Blues Alley, founded in 1965, is a jazz dinner-and-nightclub in an alley off Wisconsin Avenue in Washington, D.C.'s Georgetown neighborhood. As of 2008, exclusively jazz musicians are booked into Blues Alley for approximately 360 nights out of the year.

Over the years many of the world's very greatest jazz musicians have performed at Blues Alley, including Monty Alexander, Mose Allison, Tony Bennett, Ruby Braff, Charlie Byrd, Mel Clement, Buck Clayton, Billy Cobham, Larry Coryell, Roy Eldridge, Maynard Ferguson, Rachelle Ferrell, Ella Fitzgerald, Kenny Garrett, Stan Getz, Dizzy Gillespie, Bobby Hackett, Roland Hanna, Clancy Hayes, Buck Hill, Earl Hines, Freddie Hubbard, Lurlean Hunter, Phyllis Hyman, Ahmad Jamal, Dr John, Stanley Jordan, Steve Jordan, Stacey Kent, Ramsey Lewis, Les McCann, Taj Mahal, Pat Martino, Wynton Marsalis, Charles Mingus, Mark Murphy, Oscar Peterson, Joshua Redman, Max Roach, Sonny Rollins, Jimmy Rushing, Gil Scott-Heron, Charlie Shavers, George Shearing, Wayne Shorter, Maxine Sullivan, Stanley Turrentine, McCoy Tyner, Sarah Vaughan, Grover Washington, Jr., Mary Wilson, Nancy Wilson, Teddy Wilson and Sol Yaged.

Eva Marie Cassidy (February 2, 1963 – November 2, 1996) was an American vocalist known for her interpretations of jazz, blues, folk, gospel, country and pop classics. In 1992 she released her first album, The Other Side, a set of duets with go-go musician Chuck Brown, followed by a live solo album, Live at Blues Alley in 1996. Although she had been honored by the Washington Area Music Association, she was virtually unknown outside her native Washington, D.C., when she died of melanoma (skin cancer) in 1996.

Four years later, Cassidy's music was brought to the attention of British audiences when her version of "Over the Rainbow" was played by Terry Wogan on BBC Radio 2. Following the overwhelming response, a camcorder recording of "Over the Rainbow", taken at Blues Alley in Washington, was shown on BBC Two's Top of the Pops 2. Shortly afterwards, the compilation album Songbird climbed to the top of the UK Albums Charts, almost three years after its initial release. The chart success in the United Kingdom and Ireland led to increased recognition worldwide; her posthumously released recordings, including three UK number 1s, have sold more than ten million copies. Her music has also charted top 10 positions in Australia, Germany, Sweden, Norway and Switzerland.

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.

Phyllis Linda Hyman (July 6, 1949 – June 30, 1995) was an American R&B and soul recording artist, songwriter and actress.

Phyllis Hyman was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and grew up in the St. Clair Village, the South Hills section of Pittsburgh. Born to an African American family, she was the eldest of seven children and a third cousin of actor Earle Hyman (best known for his recurring role on TV's The Cosby Show as Cliff's father, Russell Huxtable). After leaving Pittsburgh, her music training started at a music school. On graduation, she performed on a national tour with the group New Direction in 1971. After the group disbanded, she joined All the People and worked with another local group, The Hondo Beat. At this time, she appeared in the film Lenny (1974). She also did a two-year stint leading a band called Phyllis Hyman and the P/H Factor. Hyman was discovered in 1975 by internationally known pop artist and music industry veteran Sid Maurer, and former Epic Records promoter Fred Frank, and signed to their Roadshow Records/Desert Moon imprint.

Yukimi Eleanora Nagano (born 31 January 1982) is a Swedish singer-songwriter. Nagano was born and raised in Gothenburg, Sweden to a Japanese father and a Swedish-American mother. She grew up listening to American folk because of her mother, but always had an affinity for R&B.

She is the vocalist of Gothenburg-based electronic band Little Dragon, which she established with her close high school friends Erik Bodin (drums), Fredrik Wallin (bass) and Håkan Wirenstrand (keyboards). Nagano worked with Swedish nu jazz duo Koop, and she and Erik Bodin play live with José González. Nagano is also featured on Gorillaz's 2010 album Plastic Beach on the songs "Empire Ants" and "To Binge", both of which she co-wrote. In 2011, she was featured on SBTRKT's eponymous debut album with her vocals on the song "Wildfire".