Benjamin Everett Jordan (September 8, 1896 – March 15, 1974) was an American businessman and politician. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as a United States Senator from North Carolina from 1958 to 1973.

The eldest of six children, B. Everett Jordan was born in Ramseur, North Carolina, to Rev. Henry Harrison and Annie Elizabeth (née Sellars) Jordan. His father was a Methodist minister who also worked as a circuit rider. After receiving his early education at public schools, he attended Rutherford College Preparatory School from 1912 to 1913.

In 1914, Jordan enrolled at Trinity College (now Duke University) in Durham. He dropped out the following year and moved to Wellington, Kansas, where he went to work at his uncle's jewelry store. Towards the end of World War I, he served overseas with the Tank Corps of the United States Army (1918-1919). He was later assigned to the occupation forces in Germany.

Following his military service, Jordan returned to North Carolina and became a floor sweeper at Myrtle Textile Mill in Gastonia. He became the plant superintendent of the Gastonia Textile Company in 1923. Four years later, in 1927, he and his family purchased an abandoned textile mill in Saxapahaw, renaming it Sellars Manufacturing Company. He served as the company's secretary-treasurer and general manager, later turning over management to his sons in order to focus on his political career. He also helped revive the Saxapahaw community, employing local residents and building a community center.

Jordan ( /ˈdʒɔr.dən/;Arabic: اَلأُرْدُنّ, Al-'Urdunn), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan (Arabic: اَلمَمْلَكَة اَلأُرْدُنِيَّة اَلهَاشِمِيَّة), Al-Mamlakah Al-Urdaniyyah Al-Hashimiyyah) is a kingdom on the East Bank of the River Jordan. The country borders Saudi Arabia to the east and south-east, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north and the West Bank and Israel to the west, sharing control of the Dead Sea with the latter. Jordan's only port is at its south-western tip, at the Gulf of Aqaba, which is shared with Israel, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia. Over half of Jordan is covered by the Arabian Desert. However, the western part of Jordan is arable land and forests. Jordan is part of the Fertile Crescent. The capital city is Amman. According to the CIA World Factbook, Jordan has the second highest life expectancy in the Middle East, after Israel. The average life expectancy is one position behind the United Kingdom, although the age remains exactly the same (80.05 years).

The precursor to modern Jordan was founded in 1921 as the Hashemite Emirate, and it was recognized by the League of Nations as a state under the British mandate in 1922 known as The Emirate of Transjordan. In 1946, Jordan became an independent sovereign state officially known as the Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan. After capturing the West Bank area of Cisjordan during the 1948–49 war with Israel, Abdullah I took the title King of Jordan and Palestine, and he officially changed the country's name to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in April 1949.

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.

Horace Parlan (born January 19, 1931) is an American hard bop and post-bop piano player.

He is noted for his contributions to the classic Charles Mingus recordings Mingus Ah Um and Blues & Roots.

As a child, Parlan was stricken with polio, resulting in the partial crippling of his right hand. The handicap, though, has contributed to his development of a particularly "pungent" left-hand chord voicing style, while comping with highly rhythmic phrases with the right.

Between 1952 and 1957, he worked in Washington DC with Sonny Stitt and then spent two years with Charles Mingus' Jazz Workshop. In 1973, Parlan moved to Copenhagen, Denmark. He later settled in the small village Rude in southern Zealand. In 1974 he did a State Department tour of Africa with Hal Singer.

His later work, notably a series of duos with the tenor saxophonist Archie Shepp, including the album Goin' Home, is steeped in gospel music.

He was recipient of the 2000 Ben Webster Prize given by the Ben Webster Foundation.

With Lou Donaldson

Ronny Jordan (born Ronald Laurence Albert Simpson on 29 November 1962 in London, England) is a guitarist at the forefront of the acid jazz movement at the end of the twentieth century. Additionally, Jordan can be included in several other jazz genres such as urban jazz, jazz funk, crossover jazz, and smooth jazz. He came to prominence after being featured on Guru's Jazzmatazz, Vol. 1, which saw release in 1993. He was also one of the artists whose recordings are featured on Stolen Moments: Red Hot + Cool — a compilation album released in 1994 to benefit the Red Hot Organization.

Ever since the release of 1992's The Antidote, recordings from Jordan have been a mainstay on a variety of Billboard charts. He has also been the recipient of many awards, including The MOBO Best Jazz Act Award as well as Gibson Guitar Best Jazz Guitarist Award. His 2000 release, A Brighter Day, was nominated for a Grammy award in the Best Contemporary Jazz Album category.

Jordan's song "The Jackal" (from his 1993 album The Quiet Revolution) gained prominence when C. J. Cregg lip-synched it in an episode of The West Wing.