  In the mid-1930s, Benny Goodman led one of the most popular musical groups in America. His January 16, 1938 concert at Carnegie Hall in New York City is described by critic Bruce Eder as "the single most important jazz or popular music concert in history: jazz's 'coming out' party to the world of 'respectable' music."
  Goodman's bands launched the careers of many major names in jazz, and during an era of segregation, he also led one of the first well-known racially-integrated jazz groups. Goodman continued to perform to nearly the end of his life, including exploring his interest in classical music.
  Goodman was born in Chicago, the ninth of twelve children of poor Jewish immigrants from the Russian Empire, who lived in the Maxwell Street neighborhood. His father was David Goodman, a tailor from Warsaw; his mother was Dora Grisinsky (from Kaunas, Lithuania). His parents met in Baltimore, Maryland, and moved to Chicago before Benny was born.
  
  wn.com/Benny_Goodman
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  Betty Roché
  Mary Elizabeth "Betty" Roché (January 9, 1920 – February 16, 1999) was an American blues singer, who became most famous with her cover of the song "Take the "A" Train". She recorded with the Savoy Sultans, Hot Lips Page, Duke Ellington, Charles Brown and Clark Terry.
  Roché was born in Wilmington, Delaware, United States. She settled in New York in 1939, started her career by winning an Apollo Theater amateur talent contest, sang with the Savoy Sultans from 1941 to 1942, then with Duke Ellington in the 1940s and 1950s. In 1953, she left the Ellington band and settled in San Diego, California. In 1960, she went back to New York and recorded for Prestige.
  Roché died in February 1999, aged 79.
  
  wn.com/Betty_Roché
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  Billie Holiday
  Billie Holiday (born Eleanora Harris April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959) was an American jazz singer and songwriter. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and musical partner Lester Young, Holiday had a seminal influence on jazz and pop singing. Her vocal style, strongly inspired by jazz instrumentalists, pioneered a new way of manipulating phrasing and tempo.
  Critic John Bush wrote that Holiday "changed the art of American pop vocals forever." She co-wrote only a few songs, but several of them have become jazz standards, notably "God Bless the Child", "Don't Explain", "Fine and Mellow", and "Lady Sings the Blues". She also became famous for singing "Easy Living", "Good Morning Heartache", and "Strange Fruit", a protest song which became one of her standards and was made famous with her 1939 recording.
  Billie Holiday was born Eleanora Fagan on April 7, 1915, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Sarah Julia "Sadie" Fagan (née Harris). Her father, Clarence Halliday (Holiday), a musician, did not marry or live with her mother. Her mother had moved to Philadelphia when thirteen, after being ejected from her parents' home in Sandtown-Winchester, Baltimore for becoming pregnant. With no support from her own parents, Holiday's mother arranged for the young Holiday to stay with her older married half sister, Eva Miller, who lived in Baltimore.
  
  wn.com/Billie_Holiday
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  Billy Strayhorn
  William Thomas "Billy" Strayhorn (November 29, 1915 – May 31, 1967) was an American composer, pianist and arranger, best known for his successful collaboration with bandleader and composer Duke Ellington lasting nearly three decades. His compositions include "Chelsea Bridge", "Take the "A" Train" and "Lush Life".
  Strayhorn was born in Dayton, Ohio. His family soon moved to the Homewood section of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. However, his mother's family was from Hillsborough, North Carolina, and she sent him there to protect him from his father's drunken sprees. Strayhorn spent many months of his childhood at his grandparents' house in Hillsborough. In an interview, Strayhorn said that his grandmother was his primary influence during the first ten years of his life. He first became interested in music while living with her, playing hymns on her piano, and playing records on her Victrola record player.
  Strayhorn returned to Pittsburgh, and attended Westinghouse High School, later attended by Erroll Garner and Ahmad Jamal. In Pittsburgh, he began his musical career, studying classical music for a time at the Pittsburgh Music Institute, writing a high school musical, forming a musical trio that played daily on a local radio station, and, while still in his teens, composing (with lyrics) the songs "Life Is Lonely" (later renamed "Lush Life"), "My Little Brown Book", and "Something to Live For". While still in grade school, he worked odd jobs to earn enough money to buy his first piano. While in high school, he played in the school band, and studied under the same teacher who had also instructed jazz pianists Erroll Garner and Mary Lou Williams. By age 19, he was writing for a professional musical, Fantastic Rhythm.
  
  wn.com/Billy_Strayhorn
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  Bob Dylan
  Bob Dylan ( /ˈdɪlən/), born Robert Allen Zimmerman on May 24, 1941, is an American singer-songwriter, musician and artist. He has been an influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly reluctant figurehead of social unrest. A number of Dylan's early songs, such as "Blowin' in the Wind" and "The Times They Are a-Changin'", became anthems for the US civil rights and anti-war movements. Leaving his initial base in the culture of folk music behind, Dylan's six-minute single "Like a Rolling Stone" has been described as radically altering the parameters of popular music in 1965. However, his recordings employing electric instruments attracted denunciation and criticism from others in the folk movement.
  Dylan's lyrics incorporated a variety of political, social, philosophical, and literary influences. They defied existing pop music conventions and appealed hugely to the then burgeoning counterculture. Initially inspired by the songs of Woody Guthrie,Robert Johnson, and Hank Williams, as well as the music and performance styles of Buddy Holly and Little Richard, Dylan has both amplified and personalized musical genres. His recording career, spanning fifty years, has explored numerous distinct traditions in American song—from folk, blues and country to gospel, rock and roll, and rockabilly to English, Scottish, and Irish folk music, embracing even jazz and swing.
  
  wn.com/Bob_Dylan
• Booty Wood
  Mitchell W. Wood, better known as Booty Wood (December 27, 1919, Dayton, Ohio - June 10, 1987, Dayton) was an American jazz trombonist.
  Wood played professionally on trombone from the late 1930s. He worked with Tiny Bradshaw and Lionel Hampton in the 1940s before joining the Navy during World War II. While there he played in a band with Clark Terry, Willie Smith, and Gerald Wilson. After his service ended he returned to play with Hampton, then worked with Arnett Cobb (1947-48), Erskine Hawkins (1948-50), and Count Basie (1951).
  He spent a few years outside of music, then played with Duke Ellington in 1959-60 and again in 1963; he returned once more early in the 1970s. He again played with the Count Basie Orchestra from 1979 into the middle of the following decade.
  
  wn.com/Booty_Wood
• Britt Woodman
  Britt Woodman (June 4, 1920, Los Angeles – October 13, 2000, Hawthorne, California) was a jazz trombonist. He is perhaps best known for his work with Duke Ellington and Charles Mingus.
  He knew Mingus from childhood, but first worked with Phil Moore and Les Hite. After service in World War II he played with Boyd Raeburn before joining with Lionel Hampton in 1946. In the 1950s he would work with Ellington. As a member of Ellington's band he can be heard on The Complete Porgy and Bess, Such Sweet Thunder, Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Duke Ellington Songbook, Black, Brown, and Beige and Indigos.
  In 1960 he moved on from Ellington to work in a pit orchestra. Later he worked with Mingus and can be heard on the 1963 album Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus. In the 1970s he led his own octet and worked with Toshiko Akiyoshi. In 1989 he was in the personnel for the album Epitaph (Mingus).
  Steve Turre, among others, have cited him as an influence.
  
  wn.com/Britt_Woodman
• Bubber Miley
  James Wesley "Bubber" Miley (April 3, 1903 – May 20, 1932) was an American early jazz trumpet and cornet player, specializing in the use of the plunger mute.
  Miley was born in Aiken, South Carolina, United States, into a musical family. At the age of six, he and his family moved to New York City where, as a child, he occasionally sang for money on the streets, and later, at the age of fourteen, studied to play the trombone and cornet.
  In 1920, after having served in the Navy for eighteen months, he joined a jazz formation named the Carolina Five, and remained a member for the next three years, playing small clubs and boat rides all around New York City. After leaving the band at the age of nineteen, Miley briefly toured the Southern States with a show titled The Sunny South, and then joined Mamie Smith's Jazz Hounds, replacing trumpeter Johnny Dunn. They regularly performed in famous clubs around New York City and Chicago. While touring in Chicago, he heard King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band playing and was captivated by Oliver's use of mutes. Soon Miley found his own voice by combining the straight and plunger mute with a growling sound.
  
  wn.com/Bubber_Miley
• Buster Cooper
  George "Buster" Cooper (born April 4, 1929) is an American jazz trombonist.
  Cooper was born in St. Petersburg, Florida. He played in a territory band with Nat Towles in Texas in the late 1940s, and gigged with Lionel Hampton in 1953. He played in the house band at the Apollo Theater in New York City in the mid-1950s, and following this spent time with Benny Goodman. Late in the 1950s he and his brother Steve formed a unit, the Cooper Brothers Band. From 1962 to 1969 he was trombonist in Duke Ellington's Orchestra. In 1973 he moved to Los Angeles and played in various jazz orchestras there over the next several decades; among them were The Juggernaut and Bill Berry's L.A. band. He has never recorded as a leader.
  Cooper currently is a bandleader, of the Buster Cooper Trio, at The Garden Restaurant, Saint Petersburg, Florida.
  
  wn.com/Buster_Cooper
• Butch Ballard
  George Edward "Butch" Ballard (December 26, 1918 – October 1, 2011) was an American jazz drummer who during his long career played with musicians such as Louis Armstrong, Count Basie and Duke Ellington.
  Ballard was born in Camden, New Jersey and grew up in Frankford, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. As a child he followed American Legion parades near his home, focusing particularly on the drummer. When he was about 10 years old, Ballard's father bought him a set of drums from a pawnbroker and he began to take lessons for 75 cents each. He got the nickname "Butch" after Machine Gun Butch, a character in the 1930 film The Big House. He attended Northeast High School in Philadelphia. When he was 21, he married Jessie, for whom he bought a house in Philadelphia in 1950.
  At around 16 years old, Ballard listened to Herb Thornton's band at the Boys Club in Philadelphia. They let him play with them, and he was invited to join a band by a man who heard him. For the following few months, he carried his drums across Philadelphia to rehearse. In 1938, Ballard started playing with Louis Armstrong's band The Dukes. He performed with them for a few years. In 1941 he began playing with the Cootie Williams Orchestra, performing with Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Dinah Washington and Pearl Bailey.
  
  wn.com/Butch_Ballard
• Carmen McRae
  Carmen Mercedes McRae (April 8, 1920 – November 10, 1994) was an American jazz singer, composer, pianist, and actress. Considered one of the most influential jazz vocalists of the 20th century, it was her behind-the-beat phrasing and her ironic interpretations of song lyrics that made her memorable. McRae drew inspiration from Billie Holiday, but established her own distinctive voice. She went on to record over 60 albums, enjoying a rich musical career, performing and recording in the United States, Europe, and Japan.
  McRae was born in Harlem to Jamaican immigrant parents, Osmond and Evadne McRae. She began studying piano when she was eight, and the music of jazz greats like Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington filled her home. She met singer Billie Holiday when she was just 17 years old. As a teenager McRae came to the attention of Teddy Wilson and his wife, the composer Irene Kitchings Wilson. One of McRae's early songs, "Dream of Life" through their influence, was recorded in 1939 by Wilson’s longtime collaborator Billie Holiday. McRae considered Holiday to be her primary influence.
  
  wn.com/Carmen_McRae
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  Cat Anderson
  William Alonzo Anderson (12 September 1916 – 29 April 1981), known as Cat Anderson, was an American jazz trumpeter best known for his long period playing with Duke Ellington's orchestra, and for his extremely wide range (more than five octaves), especially his playing in the higher registers.
  Born in Greenville, South Carolina, Anderson lost both parents when he was four years old, and was sent to live at the Jenkins Orphanage in Charleston, where he learned to play trumpet. Classmates gave him the nickname "Cat" (which he used all his life) based on his fighting style. He toured and made his first recording with the Carolina Cotton Pickers, a small group based at the orphanage. After leaving the Cotton Pickers, Anderson played with guitarist Hartley Toots, Claude Hopkins' big band, Doc Wheeler's Sunset Orchestra (1938–1942), with whom he also recorded, Lucky Millinder, the Erskine Hawkins Orchestra, Sabby Lewis's Orchestra, and Lionel Hampton, with whom he recorded the classic "Flying Home #2".
  
  wn.com/Cat_Anderson
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  Charles Ives
  Charles Edward Ives (October 20, 1874 – May 19, 1954) was an American modernistcomposer. He is one of the first American composers of international renown, though Ives' music was largely ignored during his life, and many of his works went unperformed for many years. Over time, Ives came to be regarded as an "American Original". Ives combined the American popular and church-music traditions of his youth with European art music, and was among the first composers to engage in a systematic program of experimental music, with musical techniques including polytonality, polyrhythm, tone clusters, aleatoric elements, and quarter tones, foreshadowing many musical innovations of the 20th century.
  Sources of Ives' tonal imagery are hymn tunes and traditional songs, the town band at holiday parade, the fiddlers at Saturday night dances, patriotic songs, sentimental parlor ballads, and the melodies of Stephen Foster.
  Charles Ives was born in Danbury, Connecticut in 1874, the son of George Ives, a U.S. Army bandleader in the American Civil War, and his wife Mary Parmelee. A strong influence of Charles's may have been sitting in the Danbury town square, listening to his father's marching band and other bands on other sides of the square simultaneously. George Ives' unique music lessons were also a strong influence on Charles; George Ives took an open-minded approach to musical theory, encouraging his son to experiment in bitonal and polytonal harmonizations. It was from his father that Charles Ives also learned the music of Stephen Foster. Ives became a church organist at the age of 14 and wrote various hymns and songs for church services, including his Variations on 'America' .
  
  wn.com/Charles_Ives
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  Charles Mingus
  Charles Mingus Jr. (April 22, 1922 – January 5, 1979) was an American jazz musician, composer, bandleader, and civil rights activist.
  Mingus's compositions retained the hot and soulful feel of hard bop and drew heavily from black gospel music while sometimes drawing on elements of Third stream, free jazz, and classical music. Yet Mingus avoided categorization, forging his own brand of music that fused tradition with unique and unexplored realms of jazz.
  Mingus focused on collective improvisation, similar to the old New Orleans jazz parades, paying particular attention to how each band member interacted with the group as a whole. In creating his bands, Mingus looked not only at the skills of the available musicians, but also their personalities. Many musicians passed through his bands and later went on to impressive careers. He recruited talented and sometimes little-known artists whom he assembled into unconventional and revealing configurations. As a performer, Mingus was a pioneer in double bass technique, widely recognized as one of the instrument's most proficient players.
  
  wn.com/Charles_Mingus
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  Charlie Parker
  Charles Parker, Jr. (August 29, 1920 – March 12, 1955), also known as Yardbird and Bird, was an American jazz saxophonist and composer.
  Parker acquired the nickname "Yardbird" early in his career and the shortened form, "Bird", which continued to be used for the rest of his life, inspiring the titles of a number of Parker compositions, such as "Yardbird Suite", "Ornithology", "Bird Gets the Worm", and "Bird of Paradise."
  Parker was a highly influential jazz soloist and a leading figure in the development of bebop, a form of jazz characterized by fast tempos, virtuosic technique, and improvisation. Parker introduced revolutionary harmonic ideas, including rapidly passing chords, new variants of altered chords, and chord substitutions. His tone ranged from clean and penetrating to sweet and somber. Many Parker recordings demonstrate virtuosic technique and complex melodic lines, combining jazz with other musical genres, including blues, Latin, and classical.
  Parker was an icon for the hipster subculture and later the Beat Generation, personifying the jazz musician as an uncompromising artist and intellectual, rather than an entertainer.
  
  wn.com/Charlie_Parker
• Chick Webb
  William Henry Webb, usually known as Chick Webb (February 10, 1905 – June 16, 1939) was an American jazz and swing music drummer as well as a band leader.
  Webb was born in Baltimore, Maryland to William H. and Marie Johnson Webb. From childhood, he suffered from tuberculosis of the spine, leaving him with short stature and a badly deformed spine. He supported himself as a newspaper boy to save enough money to buy drums, and first played professionally at age 11.
  At the age of 17 he moved to New York City and by 1926, he was leading his own band in Harlem. Jazz drummer Tommy Benford said he gave Webb drum lessons when he first reached New York.
  He alternated between band tours and residencies at New York City clubs through the late 1920s. In 1931, his band became the house band at the Savoy Ballroom. He became one of the best-regarded bandleaders and drummers of the new "Swing" style. Drumming legend Buddy Rich cited Webb's powerful technique and virtuoso performances as heavily influential on his own drumming, and even referred to Webb as "the daddy of them all". The Savoy often featured "Battle of the Bands" where Webb's band would compete with other top bands (such as the Benny Goodman Orchestra or the Count Basie Orchestra) from opposing bandstands. By the end of the night's battles the dancers seemed always to have voted Chick's band as the best. As a result Webb was deemed the most worthy recipient to be crowned the first "King of Swing." Notably, Webb lost to Duke Ellington in 1937. Although a judge declared Webb's band the official winner in 1938 over Count Basie's, and Basie himself said he was just relieved to come away from the contest without embarrassing himself, surviving musicians continued to dispute the ruling for decades to follow.{}
  
  wn.com/Chick_Webb
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  Clark Terry
  Clark Terry (born December 14, 1920) is an American swing and bop trumpeter, a pioneer of the flugelhorn in jazz, educator, NEA Jazz Masters inductee, and recipient of the 2010 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Only three other trumpet players in history have ever received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award: Louis Armstrong (Clark's old mentor), Miles Davis (whom Clark mentored), and Dizzy Gillespie (who often described Clark as the greatest jazz trumpet player on earth). Clark Terry is one of the most prolific jazz musicians in history, having appeared on 905 known recording sessions, which makes him the most recorded trumpet player of all time. In comparison, Louis Armstrong performed on 620 sessions, Harry "Sweets" Edison on 563, and Dizzy Gillespie on 501.
  He has played with Charlie Barnet (1947), Count Basie (1948–1951),Duke Ellington (1951–1959) and Quincy Jones (1960), and has recorded regularly both as a leader and sideman. In all, his career in jazz spans more than sixty years.
  
  wn.com/Clark_Terry
• Claude Bolling
  Claude Bolling (born 10 April 1930), is a renowned French jazz pianist, composer, arranger, and occasional actor.
  He was born in Cannes, studied at the Nice Conservatory, then in Paris. A child prodigy, by age 14 he was playing jazz piano professionally, with Lionel Hampton, Roy Eldridge, and Kenny Clarke. Bolling's books on jazz technique show that he did not delve far beyond bebop into much avant garde jazz. He was a major part of the traditional jazz revival in the late 1960s, and he became friends with Oscar Peterson.
  He has written music for over one hundred films, mostly French, starting with the score for a 1957 documentary about the Cannes Film Festival, and including the films Borsalino (1970), and California Suite (1978).
  Bolling is also noted for a series of "crossover" collaborations with classical musicians. His Suite for Flute and Jazz Piano Trio with Jean-Pierre Rampal, a mix of Baroque elegance with modern swing, has been a top seller for many years, and was followed up by other works in the same vein. It was particularly popular in the United States, at the top of the hit parade for two years after its release and on billboard top 40 for 530 weeks, roughly ten years.
  
  wn.com/Claude_Bolling
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  Claude Debussy
  Claude-Achille Debussy (French pronunciation: [klod aʃil dəbysi]) (22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. Along with Maurice Ravel, he was one of the most prominent figures working within the field of impressionist music, though he himself intensely disliked the term when applied to his compositions. In France, he was made Chevalier of the Legion of Honour in 1903. A crucial figure in the transition to the modern era in Western music, he remains one of the most famous and influential of all composers.
  His music is noted for its sensory component and for not often forming around one key or pitch. Often Debussy's work reflected the activities or turbulence in his own life. In French literary circles, the style of this period was known as symbolism, a movement that directly inspired Debussy both as a composer and as an active cultural participant.
  
  wn.com/Claude_Debussy
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  Claude Hopkins
  Claude Driskett Hopkins (1903 – 1984) was an American jazz stride pianist and bandleader.
  Claude Hopkins was born in Alexandria, Virginia in 1903. Historians differ in respect of the actual date of his birth. His parents were on the faculty of Howard University. A highly talented stride piano player and arranger, he left home at the age of only 21 as a sideman with the Wilbur Sweatman Orchestra but stayed less than a year. In 1925, he left for Europe as the musical director of The Revue Negre which starred Josephine Baker with Sidney Bechet in the band.
  He returned to the USA in 1927 where, based in Washington, he toured the TOBA circuit with The Ginger Snaps Revue before heading once again for NYC where he took over the band of Charlie Skeets. At this time (1932–36), he led a fairly successful Harlem band employing many jazz musicians who were later to become famous in their own right such as Edmond Hall, Jabbo Smith and Vic Dickenson (although it's worth noting that his records were arranged to feature his piano more than his band). This was his most successful period with long residencies at the Savoy and Roseland ballrooms and at the Cotton Club. In 1937 he took his band on the road with a great deal of success.
  
  wn.com/Claude_Hopkins
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  Cliff Jackson
  Clifton Luther "Cliff" Jackson (July 19, 1902, Culpeper, Virginia - May 24, 1970, New York City) was an American jazz stride pianist.
  After playing in Atlantic City, Jackson moved to New York City in 1923, where he played with Lionel Howard's Musical Aces in 1924 and recorded with Bob Fuller and Elmer Snowden. He led his own ensemble, the Krazy Kats, for recordings in 1930, and following this group's dissolution he played extensively as a solo pianist in nightclubs in New York. During this time he also accompanied singers such as Viola McCoy, Lena Wilson, Sara Martin, and Clara Smith. He recorded with Sidney Bechet in 1940-41 and recorded as a soloist or leader in 1944-45, 1961, and 1969. As house pianist at Cafe Society from 1943-51 he was a great success; he also toured with Eddie Condon in 1946. He also played with Garvin Bushell (1950), J.C. Higginbotham (1960), and Joe Thomas (1962).
  He was married to singer Maxine Sullivan. He died of heart failure in 1970.
  As shown by many of his 1944-1945 solo piano recordings, such as "Limehouse Blues", Cliff Jackson was certainly one of the most powerful stride piano masters. His style was also marked by a very interesting contrapuntal-like bass work. His many left hand techniques are found explained in detail in Riccardo Scivales's method Jazz Piano: The Left Hand (Bedford Hills, New York: Ekay Music, 2005).
  
  wn.com/Cliff_Jackson
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  Coleman Hawkins
  Coleman Randolph Hawkins (November 21, 1904 – May 19, 1969) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. Hawkins was one of the first prominent jazz musicians on his instrument. As Joachim E. Berendt explained, "there were some tenor players before him, but the instrument was not an acknowledged jazz horn". While Hawkins is most strongly associated with the swing music and big band era, he had a role in the development of bebop in the 1940s.
  Lester Young, who was called "Pres", in a 1959 interview with The Jazz Review, said "As far as I'm concerned, I think Coleman Hawkins was the President first, right? As far as myself, I think I'm the second one." Miles Davis once said: "When I heard Hawk, I learned to play ballads." Hawkins was nicknamed "Hawk" and sometimes "Bean".
  Hawkins was born in Saint Joseph, Missouri, in 1904. Some out-of-date sources say 1901, but there is no evidence to prove an earlier date; instead, there is record of Hawkins's parents' first female child being born on 8 March 1901 and dying in 1903 at the age of two, possibly basis for the mistaken belief. He was named Coleman after his mother Cordelia's maiden name.
  
  wn.com/Coleman_Hawkins
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  Constant Lambert
  Leonard Constant Lambert (23 August 1905 – 21 August 1951) was a British composer and conductor.
  Lambert, the son of Russian-born Australian painter George Lambert, was educated at Christ's Hospital and the Royal College of Music. Lambert was a prodigy, writing orchestral works from the age of 13, and at 20 received a commission to write a ballet for Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes (Romeo and Juliet).
  For a few years he enjoyed a meteoric celebrity, including participating in a recording of William Walton's Façade with Edith Sitwell. Lambert's best known composition is The Rio Grande (1927) for piano and alto soloists, chorus, and orchestra of brass, strings and percussion. It achieved instant success, and Lambert made two recordings of the piece as conductor (1930 and 1949). He had a great interest in American Negro music, and once said that he would have ideally liked The Rio Grande to feature a black choir.
  During the 1930s, his career as a conductor took off with his appointment with the Vic-Wells ballet (later The Royal Ballet), but his career as a composer stagnated. His major choral work Summer's Last Will and Testament (after the play of the same name by Thomas Nashe), one of his most emotionally dark works, proved unfashionable in the mood following the death of George V, but Alan Frank hailed it at the time as Lambert's "finest work". Lambert himself considered he had failed as a composer, and completed only two major works in the remaining sixteen years of his life. Instead he concentrated on conducting, and appeared at Covent Garden and in BBC radio broadcasts, and accompanied the ballet in European and American tours.
  
  wn.com/Constant_Lambert
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  Cootie Williams
  Charles Melvin "Cootie" Williams (July 10, 1911 – September 15, 1985) was an American jazz, jump blues, and rhythm and blues trumpeter.
  Born in Mobile, Alabama, United States, Williams began his professional career with the Young Family band, which included saxophonist Lester Young, when he was 14 years old. In 1928, he made his first recordings with pianist James P. Johnson in New York, where he also worked briefly in the bands of Chick Webb and Fletcher Henderson. He rose to prominence as a member of Duke Ellington's orchestra, with which he performed from 1929 to 1940. He also recorded his own sessions during this time, both freelance and with other Ellington sidemen. In 1940 he joined Benny Goodman's orchestra, then in 1941 formed his own orchestra, in which over the years he employed Charlie Parker, Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, Bud Powell, Eddie Vinson, and other important young players.
  In 1947, Williams wrote the song "Cowpox Boogie" while recuperating from a bout with smallpox. He contracted the disease from a vaccination he insisted all band members receive.
  
  wn.com/Cootie_Williams
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  Count Basie
  William "Count" Basie (August 21, 1904 – April 26, 1984) was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. His mother first taught him piano and he started performing in his teens. Dropping out of school, he learned to operate lights for vaudeville and improvised to accompany silent films at a local theater in his town of Red Bank, New Jersey. By 16, he increasingly played jazz piano at parties, resorts and other venues. In 1924, he went to Harlem, where his performing career expanded; he toured with groups to the major jazz cities of Chicago, St. Louis and Kansas City. In 1929 he joined Bennie Moten's band in Kansas City, and played with them for years, until Moten's death in 1935.
  That year Basie formed his own jazz orchestra, and in 1936 took them to Chicago for a long engagement and their first recording. He led the group for almost 50 years, creating innovations like the use of two "split" tenor saxophones, emphasizing the rhythm section, riffing with a big band, using arrangers to broaden their sound, and others. Many notable musicians came to prominence under his direction, including the tenor saxophonists Lester Young and Herschel Evans, the guitarist Freddie Green, trumpeters Buck Clayton and Harry "Sweets" Edison and singers Jimmy Rushing and Joe Williams. Basie's theme songs were "One O'Clock Jump," developed in 1935 in the early days of his band, and "April In Paris".
  
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  Dave Brubeck
  David Warren "Dave" Brubeck (born December 6, 1920) is an American jazz pianist. He has written a number of jazz standards, including "In Your Own Sweet Way" and "The Duke". Brubeck's style ranges from refined to bombastic, reflecting his mother's attempts at classical training and his improvisational skills. His music is known for employing unusual time signatures, and superimposing contrasting rhythms, meters, and tonalities.
  His long-time musical partner, alto saxophonist Paul Desmond, wrote the Dave Brubeck Quartet's best remembered piece, "Take Five", which is in 5/4 time and has endured as a jazz classic on the top-selling jazz album, Time Out. Brubeck experimented with time signatures throughout his career, recording "Pick Up Sticks" in 6/4, "Unsquare Dance" in 7/4, and "Blue Rondo à la Turk" in 9/8. He is also a respected composer of orchestral and sacred music, and wrote soundtracks for television such as Mr. Broadway and the animated mini-series This Is America, Charlie Brown.
  Brubeck was born in Concord, California and grew up in Ione. He is of English (maternal), Swiss and possibly Native American Modoc Tribe multi-ethnic (paternal) ancestry His father, Howard "Pete" Brubeck, was a cattle rancher, and his mother, Elizabeth (née Ivey), who had studied piano in England under Myra Hess and intended to become a concert pianist, taught piano for extra money. Brubeck originally did not intend to become a musician (his two older brothers, Henry and Howard, were already on that track), but took lessons from his mother. He could not read sheet music during these early lessons, attributing this difficulty to poor eyesight, but "faked" his way through, well enough that this deficiency went mostly unnoticed.
  
  wn.com/Dave_Brubeck
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  Dick Hyman
  Richard “Dick” Hyman (born March 8, 1927, New York City) is an American jazz pianist/keyboardist and composer, best known for his versatility with jazz piano styles. Over a 50 year career, he has functioned as pianist, organist, arranger, music director, and, increasingly, as composer. His versatility in all of these areas has resulted in well over 100 albums recorded under his own name and many more in support of other artists.
  Dick Hyman was trained classically by his mother's brother, the concert pianist Anton Rovinsky, a fixture of the pre-war art scene in New York, noted for having premiered some of Charles Ives's works, such as The Celestial Railroad in 1928. Hyman said of Rovinsky, "He was my most important teacher. I learned touch from him and a certain amount of repertoire, especially Beethoven. On my own I pursued Chopin. I loved his ability to take a melody and embellish it in different arbitrary ways, which is exactly what we do in jazz. Chopin would have been a terrific jazz pianist. His waltzes are in my improvising to this day." Dick's older brother, Arthur, introduced him to the music of Bix Beiderbecke, Louis Armstrong, Teddy Wilson, and others. By high school, he was playing in dance bands throughout Westchester County.
  
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  Dizzy Gillespie
  John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie ( /ɡɨˈlɛspi/; October 21, 1917 – January 6, 1993) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, composer and, occasionally, singer.
  Allmusic's Scott Yanow wrote, "Dizzy Gillespie's contributions to jazz were huge. One of the greatest jazz trumpeters of all time (some would say the best), Gillespie was such a complex player that his contemporaries ended up copying Miles Davis and Fats Navarro instead, and it was not until Jon Faddis's emergence in the 1970s that Dizzy's style was successfully recreated . . . Arguably Gillespie is remembered, by both critics and fans alike, as one of the greatest jazz trumpeters of all time."
  Gillespie was a trumpet virtuoso and improviser, building on the virtuoso style of Roy Eldridge but adding layers of harmonic complexity previously unknown in jazz. His beret and horn-rimmed spectacles, his scat singing, his bent horn, pouched cheeks and his light-hearted personality were essential in popularizing bebop.
  In the 1940s Gillespie, together with Charlie Parker, became a major figure in the development of bebop and modern jazz. He taught and influenced many other musicians, including trumpeters Miles Davis, Fats Navarro, Clifford Brown, Arturo Sandoval, Lee Morgan, Jon Faddis and Chuck Mangione.
  
  wn.com/Dizzy_Gillespie
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  Dorothy Fields
  Dorothy Fields (July 15, 1905 – March 28, 1974) was an American librettist and lyricist.
  She wrote over 400 songs for Broadway musicals and films. Along with Ann Ronell, Dana Suesse, Bernice Petkere, and Kay Swift, she was one of the first successful Tin Pan Alley and Hollywood female songwriters.
  Fields was born in Allenhurst, New Jersey, and grew up in New York City.
  Her father, Lew Fields, an immigrant from Poland, was a vaudeville comedian and later became a Broadway producer. Her career as a professional songwriter took off in 1928, when Jimmy McHugh, who had seen some of her early work, invited her to provide some lyrics for him for Blackbirds of 1928. Fields and McHugh teamed up until 1935. Songs from this period include "I Can't Give You Anything But Love, Baby", "Exactly Like You", and "On the Sunny Side of the Street."
  In the mid-1930s, Fields started to write lyrics for films and collaborated with other composers, including Jerome Kern. With Kern, she worked on the movie version of Roberta, and also on their greatest success, Swing Time. The song "The Way You Look Tonight" earned the Fields/Kern team an Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1936.
  
  wn.com/Dorothy_Fields
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  Duke Ellington
  Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American composer, pianist, and big-band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions. In the opinion of Bob Blumenthal of The Boston Globe "In the century since his birth, there has been no greater composer, American or otherwise, than Edward Kennedy Ellington." A major figure in the history of jazz, Ellington's music stretched into various other genres, including blues, gospel, film scores, popular, and classical. His career spanned more than 50 years and included leading his orchestra, composing an inexhaustible songbook, scoring for movies, composing stage musicals, and world tours. Several of his instrumental works were adapted into songs that became standards. Due to his inventive use of the orchestra, or big band, and thanks to his eloquence and extraordinary charisma, he is generally considered to have elevated the perception of jazz to an art form on a par with other traditional genres of music. His reputation increased after his death and the Pulitzer Prize Board bestowed on him a special posthumous honor in 1999.
  
  wn.com/Duke_Ellington
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  Earl Hines
  Earl Kenneth Hines, universally known as Earl "Fatha" Hines, (December 28, 1903 – April 22, 1983) was an American jazz pianist. Hines was one of the most influential figures in the development of modern jazz piano and, according to one major source, is "one of a small number of pianists whose playing shaped the history of jazz".
  Earl Hines was born in Duquesne, Pennsylvania 12 miles from Pittsburgh city center. His father played cornet and was leader of Pittsburgh's Eureka Brass Band, his stepmother a church organist. Hines intended to follow his father on cornet but "blowing" hurt him behind the ears - while the piano didn't. The young Hines took classical piano lessons - at eleven he was playing organ in his local Baptist church - but he also had a "good ear and a good memory" and could re-play songs and numbers he heard in theaters and park 'concerts': "I'd be playing songs from these shows months before the song copies came out. That astonished a lot of people and they'd ask where I heard these numbers and I'd tell them at the theatre where my parents had taken me." Later Hines was to say that he was playing piano around Pittsburgh "before the word 'jazz' was even invented".
  
  wn.com/Earl_Hines
• Eddie Foy, Jr.
  Eddie Foy Jr. (February 4, 1905 - July 15, 1983) was an American character actor.
  Born Edwin Fitzgerald Jr. in New Rochelle, New York, the son of vaudevillian Eddie Foy and his third wife, Madeline Morando, he was one of the "Seven Little Foys" immortalized in the 1955 film of the same name. He had the longest performing career and was the only one to appear regularly in movies (though six Foys appeared in two short films directed by Bryan Foy). Throughout the 1930s and '40s he appeared in dozens of B movies. He closely resembled his father, and portrayed him in four feature films: Frontier Marshal (1939), Lillian Russell (1940), Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942), and Wilson, and again in a 1964 telefilm about the family's early days in vaudeville. Additional film credits include The Farmer Takes a Wife, The Pajama Game, Bells Are Ringing, and Gidget Goes Hawaiian.
  Foy made his Broadway debut in Florenz Ziegfeld's 1930 extravaganza Show Girl. He also appeared in At Home Abroad, The Cat and the Fiddle, The Red Mill, The Pajama Game, Donnybrook!, and Rumple, for which he received a Tony Award nomination as Best Actor in a Musical.
  
  wn.com/Eddie_Foy,_Jr.
• Eddie Preston
  Eddie Preston (May 9, 1925 – June 22, 2009) was an American jazz trumpeter.
  He was born in Dallas, Texas and died in Palm Coast, Florida.
  Preston began playing in big bands after World War II, and did stints with Lionel Hampton (1955-56), Ray Charles (1959), Louis Jordan (1960-61), Duke Ellington (1962), and Count Basie (1963). He played with Charles Mingus between 1963 and 1965 and again in 1970-72, with the time in between spent freelancing with musicians such as Sonny Stitt and Frank Foster. He played again with Ellington in 1971 and then did some work as a leader, as well as working with Roland Kirk in 1977 and Archie Shepp in 1979.
  With Charles Mingus
  
  wn.com/Eddie_Preston
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  Edvard Grieg
  Edvard Hagerup Grieg /ˈɛdʋɑɖ ˈhɑːgəɾʉːp gɾiːg/ (15 June 1843 – 4 September 1907) was a Norwegian composer and pianist. He is best known for his Piano Concerto in A minor, for his incidental music to Henrik Ibsen's play Peer Gynt (which includes Morning Mood and In the Hall of the Mountain King), and for his collection of piano miniatures Lyric Pieces.
  Edvard Hagerup Grieg was born in Bergen, Norway on 15 June 1843. His parents were Alexander Grieg (1806–1875), a merchant and vice consul in Bergen, and Gesine Judithe Hagerup (1814–1875), a music teacher and daughter of Edvard Hagerup. The family name, originally spelled Greig, has Scottish origins. After the Battle of Culloden in 1746, Grieg's great-grandfather traveled widely, settling in Norway about 1770, and establishing business interests in Bergen.
  Edvard Grieg was raised in a musical area. His mother was his first piano teacher and taught him to play at the age of 6. Grieg studied in several schools,^{[clarification needed]} including Tank's School. He often brought in samples of his music to class.^{[citation needed]}
  
  wn.com/Edvard_Grieg
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  Ella Fitzgerald
  Ella Jane Fitzgerald (April 25, 1917 – June 15, 1996), also known as the "First Lady of Song", "Queen of Jazz", and "Lady Ella", was an American jazz and song vocalist. With a vocal range spanning three octaves (D♭3 to D♭6), she was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phrasing and intonation, and a "horn-like" improvisational ability, particularly in her scat singing.
  Fitzgerald was a notable interpreter of the Great American Songbook. Over the course of her 59-year recording career, she was the winner of 13 Grammy Awards and was awarded the National Medal of Arts by Ronald Reagan and the Presidential Medal of Freedom by George H. W. Bush.
  Fitzgerald was born in Newport News, Virginia, the child of a common-law marriage between William and Temperance "Tempie" Fitzgerald. The pair separated soon after her birth and she and her mother went to Yonkers, New York, where they eventually moved in with Tempie's longtime boyfriend, Joseph Da Silva. Fitzgerald's half-sister, Frances Da Silva, was born in 1923. She and her family were Methodists and were active in the Bethany African Methodist Episcopal Church and she regularly attended worship services, Bible study, and Sunday School.
  
  wn.com/Ella_Fitzgerald
• Elmer Snowden
  Elmer Snowden (October 9, 1900 – May 14, 1973) was a banjo player of the jazz age. He also played guitar and, in the early stages of his career, all the reed instruments. He contributed greatly to jazz in its early days as both a player and a bandleader, and is responsible for launching the careers of many top musicians. However, Snowden himself has been largely overlooked in jazz history.
  Born in Baltimore, Snowden is remembered today mainly as the original leader of the Washingtonians, a group he brought to New York City from the capital in 1923. Unable to get a booking, Snowden sent for Duke Ellington, who was with the group when it recorded three test sides for Victor that remain unissued and are, presumably, lost. Ellington eventually took over leadership of the band, which contained the nucleus of what later became his famous orchestra. Snowden was a renowned band leader – Count Basie, Jimmie Lunceford, Bubber Miley, "Tricky Sam" Nanton, Frankie Newton, Benny Carter, Rex Stewart, Roy Eldridge and Chick Webb are among the musicians who worked in his various bands.
  
  wn.com/Elmer_Snowden
• Ernie Royal
  Ernest Andrew Royal (June 2, 1921 in Los Angeles – March 16, 1983 in New York City) was a jazz trumpeter.
  His older brother was clarinetist and alto saxophonist Marshal Royal, with whom he appears on the classic Ray Charles big band recording The Genius of Ray Charles (1959).
  He began in Los Angeles as a member of Les Hite's Orchestra in 1937. In the following 20 years he would work with Lionel Hampton, Woody Herman, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Wardell Gray, Stan Kenton and recording as a member of the Charles Mingus Octet, with Teo Macero, John Lewis and Kenny Clarke, among others, in 1953.
  He led ten albums, most of them recorded in Paris. In 1957 he became a staff musician for the American Broadcasting Company. He went on to play in the Tonight Show Band and can be heard on the Miles Davis albums Miles Ahead (1957), Porgy and Bess (1958), and Sketches of Spain (1960).
  A resident of Teaneck, New Jersey, Royal died of cancer at age 61 at Mount Sinai Hospital on March 16, 1983.
  
  wn.com/Ernie_Royal
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  Eubie Blake
  James Hubert Blake (February 7, 1887 – February 12, 1983) was an American composer, lyricist, and pianist of ragtime, jazz, and popular music. In 1921, Blake and long-time collaborator Noble Sissle wrote the Broadway musical Shuffle Along, one of the first Broadway musicals to be written and directed by African Americans. Blake's compositions included such hits as, "Bandana Days", "Charleston Rag", "Love Will Find A Way", "Memories of You", and "I'm Just Wild About Harry". The musical Eubie! featured the works of Blake and opened on Broadway in 1978.
  Blake was born at 319 Forrest Street in Baltimore, Maryland to former slaves John Sumner Blake (1838–1917) and Emily "Emma" Johnstone (1861–1917). He was the only surviving child of eight, all the rest of whom died in infancy. In 1894 the family moved to 414 North Eden Street, and later to 1510 Jefferson Street. John Blake worked earning US$9.00 weekly as a stevedore on the Baltimore docks.
  In later years Blake claimed to have been born in 1883, but his Social Security application and all other official documents issued in the first half of his life list his year of birth as 1887. Many otherwise reliable sources mistakenly give his year of birth as the earlier year, reprinting the false information that had been printed before these official documents and census records came to light.
  
  wn.com/Eubie_Blake
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  Fats Domino
  Antoine Dominique "Fats" Domino Jr. (born February 26, 1928) is an American R&B and rock and roll pianist and singer-songwriter. He was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana. Domino was French Creole and Creole was his first language. Domino was delivered at home by his midwife grandmother who was born into enslavement in 1857. Like most families in the Lower Ninth Ward, Domino's family were new arrivals from the sugar and cotton plantations. His father was a well known violinist, and Domino was inspired to play himself. He eventually learned from his Uncle, jazz guitarist Harrison Verrett. Fats released five Gold (million selling) records before 1955. Domino also had 35 Top 40 American Hits and has a music style based on traditional R&B ensembles or Bass, Piano, Electric Guitar, Drums, and Saxophone.
  Domino first attracted national attention with "The Fat Man" in 1949 on Imperial Records. This song is an early rock and roll record, featuring a rolling piano and Domino doing "wah-wah" vocalizing over a strong back beat. "The Fat Man" sold one million copies by 1953. Fats Domino released a series of hit songs with producer and co-writer Dave Bartholomew, saxophonists Herbert Hardesty and Alvin "Red" Tyler and drummer Earl Palmer. Other notable and long-standing musicians in Domino's band were saxophonists Reggie Houston, Lee Allen, and Fred Kemp, Domino's trusted bandleader. Domino finally crossed into the pop mainstream with "Ain't That A Shame" (1955), which hit the Top Ten, though Pat Boone characteristically hit #1 with a milder cover of the song that received wider radio airplay in a racially-segregated era. Domino eventually had 37 Top 40 singles.
  
  wn.com/Fats_Domino
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  Fats Waller
  Fats Waller (May 21, 1904 – December 15, 1943), born Thomas Wright Waller, was a jazz pianist, organist, composer, singer, and comedic entertainer.
  Thomas Wright Waller was the youngest of four children born to Adaline Locket Waller and the Reverend Edward Martin Waller. He started playing the piano when he was six and graduated to the organ of his father's church four years later. At the age of fourteen he was playing the organ at Harlem's Lincoln Theater and within twelve months he had composed his first rag. Waller's first piano solos ("Muscle Shoals Blues" and "Birmingham Blues") were recorded in October 1922 when he was 18 years old.
  He was the prize pupil, and later friend and colleague, of stride pianist James P. Johnson. Fats Waller was the son of a preacher and learned to play the organ in church with his mother. Overcoming opposition from his clergyman father, Waller became a professional pianist at 15, working in cabarets and theaters. In 1918 he won a talent contest playing Johnson's "Carolina Shout", a song he learned from watching a player piano play it.
  
  wn.com/Fats_Waller
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  Florenz Ziegfeld
  Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr. (March 21, 1867 - July 22, 1932), (sometimes also called "Flo" Ziegfeld), was an American Broadway impresario, notable for his series of theatrical revues, the Ziegfeld Follies (1907–1931), inspired by the Folies Bergère of Paris. He also produced the musical Show Boat. He was known as the "glorifier of the American girl".
  Ziegfeld was born in Chicago in 1867. (Some sources, including his obituary, give the year of birth as 1869.) His mother, Rosalie (née de Hez), who was born in Belgium, was the grand niece of General Count Étienne Maurice Gérard. His father, Florenz Ziegfeld, Sr., was a German immigrant whose father was the mayor of Jever in Friesland. Ziegfeld, Jr., was baptized in his mother's Catholic church (his father was Lutheran). Ziegfeld, Jr.'s father ran the Chicago Musical College and later opened a nightclub, the Trocadero, to obtain business from the 1893 World's Fair. To help his father's unsuccessful nightclub, Ziegfeld, Jr., hired and managed the strongman, Eugen Sandow.
  
  wn.com/Florenz_Ziegfeld
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  Frank Sinatra
  Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra,  /sɨˈnɑːtrə/, (December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and film actor.
  Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the "bobby soxers", he released his first album, The Voice of Frank Sinatra in 1946. His professional career had stalled by the 1950s, but it was reborn in 1953 after he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in From Here to Eternity.
  He signed with Capitol Records in 1953 and released several critically lauded albums (such as In the Wee Small Hours, Songs for Swingin' Lovers, Come Fly with Me, Only the Lonely and Nice 'n' Easy). Sinatra left Capitol to found his own record label, Reprise Records in 1961 (finding success with albums such as Ring-a-Ding-Ding!, Sinatra at the Sands and Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim), toured internationally, was a founding member of the Rat Pack and fraternized with celebrities and statesmen, including John F. Kennedy. Sinatra turned 50 in 1965, recorded the retrospective September of My Years, starred in the Emmy-winning television special Frank Sinatra: A Man and His Music, and scored hits with "Strangers in the Night" and "My Way".
  
  wn.com/Frank_Sinatra
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  Fred Guy
  Fred Guy (b. May 23, 1897, Burkesville, Georgia - d. Dec. 22, 1971) was an American jazz banjo player and guitarist.
  Guy was raised in New York City. He played guitar and banjo with Joseph C. Smith's Orchestra, and in 1925 he joined Duke Ellington's Washingtonians, replacing Elmer Snowden. Guy played with Ellington for 24 years, including his years at the Cotton Club.
  Early on he played only banjo but in the 1930s started playing more and more guitar with the band as the rhythm section in jazz changed rapidly. He played a Gibson banjo and an L5 or L7 Gibson guitar.
  On Ellington's "East St. Louis Toodle-oo" he plays a moving line with chords using inversions and on "Black and Tan Fantasy" he plays backwards fan strokes which are difficult to hear on the recording. He did not solo, and his guitar work is often difficult to hear on record. After he left Ellington's band in 1949, he was not replaced.
  He went on to manage a ballroom in Chicago. He appeared in the 1929 film Black and Tan with the Duke Ellington Orchestra.
  
  wn.com/Fred_Guy
• Freddie Jenkins
  Freddie "Posey" Jenkins (October 10, 1906–1978) was an American jazz trumpeter.
  Jenkins played in the Jenkins Orphanage Band when young, and attended Wilberforce University. following this he played with Edgar Hayes and Horace Henderson (1924–28) before taking a position in Duke Ellington's Orchestra in 1928. As a member, he soloed in the 1930 film Check and Double Check during a performance of the song "Old Man Blues". He remained with the Ellington Orchestra until 1934, when lung problems forced him to quit.
  He recovered and formed his own group in 1935, recording one session as a leader; sidemen included Ward Pinkett, Albert Nicholas and Bernard Addison. After this he played with Luis Russell in 1936. In 1937-38 he played with Ellington again, and for a short time thereafter played with Hayes Alvis. After 1938, his lung ailment returned and he retired from performance. In later years he worked in songwriting, disc jockeying, and in music press.
  
  wn.com/Freddie_Jenkins
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  Frederick Delius
  Frederick Theodore Albert Delius, CH (29 January 1862 – 10 June 1934) was an English composer. Born in the north of England to a prosperous mercantile family of German extraction, he resisted attempts to recruit him to commerce. He was sent to Florida in the United States in 1884 to manage an orange plantation, where he neglected his managerial duties; influenced by African-American music, he began composing. After a brief period of formal musical study in Germany beginning in 1886, he embarked on a full-time career as a composer in Paris and then in nearby Grez-sur-Loing, where he and his wife Jelka lived (except during the First World War) for the rest of their lives.
  Delius's first successes came in Germany, where Hans Haym and other conductors promoted his music from the late 1890s. In Delius's native Britain, it was 1907 before his music made regular appearances in concert programmes, after Thomas Beecham took it up. Beecham conducted the full premiere of A Mass of Life in London in 1909 (he had premiered Part II in Germany in 1908); he staged the opera A Village Romeo and Juliet at Covent Garden in 1910; and he mounted a six-day Delius festival in London in 1929, as well as making gramophone recordings of many of Delius's works. After 1918 Delius began to suffer the effects of syphilis, contracted during his earlier years in Paris. He became paralysed and blind, but completed some late compositions between 1928 and 1932 with the aid of an amanuensis, Eric Fenby.
  
  wn.com/Frederick_Delius
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  Gary Giddins
  Gary Giddins (born March 21, 1948) is an American jazz critic, author, and director, best known for his longtime work with The Village Voice. Born in Brooklyn, and raised on Long Island, Giddins graduated from Grinnell College, Iowa, in 1970. After some freelance work as a music and film critic, in 1974 he started writing his column "Weather Bird" for the Village Voice, which he ended in December 2003.
  Giddins has received the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Ralph J. Gleason Music Book Award, and the Bell Atlantic Award for Visions of Jazz: The First Century in 1998. His other books include Bing Crosby: A Pocketful of Dreams—The Early Years, 1903–1940, which won the Ralph J. Gleason Music Book Award and the ARSC Award for Excellence in Historical Sound Research; Weatherbird: Jazz at the Dawn of Its Second Century; Faces in the Crowd; Natural Selection; and biographies of Louis Armstrong and Charlie Parker. He has won an unparalleled six ASCAP–Deems Taylor Awards, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a Peabody Award in Broadcasting. He is the acting director of the Leon Levy Center for Biography at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.
  
  wn.com/Gary_Giddins
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  George Gershwin
  George Gershwin (September 26, 1898 – July 11, 1937) was an American composer and pianist. Gershwin's compositions spanned both popular and classical genres, and his most popular melodies are widely known. Among his best known works are the orchestral compositions Rhapsody in Blue and An American in Paris, as well as the opera Porgy and Bess.
  Born in Brooklyn to a Ukrainian father of Jewish descent and a Russian mother, Gershwin studied piano under Charles Hambitzer and composition with Rubin Goldmark and Henry Cowell. He began his career as a song plugger, but soon thereafter started composing Broadway theatre works with his brother Ira Gershwin and Buddy DeSylva. He moved to Paris in an attempt to study with Nadia Boulanger, where he began to compose An American in Paris. After returning to New York City, he wrote Porgy and Bess with Ira and author DuBose Heyward. Initially a commercial failure, Porgy and Bess is now considered one of the most important American operas of the Twentieth Century. Gershwin moved to Hollywood and composed numerous film scores until his death in 1937 from a brain tumor.
  
  wn.com/George_Gershwin
• George Shearing
  Sir George Shearing, OBE (August 13, 1919 – February 14, 2011) was an Anglo-American jazz pianist who for many years led a popular jazz group that recorded for Discovery Records, MGM Records and Capitol Records. The composer of over 300 titles, he had multiple albums on the Billboard charts during the 1950s, 1960s, 1980s and 1990s. He died of heart failure on February 14, 2011 in New York City, at the age of 91.
  Born in Battersea, London, Shearing was the youngest of nine children. He was born blind to working class parents: his father delivered coal and his mother cleaned trains in the evening. He started to learn piano at the age of three and began formal training at Linden Lodge School for the Blind, where he spent four years.
  Though offered several scholarships, Shearing opted to perform at a local pub, the Mason's Arms in Lambeth, for "25 bob a week" playing piano and accordion. He even joined an all-blind band during that time and was influenced by the records of Teddy Wilson and Fats Waller. He made his first BBC radio appearance during this time after befriending Leonard Feather, with whom he started recording in 1937. In 1940, Shearing joined Harry Parry's popular band and contributed to the comeback of Stéphane Grappelli. Shearing won seven consecutive Melody Maker polls during this time. Around that time he was also a member of George Evans's Saxes 'n' Sevens band.
  
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  Gunther Schuller
  Gunther Schuller (born November 22, 1925) is an American composer, conductor, horn player, author, historian, and jazz musician.
  The son of a violinist with the New York Philharmonic, he studied at the Saint Thomas Choir School and became an accomplished horn player and flute player. At age 15 he played horn professionally with the American Ballet Theatre (1943) followed by an appointment as principal hornist with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra (1943–5), and then the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra in New York, where he stayed until 1959. During his youth, he attended the Precollege Division at the Manhattan School of Music. He began his career in jazz by recording as a french horn player with Miles Davis (1949–50).
  In 1955 Schuller and jazz pianist John Lewis founded the Modern Jazz Society, which gave its first concert in Town Hall, New York, that same year and later became known as the Jazz and Classical Music Society. While lecturing at Brandeis University in 1957 he coined the term "Third Stream" to describe music that combines classical and jazz techniques. He became an enthusiastic advocate of this style and wrote many works according to its principles, among them Transformation (1957, for jazz ensemble), Concertino (1959, for jazz quartet and orchestra; one of its movements, Progression in Tempo, has sometimes been performed separately), Abstraction (1959, for nine instruments), the opera The Visitation (1966), and Variants on a Theme of Thelonious Monk (1960, for 13 instruments), which was recorded by Ornette Coleman, Eric Dolphy, and Bill Evans. He also orchestrated Scott Joplin's only known surviving opera Treemonisha for the Houston Grand Opera's premier production of this work.
  
  wn.com/Gunther_Schuller
• Gus Kahn
  Gustav Gerson Kahn (November 6, 1886 – October 8, 1941) was a musician, songwriter and lyricist.
  Kahn was born in Koblenz, Germany in 1886. The family emigrated from there to the United States and moved to Chicago, Illinois in 1890. After graduating from high school, he worked as a clerk in a mail order business before launching one of the most successful and prolific careers from Tin Pan Alley. Kahn married Grace LeBoy in 1916 and they had two children, Donald and Irene.
  In his early days, Kahn wrote special material for vaudeville. In 1913 he began a productive partnership with the well-established composer Egbert van Alstyne, with whom he created several notable hits of the era, including "Memories" and, along with Tony Jackson, "Pretty Baby." Later, he began writing lyrics for composer and bandleader Isham Jones. This partnership led to one of Kahn's best-known works, "I'll See You in My Dreams," which became the title of a movie based on his life, starring Danny Thomas as Kahn.
  Throughout the 1920s, Kahn continued to contribute to Broadway scores such as Holka Polka (1925), Kitty's Kisses (1926), Artists and Models (1927), Whoopee! (1928), and Show Girl (1929). He went on to write several movies, mainly for MGM.
  
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  Harold Arlen
  Harold Arlen (February 15, 1905 - April 23, 1986) was an American composer of popular music, having written over 500 songs, a number of which have become known the world over. In addition to composing the songs for The Wizard of Oz, including the classic 1938 song, "Over the Rainbow,” Arlen is a highly regarded contributor to the Great American Songbook. "Over the Rainbow," in fact, was voted the twentieth century's No. 1 song by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA).
  Arlen was born Hyman Arluck, in Buffalo, New York, the child of a Jewish cantor. His twin brother died the next day. He learned the piano as a youth and formed a band as a young man. He achieved some local success as a pianist and singer and moved to New York City in his early 20s. He worked as an accompanist in vaudeville. At this point, he changed his name to Harold Arlen. Between 1926 and about 1934, Arlen appeared occasionally as a band vocalist on records by The Buffalodians, Red Nichols, Joe Venuti, Leo Reisman and Eddie Duchin, usually singing his own compositions.
  
  wn.com/Harold_Arlen
• Harold Ashby
  Harold Ashby (March 21, 1925 in Kansas City, Missouri – June 13, 2003 in New York City) was a jazz tenor saxophonist. He is perhaps known for his work with Duke Ellington's band (having replaced Jimmy Hamilton in 1968) and stylistic similarities with Ben Webster.
  He worked as a freelance musician after leaving the Duke Ellington Orchestra in 1975, and took part in various reunions of Ellington alumni, as well as recording and gigging with his own bands. Recorded interview about his life at: http://www.jazzure.com/ashby.html
  
  
  
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  Harry Carney
  Harry Howell Carney (April 1, 1910 – October 8, 1974) was an American swing baritone saxophonist, clarinetist, and bass clarinetist mainly known for his 45-year tenure in Duke Ellington's Orchestra. Carney started off as an alto player with Ellington, but soon switched to the baritone. His strong, steady saxophone often served as the anchor of Duke's music. He also played clarinet and bass clarinet on occasion.
  Harry Howell Carney was born in 1910 in Boston, Massachusetts. At seventeen he ran off to join Duke Ellington's orchestra starting first on clarinet and eventually moving on to baritone saxophone.
  Carney was the longest serving player in Duke Ellington's orchestra. He was always present and on occasions when Ellington was absent he took over as conductor, particularly when Ellington wished to make a stage entrance after the band had begun playing the first piece of a performance. Ellington and Carney were close friends. The majority of their careers they rode together in Carney's car to concerts, allowing Ellington to come up with new ideas. Fictionalised accounts of these road trips are documented in Geoff Dyer's But Beautiful.
  
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  Harry Truman
  Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884 – December 26, 1972) was the 33rd President of the United States (1945–1953). As President Franklin D. Roosevelt's third vice president and the 34th Vice President of the United States (1945), he succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945, when President Roosevelt died less than three months after beginning his unprecedented fourth term.
  During World War I, Truman served in combat in France as an artillery officer in his National Guard unit. After the war, he joined the Democratic Party political machine of Tom Pendergast in Kansas City, Missouri. He was elected a county official and in 1934 United States senator. After he had gained national prominence as head of the wartime Truman Committee, Truman replaced vice president Henry A. Wallace as Roosevelt's running mate in 1944.
  Truman faced many challenges in domestic affairs. The disorderly postwar reconversion of the economy of the United States was marked by severe shortages, numerous strikes, and the passage of the Taft–Hartley Act over his veto. He confounded all predictions to win election in 1948, helped by his famous Whistle Stop Tour of rural America. After his election, he passed only one of the proposals in his liberal Fair Deal program. He used executive orders to end racial discrimination in the armed forces and created loyalty checks that dismissed thousands of communist supporters from office.
  
  wn.com/Harry_Truman
• Hayes Alvis
  Hayes Alvis (May 1, 1907 – December 29, 1972) was an American jazz bassist and tubist.
  Born in Chicago on May 1, 1907, Alvis began on drums but switched to tuba and bass after playing with Jelly Roll Morton in 1927-28. He played tuba with Earl Hines from 1928 to 1930, and did arrangements for Hines as well.
  He moved to New York City in 1931 and played with Jimmie Noone in the Mills Blue Rhythm Band from 1931–34 and 1936. A very early double-bass solo can be heard on his 1932 recording "Rhythm Spasm". Alvis also occasionally played baritone saxophone in this ensemble as well, and was the group's tour namager. From 1935 to 1938 Alvis played with Duke Ellington, working with fellow bassist/tubist Billy Taylor.
  After his stint with Ellington, Alvis played with Benny Carter, Joe Sullivan, and Louis Armstrong (in whose ensemble he replaced Pops Foster). From 1942 to 1945 he played in an Army band led by Sy Oliver. After the war, he played with Dave Martin^{[disambiguation needed ]} until 1947, and then took a longstanding run as a house musician at the Cafe Society in New York City.
  
  wn.com/Hayes_Alvis
• Herb Jeffries
  Herbert "Herb" Jeffries (born September 24, 1913) is an American jazz and popular singer and actor.
  Born in Detroit, Michigan as Herbert Jeffrey, he is the son of Umberto Balentino, a pianist of African-American and Sicilian descent and his wife, Mildred, who was of Irish descent.
  A jazz and popular singer, Jeffries is noted for being the first black man to star in an American western. He starred as a singing cowboy in several all-black Western films, in which he sang his own western compositions. Jeffries obtained financing for the first black western film and hired Spencer Williams to appear with him. In addition to starring in the film, he sang and performed his own stunts as the cowboy character Bob Blake.
  Jeffries began his career working with Erskine Tate and his Vendome Orchestra when he moved to Chicago from Detroit at the urging of Louis Armstrong. His break came during the 1933 Chicago World's Fair—Century of Progress Exposition singing with the Earl Hines Orchestra on Hines’ national broadcasts live from the Grand Terrace Cafe. His first recordings were with Hines in 1934, including "Just to be in Carolina". As of 2011, Jeffries is the sole surviving member of that Earl Hines orchestra. He then recorded extensively with Duke Ellington from 1940 to 1942. His most famous song, "Flamingo" (recorded in 1940 with Ellington), sold over 50 million copies. He was replaced in the Ellington band by Al Hibbler in 1943.
  
  wn.com/Herb_Jeffries
• Herbie Jones
  Herbie Jones (1926, Miami - March 19, 2001, New York City) was an American jazz trumpeter and arranger.
  Jones dropped out of college to move to New York, where he joined the Lucky Millinder band. In subsequent years he worked with Andy Kirk, Buddy Johnson, and Cab Calloway, and studied under Eddie Barefield. Jones spent several years as Duke Ellington's first trumpeter in the 1960s, and worked as an arranger and transcriber with Ellington and Billy Strayhorn. Among his arrangements were "El Busto", "Cootie's Caravan", "The Prowling Cat", and "The Opener".
  After leaving Ellington, Jones became director of an alternative school in New York, and directed the Police Athletic League's bugle corps. He died as a result of diabetes in 2001.
  
  wn.com/Herbie_Jones
• Hilton Jefferson
  Hilton Jefferson (July 30, 1903 – November 14, 1968) was an American jazz alto saxophonist born in Danbury, Connecticut, perhaps best-known for leading the saxophone section from 1940-1949 in the Cab Calloway band. Jefferson is said to have been "a soft, delicate saxophone player, with an exquisite sensibility."
  In 1929 Jefferson began his professional career with Claude Hopkins, and throughout the 1930s was busy working for the big bands of Chick Webb, Fletcher Henderson and McKinney's Cotton Pickers. From 1952-1953 Jefferson performed with Duke Ellington, but ultimately became a bank guard to support himself with a steady income. In the 1950s he continued to perform, especially with Rex Stewart and some former members of the Fletcher Henderson band.
  With Dizzy Gillespie
  
  wn.com/Hilton_Jefferson
• Irving Mills
  Irving Mills (January 16, 1894 – April 21, 1985) was a jazz music publisher, also known by the name of "Joe Primrose."
  Mills was born to Jewish parents in the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City. He founded Mills Music with his brother Jack in 1919. Between 1919 and 1965, when they sold Mills Music, Inc., they built and became the largest independent music publisher in the world. He died in 1985 in Palm Springs, California. His interment was at Mount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery.
  Irving and Jack discovered a number of great songwriters, among them Sammy Fain, Harry Barris, Gene Austin, Hoagy Carmichael, Jimmy McHugh, and Dorothy Fields. He either discovered or greatly advanced the careers of Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington, Ben Pollack, Jack Teagarden, Benny Goodman, Will Hudson, Raymond Scott and many others.
  Although not a musician himself (he did sing, however), Irving decided to put together his own studio recording group. In Irving Mills and his Hotsy Totsy Gang he had for sidemen: Tommy Dorsey, Jimmy Dorsey, Joe Venuti, Eddie Lang, Arnold Brillhardt, Arthur Schutt, and Manny Klein. Other variations of his bands featured Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, and Red Nichols (Irving gave Red Nichols the tag "and his Five Pennies.")
  
  wn.com/Irving_Mills
• Irving Townsend
  Irving Townsend (1920-1981) was an American record producer and author. He is most famous for having produced, in March 1959, the Miles Davis album Kind of Blue, which at #12, is the highest-ranked jazz album on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, and according to the RIAA, is the best-selling jazz album of all time. He later served as president of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States from 1969-.
  Townsend, a former jazz bandleader, became an advertising copywriter for Columbia Records. He then convinced George Avakian to have him assist on recording sessions, and by the mid 1950s he was a full-time producer. He became Davis's producer after the departures of Avakian and Cal Lampley.
  Townsend wrote the liner notes for the album Ella Sings, Chick Swings with music by Ella Fitzgerald and the drummer Chick Webb.
  From Music Is My Mistress, an autobiography by Duke Ellington:
  "Irving Townsend is a very sensitive musician. He plays clarinet in a trip symphony, one of those groups that includes doctors, lawyers and accountants who worked their way through college as professional musicians and who like to get together once or twice a week to try out their chops. He is now executive producer for Columbia Records on the West Coast.
  
  wn.com/Irving_Townsend
• Jack Towers
  Jack Towers (November 15, 1914 – December 23, 2010) was in charge of radio broadcasting at the U.S. Department of Agriculture from 1952 to 1974 and became a noted remastering engineer of musical recordings after his retirement.
  Jack Howard Towers was born in Bradley, South Dakota in the United States.
  After graduating from South Dakota State College, he became a cooperative extension service worker at the South Dakota State College extension. He moved to Washington in 1941 to work for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, served in the Army from 1942 to 1946, and then returned to the USDA.
  Towers was in charge of radio broadcasting at the USDA from 1952 to 1974, where he developed agriculture-related programs for broadcast on American radio networks. He retired from the USDA in 1974 and what had been a hobby of remastering rare recordings, primarily of jazz groups, became a second career. He used techniques such as manually scraping imperfections such as pops and hisses from reel-to-reel tapes with an X-Acto knife.
  
  wn.com/Jack_Towers
• James "Bubber" Miley
  James Wesley "Bubber" Miley (April 3, 1903 – May 20, 1932) was an American early jazz trumpet and cornet player, specializing in the use of the plunger mute.
  Miley was born in Aiken, South Carolina, United States, into a musical family. At the age of six, he and his family moved to New York City where, as a child, he occasionally sang for money on the streets, and later, at the age of fourteen, studied to play the trombone and cornet.
  In 1920, after having served in the Navy for eighteen months, he joined a jazz formation named the Carolina Five, and remained a member for the next three years, playing small clubs and boat rides all around New York City. After leaving the band at the age of nineteen, Miley briefly toured the Southern States with a show titled The Sunny South, and then joined Mamie Smith's Jazz Hounds, replacing trumpeter Johnny Dunn. They regularly performed in famous clubs around New York City and Chicago. While touring in Chicago, he heard King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band playing and was captivated by Oliver's use of mutes. Soon Miley found his own voice by combining the straight and plunger mute with a growling sound.
  
  wn.com/James_"Bubber"_Miley
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  James P. Johnson
  James P. Johnson (James Price Johnson, also known as Jimmy Johnson; February 1, 1894 – November 17, 1955) was an American pianist and composer. A pioneer of the stride style of jazz piano, he along with Jelly Roll Morton, were arguably the two most important pianists who bridged the ragtime and jazz eras, and the two most important catalysts in the evolution of ragtime piano into jazz. As such, he was a model for Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Art Tatum and his more famous pupil, Fats Waller. Johnson composed many hit tunes including the theme song of the Roaring Twenties, "Charleston" and "If I Could be With You One Hour Tonight" and remained the acknowledged king of New York jazz pianists until he was dethroned c. 1933 by the recently arrived Art Tatum, who is widely acknowledged by jazz critics as the most technically proficient jazz pianist of all time. Johnson's artistry, his significance in the subsequent development of jazz piano, and his large contribution to American musical theatre, are often overlooked, and as such, he has been referred to by Reed College musicologist David Schiff, as " The Invisible Pianist ".
  
  wn.com/James_P._Johnson
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  Jimmie Lunceford
  James Melvin "Jimmie" Lunceford (June 6, 1902 – July 12, 1947) was an American jazz alto saxophonist and bandleader in the swing era.
  Lunceford was born in Fulton, Mississippi. Little is known about his parents, though his father was a choirmaster in Warren, Ohio, before the family moved to Denver. Lunceford went to high school in Denver and studied music under Wilberforce J. Whiteman, father of Paul Whiteman, whose band was soon to acquire a national reputation. After high school he continued his studies at Fisk University. In 1922, he played alto saxophone in a local band led by George Morrison which included Andy Kirk, another musician destined for fame as a bandleader.
  In 1927, while teaching at Manassas High School in Memphis, Tennessee, he organized a student band, the Chickasaw Syncopators, whose name was changed to the Jimmie Lunceford Orchestra when it began touring. Lunceford was the first high school band director in Memphis. This band recorded in 1927 and 1930. After a period of touring, the band accepted a booking at the Harlem nightclub The Cotton Club in 1934. The Cotton Club had already featured Duke Ellington and Cab Calloway, who won their first widespread fame from their inventive shows for the Cotton Club's all-white patrons. Lunceford's orchestra, with their tight musicianship and often outrageous humor in their music and lyrics made an ideal band for the club, and Lunceford's reputation began to steadily grow.
  
  wn.com/Jimmie_Lunceford
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  Jimmy Dorsey
  James "Jimmy" Dorsey (February 29, 1904 – June 12, 1957) was a prominent American jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, trumpeter, composer, and big band leader. He was known as "JD". He composed the jazz and pop standards "I'm Glad There Is You (In This World of Ordinary People)" and "It's The Dreamer In Me".
  Jimmy Dorsey was born in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania, the son of a music teacher and older brother of Tommy Dorsey who also became a prominent musician. He played trumpet in his youth, appearing on stage with J. Carson McGee's King Trumpeters in 1913. He switched to alto saxophone in 1915, and then learned to double on clarinet. Jimmy Dorsey played on a clarinet outfitted with the Albert system of fingering, as opposed to the more common Boehm system used by most of his contemporaries including Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw.
  With his brother Tommy playing trombone, he formed Dorsey’s Novelty Six, one of the first jazz bands to broadcast. In 1924 he joined the California Ramblers (who were based in New York City). He did much free lance radio and recording work throughout the 1920s. The brothers also appeared as session musicians on many jazz recordings. He joined Ted Lewis's band in 1930, with whom he toured Europe.
  
  wn.com/Jimmy_Dorsey
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  Jimmy Durante
  James Francis "Jimmy" Durante (February 10, 1893 – January 29, 1980) was an American singer, pianist, comedian and actor. His distinctive clipped gravelly speech, comic language butchery, jazz-influenced songs, and large nose helped make him one of America's most familiar and popular personalities of the 1920s through the 1970s. His jokes about his nose included referring to it as a "Schnozzola", and the word became his nickname.
  Durante was born on the Lower East Side of New York City. He was the youngest of four children born to Bartolomeo Durante and his mail-order bride Rosa, both of whom were immigrants from Salerno, Italy. Bartolomeo was a barber, and his wife Rosa was the sister of a woman who lived in the same boarding house. Jimmy Durante served as an altar boy at Saint Malachy's Roman Catholic Church, known as the Actor's Chapel.
  Durante dropped out of school in eighth grade to become a full-time ragtime pianist. He first played with his cousin, whose name was also "Jimmy Durante." It was a family act, but he was too professional for his cousin. He continued working the city's piano bar circuit and earned the nickname "Ragtime Jimmy," before he joined one of the first recognizable jazz bands in New York, the Original New Orleans Jazz Band. Durante was the only member not from New Orleans. His routine of breaking into a song to deliver a joke, with band or orchestra chord punctuation after each line, became a Durante trademark. In 1920, the group was renamed Jimmy Durante's Jazz Band.
  
  wn.com/Jimmy_Durante
• Jimmy Forrest
  Jimmy Forrest (January 24, 1920 – August 26, 1980) was an African American jazz musician, who played tenor saxophone throughout his career.
  Forrest is famous for his first solo recording of "Night Train". It reached #1 on the Billboard R&B chart in March 1952, and stayed at the top for seven weeks. "Hey Mrs. Jones" (#3 R&B) and "Bolo Blues" were his other major hits. All were made for United Records, which recorded Forrest between 1951 and 1953. He recorded frequently as both a sideman and a bandleader.
  Born Jimmy Robert Forrest Jr., in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, he played alongside Fate Marable as a young man. He was with Jay McShann in 1940-42 and with Andy Kirk from 1942-48, when he joined Duke Ellington. During the early 1950s, he led his own combos. He also played with Miles Davis, in early 1952 at The Barrel Club. After his solo career, he played in small combos with Harry "Sweets" Edison and Al Grey, as well as appearing with Count Basie.
  Late in life Forrest married Betty Tardy, and settled in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he died in August 1980, aged 60.
  
  wn.com/Jimmy_Forrest
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  Jimmy Hamilton
  Jimmy Hamilton (25 May 1917 – 20 September 1994) was an American jazz clarinetist, tenor saxophonist, arranger, composer, and music educator, best known for his twenty-five years with Duke Ellington.
  Hamilton was born in Dillon, South Carolina, and grew up in Philadelphia. Having originally learnt to play piano and brass instruments, in the 1930s he started playing the latter in local bands, before switching to clarinet and saxophone. In 1939 he played with Lucky Millinder, Jimmy Mundy, and Bill Doggett, going on to join the Teddy Wilson sextet in 1940. After two years with Wilson, he played with Eddie Heywood and Yank Porter.
  In 1943 he replaced Barney Bigard in the Duke Ellington orchestra, and stayed with Ellington until 1968. His style was very different on his two instruments: on tenor saxophone he had an R&B sound, while on clarinet he was much more precise and correct, though fluent. He wrote some of his own material in his time with Ellington.
  After he left the Ellington orchestra Hamilton played and arranged on a freelance basis, before spending the 1970s and 1980s in the Virgin Islands teaching music. On his retirement from teaching he continued to perform with his own groups from 1989 to 1990. Hamilton died in St. Croix, Virgin Islands, at the age of seventy-seven.
  
  wn.com/Jimmy_Hamilton
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  Jimmy Stewart
  James Maitland "Jimmy" Stewart (May 20, 1908 – July 2, 1997) was an American film and stage actor, known for his distinctive voice and persona. Over the course of his career, he starred in many films widely considered classics and was nominated for five Academy Awards, winning one in competition and receiving one Lifetime Achievement award. He was a major MGM contract star. He also had a noted military career and was a World War II and Vietnam War veteran, who rose to the rank of Brigadier General in the United States Air Force Reserve.
  James Maitland Stewart was born on May 20, 1908, in Indiana, Pennsylvania, the son of Elizabeth Ruth (née Jackson) and Alexander Maitland Stewart, who owned a hardware store. Stewart's parents were of Scottish descent and Presbyterians. His maternal ancestors served in the American Revolution, the War of 1812 and the American Civil War. The eldest of three children (he had two younger sisters, Virginia and Mary), he was expected to continue his father's business, which had been in the family for three generations. His mother was an excellent pianist but his father discouraged Stewart's request for lessons. But when his father accepted a gift of an accordion from a guest, young Stewart quickly learned to play the instrument, which became a fixture off-stage during his acting career. As the family grew, music continued to be an important part of family life.
  
  wn.com/Jimmy_Stewart
• Jimmy Woode
  Jimmy Woode (born James Bryant Woode, 23 September 1926, Philadelphia – 23 April 2005, Lindenwold, New Jersey) was a jazz bassist. His father, also named Jimmy Woode, was a music teacher and pianist who played with Hot Lips Page. Woode studied piano and bass in Boston at Boston University and at the Conservatory of Music, as well as at the Philadelphia Academy.
  He played and/or recorded in bands with Flip Phillips, Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald, Nat Pierce, Sidney Bechet, Billie Holiday, Jaki Byard, Earl Hines, Jimmy Witherspoon and Miles Davis.
  He joined the Duke Ellington Orchestra in 1955, appearing on many of Ellington's recordings, including Such Sweet Thunder and Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Duke Ellington Songbook, both from 1957, as well as the historic 1956 Newport Jazz Festival session. He stayed with the Orchestra until 1960, when he left to live in Europe.
  Jimmy Woode's song "Just Give Me Time" was covered by Carola in 1966, first released on her album Carola & Heikki Sarmanto Trio, reaching the Finnish charts in 2004.
  
  wn.com/Jimmy_Woode
• Joe Benjamin
  Joseph Rupert "Joe" Benjamin (November 4, 1919 – January 26, 1974) was an American jazz bassist.
  Born in Atlantic City, New Jersey, Benjamin played with numerous high-profile jazz musicians in a variety of idioms. Early in his career he played in the big bands of Artie Shaw, Fletcher Henderson, Sy Oliver, and Duke Ellington.
  Later credits include work with Roland Kirk, Hank Garland, Dave Brubeck, Marian McPartland, Louis Armstrong (in his later years), Mal Waldron, Jo Jones, Gary Burton, Sarah Vaughan, Roy Haynes, Art Taylor, and Brother Jack McDuff.
  With Dizzy Gillespie
  With Roland Kirk
  With Gerry Mulligan & Paul Desmond
  With Sarah Vaughan
  With Mal Waldron
  
  wn.com/Joe_Benjamin
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  Joe Pass
  Joe Pass (born Joseph Anthony Jacobi Passalaqua, January 13, 1929 – May 23, 1994) was an Italian-American jazz guitarist of Sicilian descent. He is generally considered to be one of the greatest jazz guitarists of the 20th century. His extensive use of walking basslines, melodic counterpoint during improvisation, use of a chord-melody style of play and outstanding knowledge of chord inversions and progressions opened up new possibilities for jazz guitar and had a profound influence on future guitarists.
  Born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, Joe Pass, the son of Mariano Passalaqua, a Sicilian-born steel mill worker, was raised in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. Born into a non-musical family, Pass started to play the guitar after being inspired by actor Gene Autry's portrayal of a guitar-playing cowboy. He received his first guitar, a Harmony model bought for $17, on his 9th birthday. Pass' father recognized early that his son had "a little something happening" and pushed him constantly to pick up tunes by ear, play pieces not written specifically for the instrument, practice scales and not to "leave any spaces" - that is, to fill in the sonic space between the notes of the melody.
  
  wn.com/Joe_Pass
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  John Coltrane
  John William Coltrane (September 23, 1926 – July 17, 1967) was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Working in the bebop and hard bop idioms early in his career, Coltrane helped pioneer the use of modes in jazz and later was at the forefront of free jazz. He organized at least fifty recording sessions as a leader during his recording career, and appeared as a sideman on many other albums, notably with trumpeter Miles Davis and pianist Thelonious Monk.
  As his career progressed, Coltrane and his music took on an increasingly spiritual dimension. His second wife was pianist Alice Coltrane, and their son Ravi Coltrane is also a saxophonist. Coltrane influenced innumerable musicians, and remains one of the most significant tenor saxophonists in jazz history. He received many posthumous awards and recognitions, including canonization by the African Orthodox Church as Saint John William Coltrane. In 2007, Coltrane was awarded the Pulitzer Prize Special Citation for his "masterful improvisation, supreme musicianship and iconic centrality to the history of jazz."
  
  wn.com/John_Coltrane
• 
  John Steinbeck
  John Ernst Steinbeck, Jr. (February 27, 1902 – December 20, 1968) was an American writer. He is widely known for the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Grapes of Wrath (1939) and East of Eden (1952) and the novella Of Mice and Men (1937). He was an author of twenty-seven books, including sixteen novels, six non-fiction books and five collections of short stories; Steinbeck received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962.
  John Ernst Steinbeck, Jr. was born on February 27, 1902, in Salinas, California. He was of German and Irish descent. Johann Adolf Großsteinbeck, Steinbeck's paternal grandfather, had shortened the family name to Steinbeck when he immigrated to the United States. The family farm in Heiligenhaus, Mettmann, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, is still today named "Großsteinbeck."
  His father, John Ernst Steinbeck, served as Monterey County treasurer. John's mother, Olive Hamilton, a former school teacher, shared Steinbeck's passion of reading and writing. The Steinbecks were members of the Episcopal Church. Steinbeck lived in a small rural town that was essentially a frontier settlement, set amid some of the world's most fertile land. He spent his summers working on nearby ranches and later with migrant workers on Spreckels ranch. He became aware of the harsher aspects of migrant life and the darker side of human nature, which supplied him with material expressed in such works as Of Mice and Men. He also explored his surroundings, walking across local forests, fields, and farms.
  
  wn.com/John_Steinbeck
• Johnny Coles
  Johnny Coles (July 3, 1926, Trenton, New Jersey - December 21, 1997, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) was an American jazz trumpeter.
  Coles spent his early career playing with R&B groups, including those of Eddie Vinson (1948–1951), Bull Moose Jackson (1952), and Earl Bostic (1955–1956). He was with James Moody from 1956 to 1958, and played with Gil Evans's orchestra between 1958 and 1964, including on the Miles Davis album Sketches of Spain. After this he spent time with Charles Mingus in his sextet which also included Eric Dolphy, Clifford Jordan, Jaki Byard, and Dannie Richmond. Following this he played with Herbie Hancock (1968–1969), Ray Charles (1969–1971), Duke Ellington (1971–1974), Art Blakey (1976), Dameronia, Mingus Dynasty, and the Count Basie Orchestra under the direction of Thad Jones (1985–1986).
  Coles, nicknamed "Little Johnny C", recorded as a leader several times over the course of his career. He died of cancer in 1997.
  With Tina Brooks
  With Gil Evans
  With Booker Ervin
  With Grant Green
  
  wn.com/Johnny_Coles
• 
  Johnny Hodges
  John Keith "Johnny" Hodges (July 25, 1906 – May 11, 1970) was an American alto saxophonist, best known for his solo work with Duke Ellington's big band. He played lead alto in the saxophone section for many years, except the period between 1932–1946 when Otto Hardwick generally played first chair. Hodges was also featured on soprano saxophone, but refused to play soprano after 1946, when he was given the lead chair. He is considered one of the definitive alto saxophones players of the Big Band Era (alongside Benny Carter).
  Hodges started playing with Lloyd Scott, Sidney Bechet, Lucky Roberts and Chick Webb. When Ellington wanted to expand his band in 1928, Ellington's clarinet player Barney Bigard recommended Hodges, who was featured on both alto and soprano sax. His playing became one of the identifying voices of the Ellington orchestra. Hodges left the Duke to lead his own band (1951–1955), but returned to the large ensemble shortly before Ellington's triumphant return to prominence – the orchestra's performance at the 1956 Newport Jazz Festival.
  
  wn.com/Johnny_Hodges
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  Joseph Haydn
  Franz Joseph Haydn (  /ˈdʒoʊzəf ˈhaɪdən/; German pronunciation: [ˈjoːzɛf ˈhaɪdən] ( listen); 31 March 1732 – 31 May 1809), known as Joseph Haydn, was an Austrian composer, one of the most prolific and prominent composers of the Classical period. He is often called the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet" because of his important contributions to these forms. He was also instrumental in the development of the piano trio and in the evolution of sonata form.
  A lifelong resident of Austria, Haydn spent much of his career as a court musician for the wealthy Esterházy family on their remote estate. Isolated from other composers and trends in music until the later part of his long life, he was, as he put it, "forced to become original". At the time of his death, he was one of the most celebrated composers in Europe.
  Joseph Haydn was the brother of Michael Haydn, himself a highly regarded composer, and Johann Evangelist Haydn, a tenor. He was also a close friend of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and a teacher of Ludwig van Beethoven.
  
  wn.com/Joseph_Haydn
• Joya Sherrill
  Joya Sherrill (August 20, 1924, Bayonne, New Jersey – June 28, 2010, Great Neck, New York) was an American jazz vocalist and children's television show host.
  Sherrill began her career with Duke Ellington in 1942, aged 17, later becoming a member of his orchestra from 1944 to 1946. She had a hit with Ellington's tune "I'm Beginning to See the Light". Subsequently, she worked as a soloist, performing with Rex Stewart, Ray Nance, and others into the 1960s. She returned to Ellington for 1959's A Drum Is a Woman. She toured the U.S. in 1959 and then took a role in the Broadway show The Long Dream. She toured with Benny Goodman in the USSR in 1962 and then returned to sing with Ellington in 1963.
  From 1970 to 1982 she had a children's television show, Time for Joya, later called Joya's Fun School. Later in the 1980s she hosted a children's show in the Middle East.
  She died of complications from leukemia in 2010, aged 85. She was survived by a son, a daughter, a sister and two grandchildren.
  
  wn.com/Joya_Sherrill
• 
  Juan Tizol
  Juan Tizol (22 January 1900 – 23 April 1984) was a Puerto Rican trombonist and composer. He is best-known as a member of Duke Ellington's band, and as the co-writer of the jazz standards "Caravan" and "Perdido".
  Tizol was born in Vega Baja, Puerto Rico. Music was a large part of his life from an early age. His first instrument was the violin, but he soon switched to valve trombone, the instrument he would play throughout his career. His musical training came mostly from his uncle Manuel Tizol, who was the director of the municipal band and the symphony in San Juan. Throughout his youth, Juan played in his uncle’s band and also gained experience by playing in local operas, ballets and dance bands. In 1920, Juan joined a band that was traveling to the United States to work in Washington D.C. The group eventually made it to Washington (traveling as stowaways) and established residence at the Howard Theater where they played for touring shows and silent movies. At the Howard they also were hired to play in small jazz or dance groups. This is where Juan first came in contact with Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington.
  
  wn.com/Juan_Tizol
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  Junior Raglin
  Alvin "Junior" Raglin (March 16, 1917 - November 10, 1955) was an American swing jazz double-bassist.
  Raglin started out on guitar but had picked up bass by the mid-1930s. He played with Eugene Coy from 1938 to 1941 in Oregon, and then joined Duke Ellington's Orchestra, where he replaced Jimmy Blanton. Raglin remained in Ellington's employ from 1941 to 1945.
  After leaving Ellington's orchestra, Raglin led his own quartet, and also played with Dave Rivera, Ella Fitzgerald, and Al Hibbler. He returned to play with Ellington again briefly in 1946 and 1955. Raglin fell ill in the late 1940s and quit performing; he died in 1955 at age 38. He never recorded as a leader.
  
  wn.com/Junior_Raglin
• Kay Davis
  Katherine McDonald Wimp née Katherine McDonald stage name Kay Davis (December 5, 1920 – Apopka January 27, 2012) was an American jazz singer best known for her time with the orchestra of Duke Ellington.
  Davis was born in Evanston, Illinois and attended Evanston Township High School before she studied voice and piano at Northwestern University, where she received her bachelor's degree in 1942 and her masters in 1943. Her grandfather, William H. Twiggs, was a civic leader for whom a park in Evanston is named.
  In 1944 she joined Duke Ellington's orchestra, where she sang alongside Joya Sherrill and Al Hibbler. She is best known for her wordless vocals in pieces such as "Transblucency" and "On a Turquoise Cloud". She also sang many pieces with lyrics. She is the only person Ellington allowed to reprise Adelaide Hall's famous wordless vocal on "Creole Love Call". Her tenure in Ellington's band coincided with their increasing exposure on film, especially for Universal Pictures. Davis and Billy Strayhorn gave the first performance of Strayhorn's "Lush Life" on November 13, 1948 at Carnegie Hall—even though the song had been written in the 1930s.
  
  wn.com/Kay_Davis
• 
  Kenny Burrell
  Kenneth Earl "Kenny" Burrell (born July 31, 1931) is an American jazz guitarist. His playing is grounded in bebop and blues; he has performed and recorded with a wide range of jazz musicians.
  Burrell was born in Detroit, Michigan to a musical family and began playing guitar at the age of 12. His influences as a guitar player include Charlie Christian, Django Reinhardt, and Wes Montgomery. While a student at Wayne State University, he made his debut recording as a member of Dizzy Gillespie's sextet in 1951. He toured with Oscar Peterson after graduating in 1955 and then moved to New York City in 1956.
  A consummate sideman, Burrell recorded with a wide range of prominent musicians. He also led his own groups since 1951 and recorded many well received albums.
  In the 1970s he began leading seminars about music, particularly Duke Ellington's. A highly popular performer, he has won several jazz polls in Japan and the United Kingdom as well as the United States.
  He has recorded about 106 albums, including Midnight Blue (1963), Blue Lights, Guitar Forms, Sunup To Sundown (1990), Soft Winds (1993), Then Along Came Kenny (1993), and Lotus Blossom (1995).
  
  wn.com/Kenny_Burrell
• Lou Blackburn
  Lou Blackburn (November 12, 1922 – 1990) was an American jazz trombonist born in Rankin, Pennsylvania who performed in several genres, especially the swing genre. He also performed in the West Coast jazz and soul jazz mediums. During the 1950s he played swing music with Lionel Hampton, and also Charlie Ventura. In the early 1960s he began performing with musicians like Cat Anderson, among others. He also appears on the album Mingus at Monterey by Charles Mingus. He also did crossover work with The Beach Boys and The Turtles, among others. Since 1970 he lived in Germany, where he toured successfully with his ethno jazz band Mombasa. In 1990 he died in Berlin.
  With June Christy
  With Gil Fuller
  With Chico Hamilton
  With The Three Sounds
  
  
  
  wn.com/Lou_Blackburn
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  Louie Bellson
  Luigi Paulino Alfredo Francesco Antonio Balassoni (July 6, 1924 – February 14, 2009), known by the stage name Louie Bellson (his own preferred spelling, although he is often seen in sources as Louis Bellson), was an Italian-American jazz drummer. He was a composer, arranger, bandleader, and jazz educator, and is credited with pioneering the use of two bass drums.
  Bellson was an internationally acclaimed artist who performed in most of the major capitals around the world. Bellson and his first wife, the actress and singer Pearl Bailey (married 1952–1990), had the second highest number of appearances at the White House (only Bob Hope had more). He was a vice president at Remo, a drum company. Louie was also very great friends with the cymbal manufacturer Armand Zildjian.
  Louie Bellson was born in Rock Falls, Illinois, in 1924 and started playing drums at three years of age. At age 15, he pioneered the double-bass drum set-up. His detailed sketch earned him an 'A' in his high school art class. At age 17, he triumphed over 40,000 drummers to win the Slingerland National Gene Krupa contest. Louie graduated from Moline High School, Moline, IL, in 1939.
  
  wn.com/Louie_Bellson
• 
  Louis Armstrong
  Louis Armstrong (August 4, 1901 – July 6, 1971), nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana.
  Coming to prominence in the 1920s as an "inventive" cornet and trumpet player, Armstrong was a foundational influence in jazz, shifting the music's focus from collective improvisation to solo performance. With his instantly recognizable deep and distinctive gravelly voice, Armstrong was also an influential singer, demonstrating great dexterity as an improviser, bending the lyrics and melody of a song for expressive purposes. He was also greatly skilled at scat singing (vocalizing using sounds and syllables instead of actual lyrics).
  Renowned for his charismatic stage presence and voice almost as much as for his trumpet-playing, Armstrong's influence extends well beyond jazz music, and by the end of his career in the 1960s, he was widely regarded as a profound influence on popular music in general. Armstrong was one of the first truly popular African-American entertainers to "cross over," whose skin-color was secondary to his music in an America that was severely racially divided. It allowed him socially acceptable access to the upper echelons of American society that were highly restricted for a black man. While he rarely publicly politicized his race, often to the dismay of fellow African-Americans, he was privately a strong supporter of the Civil Rights movement in America.^{[citation needed]}
  
  wn.com/Louis_Armstrong
• Louis Metcalf
  Louis Metcalf (February 28, 1905 - October 27, 1981) was a jazz cornetist and trumpeter. He played for a short time with Duke Ellington for which he is best remembered.
  Metcalf was born in Webster Groves, Missouri. As a youth he first trained on the drums but switched over to cornet permanently. As a teenager in St. Louis, Missouri he played with Charlie Creath.
  Metcalf moved to New York City in 1923 and participated in the fertile jazz scene there, playing with such legends as Willie "The Lion" Smith, Jelly Roll Morton, Benny Carter and King Oliver. In 1926 Duke Ellington hired Metcalf to play in his seminal orchestra, where his mellow tone contrasted with Bubber Miley's. In the 1930s Metcalf led his own bands and joined Fletcher Henderson's.
  In 1946 Metcalf moved to Montreal and formed the International Band, the first to play the nascent bebop style in Canada. Under his leadership the Café Saint-Michel was the hub of the jazz scene in Montreal for a few years, with local musicians such as the young Oscar Peterson and visiting Americans such as Art Pepper, Fats Navarro and Sonny Rollins sitting in with the band.
  
  wn.com/Louis_Metcalf
• Luckey Roberts
  Charles Luckeyeth Roberts, better known as Luckey Roberts (August 7, 1887 – February 5, 1968) was an American composer and stride pianist who worked in the jazz, ragtime, and blues styles.
  Luckey Roberts was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and was playing piano and acting professionally with traveling Negro minstrel shows in his childhood. He settled in New York City about 1910 and became one of the leading pianists in Harlem, and started publishing some of his original rags.
  Roberts toured France and the UK with James Reese Europe during World War I, then returned to New York where he wrote music for various shows and recorded piano rolls.
  With James P. Johnson, Roberts developed the stride piano style of playing about 1919.
  Robert's reach on the keyboard was unusually large (he could reach a fourteenth), leading to a rumor that he had the webbing between his fingers surgically cut, which those who knew him and saw him play live denounce as false; Roberts simply had naturally large hands with wide finger spread.
  
  wn.com/Luckey_Roberts
• Major Holley
  Major Holley (July 10, 1924, Detroit, Michigan – October 25, 1990, Maplewood, New Jersey) was an American jazz upright bassist.
  Holley attended the prestigious Cass Technical High School. Holley played violin and tuba when young and started playing bass while serving in the Navy. In the latter half of the 1940s he played with Dexter Gordon, Charlie Parker, and Ella Fitzgerald; in 1950 he and Oscar Peterson recorded duets, and he also played with Peterson and Charlie Smith as a trio. He was married to Minnie (Millicent) Walton née Aitcheson .
  In the mid-1950s he moved to England and worked at the BBC. Upon his return to America he toured with Woody Herman in 1958 and with Al Cohn/Zoot Sims in 1959-60. A prolific studio musician, he played with Duke Ellington in 1964 and with the Kenny Burrell Trio, Coleman Hawkins, Lee Konitz, Roy Eldridge, Michel Legrand, Milt Buckner, Jay McShann and Quincy Jones in the 1960s and 1970s. From 1967 to 1970 he taught at the Berklee College of Music.
  Holley was noted for singing along with his arco (bowed) bass solos, a technique Slam Stewart also used. Holley and Stewart recorded together on two albums in the 1970s.
  
  wn.com/Major_Holley
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  Martial Solal
  Martial Solal (born August 23, 1927, Algiers, French Algeria) is a French jazz pianist and composer, who is probably most widely known for the music he wrote for Jean-Luc Godard's debut feature film À bout de souffle (1960).
  Solal was the son of an opera singer and piano teacher, who learned the instrument from the age of six. After settling in Paris in 1950, he soon began working with leading musicians including Django Reinhardt and expatriates from the United States like Sidney Bechet and Don Byas. He formed a quartet (occasionally also leading a big band) in the late 1950s, although he had been recording as a leader since 1953. Solal then began composing film music, eventually providing over twenty scores.
  In 1963 he made a much admired appearance at the Newport Jazz Festival in Rhode Island; the Newport '63 album purporting to be a recording of this gig is actually a studio recreation. At this time, his regular trio featured bassist Guy Pedersen and drummer Daniel Humair. From 1968 he regularly performed and recorded with Lee Konitz in Europe and the United States of America.
  
  wn.com/Martial_Solal
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  Mary Lou Williams
  Mary Lou Williams (May 8, 1910 – May 28, 1981) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger. Williams wrote hundreds of compositions and arrangements, and recorded more than one hundred records (in 78, 45, and LP versions). Williams wrote and arranged for such bandleaders as Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman, and she was friend, mentor, and teacher to Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Tadd Dameron, Dizzy Gillespie, and many others.
  Born as Mary Elfrieda Scruggs in Atlanta, Georgia, she grew up in the East Liberty neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, one of eleven children. As a very young child she taught herself to play the piano (her first public performance was at the age of six). She became a professional musician in her teens. She cited Lovie Austin as her greatest influence. At age six, Williams was already helping to support her ten half-brothers and sisters by playing for parties. She began performing publicly at the age of seven, when she became known admiringly in Pittsburgh as "the little piano girl of East Liberty".
  
  wn.com/Mary_Lou_Williams
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  Maurice Chevalier
  Maurice Auguste Chevalier (September 12, 1888 – January 1, 1972) was a French actor, singer, entertainer and a noted Sprechgesang performer. He is perhaps best known for his signature songs, including Louise, Mimi, Valentine, and Thank Heaven for Little Girls and for his films including The Love Parade and The Big Pond. His trademark attire was a boater hat, which he always wore on stage with a tuxedo.
  Born in Paris, he made his name as a star of musical comedy, appearing in public as a singer and dancer at an early age before working in four menial jobs as a teenager. In 1909, he became the partner of the biggest female star in France at the time, Fréhel. Although their relationship was brief, she secured him his first major engagement, as a mimic and a singer in l'Alcazar in Marseille to which he received critical acclaim by French theatre critics. In 1918 he discovered jazz and ragtime and went to London, where he found new success at the Palace Theatre.
  In 1917, he discovered jazz and ragtime and toured the United States. Whilst there, he met the American composers George Gershwin and Irving Berlin and brought Dédé to Broadway in 1922. He also developed an interest in acting, and had success in the operetta Dédé. When talkies arrived, he went to Hollywood in 1928 where he played his first American role in Innocents of Paris. In 1930 he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor, for his roles in The Love Parade (1929) and The Big Pond (1930), which secured his first big American hit, Livin' in the Sunlight, Lovin' in the Moonlight.
  
  wn.com/Maurice_Chevalier
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  Maurice Ravel
  Joseph-Maurice Ravel (March 7, 1875 – December 28, 1937) was a French composer known especially for his melodies, orchestral and instrumental textures and effects. Much of his piano music, chamber music, vocal music and orchestral music has entered the standard concert repertoire.
  Ravel's piano compositions, such as Jeux d'eau, Miroirs, Le tombeau de Couperin and Gaspard de la nuit, demand considerable virtuosity from the performer, and his orchestral music, including Daphnis et Chloé and his arrangement of Modest Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, uses a variety of sound and instrumentation.
  Ravel is perhaps known best for his orchestral work Boléro (1928), which he considered trivial and once described as "a piece for orchestra without music".
  According to SACEM, Ravel's estate earns more royalties than that of any other French composer. According to the law of most countries (including all members of the World Trade Organization), Ravel's works have been in the public domain since January 1, 2008, in most countries.
  
  wn.com/Maurice_Ravel
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  Max Roach
  Maxwell Lemuel "Max" Roach (January 10, 1924 – August 16, 2007) was an American jazz percussionist, drummer, and composer.
  A pioneer of bebop, Roach went on to work in many other styles of music, and is generally considered alongside the most important drummers in history. He worked with many famous jazz musicians, including Coleman Hawkins, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, Charles Mingus, Billy Eckstine, Stan Getz, Sonny Rollins, Clifford Brown, Eric Dolphy and Booker Little.
  Roach also led his own groups, and made numerous musical statements relating to the civil rights movement of African Americans.
  Roach was born in the Township of Newland, Pasquotank County, North Carolina, which borders the southern edge of the Great Dismal Swamp, to Alphonse and Cressie Roach. Many confuse this with Newland Town in Avery County. Although Roach's birth certificate lists his date of birth as January 10, 1924, Roach has been quoted by Phil Schaap as having stated that his family believed he was born on January 8, 1925. Roach's family moved to the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York when he was 4 years old. He grew up in a musical home, his mother being a gospel singer. He started to play bugle in parade orchestras at a young age. At the age of 10, he was already playing drums in some gospel bands. As an eighteen year-old fresh out of Boys High School in Brooklyn, (1942) he was called to fill in for Sonny Greer, and play with the Duke Ellington Orchestra performing at the Paramount Theater.
  
  wn.com/Max_Roach
• McHenry Boatwright
  McHenry Boatwright (February 29, 1928 – November 5, 1994) was an American operatic bass-baritone and singing teacher.
  He was born in Tennille, Georgia, in 1928, and studied piano and voice at the New England Conservatory, graduating in 1954. He made his debut at Tanglewood in 1953. He sang with the New England Opera Theater in Boston, where Leonard Bernstein heard him and invited him to sing with the New York Philharmonic.
  In 1956 he created the title role in Clarence Cameron White's opera Ouanga, presented by the National Negro Opera Company at the Metropolitan Opera House. In 1958 he appeared in "Lost In The Stars" at the New York City Center Theatre. In 1967 he sang the lead role in Gunther Schuller's opera The Visitation at the Hamburg State Opera. In 1969, he took part in the premiere performance of Dave Brubeck's The Gates of Justice, with the composer also participating.
  His recordings include:
  For many years he was a voice teacher at Ohio State University, a post he gained through a letter of recommendation from Marian Anderson. At his death he was a Professor Emeritus in the university’s School of Music. He was the recipient of two Marian Anderson Awards.
  
  wn.com/McHenry_Boatwright
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  Mercer Ellington
  Mercer Kennedy Ellington (11 March 1919 – 8 February 1996) was an American jazz trumpeter, composer, and arranger.
  Ellington was born in Washington, DC, the son of famous composer, pianist, and bandleader Duke Ellington. By the age of eighteen he had written his first piece to be recorded by his father ("Pigeons and Peppers").
  In 1939, 1946–1949, and 1959 he led his own bands, many of whose members went on to play with his father, or to achieve independent fame (notably Dizzy Gillespie, Kenny Dorham, Idrees Sulieman, Chico Hamilton, Charles Mingus, and Carmen McRae). During the 1940s in particular he wrote pieces that became standards, including "Things Ain't What They Used to Be", "Jumpin' Punkins", "Moon Mist", and "Blue Serge". He also wrote the lyrics to Hillis Walters' popular song, "Pass Me By" (1946), which was recorded by Lena Horne, Carmen McRae and Peggy Lee.
  He composed for his father from 1940 to 1941, worked as road manager for Cootie Williams' orchestra (1941 to 1943 and again in 1954), and returned to work for his father playing E-flat horn in 1950, and then as general manager and copyist from 1955 to 1959. In 1960 he became Della Reese's musical director, then in 1962 went on take a job as a radio DJ in New York for three years. In 1965 he again returned to his father's orchestra, this time as trumpeter and road manager.
  
  wn.com/Mercer_Ellington
• Michael Langham
  Michael Langham (22 August 1919 – 15 January 2011) was an English actor and director, who spent much of his career living and working in Canada and the United States.
  He was educated at Radley College and studied law at the University of London before enlisting in the British Army in 1939. After spending five years as a prisoner of war, Langham set his sights on the theatre and led several repertory theatres in the U.K. including Coventry (1946–48), Birmingham (1948–50) and Glasgow (1953–54).
  He was the second Artistic Director at the Stratford Festival in Canada from 1956 to 1967, the Guthrie Theater from 1971 to 1977. He was also director of the Juilliard School from 1979 to 1982, and again from 1987 to 1992. Langham's association with the Stratford Festival lasted over a half century as he directed Love's Labours Lost and There Reigns Love for the 2008 season.
  Langham was married to actress Helen Burns. Their son is the writer, actor and comedian Chris Langham.
  Langham died on 15 January 2011 in Cranbrook, Kent, England after a short illness.
  
  wn.com/Michael_Langham
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  Miles Davis
  Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926 – September 28, 1991) was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz, hard bop, modal jazz, and jazz fusion.
  Miles Dewey Davis was born on May 26, 1926, to an affluent African American family in Alton, Illinois. His father, Dr. Miles Henry Davis, was a dentist. In 1927 the family moved to East St. Louis, Illinois. They also owned a substantial ranch in northern Arkansas, where Davis learned to ride horses as a boy.
  Davis' mother, Cleota Mae (Henry) Davis, wanted her son to learn the piano; she was a capable blues pianist but kept this fact hidden from her son. His musical studies began at 13, when his father gave him a trumpet and arranged lessons with local musician Elwood Buchanan. Davis later suggested that his father's instrument choice was made largely to irk his wife, who disliked the trumpet's sound. Against the fashion of the time, Buchanan stressed the importance of playing without vibrato; he was reported to have slapped Davis' knuckles every time he started using heavy vibrato. Davis would carry his clear signature tone throughout his career. He once remarked on its importance to him, saying, "I prefer a round sound with no attitude in it, like a round voice with not too much tremolo and not too much bass. Just right in the middle. If I can’t get that sound I can’t play anything."Clark Terry was another important early influence.^{[citation needed]}
  
  wn.com/Miles_Davis
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  Milt Jackson
  Milton "Bags" Jackson (January 1, 1923 – October 9, 1999) was an American jazz vibraphonist, usually thought of as a bebop player, although he performed in several jazz idioms. He is especially remembered for his cool swinging solos as a member of the Modern Jazz Quartet and his penchant for collaborating with several hard bop and post-bop players.
  A very expressive player, Jackson differentiated himself from other vibraphonists in his attention to variations on harmonics and rhythm. He was particularly fond of the twelve-bar blues at slow tempos. He preferred to set the vibraphone's oscillator to a low 3.3 revolutions per second (as opposed to Lionel Hampton's speed of 10 revolutions per second) for a more subtle vibrato. On occasion, Jackson would also sing and play piano professionally.
  He was discovered by Dizzy Gillespie, who hired him for his sextet in 1946 and also kept him for larger ensembles. He quickly acquired experience working with the most important figures in jazz of the era, including Woody Herman, Howard McGhee, Thelonious Monk, and Charlie Parker.
  
  wn.com/Milt_Jackson
• Money Johnson
  Harold "Money" Johnson (February 23, 1918, Tyler, Texas - March 28, 1978, New York City) was an American jazz trumpeter.
  Johnson first played trumpet at age 15. He moved to Oklahoma City in 1936 and played with Charlie Christian and Henry Bridges before joining Nat Towles's band. He played briefly with Horace Henderson and Bob Dorsey in the early 1940s before returning to Towles's band in 1944 in Chicago. He also played with Count Basie, Cootie Williams, Lucky Millinder, and Bull Moose Jackson in the 1940s. His associations in the 1950s included Louis Jordan (1951), Lucky Thompson (1953), Sy Oliver, Buddy Johnson, Cozy Cole, Mercer Ellington, Little Esther (1956), and Panama Francis (for a tour of Montevideo, Uruguay in 1953).
  In the 1960s Johnson played in the house band at the Apollo Theater in New York, and recorded with King Curtis in 1962. He toured the USSR with Earl Hines in 1966. From 1968 he played in the Duke Ellington Orchestra and also worked again with Hines and Oliver. He recorded with Buck Clayton in 1975.^{[citation needed]}
  
  wn.com/Money_Johnson
• Murray McEachern
  Murray McEachern (16 August 1915–28 April 1982) was a Canadian jazz trombonist and alto saxophonist born in Toronto, perhaps best-known for having played trombone for Benny Goodman from 1936-1937. McEachern is equally remembered for playing both the trombone and alto saxophone for the Casa Loma Orchestra from 1937-1941.
  McEachern studied the violin at the Toronto Conservatory of Music as a boy, and played his first concert recital at Massey Hall at age 12. As a teenager Murray studied both the saxophone and clarinet, playing with Lucio Agostini and also appearing on CRBC with Percy Faith. Over time McEachern became proficient on several instruments, including the trombone, bass and trumpet.
  In 1936 he went to Chicago in search of work, and got a break as soloist on trombone for Benny Goodman's big band. He also worked with the Jack Hylton orchestra and then with the Casa Loma Orchestra (led by Glen Gray) from 1937-1941. In 1941 McEachern joined the Paul Whiteman orchestra and shortly after began entertaining U.S. troops during World War II. In 1947 he worked with the Phil Moore orchestra.
  
  wn.com/Murray_McEachern
• Nelson Williams
  Nelson "Cadillac" Williams (September 26, 1917, Montgomery, Alabama - 1973, Voorburg, Holland) was an American jazz trumpeter.
  Williams began playing piano at age 13 and settled on trumpet soon afterwards; he may have played with Cow Cow Davenport while still a teenager. In the 1930s he played in the territory bands Trianon Crackerjacks and Brown Skin Models, and acted as musical director for the Dixie Rhythm Girls. Around 1940 he left Alabama for Philadelphia, where he played with Tiny Bradshaw before joining the U.S. Army during World War II.
  After the war Billy Eckstine hired Williams, and following this he worked with John Kirby and Billy Kyle. In 1949 he began the first of several stints with Duke Ellington, who bestowed upon him the nickname "Cadillac". In 1951 he left Ellington's employ and moved to Paris, where he led his own bands and recorded for French labels. He returned to Ellington in 1956, and played with him again in 1969 on a tour of Europe. He died in the Netherlands in 1973.
  
  wn.com/Nelson_Williams
• Norris Turney
  Norris Turney (September 8, 1921, Wilmington, Ohio – January 17, 2001, Kettering, Ohio) was an American jazz flautist and saxophonist.
  Turney began his career in the Midwest, playing in territory bands such as the Jeter-Pillars Orchestra. He played with Tiny Bradshaw in Chicago before moving to New York City, where he played with the Billy Eckstine Orchestra in 1945-46. Turney had little luck in New York, however, and returned to Ohio to play in local ensembles through the 1950s. He toured with Ray Charles in 1967, then was hired by Duke Ellington, in whose orchestra he played from 1969 to 1973. He was hired to play alto saxophone as an "insurance policy" due to the failing health of Johnny Hodges. He was the first flute soloist to ever play in Ellington's orchestra. He also played tenor saxophone in the band.
  Following his tenure with Ellington, he played with the Savoy Sultans and the Newport All-Stars, as well as in several pit orchestras. Turney recorded as a leader between 1975 and 1978, and released the CD, Big, Sweet 'n Blue in 1993 on Mapleshade Records. He died of kidney failure in 2001.
  
  wn.com/Norris_Turney
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  Oscar Hammerstein II
  Oscar Greeley Clendenning Hammerstein II ( /ˈhæmərstaɪn/; July 12, 1895 – August 23, 1960) was an American librettist, theatrical producer, and (usually uncredited) theatre director of musicals for almost forty years. Hammerstein won eight Tony Awards and was twice awarded an Academy Award for "Best Original Song". Many of his songs are standard repertoire for singers and jazz musicians. He co-wrote 850 songs. Hammerstein was the lyricist and playwright in his partnerships; his collaborators wrote the music. Hammerstein collaborated with composers Jerome Kern, Vincent Youmans, Rudolf Friml and Sigmund Romberg, but his most famous collaboration was with Richard Rodgers.
  Hammerstein was born Oscar Greeley Clendenning Hammerstein in New York City, the son of Alice (née Nimmo) and William Hammerstein. His grandfather was German-born Jewish theater impresario Oscar Hammerstein I, and his mother was the daughter of Scottish and English parents. Hammerstein was raised an Episcopalian.^{[citation needed]}
  
  wn.com/Oscar_Hammerstein_II
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  Oscar Peterson
  Oscar Emmanuel Peterson CC CQ OOnt (August 15, 1925 – December 23, 2007) was a Canadian jazz pianist and composer. He was called the "Maharaja of the keyboard" by Duke Ellington, "O.P." by his friends. He released over 200 recordings, won eight Grammy Awards, and received other numerous awards and honours over the course of his career. He is considered to have been one of the greatest jazz pianists of all time, having played thousands of live concerts to audiences worldwide in a career lasting more than 60 years.
  Peterson was born to immigrants from the West Indies; his father worked as a porter for Canadian Pacific Railway. Peterson grew up in the neighbourhood of Little Burgundy in Montreal, Quebec. It was in this predominantly black neighbourhood that he found himself surrounded by the jazz culture that flourished in the early 20th century. At the age of five, Peterson began honing his skills with the trumpet and piano. However, a bout of tuberculosis at age seven prevented him from playing the trumpet again, and so he directed all his attention to the piano. His father, Daniel Peterson, an amateur trumpeter and pianist, was one of his first music teachers, and his sister Daisy taught young Oscar classical piano. Young Oscar was persistent at practising scales and classical etudes daily, and thanks to such arduous practice he developed his astonishing virtuosity.
  
  wn.com/Oscar_Peterson
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  Oscar Pettiford
  Oscar Pettiford (30 September 1922 – 8 September 1960) was an American jazz double bassist, cellist and composer known particularly for his pioneering work in bebop.
  Pettiford was born at Okmulgee, Oklahoma; his mother was Choctaw and his father was half Cherokee and half African American. Like many people with African American and Native American ancestry, his Native heritage was not generally known except to a few close friends, such as David Amram.
  He grew up playing in the family band in which he sang and danced before switching to piano at the age of 12 then to double bass when he was 14. He is quoted as say he did not like the way people were playing the bass so he developed his own way of playing it. Despite being admired by the likes of Milt Hinton at the age of 14, he gave up in 1941 as he did not believe he could make a living. Five months later, he once again met Milt, who persuaded him to return to music.
  In 1942 he joined the Charlie Barnet band and in 1943 gained wider public attention after recording with Coleman Hawkins on his "The Man I Love." He also recorded with Earl Hines and Ben Webster around this time. He and Dizzy Gillespie led a bop group in 1943. In 1945 Pettiford went with Hawkins to California, where he appeared in The Crimson Canary, a mystery movie known for its jazz soundtrack, which also featured Josh White. He then worked with Duke Ellington from 1945 to 1948 and for Woody Herman in 1949 before working mainly as a leader in the 1950s.
  
  wn.com/Oscar_Pettiford
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  Otto Hardwick
  Otto James "Toby" Hardwicke (May 31, 1904 – August 5, 1970) was a saxophone player associated with Duke Ellington.
  Hardwick started on string bass at the age of 14, then moved to C-melody sax and finally settled on alto saxophone. A childhood friend of Duke Ellington's, Hardwick joined Ellington's first band in Washington, D. C. in 1919. Hardwick also worked for banjoist Elmer Snowden at Murray's Casino.
  In 1923, Ellington, Hardwick, Snowden, trumpeter Arthur Whetsol, and drummer Sonny Greer had success as the Washingtonians in New York. After a disagreement over money, Snowden was forced out of the band and Duke Ellington was elected as the new leader.
  They were booked at a Times Square nightspot called the Kentucky Club for three years where they met Irving Mills, who produced and published Ellington's music.
  Hardwick occasionally doubled violin and string bass in the 1920s, but specialized on alto sax. He also played clarinet and bass, baritone and soprano saxes.
  Hardwick left the Duke Ellington band in 1928 to visit Europe, where he played with Noble Sissle, Sidney Bechet and Nekka Shaw's Orchestra, and led his own orchestra before returning to New York in 1929.
  
  wn.com/Otto_Hardwick
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  Otto Preminger
  Otto Ludwig Preminger (5 December 1905 – 23 April 1986) was an Austro–Hungarian-American theatre and film director.
  After moving from the theatre to Hollywood, he directed over 35 feature films in a five-decade career. He rose to prominence for stylish film noir mysteries such as Laura (1944) and Fallen Angel (1945). In the 1950s and 1960s, he directed a number of high-profile adaptations of popular novels and stage works. Several of these pushed the boundaries of censorship by dealing with topics which were then taboo in Hollywood, such as drug addiction (The Man with the Golden Arm, 1955), rape (Anatomy of a Murder, 1959) and homosexuality (Advise & Consent, 1962). He was twice nominated for the Best Director Academy Award. He also had a few acting roles.
  Preminger was born in 1905 in Wiznitz (Vyzhnytsia), a town west of Czernowitz, northern Bukovyna, in today's Ukraine, then part of the Austro–Hungarian Empire, into the Jewish family of Markus and Josefa Preminger. Preminger's father was born in 1877 in Galicia, at a time when it was part of the Austro–Hungarian Empire. As an Attorney General of Austria–Hungary, Markus was a proud public prosecutor on the cusp of an extraordinary career defending the interests of the Emperor Franz Josef. The couple provided a stable home life for Preminger and his brother Ingo.
  
  wn.com/Otto_Preminger
• Paul Gonsalves
  Paul Gonsalves, ((1920-07-12)July 12, 1920 – May 15, 1974(1974-05-15)) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist best known for his association with Duke Ellington. At the 1956 Newport Jazz Festival, Gonsalves played a 27-chorus solo in the middle of Ellington's "Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue". That performance is credited with revitalizing Ellington's waning career in the 50's.
  Born in Brockton, Massachusetts to Cape Verdean parents, Gonsalves' first instrument was the guitar, and as a child he was regularly asked to play Cape Verdean folk songs for his family. He grew up in New Bedford, Massachusetts and played as a member of the Sabby Lewis Orchestra. His first professional engagement in Boston was with the same group on tenor saxophone, in which he played before and after his military service during World War II. Before joining Duke Ellington's orchestra in 1950, he had also played with the big bands of Count Basie (1947–1949) and Dizzy Gillespie (1949–1950).
  At the 1956 Newport Jazz Festival, Gonsalves' solo in Ellington's song "Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue" contained 27 choruses; the publicity from which is credited with reviving Ellington's career. This performance is captured on the album Ellington at Newport. Gonsalves was a featured soloist in numerous Ellingtonian settings. He received the nickname "The Strolling Violins" from Ellington for playing solos while walking through the crowd.
  
  wn.com/Paul_Gonsalves
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  Paul Newman
  Paul Leonard Newman (January 26, 1925 – September 26, 2008) was an American actor, film director, entrepreneur, humanitarian, professional racing driver, auto racing team owner, and auto racing enthusiast. He won numerous awards, including an Academy Award for best actor for his performance in the 1986 Martin Scorsese film The Color of Money and eight other nominations, three Golden Globe Awards, a BAFTA Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, a Cannes Film Festival Award, an Emmy award, and many honorary awards. He also won several national championships as a driver in Sports Car Club of America road racing, and his race teams won several championships in open wheel IndyCar racing.
  Newman was a co-founder of Newman's Own, a food company from which Newman donated all post-tax profits and royalties to charity. As of July 2011, these donations exceeded $300 million.
  Newman was born in Shaker Heights (a suburb of Cleveland). He was the son of Theresa (née Fetzer or Fetsko; Slovak: Terézia Fecková) and Arthur Sigmund Newman, who ran a profitable sporting goods store. His father was Jewish (Paul's paternal grandparents, Simon Newman and Hannah Cohn, were immigrants from Hungary and Poland). His mother, who practiced Christian Science, was born to a Slovak Roman Catholic family at Humenné, Ptičie (formerly Pticsie) in the former Kingdom of Hungary, Austria–Hungary (now Humenné in Slovakia). Newman had no religion as an adult, but described himself as a Jew, stating that "it's more of a challenge". Newman's mother worked in his father's store, while raising Paul and his brother, Arthur, who later became a producer and production manager.
  
  wn.com/Paul_Newman
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  Percy Grainger
  George Percy Aldridge Grainger (8 July 1882 – 20 February 1961), known as Percy Grainger, was an Australian-born composer, arranger and pianist. In the course of a long and innovative career he played a prominent role in the revival of interest in British folk music in the early years of the 20th century. He also made many adaptations of other composers' works. Although much of his work was experimental and unusual, the piece with which he is most generally associated is his piano arrangement of the folk-dance tune "Country Gardens".
  Grainger left Australia at the age of 13 to attend the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt. Between 1901 and 1914 he was based in London, where he established himself first as a society pianist and later as a concert performer, composer and collector of original folk melodies. As his reputation grew he met many of the significant figures in European music, forming important friendships with Frederick Delius and Edvard Grieg. He became a champion of Nordic music and culture, his enthusiasm for which he often expressed in private letters in explicitly racist and anti-Semitic terms.
  
  wn.com/Percy_Grainger
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  Peter Giger
  Peter Giger (born April 12, 1939 in Zurich, grown up in and near to Berne) is a Swiss percussionist and bandleader.
  1958 professional musician, tours in Europe with the Tremble Kids, Oskar Klein, Albert Nicholas, Bill Coleman, Joe Turner, Wild Bill Davison, Peanuts Holland
  1960 after short guest performance with Armand Gordons Ragtime Band, moves to Paris: Bill Coleman, Stéphane Grapelli, Memphis Slim a. o.
  1961 Claude Bolling Sextet / Big Band
  1963 LP-recordings with Duke Ellington, Billy Strayhorn, Alice Babs, Tour with Beryl Bryden, Diz Dizzley and Johnny Parker in Malaysia and Sarawak.
  1964 with tap dancer Harold Nicholas, Renè Urtreger
  1965-68 studio-musician in Paris, again with Claude Bolling
  1969 moves back to Berne. “FOUR FOR JAZZ”, Heinz Bigler, Isla Eckinger, Joe Haider, Gerd Dudek, Benny Bailey. Co-founder of the Swiss Jazz School
  1970 Initiator of the first international Jazz Clinic in Wengen, Switzerland
  1972 moves to Frankfurt / M., Albert Mangelsdorff Quintett, until 1977 tours in Europe, Asia, Africa, Near East.
  
  wn.com/Peter_Giger
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  Queen Esther Marrow
  Queen Esther Marrow is an American soul and gospel singer.
  Queen Esther Marrow was born in Newport News, Virginia. She began her career at the age of 22 when her talent and vocal gifts were discovered by Duke Ellington and made her debut as a featured artist in his "Sacred Concert" world tour. Marrow and Ellington formed a long life friendship during the next four years while touring together. Queen has since performed with such musical greats as Lena Horne, Ella Fitzgerald, B.B. King, Ray Charles, Thelonious Monk, Chick Corea and Bob Dylan.
  In 1965, Marrow became active in the civil rights movement when she performed in Dr. Martin Luther King’s World Crusade. There she met her lifetime idol Mahalia Jackson, with whom she would later share the stage. Other political activists on the crusade were Jesse Jackson, Sidney Poitier and Dr. Ralf Abernathy.
  Marrow was also involved in musical theater, jazz, television and film. She played Auntie ‘Em on Broadway in “The Wiz,” and was featured in several other Broadway shows including “Comin’ Uptown”, “Nice To Be Civilized,” and she starred as her idol Mahalia Jackson in the national tour of “Sing Mahalia Sing,” directed by George Faison. Marrow was featured in Motown’s film, “The Last Dragon,” produced by Berry Gordy. Her numerous television appearances have ranged from the serious to the comic. They include “Duke Ellington: The Music Lives On”, as Oscar the Grouch’s mother in “Sesame Street” on PBS and “New York to Paris with The Harlem Gospel Singers” also on PBS. In 1990, a dream of Marrow’s came true when “Truly Blessed,” a musical about Mahalia Jackson written by and starring Queen Esther was seen in San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and in New York on Broadway. The musical received three Helen Hayes nominations including Best New Play.
  
  wn.com/Queen_Esther_Marrow
• Quentin Jackson
  Quentin "Butter" Jackson (born January 13, 1909 in Springfield, Ohio; died October 2, 1976 in New York City) was an American jazz trombonist. In the early stage of his career he worked with Cab Calloway and was in the Duke Ellington Orchestra. Later he did notable work with Charles Mingus, Kenny Burrell, and others.
  
  
  
  wn.com/Quentin_Jackson
• Ralph J. Gleason
  Ralph Joseph Gleason (March 1, 1917 - June 3, 1975) was an influential American jazz and pop music critic. He contributed for many years to the San Francisco Chronicle, was a founding editor of Rolling Stone magazine, and cofounder of the Monterey Jazz Festival.
  Gleason was born in New York City and attended Columbia University. During World War II he worked for the Office of War Information. In 1947, he moved to San Francisco and began contributing to the San Francisco Chronicle in 1950, initiating the first regular coverage of jazz and pop music in the mainstream US media. Gleason was the first critic to review folk, pop, and jazz concerts with the same attention and space as was given to classical music. He interviewed such luminaries as Hank Williams, Elvis Presley, and Fats Domino. Gleason was one of the first critics to perceive the importance of Lenny Bruce, Bob Dylan, and Miles Davis. His liner notes for the 1970 Davis album Bitches Brew set the standard for the form.
  Gleason was both an observer and a contributor to what is sometimes termed the San Francisco Renaissance, the era of increased cultural vitality in that city which began in the mid-1950s and fully bloomed in the mid-to-late 1960s. In the later 1960s, Gleason was a widely respected commentator and he chose to write supportively of the better cut of the Bay Area rock bands, such as Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead. However, Gleason was sometimes criticized for minimizing the importance of or simply ignoring acts from Los Angeles.
  
  wn.com/Ralph_J._Gleason
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  Randy Weston
  Randy Weston (born April 6, 1926 in Brooklyn, New York), is an American jazz pianist and composer, of Jamaican parentage.
  Randy Weston's piano style owes much to Duke Ellington and Thelonious Monk (he has paid direct tribute to both on the "portraits" albums), but it is highly distinctive in its qualities: percussive, highly rhythmic, capable of producing a wide variety of moods.
  Weston was raised in Brooklyn, where his father owned a restaurant. Weston studied classical piano as a child. He graduated from Boys High School in Bedford-Stuyvesant. His father chose for him to attend there because it had a reputation of high standards. He took piano lessons from a teacher named Professor Atwell.
  After serving in the U.S. Army during World War II, he ran a restaurant that was frequented by many of the leading bebop musicians. Among his piano heroes are numbered Count Basie, Nat King Cole, Art Tatum and Duke Ellington (and Wynton Kelly was a cousin), but it was Thelonious Monk who had the greatest impact.
  
  wn.com/Randy_Weston
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  Ray Bradbury
  Ray Douglas Bradbury (born August 22, 1920) is an American fantasy, horror, science fiction, and mystery writer. Best known for his dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 (1953) and for the science fiction stories gathered together as The Martian Chronicles (1950) and The Illustrated Man (1951), Bradbury is one of the most celebrated among 20th and 21st century American writers of speculative fiction. Many of Bradbury's works have been adapted into television shows or films.
  Bradbury was born in 1920 in Waukegan, Illinois to Esther Moberg Bradbury, a Swedish immigrant, and Leonard Spaulding Bradbury, a power and telephone lineman.
  Ray Bradbury is related to the American Shakespeare scholar Douglas Spaulding. He is also directly descended from Mary Bradbury, who was tried, convicted and sentenced to hang as a witch in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. She was married to Captain Thomas Bradbury of Salisbury, Massachusetts.
  Bradbury was a reader and writer throughout his youth who was greatly influenced by the writings of Edgar Allan Poe. Bradbury was especially impressed with Poe's ability to draw readers into his works. In his youth, he spent much time in the Carnegie library in Waukegan, Illinois, reading such authors as H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, and his favorite author, Edgar Rice Burroughs who wrote novels such as Tarzan of the Apes and The Warlord of Mars. He loved Burroughs' The Warlord of Mars so much that at the age of twelve he wrote his own sequel. An aunt read him short stories when he was a child. He used this library as a setting for much of his novel Something Wicked This Way Comes, and depicted Waukegan as "Green Town" in some of his other semi-autobiographical novels—Dandelion Wine, Farewell Summer—as well as in many of his short stories.
  
  wn.com/Ray_Bradbury
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  Ray Nance
  Ray Willis Nance (December 10, 1913 Chicago - January 28, 1976 in New York City ) was a jazz trumpeter, violinist and singer. He best known for his long association with band leader Duke Ellington.
  Nance lead his own band in Chicago from 1932 to 1937. Then, he worked with Earl "Fatha" Hines from 1937 to 1939; and from 1939 to 1940 he worked with Horace Henderson.
  Ellington hired Nance to replace trumpeter Cootie Williams in 1940. Nance's first public performance with Ellington was the famous Fargo, North Dakota ballroom dance. Shortly after joining the band, Nance was given the trumpet solo on the first recorded version of "Take the "A" Train," which became the Ellington theme, a major hit and a jazz standard. Nance's "A Train" solo is one of the most copied and admired trumpet solos in jazz history. Indeed, when Cootie Williams returned to the band more than twenty years later, he would play Nance's solo on "A Train" almost exactly as the original.
  Nance was often featured on violin and was the only violin soloist ever featured in Ellington's orchestra. He is also one of the well-known vocalists from the Ellington orchestra, having sung not the first version (that credit goes to Ivie Anderson), but arguably the definitive version of "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)." It was his contribution to take the previously instrumental horn riff into the lead vocal, which constitute the now infamous, "Doo wha, doo wha, doo wha, doo wha, yeah!" He was often featured as vocalist on "Jump for Joy," "Just A-Sittin' and A-Rockin'" and "Just Squeeze Me (But Please Don't Tease Me)". His multiple talents (trumpet, violin, vocals and also dancing) earned him the nickname "Floorshow".
  
  wn.com/Ray_Nance
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  Rex Stewart
  Rex Stewart (22 February 1907 – 7 September 1967) was an American jazz cornetist best known for his work with the Duke Ellington orchestra.
  After stints with Elmer Snowden, Fletcher Henderson, Horace Henderson, McKinney's Cotton Pickers, and Luis Russell, Stewart joined the Ellington band in 1934, in replacement of Freddie Jenkins. Ellington arranged many of his pieces to showcase Stewart's half-valve effects, muted sound, and forceful style.
  Stewart co-wrote "Boy Meets Horn" and "Morning Glory" while with Ellington, and frequently supervised outside recording sessions by members of the Ellington band. After eleven years Stewart left to lead his own groups - " little swing bands, that were a perfect setting for his solo playing." He also toured Europe and Australia with Jazz at the Philharmonic from 1947 to 1951. From the early 1950s on he worked in radio and television and published highly regarded jazz criticism. The book Jazz Masters of the Thirties is a selection of his criticism.
  
  wn.com/Rex_Stewart
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  Richard Nixon
  Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913 – April 22, 1994) was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961.
  Nixon was born in Yorba Linda, California. After completing his undergraduate work at Whittier College, he graduated from Duke University School of Law in 1937, and returned to California to practice law. He and his wife, Pat Nixon, moved to Washington to work for the federal government in 1942. He subsequently served in the United States Navy during World War II. Nixon was elected to the House of Representatives in 1946 and to the Senate in 1950. His pursuit of the Hiss Case established his reputation as a leading anti-communist, and elevated him to national prominence. He was the running mate of Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Republican Party presidential nominee in the 1952 election. Nixon served for eight years as vice president. He waged an unsuccessful presidential campaign in 1960, narrowly losing to John F. Kennedy, and lost a race for Governor of California in 1962. In 1968, he ran again for the presidency and was elected.
  
  wn.com/Richard_Nixon
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  Richard Rodgers
  Richard Charles Rodgers (June 28, 1902 – December 31, 1979) was an American composer of music for more than 900 songs and for 43 Broadway musicals. He also composed music for films and television. He is best known for his songwriting partnerships with the lyricists Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein II. His compositions have had a significant impact on popular music down to the present day, and have an enduring broad appeal.
  Rodgers was the first person to win what are considered the top show business awards in television, recording, movies and Broadway—an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony—now known collectively as an EGOT. He has also won a Pulitzer Prize, making him one of two people (Marvin Hamlisch is the other) to receive each award.
  Born into a prosperous ethnic German Jewish family in Arverne, Queens, New York City, Rodgers was the son of Mamie Levy and Dr. William Abrahams Rodgers, a prominent physician who had changed the family name from Abrahams. Richard began playing the piano at age six. He attended P.S. 10, Townsend Harris Hall and DeWitt Clinton High School. Rodgers spent his early teenage summers in Camp Wigwam (Waterford, Maine) where he composed some of his first songs.
  
  wn.com/Richard_Rodgers
• Rick Henderson
  Rick Henderson (April 25, 1928 – May 21, 2004) was an American jazz saxophonist and arranger.
  Born in Washington, D.C., Henderson studied composition as a high schooler and played in the late 1940s locally. He served in the Army from 1951-53, then joined Duke Ellington's Orchestra after being recommended by Clark Terry. He played with Ellington during his years on Capitol Records, doing arrangements in addition to his duties as a player; he also composed tunes such as "Carney" for the Ellington band. He left Ellington's employ in 1956, and returned to Washington, where he led the Howard Theatre's house band until 1964. Following this he worked as an arranger and composer for jazz orchestras as well as military bands and school ensembles. Among those who used Henderson's charts, in addition to Ellington, were Count Basie, Illinois Jacquet, and Billy Taylor. He continued to lead bands into the 1990s, and died of arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease in 2004.
  
  wn.com/Rick_Henderson
• Rolf Ericson
  Rolf Ericson (August 29, 1922 – June 16, 1997) was a Swedish jazz trumpeter. He also played the flugelhorn.
  He moved to New York City in 1947 and in 1949 joined Charlie Barnet's big band and with Woody Herman in 1950. Later he did notable work with Paul Gonsalves, Charlie Parker, Lars Gullin, and Charles Mingus.
  Returning to Sweden in 1950, he recorded as a leader and with Arne Domnérus, as well as for Leonard Feather's Swinging Swedes. He returned to the U.S. during 1953-1956, and played with the big bands of Charlie Spivak, Harry James, the Dorsey Brothers, and Les Brown and was with the Lighthouse All-Stars. In 1956, he toured Sweden and played with Ernestine Anderson and Lars Gullin.
  From 1956-1965 he was back in the U.S., working with Dexter Gordon, Harold Land, Stan Kenton, Woody Herman, Maynard Ferguson, Buddy Rich, Benny Goodman, Gerry Mulligan, Dan Terry, Max Roach and Charles Mingus, among others. He was with the Duke Ellington Orchestra from 1963-1971. In the early 1960s he made three recordings as a member of the Rod Levitt orchestra (octet). Rolf played with The Al Porcino Big Band in Berlin in the late 70's and early 80's.
  
  wn.com/Rolf_Ericson
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  Rosemary Clooney
  Rosemary Clooney (May 23, 1928 – June 29, 2002) was an American singer and actress. She came to prominence in the early 1950s with the novelty hit "Come On-a My House" written by William Saroyan and his cousin Ross Bagdasarian (better known as David Seville, the father figure of Alvin and the Chipmunks), which was followed by other pop numbers such as "Botch-a-Me" (a cover version of the Italian song Ba-Ba-Baciami Piccina by Alberto Rabagliati), "Mambo Italiano", "Tenderly", "Half as Much", "Hey There" and "This Ole House", although she had success as a jazz vocalist. Clooney's career languished in the 1960s, partly due to problems related to depression and drug addiction, but revived in 1977, when her White Christmas co-star Bing Crosby asked her to appear with him at a show marking his 50th anniversary in show business. She continued recording until her death in 2002. She was the aunt of Academy Award winning actor George Clooney.
  Clooney was born in Maysville, Kentucky, the daughter of Marie Frances (Guilfoyle) and Andrew Joseph Clooney. Her father was of Irish and German descent and her mother was of Irish and English ancestry. She was raised Catholic. When Clooney was fifteen, her mother and brother, Nick, moved to California. She and her sister, Betty, remained with their father.^{[citation needed]} The family resided in the John Brett Richeson House in the late 1940s.
  
  wn.com/Rosemary_Clooney
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  Ruby Keeler
  Ruby Keeler, born Ethel Hilda Keeler, (August 25, 1910 – February 28, 1993) was an actress, dancer and singer most famous for her on-screen coupling with Dick Powell in a string of successful early musicals at Warner Brothers, particularly 42nd Street (1933). From 1928 to 1940, she was married to singer Al Jolson. She retired from show business in the 1940s but made a widely-publicized comeback on Broadway in 1971.
  Keeler was born in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada, to an Irish Catholic family, one of six siblings. Two sisters, Helen and Gertrude, had brief performing careers. Her father was a truck driver, and when she was three years old, her family packed up and moved to New York City where he knew he could get better pay. But it was not enough: there were six children, and although Keeler was interested in taking dance lessons, the family could not afford to send her.
  
  wn.com/Ruby_Keeler
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  Russell Procope
  Russell Procope (August 11, 1908 – January 21, 1981), an American clarinettist and alto saxophonist, was known best for his long tenure in the reed section of Duke Ellington's orchestra, where he was one of its two signature clarinet soloists.
  Procope was born in New York City, and grew up in San Juan Hill, where he went to school with Benny Carter. His first instrument was the violin, but he switched to clarinet and alto saxophone. He began his professional career in 1926 as a member of Billy Freeman's orchestra. At the age of twenty he recorded with Jelly Roll Morton, and went on to play with bands led by Benny Carter, Chick Webb (1929-1930), Fletcher Henderson (spring of 1931 to 1934), Tiny Bradshaw, Teddy Hill, King Oliver, and Willie Bryant.
  Fletcher Henderson's band was dissolved in 1934. Along with several other ex-Henderson musicians, Procope went into Benny Carter's orchestra. He also worked for a time with the Tiny Bradshaw and Willie Bryant bands before joining Teddy Hill in 1935. During his stay with Teddy Hill's orchestra the trumpet section included, at various times, Roy Eldridge, Bill Coleman, Frank Newton, and Dizzy Gillespie, while trombonist Dickie Wells and tenor-saxophonist Chu Berry were two other distinguished soloists who played with the band. It was a member of this orchestra that Russell Procope made his first trip to Europe in 1937; Teddy Hill's band formed part of "The Cotton Club Revue," an all-coloured show, which during its European tour appeared at the London Palladium.
  
  wn.com/Russell_Procope
• Sam Woodyard
  Sam Woodyard (January 7, 1925, Elizabeth, New Jersey - September 20, 1988, Paris, France) was an American jazz drummer.
  Woodyard was largely an autodidact on drums, and played locally in the Newark, New Jersey area in the 1940s. He gigged with Paul Gayten in an R&B group, and then played in the early 1950s with Joe Holiday, Roy Eldridge, and Milt Buckner. In 1955, he joined Duke Ellington's orchestra, and remained the ensemble's drummer until 1966.
  After his time with Ellington, Woodyard played behind Ella Fitzgerald, and then moved to Los Angeles. In the 1970s he played less due to health problems, but recorded with Buddy Rich and toured with Claude Bolling. In 1983 he played in a band with Teddy Wilson, Buddy Tate, and Slam Stewart. His last recording was on Steve Lacy's 1988 album The Door; he died a little more than a month afterward.
  
  wn.com/Sam_Woodyard
• Sathima Bea Benjamin
  Sathima Bea Benjamin (born 17 October 1936, Johannesburg, South Africa), is a South African vocalist and composer born in Johannesburg, raised in Cape Town, and now based in New York City.
  As a youth, Sathima Bea Benjamin first performed popular music in talent contests at the local cinema (bioscope) during intermission. By the 1950s she was singing at various nightclubs, community dances and social events, performing with notable Cape Town pianists Tony Schilder and Henry February, amongst others. She built her repertoire watching British and American movies and transcribing lyrics from songs heard on the radio, where she discovered Nat King Cole, Billie Holiday, Doris Day, Ella Fitzgerald. These musicians would come to influence her singing style, notably in terms of light phrasing and clear diction.
  At the age of 21, she joined Arthur Klugman's traveling show, Coloured Jazz and Variety, on a tour of South Africa. When the production failed, she found herself stranded in Mozambique where she met South African saxophonist Kippie Moeketsi. In 1959, she returned to Cape Town's now thriving jazz scene, where she would meet pianist Dollar Brand(aka Abdullah Ibrahim), whom she would later marry. In that same year she recorded what would have been the first jazz LP in South Africa's history. Titled My Songs for You, with accompaniment by Ibrahim’s trio, the recording of mostly standards was never released.
  
  wn.com/Sathima_Bea_Benjamin
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  Scott Joplin
  Scott Joplin (ca. 1867/1868? – April 1, 1917) was an American composer and pianist. Joplin achieved fame for his ragtime compositions, and was later dubbed "The King of Ragtime". During his brief career, Joplin wrote 44 original ragtime pieces, one ragtime ballet, and two operas. One of his first pieces, the Maple Leaf Rag, became ragtime's first and most influential hit, and has been recognized as the archetypal rag.
  Joplin was born into a musical African American family of laborers in Northeast Texas, and developed his musical knowledge with the help of local teachers, most notably Julius Weiss. Joplin grew up in Texarkana, where he formed a vocal quartet, and taught mandolin and guitar. During the late 1880s he left his job as a laborer with the railroad, and travelled around the American South as an itinerant musician. He went to Chicago for the World's Fair of 1893, which played a major part in making ragtime a national craze by 1897.
  Joplin moved to Sedalia, Missouri in 1894, and earned a living teaching piano and going on tour across the Southern US. In Sedalia, he taught future ragtime composers Arthur Marshall, Scott Hayden and Brun Campbell. Joplin began publishing music in 1895, and publication of his Maple Leaf Rag in 1899 brought him fame and had a profound influence on subsequent writers of ragtime. It also brought the composer a steady income for life. During his lifetime, Joplin did not reach this level of success again and frequently had financial problems.
  
  wn.com/Scott_Joplin
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  Shorty Baker
  Harold "Shorty" Baker (May 26, 1914 in St. Louis, Missouri, USA – November 8, 1966 in New York City) was a jazz trumpeter.
  Baker started on drums, but switched to trumpet in his teens. He began on riverboats and played with Don Redman in the mid-1930s. He also worked with Teddy Wilson and Andy Kirk before his more noted association with Duke Ellington. He would marry Kirk's pianist Mary Lou Williams and though the two separated shortly thereafter, they never officially divorced.
  Baker worked on and off in Duke Ellington's Orchestra from 1942 to 1962. This orchestra's trumpet section had some of the leading trumpeters of the swing to bop era, including Clark Terry and William "Cat" Anderson. He also worked with Johnny Hodges's group in the early 1950s.
  
  
  
  wn.com/Shorty_Baker
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  Sidney Bechet
  Sidney Bechet (May 14, 1897 – May 14, 1959) was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, and composer.
  He was one of the first important soloists in jazz (beating cornetist and trumpeter Louis Armstrong to the recording studio by several months and later playing duets with Armstrong), and was perhaps the first notable jazz saxophonist. Forceful delivery, well-constructed improvisations, and a distinctive, wide vibrato characterized Bechet's playing.
  Bechet's erratic temperament hampered his career, however, and not until the late 1940s did he earn wide acclaim.
  Bechet was born in New Orleans to a middle-class Creole of color family. Sidney's older brother Leonard Bechet (1877–1952) was a part-time trombonist and bandleader. Sidney Bechet quickly learned to play several musical instruments kept around the house, mostly by teaching himself; he soon decided to focus on clarinet. At the age of six, Sidney started playing along with his brother's band at a family birthday party, debuting his talents to acclaim. Later in his youth, Bechet studied with such renowned Creole clarinetists as Lorenzo Tio, "Big Eye" Louis Nelson Delisle, and George Baquet. Soon after, Bechet would be found playing in many New Orleans ensembles, improvising with what was "acceptable" for jazz at that time (obbligatos, with scales and arpeggios, and "variating" the melody). These ensembles included parade work with Henry Allen's celebrated Brass Band, the Olympia Orchestra, and John Robichaux's "genteel" dance orchestra. In 1911-1912, he performed with Bunk Johnson in the Eagle Band of New Orleans, and in 1913-1914, with King Oliver in the Olympia Band.
  
  wn.com/Sidney_Bechet
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  Sidney Poitier
  Sir Sidney Poitier, KBE ( /ˈpwɑːtjeɪ/ or /ˈpwɑːti.eɪ/; born February 20, 1927) is a Bahamian American actor, film director, author, and diplomat.
  In 1963, Poitier became the first black person to win an Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in Lilies of the Field. The significance of this achievement was later bolstered in 1967 when he starred in three well-received films To Sir, with Love; In the Heat of the Night; and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, making him the top box office star of that year. In all three films, issues revolve around the race of the characters Poitier portrays. In 1999, the American Film Institute named Poitier among the Greatest Male Stars of All Time, ranking 22nd on the list of 25.
  Poitier has directed a number of popular movies such as A Piece of the Action; Uptown Saturday Night, and Let's Do It Again (with friend Bill Cosby), and Stir Crazy (starring Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder). In 2002, 38 years after receiving the Best Actor Award, Poitier was chosen by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to receive an Honorary Award, designated "To Sidney Poitier in recognition of his remarkable accomplishments as an artist and as a human being." Since 1997 he has been the Bahamian ambassador to Japan. On August 12, 2009, Sidney Poitier was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States of America's highest civilian honor, by President Barack Obama.
  
  wn.com/Sidney_Poitier
• Skippy Williams
  Elmer, or Elbert, Skippy Williams (July 27, 1916 – February 28, 1994) was a jazz tenor saxophonist and musical arranger.
  First credited as the arranger for some July 12, 1939 recordings for Earl Hines and His Orchestra, Skippy Williams is best known as the substitute for Ben Webster in Duke Ellington's orchestra. Replacing Webster in August 1943, Williams appears on Ellinton's Carnegie Hall recordings in December 1943. He left Ellington in May 1950. To start his own band and was replaced by Big Al Sears.
  In the mid-40s he gave tenor sax classes to Pepper Adams in Rochester, NY, and was working with Thelonious Monk in 1946, credited as bandleader for Monk.
  Williams also worked with Art Tatum, Fletcher Henderson, Count Basie, Lucky Millinder, Bob Chester, and, according to some sources, played tenor sax on the original recording of Bill Haley's "Rock Around the Clock", a claim made by several musicians.
  
  wn.com/Skippy_Williams
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  Sonny Greer
  Sonny Greer (13 December 1895 – 23 March 1982) was an American jazz drummer, best known for his work with Duke Ellington.
  Greer was born in Long Branch, New Jersey, and played with Elmer Snowden's band and the Howard Theatre's orchestra in Washington, D.C. before joining Duke Ellington, whom he met in 1919. He was Ellington's first drummer, playing with his quintet, the Washingtonians, and moving with Ellington into the Cotton Club. As a result of his job as a designer with the Leedy Drum Company of Indiana, Greer was able to build up a huge drum kit worth over $3,000, as well as chimes, a gong, timpani, and vibes.
  Greer was a heavy drinker, as well as a pool-hall hustler (when he needed to retrieve his drums from the pawnbroker), and in 1950 Ellington responded to his drinking and occasional unreliability by taking a second drummer, Butch Ballard, with them on a tour of Scandinavia. This enraged Greer, and the consequent argument led to their permanent estrangement.
  Greer continued to play, mainly as a free-lance drummer, working with musicians such as Johnny Hodges, Red Allen, J. C. Higginbotham, Tyree Glenn, and Brooks Kerr, as well as appearing in films, and briefly leading his own band. He was part of a tribute to Ellington in 1974, which achieved great success throughout the United States.
  
  wn.com/Sonny_Greer
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  Sonny Stitt
  Edward "Sonny" Stitt (born Edward Boatner, Jr., February 2, 1924 – July 22, 1982), was an American jazz saxophonist of the bebop/hard bop idiom. He was one of the most well-documented saxophonists of his generation, recording over 100 albums. He was nicknamed the "Lone Wolf" by jazz critic Dan Morgenstern, in reference to his relentless touring and devotion to jazz.
  Edward Boatner was born in Boston, Massachusetts and grew up in Saginaw, Michigan. He had a musical background; his father, Edward Boatner, was a baritone singer, composer and college music professor, his brother was a classically trained pianist, and his mother was a piano teacher. Boatner was soon adopted by another family, the Stitts, who gave him his new surname. He later began calling himself "Sonny".
  In 1943, Stitt first met Charlie Parker, and as he often later recalled, the two men found that their styles had an extraordinary similarity that was partly coincidental and not merely due to Stitt's emulation. Stitt's improvisations were more melodic/less dissonant than those of Parker. Stitt's earliest recordings were made in 1945 with Stan Getz and Dizzy Gillespie. He had also played in some swing bands, though he mainly played in bop bands. Stitt was featured in Tiny Bradshaw's big band in the early forties. Stitt replaced Charlie Parker in Dizzy Gillespie's band in 1945.
  
  wn.com/Sonny_Stitt
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  Stevie Wonder
  Stevland Hardaway Morris (born May 13, 1950 as Stevland Hardaway Judkins), known by his stage name Stevie Wonder, is an American singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, a child prodigy who developed into one of the most creative musical figures of the late 20th century. Blind since shortly after birth, Wonder signed with Motown's Tamla label at the age of eleven, and continues to perform and record for Motown to this day.
  Among Wonder's best known works are singles such as "Superstition", "Sir Duke", "I Wish" and "I Just Called to Say I Love You". Well known albums also include Talking Book, Innervisions and Songs in the Key of Life. He has recorded more than thirty U.S. top ten hits and received twenty-two Grammy Awards, the most ever awarded to a male solo artist. Wonder is also noted for his work as an activist for political causes, including his 1980 campaign to make Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday a holiday in the United States. In 2009, Wonder was named a United Nations Messenger of Peace. In 2008, Billboard magazine released a list of the Hot 100 All-Time Top Artists to celebrate the US singles chart's fiftieth anniversary, with Wonder at number five.
  
  wn.com/Stevie_Wonder
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  Taft Jordan
  Taft Jordan (February 15, 1915, Florence, South Carolina – December 1, 1981, New Orleans) was an American jazz trumpeter, heavily influenced by Louis Armstrong.
  Jordan played early in his career with the Washboard Rhythm Kings before joining Chick Webb's orchestra from 1933 to 1942, remaining there after Ella Fitzgerald became its frontwoman. Jordan and Bobby Stark traded duties as the main trumpet soloist in Webb's orchestra. From 1943 to 1947 he played with Duke Ellington, then with Lucille Dixon at the Savannah Club in New York City from 1949 to 1953. After this he played less often, though he toured with Benny Goodman in 1958, played on Miles Davis's Sketches of Spain, and worked with the New York Jazz Repertory Company. He recorded four tunes as a leader in 1935, and led his own band in 1960-61, when he recorded LPs for Mercury, Aamco Records, and Moodsville.
  Jordan recorded 4 titles for ARC (Banner, Melotone, Oriole, Perfect, Romeo) on February 21 and 22, 1935. It was an all-star group consisting of
  
  wn.com/Taft_Jordan
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  Tchaikovsky
  Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky ( /ˈpjɔːtər ˈɪliɪtʃ tʃaɪˈkɒfski/); (Russian: Пётр Ильи́ч Чайко́вский;tr. Pyotr Ilyich Chaykovsky) (May 7, 1840 – November 6, 1893), also rendered as Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky ( /ˈpiːtər .../), was a Russian composer whose works included symphonies, concertos, operas, ballets, and chamber music. Some of these are among the most popular concert and theatrical music in the classical repertoire. He was the first Russian composer whose music made a lasting impression internationally, which he bolstered with appearances as a guest conductor later in his career in Europe and the United States. One of these appearances was at the inaugural concert of Carnegie Hall in New York City in 1891. Tchaikovsky was honored in 1884 by Tsar Alexander III, and awarded a lifetime pension in the late 1880s.
  
  wn.com/Tchaikovsky
• Ted Koehler
  Ted L. Koehler (July 14, 1894 – January 17, 1973) was an American lyricist.
  Koehler was born in the year 1894 in Washington, D.C.
  He started out as a photo-engraver, but was attracted to the music business, where he started out as a theater pianist for silent films.
  He moved on to write for vaudeville and Broadway theatre, and he also produced nightclub shows.
  His most successful collaboration was with the composer Harold Arlen, with whom he wrote many famous songs from the 1920s through the 1940s. In 1929 the duo composed their first well-known song, "Get Happy", and went on to create "Let's Fall in Love", "Stormy Weather" and other hit songs. Throughout the early and mid-1930s they wrote for the Cotton Club, a popular Harlem night club, for big band jazz legend Duke Ellington and other top performers, as well as for Broadway musicals and Hollywood films.
  Koehler also worked with other composers, including Rube Bloom and Sammy Fain.
  Koehler died in 1973 in Santa Monica at the age of 78.
  
  
  
  wn.com/Ted_Koehler
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  Teddy Roosevelt
  Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt ( /ˈroʊzəvɛlt/ ROH-zə-velt; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919) was the 26th President of the United States of America (1901–1909). He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity. He was a leader of the Republican Party and founder of the short-lived Progressive ("Bull Moose") Party of 1912. Before becoming President, he held offices at the city, state, and federal levels. Roosevelt's achievements as a naturalist, explorer, hunter, author, and soldier are as much a part of his fame as any office he held as a politician. Roosevelt was 42 years old when sworn in as President of the United States in 1901, making him the youngest president ever; he beat out the youngest elected president, John F. Kennedy, by only one year. Roosevelt was also one of only three sitting presidents to have won the Nobel Peace Prize, the other two being Woodrow Wilson and Barack Obama.
  
  wn.com/Teddy_Roosevelt
• Teresa Brewer
  Teresa Brewer (7 May 1931 – 17 October 2007) was an American pop singer whose style incorporated elements of country, jazz, R&B, musicals and novelty songs. She was one of the most prolific and popular female singers of the 1950s, recording nearly 600 songs.
  Theresa Breuer grew up in Toledo, Ohio. Her father was an inspector of glass for the Libbey Owens Company (now Pilkington Glass); her mother was a housewife. At the age of two, Theresa was taken by her mother to audition for a radio program, "Uncle August's Kiddie Show" on Toledo's WSPD. She performed for cookies and cupcakes donated by the sponsor. Although she never took singing lessons, she took tap dancing lessons. From age five to twelve, she sang and danced on the "Major Bowes Amateur Hour," then a popular touring radio show. Her aunt Mary traveled with Theresa until 1949, when Theresa married. She was devoted to her aunt, who shared Brewer's home until her death in 1993.
  At the age of 12, Theresa returned to Toledo and ceased touring in order to have a normal school life. She continued to perform on local radio. In January 1948, the 16 year-old won a local competition and (with three other winners) was sent to New York to appear on a talent show called "Stairway to the Stars", featuring Eddie Dowling. It was at about that time that she changed the spelling of her name from Theresa Breuer to Teresa Brewer. She won a number of talent shows and played night clubs in New York (including the famous Latin Quarter).
  
  wn.com/Teresa_Brewer
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  Thelonious Monk
  Thelonious Sphere Monk (October 10, 1917 – February 17, 1982) was an American jazz pianist and composer considered one of the giants of American music. Monk had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including "Epistrophy", "'Round Midnight", "Blue Monk", "Straight, No Chaser" and "Well, You Needn't". Monk is the second most recorded jazz composer after Duke Ellington, which is particularly remarkable as Ellington composed over 1,000 songs while Monk wrote about 70.
  His compositions and improvisations are full of dissonant harmonies and angular melodic twists, and are consistent with Monk's unorthodox approach to the piano, which combined a highly percussive attack with abrupt, dramatic use of silences and hesitations. This was not a style universally appreciated; poet and jazz critic Philip Larkin dismissed Monk as 'the elephant on the keyboard'.
  Monk's manner was idiosyncratic. Visually, he was renowned for his distinctive style in suits, hats and sunglasses. He was also noted for the fact that at times, while the other musicians in the band continued playing, he would stop, stand up from the keyboard and dance for a few moments before returning to the piano.
  
  wn.com/Thelonious_Monk
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  Tony Bennett
  Anthony Dominick Benedetto, better known as Tony Bennett (born August 3, 1926), is an American singer of popular music, standards, show tunes, and jazz. Bennett is also a serious and accomplished painter, having created works — under the name Benedetto — that are on permanent public display in several institutions. He is the founder of Frank Sinatra School of the Arts in New York City.
  Raised in New York City, Bennett began singing at an early age. He fought in the final stages of World War II as an infantryman with the U.S. Army in the European Theatre. Afterwards, he developed his singing technique, signed with Columbia Records, and had his first number one popular song with "Because of You" in 1951. Several top hits such as "Rags to Riches" followed in the early 1950s. Bennett then further refined his approach to encompass jazz singing. He reached an artistic peak in the late 1950s with albums such as The Beat of My Heart and Basie Swings, Bennett Sings. In 1962, Bennett recorded his signature song, "I Left My Heart in San Francisco". His career and his personal life then suffered an extended downturn during the height of the rock music era.
  
  wn.com/Tony_Bennett
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  Tricky Sam Nanton
  Joe "Tricky Sam" Nanton (February 1, 1904 – July 20, 1946) was a famous trombonist with the Duke Ellington Orchestra.
  Nanton was born in New York City and began playing professionally in Washington with bands led by Cliff Jackson and Elmer Snowden. He joined Ellington in 1926.
  From 1923 to 1924, he worked with Frazier's Harmony Five. A year later, he performed with banjoist Elmer Snowden. At age 22, Joe Nanton found his niche in Duke Ellington's Orchestra when he reluctantly took the place of his friend Charlie Irvis. He remained a member of the orchestra until his early death in 1946. Nanton, along with Lawrence Brown, anchored one of the outstanding jazz trombone sections of the swing era, their different, complementary talents and personalities opening up a wide range of trombone sounds and solos in the early Ellington bands.
  Nanton was one of the great pioneers of the plunger mute. Together with his musical soulmate Bubber Miley on trumpet, Nanton is largely responsible for creating the characteristic Wah-wah sounds copied by many later brass soloists in the swing era. Their highly expressive growl and plunger sounds were the main ingredient in the band's famous “jungle” sound that evolved during the band's late 1920s engagement at Harlem's "Cotton Club". After Miley's premature departure in 1929, Nanton taught Cootie Williams, Miley's successor, some of the growl and plunger techniques that Miley had used. Williams became a plunger virtuoso in his own right and helped the band retain its distinctive sound.
  
  wn.com/Tricky_Sam_Nanton
• Turner Layton
  Turner Layton (July 2, 1894 – February 6, 1978), born John Turner Layton, Jr., was an American songwriter, singer and pianist. Born in Washington, D.C., in 1894, he was the son of John Turner Layton, "a bass singer, music educator and hymn composer." After receiving a musical education from his father, he attended the Howard University Dental School, later coming to New York City in the early 1900s, where he met future songwriting partner, lyricist Henry Creamer. He is best known for his many compositions with Creamer, the best known of which is the jazz standard "After You've Gone", which was written in 1918 and first popularized by Sophie Tucker. The two contributed music and lyrics to many Broadway shows, including the Ziegfeld Follies of 1917, 1921 and 1922, Three Showers (1920), Some Party (1922) and Creamer's own Strut Miss Lizzie (1922). Beginning in 1924, Layton found major popular success in England with Clarence "Tandy" Johnstone as member of the group Layton & Johnstone, quickly earning a reputation as a cabaret act, with the pair allegedly selling over "10 million records." He split with Johnstone in 1935, with Johnstone returning to New York and continuing to perform with significantly less success and Turner continuing to perform in England. An elegant song stylist, Turner had held a regular, successful spot over the years at the Café de Paris, a London club, until his retirement in 1946. He died in London in February 1978. Two compilation albums of recordings by Layton have been released on CD. His daughter A'Lelia Shirley inherited his musical estate and left the copyright and royalties to her father's music to Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children in London (UK) in her will on her death in January 2001.
  
  wn.com/Turner_Layton
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  Tyree Glenn
  Evan Tyree Glenn (November 23, 1912, Corsicana, Texas – May 18, 1974, Englewood, New Jersey) was an American trombone player.
  Tyree played trombone and vibraphone with local Texas bands before moving in the early 1930s to Washington, D.C., where he performed with several prominent bands of the Swing Era. He played with Bob Young^{[disambiguation needed ]} (1930), then he joined Tommy Myles's band (1934-1936). After he left Myles, he moved to the West Coast, playing with groups headed by Charlie Echols (1936). Further, he played with Eddie Barefield (1936), Eddie Mallory's band (1937) and Benny Carter (1937) and played with Cab Calloway from 1939 to 1946.
  He toured around Europe with Don Redman's big band (1946). From 1947 to 1951 he played with Duke Ellington and was an effective wah-wah trombonist in the Tricky Sam Nanton tradition and Ellington's only vibraphonist, being well-featured on the Liberian Suite. After, he played also with Howard Biggs's Orchestra.
  During the 1950s, Glenn did studiowork, led his quartet at the Embers, did some television, radio and acting work, and freelanced in swing and Dixieland settings. In 1953 he joined Jack Sterling's New York daily radio show, with which he remained until 1963. During 1965-1968, he toured the world with Louis Armstrong's All-Stars and played until Armstrong died in 1971. Later, Glenn led his own group during his last few years.
  
  wn.com/Tyree_Glenn
• Victor Gaskin
  Roderick Victor Gaskin, born The Bronx, New York, November 23, 1934 is a jazz bassist.
  Gaskin moved to Los Angeles in 1962 and started playing with Paul Horn and Red Mitchell before going on to become one of many bass players for the Jazz Crusaders. He also recorded with Curtis Amy and Dupree Bolton, before becoming a part of the West Coast jazz scene, accompanying Buddy Collette, Shelly Manne, and Bud Shank.
  Between 1966 and 1970, he was a member of Cannonball Adderley's groups, and in 1970 recorded with Duke Ellington's octet, quintet, quartet and trio.
  He started playing with the Billy Taylor Trio in the late 1970s, continuing until 1993,as well as with Johnny Hartman and Hank Jones.
  
  
  
  wn.com/Victor_Gaskin
• Wellman Braud
  Wellman Braud (January 25, 1891 – October 29, 1966) was a Creole American jazz upright bassist. His family sometimes spelled their last name "Breaux", pronounced "Bro".
  Born in St. James Parish, Louisiana, Braud came to New Orleans, in his early teens. He was playing violin and the upright bass and leading a trio in venues in the Storyville District before 1910. He moved to Chicago, Illinois in 1917. In 1923 he went to London with the Plantation Orchestra, in which he doubled on bass and trombone. Next he moved to New York City where he played with Wilber Sweatman's band before joining Duke Ellington. His vigorous melodic bass playing, alternately plucking, slapping, and bowing, was an important feature of the early Ellington Orchestra sound in the 1920s and 1930s. Braud's playing on Ellington's regular radio broadcasts and recordings helped popularize the slap style of string bass playing, as well as encouraging many dance bands of the time to switch from using a tuba to an Upright bass. (Like many of his contemporary New Orleans bassists, Braud doubled on tuba, and he recorded on that instrument on some sides with Ellington.)
  
  wn.com/Wellman_Braud
• Wendell Marshall
  Wendell Marshall (October 24, 1920, St. Louis, Missouri – February 6, 2002, St. Louis) was an American jazz double-bassist.
  Marshall was Jimmy Blanton's cousin. He studied at Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Missouri, then served in the Army during World War II. Following his discharge, he played with Stuff Smith, then relocated to New York City, where he began playing with Mercer Ellington. From 1948 to 1955 he played with Duke Ellington.
  Following his time with the Duke, Marshall played in pit orchestras on Broadway and freelanced with Mary Lou Williams, Art Blakey, Donald Byrd, Milt Jackson, and Hank Jones among others. He retired in 1968.
  With Milt Jackson
  
  wn.com/Wendell_Marshall
• Wilber Sweatman
  Wilbur C. Sweatman (Brunswick, Missouri, February 7, 1882 – New York City, March 9, 1961) was an African-American ragtime and dixieland jazz composer, bandleader, and clarinetist.
  Sweatman started out playing violin, then took up clarinet instead. He toured with circus bands in the late 1890s, and briefly played with the bands of W.C. Handy and Mahara's Minstrels before organizing his own dance band in Minneapolis, Minnesota by late 1902. It was there that Sweatman made his first recordings on phonograph cylinders in 1903 for a local music store. These included what is reputed to have been the first recorded version of Scott Joplin's "Maple Leaf Rag"; no copies of these are known to exist today. In 1908, Sweatman moved to Chicago. He became the bandleader at the Grand Theater, and began to attract notice; a 1910 article referred to his nickname, "Sensational Swet."
  By 1911, he had moved to the vaudeville circuit full-time, developing a successful act of playing three clarinets at once. An Indianapolis account described his performance there:
  
  wn.com/Wilber_Sweatman
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  Wilbur De Paris
  Wilbur de Paris (January 11, 1900 – January 3, 1973) was a trombone player and band leader, especially known for mixing New Orleans jazz style with Swing.
  De Paris was born in Crawfordsville, Indiana, where his father, Sidney G. Paris, who came from West Virginia and who was a musician (trombone, banjo, guitar), a circus barker, a ventriloquist, a minstrel, etc., had met and married his mother, Fannie Hyatt.^{[citation needed]} By the autumn of 1906, when he was five, de Paris had started playing alto saxophone, and a year later was working for his father in one of his plantation shows.
  These shows were small travelling theatrical-musical groups of singers, dancers, actors, comedians, and musicians who mainly worked for Theatre Owners and Bookers Association in the South. They performed in small tents and theatres with a mixture of drama, musical and comedy sketches, magic, etc., which would later be incorporated into vaudeville.^{[citation needed]}
  De Paris heard jazz first at age 16, circa 1917, as a member of a summer show that played at the Lyric Theatre. He also met Louis Armstrong whilst playing the saxophone at Tom Anderson's Cafe, and with A. J. Piron.^{[citation needed]} After high school, de Paris worked for his father for a time, then worked for more travelling shows in the east, then started playing in Philadelphia in the early 1920s. His first band was Wilbur de Paris and his Cottonpickers. After the Wall Street Crash in 1929 he disbanded his second group and went to New York to play for many years with the greats of jazz and to make records.^{[citation needed]}
  
  wn.com/Wilbur_De_Paris
• Will Marion Cook
  William Mercer Cook (January 27, 1869 – July 19, 1944), better known as Will Marion Cook, was an African American composer and violinist from the United States. Cook was a student of Antonín Dvořák and performed for King George V among others. He is probably best known for his popular songs and Broadway musicals, such as Clorindy and In Dahomey.
  Will Marion Cook (né William Mercer Cook) was born in Washington, D.C. to John Hartwell Cook, dean of the liberal Law School at Howard University, and his wife, Isabel. When his father died of tuberculosis in 1879, Cook's mother eventually had to send all her three children away: following a violent altercation with a teacher during a strapping, the 10-year-old Will went to live with his maternal grandparents (ex-slaves who had bought their freedom) in Chattanooga, where he first experienced "real Negro melodies" during what he would later call his "soul period".
  Cook's musical talent was apparent at an early age. At fifteen, he was sent to the Oberlin Conservatory to study violin. With help from members of the African American community, his benefit recitals were sponsored to help him afford to study abroad. From 1887 to 1889, he studies at the Berlin Hochschule fur Musik working with Joseph Joachim's former student, violinist Heinrich Jacobson; Jacobson served as Chairman of the Orchestral Instruments Department. Although it is often stated that Cook studied abroad for nine years, there is no evidence of this.
  
  wn.com/Will_Marion_Cook
• Will Vodery
  Will Vodery (October 8, 1885 - November 18, 1951) was an African-American composer, conductor, orchestrator, and arranger, and one of the few black Americans of his time to make a name for himself as a composer on Broadway, working largely for Florenz Ziegfeld.
  He had offices at the Gaiety Theatre office building in Times Square.
  While Vodery did compose the music for a show called From Dixie to Broadway (1924), he is most famous for the vocal and choral arrangements that he created for the original Broadway stage production of the classic musical Show Boat (1927). His arrangements for the show were used again in the London production of the show (1928), and the first revival on Broadway (1932), as well as in both the Universal Pictures film version (1936), and the prologue to the part-talkie 1929 film version (also by Universal) of Edna Ferber's novel, on which the show is based. Vodery's original arrangements were combined with new ones by Pembroke Davenport for the 1946 Broadway revival of Show Boat.
  
  wn.com/Will_Vodery
• William Schuman
  William Howard Schuman (August 4, 1910 – February 15, 1992) was an American composer and music administrator.
  Born in Manhattan in New York City to Samuel and Rachel Schuman, Schuman was named after the twenty-seventh U.S. president, William Howard Taft, although his family preferred to call him Bill. Schuman played the violin and banjo as a child, but his overwhelming passion was baseball. While still in high school, he formed a dance band, "Billy Schuman and his Alamo Society Orchestra", that played local weddings and bar mitzvahs in which Schuman played string bass.
  In 1928 he entered New York University's School of Commerce to pursue a business degree, at the same time working for an advertising agency. He also wrote popular songs with E. B. Marks, Jr., a friend he had met long before at summer camp. About then Schuman met lyricist Frank Loesser and wrote some forty songs with him. Loesser's first published song, "In Love with a Memory of You", credits the music to William H. Schuman.
  
  wn.com/William_Schuman
• 
  William Shakespeare
  William Shakespeare (baptised 26 April 1564; died 23 April 1616) was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon". His surviving works, including some collaborations, consist of about 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.
  Shakespeare was born and brought up in Stratford-upon-Avon. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part owner of a playing company called the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men. He appears to have retired to Stratford around 1613 at age 49, where he died three years later. Few records of Shakespeare's private life survive, and there has been considerable speculation about such matters as his physical appearance, sexuality, religious beliefs, and whether the works attributed to him were written by others.
  
  wn.com/William_Shakespeare
• 
  Wynton Marsalis
  Wynton Learson Marsalis (born October 18, 1961) is a trumpeter, composer, teacher, music educator, and Artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City, United States. Marsalis has promoted the appreciation of classical and jazz music often to young audiences. Marsalis has been awarded nine Grammys in both genres, and a jazz recording of his was the first of its kind to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music.
  Marsalis is the son of jazz musician Ellis Marsalis, Jr. (pianist), grandson of Ellis Marsalis, Sr., and brother of Branford (saxophonist), Delfeayo (trombonist), Mboya, and Jason (drummer).
  Wynton was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, on October 18, 1961, the second of six sons of Dolores (née Ferdinand) and Ellis Louis Marsalis, Jr., a pianist and music professor. At an early age, he exhibited an aptitude for music. At age eight, Wynton performed traditional New Orleans music in the Fairview Baptist Church band led by banjoist Danny Barker, and at 14, he performed with the New Orleans Philharmonic. During high school, Wynton performed with the New Orleans Symphony Brass Quintet, New Orleans Community Concert Band, New Orleans Youth Orchestra, New Orleans Symphony, various jazz bands and with a local funk band, the Creators.
  
  wn.com/Wynton_Marsalis
• 
  Zoot Sims
  John Haley "Zoot" Sims (October 29, 1925 - March 23, 1985) was an American jazz saxophonist, playing mainly tenor and soprano.
  He was born in Inglewood, California, the son of vaudeville performers Kate Haley and John Sims. Growing up in a performing family, Sims learned to play both drums and clarinet at an early age. His father was a vaudeville hoofer, and Sims prided himself on remembering many of the steps his father taught him.
  Following in the footsteps of Lester Young, Sims developed into an innovative tenor saxophonist. Throughout his career, he played with renowned bands, including Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Stan Kenton, and Buddy Rich. Sims was also one of Woody Herman's "Four Brothers", and he was known among his peers as one of the strongest swingers in the field. He frequently led his own combos and sometimes toured with his friend Gerry Mulligan's sextet, and later with Mulligan's Concert Jazz Band.
  In the 1950s and '60s, Sims had a long, successful partnership as co-leader of a quintet with Al Cohn, which recorded under the name "Al and Zoot". That group was a favorite at the New York club The Half Note. Always fond of the higher register of the tenor sax, Zoot also liked to play alto and late in his career added the soprano saxophone to his performances, while recording a series of albums for the Pablo Records label of impresario Norman Granz. Zoot also played on some of Jack Kerouac's recordings.
  
  wn.com/Zoot_Sims

• Chichester Psalms: I. Psalm 108 vs. 2, Psalm 100. Maestoso ma energico – Allegro molto
• Chichester Psalms: II. Psalm 23, Psalm 2 vs. 1–4. Andante con moto, ma tranquillo – Allegro feroce
• Chichester Psalms: III. Psalm 131, Psalm 133 vs. 1. Prelude. Sostenuto molto – Peacefully flowing – Lento possible
• Second Rhapsody for Piano and Orchestra
• Mississippi Suite: I. Father of Waters. Andante maestoso – Animato – Tempo primo
• Mississippi Suite: II. Huckleberry Finn. Allegro moderato – Più lento – Tempo primo
• Mississippi Suite: III. Old Creole Days. Andante sostenuto
• Mississippi Suite: IV. Mardi Gras. Allegro – Andantino (espressivo e sostenuto) – Assai maestoso e appassionato
• Harlem

• Who Knows
• Retrospection
• B Sharp Blues
• Passion Flower
• Dancers In Love
• Reflections in D
• Melancholia
• Prelude To A Kiss
• In A Sentimental Mood
• Things Ain't What They Used To Be
• All Too Soon
• Janet
• Kinda Dukish
• Montevideo
• December Blue
• All the Things You Are (Version 1)
• All the Things You Are (Version 2)
• Piano Improvisation No.1
• Piano Improvisation No.2
• Piano Improvisation No.3
• Piano Improvisation No.4
• New World A-Comin'
• Variations on Mood Indigo [*]

• Satin Doll
• Stardust
• One O'Clock Jump
• Stormy Weather
• Take The "A" Train
• 4:30 Blues
• In Triplicate
• Chili Bowl
• Janet
• Happy Reunion
• Caravan
• Wig Wise

• Tough Truckin'
• Tough Truckin' (alternate take)
• Indigo Echoes
• Indigo Echoes (alternate take)
• Rexatious (alternate take)
• Rexatious
• Lazy Man's Shuflle
• Lazy Man's Shuflle (alternate take)
• Clouds in My Heart (alternate take)
• Clouds in My Heart
• Frolic Sam (alternate take)
• Frolic Sam
• Caravan
• Caravan
• Stompy Jones
• Stompy Jones
• Mood Indigo / Solititude
• Sophisticated Lady / In a Sentimental Mood
• I Can't Believe That You Are in Love With Me (alternate take)
• I Can't Believe That You Are in Love With Me
• Downtown Uproar (alternate take)
• Downtown Uproar
• Digga Digga Do (alternate take)
• Digga Digga Do

• Bakiff
• Reflections in D
• Body and Soul
• The E and D Blues (E for Ella, D for Duke)
• Going Up
• Big Shoe
• Pie Eye's Blues
• Azalea
• Wig Wise
• Fleurette Africaine
• Take the Coltrane
• The Feeling of Jazz
• West Indian Pancake

• East St. Louis Toodle-Oo
• Black and Tan Fantasy
• Take It Easy
• Hot and Bothered
• The Mooche
• Rockn' in Rhythm
• Creole Rhapsody
• It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)
• Creole Love Call
• Sophisticated Lady
• Drop Me Off in Harlem
• Solitude
• In a Sentimental Mood
• Back Room Romp
• Clouds in My Heart
• Echoes of Harlem
• Caravan
• Blue Reverie
• Diminuendo in Blue
• Crescendo in Blue

• Don't Get Around Much Any More
• Live and Love Tonight
• Saint Louis Blues
• Happy Go Lucky Local
• On the Alamo
• Jam a Ditty
• In a Sentimental Mood
• Perdido
• Just You, Just Me
• I Let a Song Out of My Heart
• Tea for Two
• I Got It Bad and That Ain't Good
• Everything Goes
• Cross Town
• Far Away Blues
• 9:20 Special
• How High the Moon
• Clarinet Lament (Barney's Concerto)
• Diminuendo in Blue
• A Portrait of Bert Williams

• Star Spangeld Banner
• Introduction
• Take The A Train
• Moon Mist
• Tea For Two
• Honeysuckle Rose
• Star Dust
• C Jam Blues
• West Indian Influence
• Lighter Attitude
• New World A-Coming
• Floor Shows
• Don't Get Around Much Any more

• Satin Doll
• Do Nothing Till You Hear From Me
• I Got It Bad (And That Ain't Good)
• Body and Soul
• Creole Love Call
• Prelude to a Kiss
• The Star-Crossed Lovers (A.K.A. Pretty Girl)
• Corner Pocket (A.K.A. Until I Met You)
• To You
• Take Love Easy
• All of Me
• Tenderly
• Love You Madley
• Love (My Everything)
• Mood Indigo
• Solitude
• In a Sentimental Mood

• There's a Lull in My Life
• It's Swell of You
• Old Plantation
• All God's Chillun Got Rhythm
• Alabamy Home
• If You Were in My Place
• Skrontch
• Carnival in Caroline
• Swingtime in Honolulu
• You Give Me the Gate (And I'm Swingin')
• Rose of the Rio Grande
• When My Sugar Walks Down the Street
• Watermelon Man
• La De Doody Do
• In a Mizz
• I'm Checkin' Out, Goo'm Bye
• A Lonely Co-Ed
• You Can Count on Me
• Killing Myself
• Your Love Has Faded
• Solitude
• Stormy Weather
• Mood Indigo
• So Far, So Good
• Me and You
• At a Dixie Roadside Diner
• Five O'Clock Whistle

• Take The "A" Train
• Don't Get Around Much Anymore
• I Didn't Know About You (Sentimental Lady)
• Do Nothin' Till You Hear From Me
• Someone
• I Got It Bad And That Ain't Good
• Main Stem
• I'm Beginning To See The Light
• I Ain't Got Nothin' But The Blues
• My Little Brown Book

• Take the "A" Train
• Caravan
• Do Nothin' Till You Hear From Me
• How High the Moon
• Tea for Two
• One O'Clock Jump
• Rockin' in Rhythm
• Passion Flower
• Everything Goes
• The Mooche
• Jam With Sam
• Tip Toe Topic

• It Don't Mean a Thing
• Delta Bound
• I've Got the World on a String
• Happy as the Day Is Long
• Rasin' The Rent
• Get Yourself a New Broom
• I'm Satisfied
• Ebony Rhapsody
• Troubled Waters
• My Old Flame
• Let's Have a Jubilee
• Cotton
• Truckin'
• Dinah Lou
• Isn't Love the Strangest Thing?
• Love Is Like a Cigarette
• Kissin' My Baby Goodnight
• Oh Babe Maybe Someday
• Shone Shine Boy
• It Was a Sad Night in Harlem
• I've Got to Be a Rug Cutter
• My Honey's Lovin' Arms
• Did Anyone Ever Tell You
• Where Are You?

• East St. Louis Toodle-Oo
• Creole Love Call
• The Blues I Love to Sing
• Black and Tan Fantasy
• Washington Wobble
• Harlem River Quiver (Brown Berries)
• Blue Bubbles
• Take It Easy
• Black Beauty
• Jubilee Stomp
• Got Everything but You
• More Over
• Hot and Bothered
• The Mooche
• Diga Diga Doo
• Goin' to Town
• Tiger Rag, Parts 1 & 2
• Misty Mornin'
• Doin' the Voom Voom
• The Duke Steps Out

• Prologue to Black and Tan Fantasy
• The New Black and Tan Fantasy
• The Mooche
• Saturday Night Function
• Mississippi Moan
• Jungle Jamboree
• Haunted Nights
• Jungle Nights in Harlem
• Shout 'Em Aunt Tillie
• Jungle Blues
• Echoes of the Jungle
• Baby, When You Ain't There
• Dear Old Southland
• The New East St. Louis Toodle-Oo
• Delta Mood
• Dooji Wooji
• Way Low
• A Gathering in a Clearing
• Liberian Suite: Dance No. 5
• Air Conditioned Jungle

• Duke's Place
• I'm Just a Lucky So and So
• Cotton Tail
• Mood Indigo
• Do Nothin' Till You Hear From Me
• The Beautiful American
• Black and Tan Fantasy
• Drop Me Off at Harlem
• The Mooche
• In a Mellow Tone
• It Don't Mean a Thing
• Solitude
• Don't Get Around Much Anymore
• I'm Beginning to See the Light
• Just Squeeze Me
• I Got It Bad and That Ain't Good
• Azalea

• Malletoba Spank
• Red Garter
• Red Shoes
• Red Carpet
• Ready, Go!
• U.M.M.G.
• All Of Me
• Tymperturbably Blue
• Hello Little Girl

• The Jeep Is Jumpin'
• Mood Indigo
• Limbo Jazz
• Wanderlust
• In a Sentimental Mood
• Stevie
• My Little Brown Book
• C Jam Blues
• Lotus Blossom
• Medley
• Satin Doll

• Take the "A" Train
• You Know Something?
• Battle Royal
• Bird Jungle
• What's Paris Blues?
• Mood Indigo
• Autumnal Suite
• Nite
• Wild Man Moore
• Paris Stairs
• I Wasn't Shopping
• Guitar Amour
• A Return Reservation
• Paris Blues

• It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)
• Just Squeeze Me
• Do Nothin' 'Till You Hear From Me
• In a Mellow Tone (In a Mellotone)
• Solitude
• Don't Get Around Much Anymore
• The Mooche
• I'm Beginning to See the Light
• Mood Indigo
• The Beautiful American
• I Got It Bad and That Ain't Good
• Drop Me Off at Harlem
• Black and Tan Fantasy
• Cotton Tail (Shuckin' And Stiffin')
• I'm Just a Lucky So and So
• Duke's Place
• Azalea

• Take the "A" Train
• I Got It Bad
• Perdido
• Chelsea Bridge
• "C" Jam Blues
• What Am I Here For
• Main Stem
• Johnny Come Lately
• Sentimental Lady
• Rockin' the Rythm
• Do Nothin' Till You Hear From Me
• Summertime
• Creole Love Call
• I'm Beginning to See the Light

• Intro
• Tulip or Turnip
• Ting-A-Ling
• Flamingo
• Rockin' in Rhythm
• Sophisticated Lady
• Take the "A" Train
• Flying Home
• All of Me
• Bakiff
• The Hawk Talks
• Do Nothin' Till You Hear from Me
• V.I.P.'s Boogie
• Jam With Sam
• Just A-Sittin' and A-Rockin'
• Mood Indigo

• Star Spangled Banner
• Lady of the Lavender Mist
• Suddenly It Jumped
• Reminiscing in Tempo
• She Wouldn't Be Moved
• Paradise
• The Symphomaniac Pt. 1 (Symphonic or Bust)
• The Symphomaniac Pt. 2 (How You Sound)
• My Friend
• You Oughta
• Creole Love Call
• Don't Blame Me
• Lover Man
• The Tattooed Bride
• Dancers In Love

• Take the 'A' Train
• Perdido
• Tea For Two
• Do Nothing Till You Hear From Me
• Caravan
• How High the Moon
• In a Jam
• Rockabye River
• On the Alamo
• Moon Mist
• Blue Lou
• Just You, Just Me
• Crosstown
• Don't Get Around Much Anymore (Medley 3)

• Satin Doll
• Medley: Creole Love Call, Black & Tan Fantasy, The Mooch
• Happy Go Lucky Local
• Mexican Suite
• It Don't Mean A Thing
• I Got It Bad And That Ain't Good
• Things Ain't What They Used To Be
• Mood Indigo
• Mood Indigo 2

• In the Mood
• King Porter Stomp
• Moonlight Serenade
• Sunrise Serenade
• Little Brown Jug
• Farewell Blues
• Indian Summer
• Stardust
• Danny Boy
• Polka Dots and Moonbeams
• Blueberry Hill
• Pennsylvania 6-5000

• Take the "A" Train
• Take the "A" Train
• Soul Call
• In a Sentimental Mood
• Prowling Cat
• La Plus Belle Africaine
• Old Circus Train
• Sweet Georgia Brown
• Stardust
• So Danço Samba
• How Long Has This Been Going On?
• St. Louis Blues
• Misty
• Mack the Knife
• Tap Routine
• Cottontail
• Things Ain't What They Used to Be

• What Can A Poor Fellow Do ?
• Black And Tan Fantasy
• Black And Tan Fantasy
• Chicago Stomp Down
• Harlem River Quiver (Brown Berries)
• Harlem River Quiver (Brown Berries)
• Harlem River Quiver (Brown Berries)
• East St. Louis Toodle-Oo
• Blue Bubbles
• Blue Bubbles
• Red Hot Band
• Doin' The Frog
• Sweet Mama
• Stack O'Lee Blues
• Bugle Call Rag
• Take It Easy
• Jubilee Stomp
• Harlem Twist (East St. Louis Toodle-Oo)
• East St. Louis Toodle-Oo
• East St. Louis Toodle-Oo
• Jubilee Stomp
• Jubilee Stomp
• Take It Easy
• Take It Easy

• Steppin' Into Swing Society
• Prologue To Black And Tan Fantasy
• The New Black And Tan Fantasy
• Riding On A Blue Note
• Lost In Meditation
• The Gal From Joe's
• Skrontch
• I Let A Song Go Out Of My Heart
• Braggin' In Brass
• Dinah's In A Jam
• You Gave Me The Gate (And I'm Swingin')
• Rose Of The Rio Grande
• Rose Of The Rio Grande [alternate take]
• Pyramid
• When My Sugar Walks Down The Street
• A Gypsy Without A Song

• Tonk
• Drawing Room Blues
• Frankie and Johnny
• Jumpin' Room Only
• Lots O' Fingers
• Dear Old Southland (take 1)
• Solitude (take 1)
• Solitude (take 2)
• Lotus Blossom
• Pither Panther Patter (take 1)
• Pither Panther Patter (take 2)
• Body and Soul (take 1)
• Body and Soul (take 2)
• Body and Soul (take 3)
• Sophisticated Lady (take 1)
• Sophisticated Lady (take 2)
• Mr. J.B. Blues (take 1)
• Mr. J.B. Blues (take 2)
• House of Lords
• The Second Portrait of the Lion
• Take the "A" Train

• Take The "A" Train
• Sophisticated Lady
• Perdido
• Prelude To A Kiss
• C Jam Blues
• Mood Indigo
• The Mooche
• Satin Doll
• Solitude
• What Am I Here For
• I Got It Bad And That Ain't Good
• Skin Deep

• Caravan
• Satin Doll
• Cotton Tail
• Echoes of Harlem
• New World A Comin'
• Night Train
• Prelude To A Kiss
• Sophisticated Lady
• In A Sentimental Mood
• Perdido
• Come Sunday
• Take The "A" Train

• Overture: Things Ain't What They Used to Be / Sophisticated Lady / Perdido
• Music Is a Woman
• Hit Me With a Hot Note and Watch Me Bounce
• It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)
• Cotton Tail
• Take the "A" Train
• Solitude
• Don't Get Around Much Anymore / I Let a Song Go Out of My Heart
• Caravan
• Something to Live For
• Rockin' in Rhythm
• In a Sentimental Mood
• I'm Beginning to See the Light
• Satin Doll / Just Squeeze Me
• Echoes of Harlem
• I'm Just a Lucky So-And-So
• Imagine My Frustration
• I'm Checking Out Goodbye / Do Nothin' Till You Hear From Me
• I Got It Bad (and That Ain't Good) / Mood Indigo
• Sophisticated Lady
• It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing) (Finale)

• Rexatious
• Lazy Man's Shuffle
• Back Room Romp
• Love's In My Heart
• Clouds In My Heart
• Frolic Sam
• Caravan
• Stompy Jones
• Pyramid
• Swiingin' In The Dell
• Jitterbug's Lullaby
• The Rabbit's Jump
• I Can't Believe That You're In Love With Me
• Blue Reverie
• Echoes of Harlem
• Swing Pan Alley

• March 19th Blues
• Feet Bone
• In a Sentimental Mood
• Discontented
• Jump for Joy
• Just Scratchin the Surface
• Prelude to a Kiss
• Miss Lucy
• Uncontrieved
• Satin Doll
• Do Not Disturb
• Love You Madly
• Short Sheet Cluster
• Moon Mist
• Long Time Blues

• Sonata for Solo Violin (1944): I. Tempo di ciaccona
• Sonata for Solo Violin (1944): II. Fuga - Risoluto, non troppo vivo
• Sonata for Solo Violin (1944): III. Melodia - Adagio
• Sonata for Solo Violin (1944): IV. Presto
• Mainly Black (from Black, Brown and Beige Suite, arr. Nigel Kenney): I. Introduction (feat. double bass: Alec Dankworth)
• Mainly Black (from Black, Brown and Beige Suite, arr. Nigel Kenney): II. Come Sunday (feat. double bass: Alec Dankworth)
• Mainly Black (from Black, Brown and Beige Suite, arr. Nigel Kenney): III. Work Song (feat. double bass: Alec Dankworth)
• Mainly Black (from Black, Brown and Beige Suite, arr. Nigel Kenney): IV. The Blues (Mauve) (feat. double bass: Alec Dankworth)
• Mainly Black (from Black, Brown and Beige Suite, arr. Nigel Kenney): V. Come Sunday (feat. double bass: Alec Dankworth)

• Jubilee Stomp
• Crole Love Call
• East St. Louis Toodle-OO
• Black and Tan Fantasy
• Hot and Bothered
• Take It Easy
• Cotton Club Stomp
• Tiger Rag
• Old Man Blues
• Mood Indigo
• Saratoga Swing
• Wall Street Wail
• Echoes of the Jungle
• Doin the Voom Voom
• Rocking in Rhythm
• Ring Dem Belld

• Duke's Place
• I'm Just a Lucky So and So
• Cottontail
• Mood Indigo
• Do Nothin' Till You Hear From Me
• The Beautiful American
• Black and Tan Fantasy
• Drop Me Off at Harlem
• The Mooche
• In a Mellow Tone
• It Don't Mean a Thing
• Solitude
• Don't Get Around Much Anymore
• I'm Beginning to See the Light
• Just Squeeze Me
• I Got It Bad and That Ain't Good
• Azalea

• Satin Doll
• Star Dust
• One O'Clock Jump
• Stormy Weather
• Take The A Train
• 4:30 Blues
• In Triplicate
• Chile Bowl
• Janet
• Happy Reunion
• Caravan
• Wig Wise

• Mood Indigo (Stereo)
• Hot & Bothered (Stereo)
• Creole Love Call (Stereo)
• East St Louis Toodle-Oo (Stereo)
• Lots O' Fingers (Stereo)
• Black and Tan Fantasy (Stereo)
• Harlem Air Shaft
• I Don't Mind (All Too Soon)
• Rose of the Rio Grande
• Ridin' on a Blue Note
• Boy Meets Horn
• Rose Room
• Stompy Jones
• Jig Walk
• Little Posey
• Warm Valley
• Home (Sentimental Lady or I Didn't Know About You)
• Things Ain't What They Used to Be
• Just A-Sitting and A-Rockin'
• Solitude
• Brazilali Lou
• Five O'Clock Drag
• Perdido

• Slippery Horn
• I Let A Song Go Out Of My Heart
• I'm Beginning To See The Light
• The Mood To Be Wooed
• Oh Babe! Maybe Someday
• Downtown Uproar
• Demi-Tasse (Ev'ry Day)
• Azure
• Carnival In Caroline
• Dinah's In A Jam
• The Gal From Joe's
• Riding On A Blue Note

• Don't Be That Way
• Clarinet a La King
• The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise
• Rose Room
• Bluebirds in the Moonlight
• Rachel's Dream
• Memories of You
• Let's Dance
• After You've Gone
• Sing, Sing, Sing
• Drop Me Off in Harlem
• Sophisticated Lady
• Azure
• Caravan
• Dusk in the Desert
• Solitude
• Diminuendo in Blue
• Crescendo in Blue
• Mood Indigo
• Do Nothing 'til You Hear From Me
• Creole Love Call
• Don't Get Around Much Anymore

• Crosstown
• Everything Goes
• Transblucency
• Rugged Romeo
• Tip Toe Topic
• Rockaby River
• The Unbooted Character
• The Suburbanite
• Moon Mist
• In A Jam
• Indiana
• I Can't Believe That You're In Love With Me
• Someone
• The Mooche
• Tea For Too
• One O'Clock Jump

• When the Saints Go Marching In
• On the Sunny Side of the Street
• Ain't Misbehavin'
• Tiger Rag
• Muskrat Ramble
• Jerry Roll Blues
• C'Est Si Bon
• Hello Dolly
• Mack the Knife
• A Kiss to Build a Dream On
• Tyrees Blues
• Pretty Little Missy
• Dear Old Southland
• Panama
• St. James Infirmary
• New Orleans Stomp

• Rockin' In Rhythm
• B.P.
• Take The "A" Train
• Tootie For Cootie
• 4:30 Blues
• El Gato
• Black Butterfly
• Things Ain't What They Used To Be
• Laying on Mellow

• Black, Brown & Beige - Suite
• Three Black Kings
• New World A-Comin'
• Harlem, for Jazz Band and Orchestra

• Take The 'A' Train
• Jack The Bear
• Ko-Ko
• Morning Glory
• Conga Brava
• Concerto For Cootie
• Bojangles
• Never No Lament
• Blue Goose
• Cotton Tail
• A Portrait Of Bert Williams
• Harlem Air Shaft
• All Too Soon
• Sepia Panorama
• My Greatest Mistake
• In A Mellotone
• Warm Valley
• Across The Track Blues
• Jumpin' Punkins
• John Hardy's Wife

• Take the "A" Train
• Ain't Misbehavin'
• Caravan
• Do Nothing Till You Hear From Me (concerto for Cootie)
• How High the Moon
• Tea for Two
• One O'Clock Jump
• Rockin' in Rhythm
• Passion Flower
• Everything Goes
• The Mooche
• Pretty Woman
• Jam With Sam
• Just Squeeze Me
• Tip Toe Topic
• Transblucency
• Double Ruff
• Ring Dem Bells

• Do Nothn' Till You Hear From Me
• I'm Just a Lucky So and So
• Cotton Tail
• Mood Indigo
• Duke's Place
• The Beautiful American
• Black and Tan Fantasy
• Drop Me Off in Harlem
• In a Mellow Tone
• The Mooche

• Limbo Jazz
• Mood Indigo
• Ray Charles' Place
• Wanderlust
• You Dirty Dog
• Self Portrait (of the Bean)
• The Jeep Is Jumpin'
• The Ricitic
• Solitude

Born: 1899-04-29

Died: 1974-05-24