Discussion[edit]

NOTE: Most images are clickable hyperlinks to more information about that item.

NEA Jazz Masters[edit]

2023 NEA Jazz Masters: violinist Regina Carter (b. 1966), alto and tenor saxophonist and flutist Kenny Garrett (b. 1960), drummer and bandleader Louis Hayes (b. 1937), and record producer and band manager Sue Mingus (1930–September 24, 2022).

Four NEA Jazzmasters for 2021: Billy Hart, Donald Harrison, Jr., Stanley Clarke, & Cassandra Wilson.

Read about their 2022 live streaming concert.

An animated .gif of the head of bassist Stanley Clarke who is slowly moving his head from side to side.

An animated photograph of the head of Donald Harrison, Jr. moving around and looking to his right at Stanley Clarke.

("Hey Stanley, how's it going?)

(Photo^[1] by Tom Pich for NEA Arts Magazine's "A Great Day for Jazz," 2004)
(Permission by NEA^[2])

Left to right from back (top) row: George Russell, Dave Brubeck; second row: David Baker, Percy Heath, Billy Taylor; third row: Nat Hentoff, Jim Hall, James Moody; fourth row: Jackie McLean, Chico Hamilton, Gerald Wilson, Jimmy Heath; fifth row: Ron Carter, Anita O'Day; sixth row: Randy Weston, Horace Silver; standing next to or in front of balustrade: Benny Golson, Hank Jones, Frank Foster (seated), Cecil Taylor, Roy Haynes, Clark Terry (seated) Louie Bellson and Dana Gioia (chairman of NEA). (Only Ron Carter b. 1937, Benny Golson b. 1929, Roy Haynes b. 1925, and Dana Gioia b. 1950 are still alive as of 2023)

(NEA Jazz Masters)
(January 2012)

A slightly enhanced color photograph of the Electric Miles panel at the Jazz Congress in 2019.

Legends in jazz, blues and beyond can be elected into the DownBeat Hall of Fame by way of the annual Critics Poll (designated by “C”), Readers Poll (“R”) or Veterans Committee (“V”). The Readers poll began in 1952 with the Critics in 1961 and the Veterans Committee in 2008.

Ertegun Hall of Fame[edit]

To be nominated to the Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame at Jazz at Lincoln Center's Jazz Academy, an artist must have:

Achieved innovation in a style or a concept of playing.

Created an original concept with a body of music or body of arrangements.

Spoke/speaks across generations, unbound to his or her generation’s concept of style.

Originated a definitive style.

Popularized a style without compromising the aesthetic quality of the music.

Occupies a significant position within the jazz lineage.

Influenced musicians across time.

Artists in alphabetical order and year inducted into the hall with vocalists in bold font are:

Julian “Cannonball” Adderley (2019)
Louis Armstrong (2004)
Count Basie (2005)
Sidney Bechet (2004)
Bix Beiderbecke (2004)
Art Blakey (2013)
Jimmie Blanton (2018)
Clifford Brown (2007)
Benny Carter (2007)
Betty Carter (2014)
Charlie Christian (2007)
Nat “King” Cole (2018)
Ornette Coleman (2008)
John Coltrane (2004)
Miles Davis (2004)
Roy Eldridge (2005)
Duke Ellington (2004)
Bill Evans (2010)
Gil Evans (2008)
Ella Fitzgerald (2005)
Dizzy Gillespie (2004)
Benny Goodman (2005)
Dexter Gordon (2015)
Freddie Green (2020)
Lionel Hampton (2013)
Coleman Hawkins (2004)
Fletcher Henderson (2014)
Earl Hines (2005)
Johnny Hodges (2005)
Billie Holiday (2004)
J.J. Johnson (2016)
James P. Johnson (2015)
Elvin Jones (2014)

Jo Jones (2005)
Lee Konitz (2020)
John Lewis (2020)
Charles Mingus (2005)
Wes Montgomery (2014)
Jelly Roll Morton (2004)
Thelonious Monk (2004)
King Oliver (2005)
Bud Powell (2010)
Charlie Parker (2004)
Tito Puente (2017)
Don Redman (2017)
Django Reinhardt (2007)
Max Roach (2005)
Sonny Rollins (2005)
Wayne Shorter (2016)
Nina Simone (2018)
Bessie Smith (2008)
Billy Strayhorn (2010)
Art Tatum (2004)
Clark Terry (2013)
Lennie Tristano (2015)
Frank Trumbauer (2019)
McCoy Tyner (2017)
Sarah Vaughan (2010)
Fats Waller (2005)
Dinah Washington (2019)
Chick Webb (2019)
Ben Webster (2016)
Mary Lou Williams (2008)
Teddy Wilson (2020)
Lester Young (2004)

Jazz Resources[edit]

Rutgers University Institute of Jazz Studies Research Portal

Rutgers University NEA Jazz Oral History Project

Smithsonian Online Virtual Archives for Topic of Jazz

JazzOnTheTube the biggest annotated and indexed online collection of jazz videos on earth – and it’s free.

United Kingdom's National Jazz Archive a searchable database related to everything jazz. They describe themselves: “The National Jazz Archive holds the UK’s finest collection of written, printed and visual material on jazz, blues and related music, from the 1920s to the present day. Since the Archive was founded by Digby Fairweather in 1988, its vision has been to ensure that the rich cultural heritage of jazz is safeguarded for future generations of enthusiasts, professionals and researchers.”

List of all NEA Jazz Masters; Wikipedia: NEA Jazz Masters

Wikipedia: List of Jazz Genres

Greatest Jazz Albums[edit]

NOTE: Click on the page to go to its source. These two pages represent great jazz albums released between 1959 and 1979. At least one album, Louis Armstrong's Hot 5 and 7, was recorded much earlier between 1925 and 1928.

See AcclaimedMusic.net's Ranking of Greatest Jazz Albums

Rolling Stone magazine's "The Best Jazz Albums of All Time by User Score"

Vinyl Me, Please's "The 10 Best Albums For A Jazz Beginner" by Andrew Martin and Ryan Kowal

The New Yorker's "100 Essential Jazz Albums"

UDiscoverMusic's "The 50 Greatest Jazz Albums . . . Ever" Published on December 30, 2014 By Sam Armstrong

UDiscoverMusic's "The 50 Greatest Live Jazz Albums published on February 27, 2017 by Sam Armstrong

JazzWiseMagazine.com's "The 100 Jazz Albums That Shook The World"

Jazz at Lincoln Center's Jazz blog: "10 Essential Jazz Albums" May, 21st 2015

"Top 10 Jazz Albums for People Who Don't Know Sh*t About Jazz by Sean J. O'Connell, May 15, 2012

Amazon.com's "100 Greatest Jazz Albums of All Time" 2009 with a lot of critical reaction critiquing this list at NoiseAddicts.com

Discogs.com's "The 50 Greatest Jazz Albums . . . Ever"

RateYourMusic.com's "Best Jazz Albums of All Time - 22 Lists Combined" A list by erikfish who found 22 "top jazz albums of all time" lists in books, magazines and web sites, then combined them into one meta-list. The list here includes all albums contained on three or more of the 22 original source lists. (Last update: October 30, 2011)

Jazz100's "Top 100 Jazz Albums: The Best Jazz Ever Released Digitally" by Peter Sykes & Jazz 100
Jazz 100's "Next 100 Jazz Albums: The Best Jazz Ever Released Digitally" by Peter Sykes & Jazz 100
ESurveysPro's "Top Classic Jazz albums"
Jazz 100's "New (Contemporary jazz recordings over the past ten years 2004-2014) Jazz Top 100: The Best Jazz Ever Released Digitally" See New Jazz Notes
Jazz 100's "Basic Collection of Jazz" 20 Basic Jazz Records
Scott Yanow's—desert 🌵 island 🌴 jazz recommendations with album covers

Woodlawn Cemetery List of Jazz Notables interned

An old black and white photograph of the Southern Syndicated Orchestra in London, England around 1920.

(Southern Syncopated Orchestra at a London venue around 1920)
(Years active 1919–1921)

A colorized and extra enhanced old black and white photograph of the Southern Syndicated Orchestra in London, England around 1920.

Jazz: The Smithsonian Anthology[edit]

Jazz: The Smithsonian Anthology (Box Set) 111 tracks of the best of jazz throughout its history from early to the present (release date March 29, 2011)

Disc: 1

 1. Maple Leaf Rag (Dick Hyman)
 2. In Gloryland (Bunk's Brass Band)
 3. Livery Stable Blues (Original Dixieland Jazz Band)
 4. Dipper Mouth Blues (King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band)
 5. The Stampede (Fletcher Henderson & Orchestra)
 6. Black Bottom Stomp (Jelly Roll Morton & His Red Hot Peppers)
 7. Singin the Blues [Till My Daddy Comes Home] (Frankie Trumbauer & Orchestra)
 8. Back Water Blues (Bessie Smith & James P. Johnson)
 9. Black & Tan Fantasy (Duke Ellington & Orchestra)
 10. From Monday On (Bix Beiderbecke/Paul Whiteman & Orchestra)
 11. West End Blues (Louis Armstrong & His Hot Fives)
 12. Weather Bird (Louis Armstrong & Earl Hines)
 13. That's a Serious Thing (Eddie Condon's Hot Shots)
 14. Handful of Riffs (Eddie Lang & Lonnie Johnson)
 15. You've Got to Be Modernistic (James P. Johnson)
 16. Moten Swing (Bennie Moten & Kansas City Orchestra)
 17. Everybody Loves My Baby (Boswell Sisters)
 18. Maple Leaf Rag (Sidney Bechet)
 19. Dinah (Fats Waller & His Rhythm)
 20. Swing That Music (Louis Armstrong & Orchestra)
 21. Honky Tonk Train Blues (Meade Lux Lewis)
 22. Mean to Me (Billie Holiday with Teddy Wilson & Orchestra)
 23. For Dancers Only (Jimmie Lunceford & Orchestra)
 24. 1 O'clock Jump (Count Basie & Orchestra)
 25. Harlem Congo (Chick Webb & Orchestra)

Disc: 2

 1. Minor Swing (Quartet du Hot Club de France)
 2. Mary's Idea (Mary Lou Williams/Andy Kirk & the Clouds of Joy)
 3. When Lights Are Low (Lionel Hampton)
 4. Body & Soul (Coleman Hawkins & Orchestra)
 5. Honeysuckle Rose (Bennie Goodman & Orchestra)
 6. Tiger Rag (Art Tatum)
 7. Ko-Ko (Duke Ellington & His Famous Orchestra)
 8. Hard Times [Topsy Turvy] (Cab Calloway & Orchestra)
 9. I Can't Believe That You're in Love with Me (Chocolate Dandies)
 10. Stardust (Artie Shaw & Orchestra)
 11. Let Me Off Uptown (Gene Krupa & Orchestra)
 12. Shaw Nuff (Dizzy Gillespie's Allstar Quintet)
 13. Manteca (Dizzy Gillespie & Orchestra)
 14. Virgo f/ Zodiac Suite (Mary Lou Williams)
 15. Dexter Rides Again (Dexter Gordon)
 16. I Want to Be Happy (Lester Young/Buddy Rich Trio)
 17. Indiana (Bud Powell)
 18. Embraceable You (Charlie Parker Quintet)
 19. 4 Brothers (Woody Herman & Orchestra)
 20. Misterioso (Thelonious Monk Quartet)
 21. Lady Bird (Tadd Dameron Sextet)
 22. Tanga (Machito & his Afro-Cuban Orchestra)
 23. Sept in the Rain (George Shearing Quintet)
 24. WOW (Lennie Tristano Sextet)

Disc: 3

 1. Boplicity (Miles Davis Nonet)
 2. Golden Bullet (Count Basie Octet)
 3. Popo (Shorty Rogers & His Giants)
 4. Walkin Shoes (Gerry Mulligan Quartet with Chet Baker)
 5. 23 Degrees N. 82 Degrees W. (Stan Kenton)
 6. Daahoud (Clifford Brown/Max Roach Quintet)
 7. Django (Modern Jazz Quartet)
 8. The Preacher (Horace Silver & the Jazz Messengers)
 9. I'll Remember April (Erroll Garner Trio)
 10. Jonaleh (Chico Hamilton Quintet)
 11. Tricrotism (Lucky Thompson Trio)
 12. St. Thomas (Sonny Rollins)
 13. Call For All Demons (Sun Ra & His Arkestra)
 14. When I Grow Too Old to Dream (Nat King Cole & Trio)
 15. Stompin t the Savoy (Louis Armstrong & Ella Fitzgerald)
 16. Blues in the Closet (Stan Getz & J.J. Johnson)
 17. Ol Man River (Oscar Peterson Trio)
 18. Summertime (Miles Davis orchestrated by Gil Evans)

Disc: 4

 1. Moanin' (Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers)
 2. Meet BB (Count Basie & Orchestea)
 3. So What (Mikes Davis Sextet)
 4. Giant Steps (John Coltrane Quartet)
 5. Better Git It in Your Soul (Charles Mingus)
 6. Blue Rondo à la Turk (Dave Brubeck Quartet)
 7. Ramblin (Ornette Coleman Quartet)
 8. Work Song (Cannonball Adderley)
 9. Wrap your Troubles in Dreams (Sarah Vaughan)
 10. My Favorite Things Pt1 [Sngl Ver] (John Coltrane Quartet)
 11. Waltz for Debby (Bill Evans)
 12. Round Midnight (George Russell Sextet)
 13. Cotton Tail (Ella Fitzgerald with the Duke Ellington Orchestra)

Disc: 5

 1. 1 by 1 (Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers)
 2. The Girl from Ipanema (Stan Getz & Astrud Gilberto)
 3. Love Supreme Pt 1: Acknowledgement (John Coltrane Quartet)
 4. E.S.P. (Miles Davis Quintet)
 5. Haig & Haig (Clark Terry/Bob Brookmeyer Quintet)
 6. King of the Road (Jimmy Smith & Wes Montgomery)
 7. Isfahan (Duke Ellington & Orchestra)
 8. New National Anthem [f/ A Genuine Tong Funeral] (Gary Burton)
 9. Matrix (Chick Corea)
 10. Miles Runs the Voodoo Down (Miles Davis)
 11. Celestial Terrestrial Commuters (Mahavishnu Orchestra)
 12. Watermelon Man (Herbie Hancock)
 13. Long Yellow Rd (Toshiko Akiyoshi/Lew Tabackin Big Band)
 14. Jitney #2 (Cecil Taylor)
 15. Bright Size Life (Pat Metheny)

Disc: 6

 1. Maple Leaf Rag (Anthony Braxton & Muhal Richard Abrams)
 2. Birdland (Weather Report)
 3. My Song (Keith Jarrett)
 4. Iya (Irakere)
 5. Bush Magic (Art Ensemble of Chicago)
 6. Steppin (World Sax Quartet)
 7. Glide Was in the Ride (Steve Coleman Group)
 8. Manenberg [Revisited] (Abdullah Ibrahim)
 9. Nothing Personal (Michael Brecker)
 10. Airegin (Tito Puente)
 11. Down the Ave. (Wynton Marsalis Septet)
 12. Ting Ning (Nguyen Le)
 13. Kilayim (Masada)
 14. Hey-Hee-Hi-Ho (Medeski Martin & Wood)
 15. Neutralisme (Martial Sola & Johnny Griffin)
 16. Suspended Night Variation VIII (Tomasz Stanko)

(52nd Street, New York City, July, 1948)

(Photograph above of 52nd street by William P. Gottlieb^[3] pictured at right)

(Portrait of William P. Gottlieb)
(possibly at WINX radio studios)
(Washington, D.C., ca. 1940)
(Photographed by Delia Potofsky Gottlieb)

Interview with William P. Gottlieb

Jazz Sub-Genres[edit]

Wikipedia's List of Sub-genres in Jazz

Jazz Sub-Genres	Jazz Sub-Genres
A-J	J-Z
African jazz Afro-Cuban jazz Ambient jazz Avant-Garde jazz Ballad Bebop/Bop Big Band Swing Blues Boogie Woogie Bossa Nova Cape jazz Chamber jazz Chicago Style Club jazz Continental jazz Cool jazz Cubop Dixieland Early jazz Ethio jazz Ethno jazz/World jazz European Free jazz Free jazz Gypsy Jazz/Gypsy Swing/Hot Club jazz Hard Bop Hot jazz Indo jazz Jazz-Funk	Jazztronica/Nu-jazz/Bluescreen jazz Jazz rap Jazz-Rock fusion/Fusion Kansas City Swing Latin jazz Mainstream jazz M-Base Modal jazz Neo-bop New Orleans/Traditional jazz Orchestral jazz Post-bop Punk jazz Ragtime Reggae jazz Ska jazz South African jazz Riff Style Swing Smooth jazz Straight-ahead jazz Stride/Harlem Stride Piano Soul jazz Swing Third Stream Trad (traditional) jazz Vocal jazz Vocalese World fusion jazz/Ethno jazz/non-Western jazz

Regional scenes:

Australian jazz

Azerbaijani jazz

Bossa nova

British jazz

Cuban jazz

Dutch jazz

French jazz

Indo jazz

Italian jazz

Japanese jazz

Jazz in Germany

Music of Malawi

Polish jazz

South African jazz

Spanish jazz

Cape jazz

Kansas City jazz

Dixieland

West Coast jazz

A photograph of the planet Earth 🌎 of North America and part of South America with PoJ.fm logos.

The Blue Marble

(Album cover of "Kitten On the Keys. Popular Music from Pianola Rolls")
(used by permission^[4] of Saydisc Records)
(with PoJ.fm logos added)

Tables of jazz legend's notable achievements 1890-1990 [edit]

NOTE: The majority of images have hyperlinks that are clickable for more information about that item.

NOTE: Also see PoJ.fm's Sp7. Women and Jazz.

Buddy Bolden [edit]

Charles Joseph “Buddy” Bolden (1877–1931) (1895^[5]→1907) (Buddy Bolden's statue in Louis Armstrong Park, New Orleans, Louisiana) (Photo by Jon Lebkowsky taken December 29, 2012) Cosmic Buddy Bolden Instrument cornet Roles bandleader soloist masterful improviser Style/Genre: Old School jazz pioneer. waltzes, ragtime, and popular songs of the day. “took the guttural moan of the blues played at medium tempos, some with raunchy lyrics, mixed it with the spirit of the black Baptist church, and applied a ‘ragged’ rhythmic feel [syncopation] to his songs.”^[6] Notable Achievements^[7] known as "King" Bolden.^[8] pioneer in Ragtime and Jazz^[9] coming to prominence when only at the age of 18 his band began playing in New Orleans.^[10] (1895) “member of string ensembles that played at dances and parties.”^[5] his bands “emphasize the wind instruments over the strings.”^[5] “single biggest contribution to jazz (was) his focus on the blues . . . by incorporating the blues sensibility and structure into his music.”^[11] created a style all his own by embellishing ragtime music and adding in blues tunes and blues tonality with significant improvisations. “those who heard him agreed that he had great volume, a talent for beautiful ornamentation and a profound feeling for playing the blues on the brass horn.”^[12] “his proto-jazz playing influenced the next generation of players like King Oliver and Freddie Keppard, masters of the four-bar break.^[12] a self-taught cornet player. famous for his loud, clear, powerful tones that could be heard far away. “Clarinetist Alphonse Picou (1878–1961) said: “He was the loudest there ever was because you could hear Buddy’s cornet as loud as what Louis Armstrong played through the mike.”^[13] (bold not in original) skilled improviser. his band had a large following in and around New Orleans. impressed younger musicians.^[14] Donald M. Marquis (1933–2021), In Search of Buddy Bolden: First Man of Jazz (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2006). Danny Barker (1909–1994), Buddy Bolden and the Last Days of Storyville (New York: Continuum, 1998). David C. Perry, Jazz Greats (London: Phaidon Press Limited, 1996). Part of the 20th Century Composers series covering various jazz greats including Buddy Bolden, Louis Armstrong, Sidney Bechet, Duke Elllington, Lester Young, Charlie Parker, Charles Mingus, John Coltrane, Miles Davis and briefly, Ornette Coleman, Wynton Marsalis, and Keith Jarrett. Listen to "Don't Go Away Nobody," which is alleged to sound like Bolden's opening number.

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/the-masked-merriment-of-mardi-gras-15580133/

Jelly Roll Morton [edit]

Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe known professionally as “Jelly Roll” Morton^[15] (1890^[16]–1941) (active 1904→1941) Instrument: piano Roles: singer bandleader composer arranger music teacher minstrel shows Style/Genre: Progressive Ragtime Stomps Early Jazz Morton liked to brag he was "the suit man from suit land."^[17] Notable Achievements:^[18] pivotal figure from New Orleans. “combined ragtime, French quadrilles and the hot Blues played by Buddy Bolden.”^[19] File:TeenageJellyRollMorton.jpeg (According to jazz historian William (Bill) Russell (1905–1992) this is the earliest known photo of Morton around age 17 in 1906) performed as a solo artist and/or as part of vaudeville troupes in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and throughout the South. first jazz arranger. jazz promotion. “a roving snake-oil salesman, card shark, vaudevillian, poolroom hustler, gambler and pimp. He chose a sexual nickname—“Jelly Roll” (which typically refers to the male organ)—and wore a diamond in his gold tooth”^[20] raconteur story teller. wrote over 100 compositions (52 listed at Wikipedia: Jelly Roll Morton) including “Jelly Roll Blues” (written in 1905, but not recorded until 1924), “Frog-I-More Rag” (written in 1908, but not copyrighted until 1918), “King Porter Stomp” (Morton claimed to compose it in 1905, but not recorded until 1923 as a piano solo and not copyrighted until 1924), “Milenburg Joys” (recorded 1923), “Wolverine Blues” (recorded 1923), “The Pearls,” “Grandpa’s Spells” (recorded 1923), “Mr. Jelly Lord,” “Shreveport Stomp,” “Black Bottom Stomp,” “Winin’ Boy Blues,” “The Crave,” “Don’t You Leave Me Here,” “Sweet Substitute,” “Wild Man Blues,” and “I Thought I Heard Buddy Bolden Say.” claimed to have invented jazz in 1902,^[21] which would make him 12 years old; read his August, 1938 letter defending his jazz bona fides published in DownBeat. played piano in brothels at age 14. arguably "Jelly Roll Blues" was first jazz composition published (1915). recording contract with Victor Talking Machine Company in Chicago recording with his newly named septet, “The Red Hot Peppers,” including “Black Bottom Stomp,” named for an African-American dance step from the deep South and has now been recorded over 190 times.^[20] "Jelly Roll Morton & His Red Hot Peppers" recordings are classics of 1920's jazz. (Jelly Roll Morton on left) + first act booked on tours by MCA. + own short-lived radio show (1934).^[22] “helped lead the transition from ragtime to jazz as a piano wizard of the first rank who could transform all sorts of music into jazz—embellishing, paraphrasing and improvising; smoothing out the rhythms of ragtime; and making everything flow and swing.”^[20] Morton's 30 year old composition "King Porter Stomp"^[23] became Benny Goodman's first hit and a swing standard (1935). his oral life history recorded by Alan Lomax while Morton talks and demonstrates on his piano for the Library of Congress (1938) Read John Szwed's (b. 1936) "Doctor Jazz: Jelly Roll Morton" But beware of historical shaping of Morton's story done by Lomax for his own purposes of conforming Morton's story to Lomax's positions on 'authenticity' in musical expression and motivations, convincingly argued by Katy E. Martin: “Distortions are abundant in [Lomax's] book, in the form of omissions, alterations, and the voices of Lomax and others working to conform Morton’s story to Lomax’s own ideas about American culture and folk music. Because of his romantic conceptions of folk culture, Lomax is compelled to attribute to Morton his own preoccupations and adjust Morton’s story to fit his own a priori model of authenticity: the racialized, oppressed organic musician whose suffering gives rise to a redeeming creative genius.”^[24] “The composer and pianist Jelly Roll Morton envisaged a more sophisticated and coloured sound, and he expanded jazz instrumentation by enriching its textures and harmonies.”^[25] DownBeat magazine Hall of Fame, Critic's Poll (1963). U.S. Commemorative stamp (1995). “Black Bottom Stomp” transcribed and published in the series Essential Jazz Editions (1999). “Black Bottom Stomp” added to the Library of Congress’s prestigious National Recording Registry (2006). (Photo in public domain) "Jelly Roll Morton: The Complete Library of Congress Recordings by Alan Lomax" (Rounder Records) won in two categories at the 48th annual Grammy Awards ceremony held on Feb 8, 2006. “Black Bottom Stomp” included in the Smithsonian's authoritative “Jazz: The Smithsonian Anthology” (2010). Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (2015). The opener of Jazz at Lincoln Center’s 30th season (2017–18), its flagship orchestra will debut arrangements of Jelly Roll Morton’s compositions, some of which are a century old.^[26] (Jelly Roll Morton is buried at Calvary Cemetery in East Los Angeles, California) Los Angeles Morgue Files. Scroll down to fourth entry on Jelly Roll Morton. "The Saga of Jelly Roll Morton" at Jazz Rhythm.com. Jelly Roll Morton history at DoctorJazz.co.uk. Stephen Kinzer, "The Man Who Made Jazz Hot; 60 Years After His Death, Jelly Roll Morton Gets Respect," New York Times, November 28, 2000.

Louis Armstrong [edit]

Louis Armstrong (1901–1971) (active: 1919→1971) Musical Instrument: cornet trumpet Roles: bandleader featured soloist composer singer actor Style/Genre: Early Jazz New Orleans Jazz Dixieland Swing Vocal Jazz Traditional Pop Notable Achievements:^[27] joined^[28] King Oliver's band in Chicago moving from his hometown of New Orleans (1922). moved to New York in 1924 to play with the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra, (Photo by Gianluigi Destefanis in 2010]) the top Afro-American band of the day, switching from cornet to trumpet. widely recognized as the founding father of jazz. an instrumentalist virtuoso. pioneered jazz style vocals and popularized scat style vocals. along with Fletcher Henderson and many others he was the instigator of the second wave of jazz, Swing. (Photo by William P. Gottlieb July, 1946) (Photo by William P. Gottlieb July, 1946 — colorized) recording hit songs, many of which have become jazz standards, for five decades. (Photo by William P. Gottlieb c. 1938–1948 with colorized version on right) his talent for improvisation helped the trumpet emerge as a solo instrument. (Photo by William P. Gottlieb July, 1946) a masterful accompanist and ensemble player. known as a tireless performer, averaging over 300 concerts a year. (Photo by William P. Gottlieb c. April, 1947) his celebrity extended beyong music, appearing in over 30 motion pictures. (Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong (1901-1971) & Joe "King" Oliver (1885-1938)) promoted extended improvised solos. “Armstrong was jazz's first superstar. Satchmo's explosive creativity defied conventions of early New Orleans jazz; he was a charismatic showman and dazzling trumpet player who was, literally, too good for his band. His performances were largely responsible for shifting the focus from the group to the soloist, and he was also quite an innovator when it came to scat. Perhaps most importantly, his acceptance by the social elite helped popularize jazz across racial and social boundaries.”^[29] (bold not in original) world entertainer. America's 1st jazz ambassador. strong vocalist.^[30] “recorded with Clarence Williams, Fletcher Henderson, Bessie Smith and others before making his leader debut in late 1925.”^[31] "Melancholy Blues," (1927) performed by Louis Armstrong and his Hot Seven included on golden record sent in 1977 on Voyager 1 spacecraft. developed a way of playing jazz, as an instrumentalist and a vocalist, which has had an impact on all musicians to follow. recorded hit songs for five decades, and his music is still heard today on television and radio and in films. Listen to Armstrong's music, including in his own words, at Jazz Rhythms: "Louis Armstrong: A Seminal Voice in Jazz." wrote two autobiographies (click on book titles to read them), and , more than ten magazine articles, hundreds of pages of memoirs, , and thousands of letters. appeared in more than thirty films (over twenty were full-length features) as a gifted actor with superb comic timing and an unabashed joy of life as in "Hello Dolly" (1964/1969) where he co-starred with Barbra Streisand and Walter Matthau. He also had many television appearances. composed or performed dozens of songs that have become jazz standards, such as "Dippermouth Blues/"Sugar Foot Stomp," "Heebie Jeebies," "Potato Head Blues," "West End Blues," "Basin Street Blues," and "Ain't Misbehavin'." performed an average of 300 concerts each year, with his frequent tours to all parts of the world earning him the nickname “Ambassador Satch,” and became one of the first great celebrities of the twentieth century. Timemagazine cover (1949). Downbeat magazine Hall of Fame, Reader's Poll (1952). Armstrong and Dizzy Gillespie sang and played together only once on the song "Umbrella Man" as part of the Timex All-Star Jazz Show on NBC January 7, 1959. The joint-appearance was preplanned but not rehearsed. Cover of Life magazine, April 15, 1966. Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (1972). inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 1990 (Early Influence). U.S. Commemorative stamp (1995). inducted into the Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame (2017) as a 20th Century Early Music Influence. 50 year career (Louis Armstrong House^[32] in Queens, New York City, NY) (Photo by Wally Gobetz in 2007) See and hear him play and sing (including scatting) in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1933. Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong Marker in Armstrong Park, New Orleans, Louisiana Statue sculpted in 1976 by Elizabeth Catlett (1915–2012) Photo by Richard E. Miller taken July 14, 2009 Krebs, Albin. "Louis Armstrong, Jazz Trumpeter and Singer, Dies." New York Times Obituary, July 7, 1971. Glaser, Matt. "Satchmo: The Philosopher," in Satchmo at 100, Village Voice, June 5, 2001. Morgenstern, Dan. "Satchmo and the Critics." in Satchmo at 100, Village Voice, June 5, 2001. Louis Armstrong Readings.

Sydney Bechet[edit]

Name & Pictures	Instrument Roles Style/Genre Years Active	Notable Achievements^[33]

Sidney Bechet (1897–1959) (Photo by William P. Gottlieb)	clarinet soprano saxophone tenor saxophone piano double bass drums featured soloist composer Dixieland Early jazz Trad jazz 1908→1957	“one of the first important soloists in jazz, beating trumpeter Louis Armstrong to the recording studio by several months.”^[34] “major figure in early jazz, outstanding clarinetist, only soprano saxophonist of consequence for decades, made melodically rich and emotional music.”^[35] master of improvisation (both individual and collective) with wide vibrato.^[36] dominating sound.^[36] Listen to his music at Jazz Rhythm: "Sidney Bechet: First soprano saxophonist of jazz" “Bechet is far too individual to keep to the strict New Orleans tradition that no one instrument shall dominate the band. Except for (Louis) Armstrong there is no player of sufficient quality to match him in the cut and thrust of counterpoint. While the Réwéliotty players echoed the familiar phrases learned from gramophone records of the great, or subtle innovations mastered by rote, Bechet created each dip and flow of melody according to the instant prompting of imagination.” “Even more than (Louis) Armstrong, he seems to speak through music. This not just to praise his relaxation but also his curious changes of mood. In the slow "Basin Street Blues" his saxophone throbbed in rich nightingale sadness then soared in "Muskat Ramble" with the twittering shrillness of a lark, its line of melody whirling ever higher in spiral flights of exuberant sound. When a press photographer annoyed him he fired the instrument with a sharp crack of reproach; when the pianist lagged behind the others he implored him with a musical whine.”^[37] (bold and bold italic not in original) (Photo by William P. Gottlieb) performed in parades at the age of 8 with Freddie Keppard's brass band, and by the age of 15 with the Olympia Orchestra and in John Robichaux's dance orchestra.^[38] (Bust of Sidney Bechet in Armstrong Park, New Orleans, Louisiana) performed with Bunk Johnson in the Eagle Band of New Orleans (1911–12). worked with King Oliver in the Olympia Band (1913–14). In summary, performed in American cities of New Orleans with Freddie Keppard's Olympia Orchestra brass band, John Robichaux's dance orchestra, Bunk Johnson's Eagle Band of New Orleans (1911–1912), and with King Oliver in the Olympia Orchestra (1913–1914). studied clarinet in New Orleans with Lorenzo Tio (1916). in Chicago toured frequently often performing with Freddie Keppard (1914–1917). (Photo of mug shot taken in London September 1922 of Sidney Bechet) traveled to New York City where he joined Will Marion Cook's Southern Syncopated Orchestra (Spring, 1919). played in Louis Mitchell's Jazz Kings in 1919 and 1920, touring Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 and England 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿. Will Marion Cook's Southern Syncopated Orchestra traveled to Europe touring England 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 and Ireland 🇮🇪 (1920–21) and performed at the Royal Philharmonic Hall in London. sailed to Europe as a member of the Revue Nègre, including Josephine Baker (September 15, 1925), arriving at Cherbourg, France, on September 22, 1925 and opening at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Paris, on October 2, 1925. toured Europe with various bands reaching as far as Russia 🇷🇺 (1926). led his own small band at Ada "Bricktop" Smith's club Chez Bricktop in Montmartre, Paris (1928). In summary, promoted jazz internationalization by visiting and playing in London England 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 at the Philharmonic Hall (1919–1920) and later (September 15, 1925), toured with members of the La Revue Nègre, including Josephine Baker arriving at Cherbourg, France, on September 22, opening at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris (October 2, 1925), and returning in 1928 to lead his small band at Chez Bricktop in Montmartre, Paris, France 🇫🇷, then on to Germany 🇩🇪 (Berlin), and Russia 🇷🇺 (June 1926). returned to New York City to lead a band with Tommy Ladnier (1932) who performed at the Savoy Ballroom. worked with Noble Sissle and his New Orleans Feetwarmers in 1932 (featuring trumpeter Tommy Ladnier). ran an unsuccessful tailor shop with trumpeter Tommy Ladnier. had a hit recording of "Summertime" (1938). Listen to a terrific version of "Summertime" by Bechet six rows down, 15th video at TheSongSummertime.Wordpress.com: dedicated to the most beautiful song ever, one hundred times. Hugues Panassié (1912–1974) featured Bechet on some records (1938) and soon he was signed to Bluebird Records where he recorded quite a few classics during the next three years. worked regularly in New York, appeared on some of Eddie Condon's Town Hall concerts, and in 1945 tried unsuccessfully to have a band with the veteran trumpeter Bunk Johnson (whose constant drinking killed the project). opened an unsuccessful music school where his main pupil, Bob Wilber became his protégé. “invited to the Salle Pleyel Jazz Festival in Paris (1949) where he caused a sensation, and decided to move permanently overseas. Within a couple years he was a major celebrity and a national hero in France 🇫🇷.”^[39] discouraged by jazz's reception in America moved permanently to France (1950) where “his performance as a soloist at the Paris Jazz Fair caused a surge in his popularity in that country, where he easily found well-paid work.”^[40] signed a recording contract with Disques Vogue (1953) lasting for the rest of his life where he recorded many hit tunes, including "Les Oignons", "Promenade aux Champs-Elysees," and the international hit "Petite Fleur" (1952). composed a classical ballet score in the late Romantic style of Tchaikovsky called "La Nuit est Sorcière" ("The Night Is a Witch"). Downbeat magazine Hall of Fame, Critic's Poll (1968) The Recordings of Sidney Bechet by Mal Collins as of June 2011

Duke Ellington[edit]

Duke Ellington (1899–1974) (active 1914→1974) (Photo by William P. Gottlieb) (Photo by William P. Gottlieb) (Portrait of Duke Ellington (center), Cat Anderson (left), and Sidney De Paris(?) (right), unknown far right) (Aquarium, New York, N.Y., ca. Nov. 1946) (Photo by William P. Gottlieb) Instrument: piano ++ orchestra +++ ++ (Duke Ellington introducing his orchestra before the concert at Rang Bhavan in Bombay India on October 9–10, 1963 with colorized version on right) Roles: composer big band leader Style/Genre: Big band Swing combos Notable Achievements:^[41] over 3,000 compositions.^[42] charming, erudite, well spoken, polite with sophisticated elegance.^[43] orchestra leader 1923 through 1974. loyal to his musicians and only ever personally fired three of them: Bubber Miley (in 1929) for alcoholism, (although it is falsely reported that he only ever personally fired just Miley or just Mingus), Charles Mingus (in 1953) for attacking bandmate Juan Tizol as well as splitting his chair with an axe, and Ben Webster in 1937. Wikipedia: Ben Webster reports in the fourth paragraph that Webster was fired for cutting up Ellington's clothing and Clark Terry reporting that Webster slapped Duke and Webster was then given two weeks notice. There is also possibly a fourth musician personally fired by Ellington named Rudy Jackson, who was co-credited as composing "Creole Love Call" along with Ellington and Buber Miley. Jackson had plagiarized the song from King Oliver's tune "Camp Meeting Blues."^[44] often called his music "beyond category." “That Ellington was "beyond category" is indisputable. Following his own dictum of keeping one foot in the academy and one in the street, Ellington evolved a musical language that imposed formal order on the rhythms, timbres, and attitudes of African-American everyday life. He struck a fine balance between organizational discipline and individual expressive freedom; and merged the traditionally distinct roles of composer and bandleader by embedding the writing process in a Deweyian social process of performative experimentation.”^[45] tailored music to his soloists.^[46] most recorded jazz composer.^[47] composed "Black, Brown and Beige" (1943). Timemagazine cover (1956). Downbeat magazine Hall of Fame, Reader's Poll (1956) along with Billy Strayhorn composed the film score for “Anatomy of a Murder” (1959). “The late Ellington pieces that will be featured—Such Sweet Thunder (1957), Suite Thursday (1960) and Anatomy of a Murder (1959)—show how well Ellington mastered the integration of rhythm section and band; these extended pieces prove that he is one of the great musical thinkers as well as one of the great masters of musical form.”^[48] (Duke Ellington in San Remo, Italy 🇮🇹 in 1964) President Lyndon Johnson presented Duke Ellington the President’s Gold Medal (1966). President Richard M. Nixon (on right) presented Duke Ellington with the Presidential Medal of Freedom at the White House in Washington, D.C.. (1969) 13 Grammy Awards. Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (1966). denied Pulitzer Prize (1965), but awarded the deceased Duke Ellington a special citation to commemorate the centennial of his birth (1999). French Legion of Honor (1973). image on a United States Commemorative stamp^[49] (1986) influenced millions of people around the world. 50 year career over 20,000 performances in North America, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and Asia.^[42] recorded albums with: Ella Fitzgerald John Coltrane, Count Basie Louis Armstrong worked musically with Florenz Ziegfeld, Irving Berlin, Jimmy Durante, Al Jolson, Mary Lou Williams, Will Marion Cook, Lena Horne, Dizzy Gillespie, Max Roach, Mahalia Jackson, Charles Mingus, Frank Sinatra, Maurice Chevalier, and Bing Crosby wrote oratorios, suites, concertos, and even opera, as well as for the Broadway stage, movies, television, and nightclubs. frequently collaborating with writing partner Billy Strayhorn (1915–1967), created over 1,500 pieces of music, and nearly 6,000, if brief musical interludes are included. wrote the shows "Jump for Joy," “Man with Four Sides,” and “My People” (for the Century of Negro Progress Exposition in Chicago) (1963). classical music includes “The Liberian Suite” (commissioned for the centenary of Liberia 🇱🇷), background music for Shakespeare’s "Timon of Athens," and versions of Tchaikovsky’s "Nutcracker Suite" and Grieg’s "Peer Gynt Suite." film scores include "Black and Tan Fantasy," "Cabin in the Sky," and "Assault on a Queen" In 1950, Ellington was featured in three film shorts: "Salute to Duke Ellington," "Symphony in Swing," and "Date with Duke" accepted a commission from the American Ballet Theatre to develop "The River," a ballet choreographed by Alvin Ailey, as well as a commission from the New York Public Broadcasting Service station, WNET, to complete a comic opera. received sixteen honorary doctorates from U.S. universities. received the Order of the Star of Ethiopia 🇪🇹 awarded the Order of Lenin from the Soviet Union received the Spingarn medal (1959) from the NAACP for outstanding and unique musical achievements. wrote and performed three Sacred Concerts drawing on classical European and African-American forms and styles, first at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco (1965), second premiered at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York (1968) in front of an audience of 7,500, and the third at Westminster Abbey, London (1973). composed the Uwis Suite (1972). over 12,000 mourners attended his funeral (1974). the United States Mint issued a coin (February 24, 2009) with Duke Ellington on it, making him the first African American to appear by himself on a circulating U.S. coin Listen to: Duke Ellington and his Famous Orchestra Live performances from 1938 to 1963. Read two 1958 Duke interview transcripts made by Steve Voce and first published in Jazz Journal of March 1959. See Ellington on the Web. Los Angeles Times Obituary May 25, 1974. (Duke Ellington gravestone at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, New York])

A framed photograph of neon colored Christmas lights blurred from motion with PoJ.fm logos added.

Coleman Hawkins[edit]

Name & Pictures	Instrument Roles Style/Genre Years Active	Notable Achievements^[50]

Coleman Hawkins (1904–1969) (Photo by William P. Gottlieb) (Hawkins 1967 photo by Roberto Polillo) (Spotlite Club, NYC, 1946) (Photo by William P. Gottlieb)	tenor saxophone featured soloist Swing Big bands Played with Beboppers 1921→1969	a star of the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra during the swing era in the 1920s and '30s.^[51] one of the first virtuosos on the tenor saxophone renowned for his aggressive tone and melodic creativity.^[51] his application of advanced harmonic knowledge to improvisation helped pave the way for bebop.^[51] influential solo on "Body and Soul." mentor to many, including Thelonious Monk. promoted tenor sax. “encyclopedic knowledge of chords and harmonies.”^[52] harmonically advanced style.^[53] DownBeat magazine Hall of Fame, Critic's Poll (1961). U.S. Commemorative stamp (1995).

Lester Young[edit]

A kinetic cutout colorized photograph of the Lester Young quartet.

A colorized photograph of the Lester Young quartet.

(Colorized and enhanced photograph of Prez photo #4 at Jazz Rhythm by Paul Nodler)
(from an improvisation session run by Norman Granz)
(at a studio on 23rd St. in New York City in 1950)

Lester Young
(1909–1959)
(active 1933→1959)

A black and white photograph by Robert P. Gottlieb of Lester Young standing and playing his saxophone at the Famous Door in New York City in September, 1946 in front of a geometric patterned curtain and a glimpse of a piano player's head in the background on the far left.

(Portrait of Lester Young, Famous Door, New York, N.Y., ca. September, 1946)
(Photo by William P. Gottlieb)

A colorized photograph by Robert P. Gottlieb of Lester Young standing and playing his saxophone at the Famous Door in New York City in September, 1946 in front of a geometric patterned curtain and a glimpse of a piano player's head in the background on the far left.

Instrument:

alto saxophone

clarinet

Roles:

featured soloist

Style/Genre:

Big band swing

combos

(Click on photo for source, then scroll down to Prez #4)
(Colorized and enhanced detail of Prez photo #4 at Jazz Rhythm by Paul Nodler)
(from an improvisation session run by Norman Granz)
(at a studio on 23rd St. in New York City in 1950)

(Click on photo for source, then scroll down to Prez #4)

(Click on photo for source, then scroll down to Prez #4)]]

A framed composite of ten colorized photographic cutouts of Lester Young on a gray green background.

NOTE: Click on quotation for internet source.

*
“In some ways Lester Young is the most complex rhythmically of any musician. He does some things which are just phenomenal.”	LEE KONITZ (1927–2020)
*
“As much as I think John Coltrane belongs on the list, I think without Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young, both of whom defined improvising on the tenor sax, there would not have been the evolution of the craft by John Coltrane.”	HERBIE MANN (1930–2003)
*
“I think as long as people are around and can hear a record and hear people like Lester Young on a recording, there will always be a great inspiration for somebody to try to create jazz.”	SONNY ROLLINS (b. 1930)
*
“It was like the horn only became an instrument through which the soul of Lester Young was expressed, it was like a transmitter, you know. When he’d still be up to play I would look around, and people would slow down their dancing just so that they could listen, because everybody realized then, even the people who didn’t really pay that close attention to details as far as the music was concerned, everybody seemed to sense that they were witnessing one of the greatest musicians of all time. It was like he was the minister and we were his congregation out there. He was speaking words of wisdom to us, and very prophetic, because his style, what he was doing then, changed the whole concept of tenor playing. He was the one who did it. He showed another way to go.”	THAD JONES (1923–1986) about hearing the Basie band for the first time in Detroit 1939
*
“The other night Benny Goodman, Basie, Lester Young, Jo Jones, Buck Clayton and Harry James got together in a small Harlem joint and jammed from two-fifteen to six in the morning. The music was something tremendous, for everyone distinguished himself. But one conclusion was inescapable: that Lester Young was not only the star of the evening but without doubt the greatest tenor player in the country. In fact I’ll stick my neck out even further: he is the most original and inventive saxophonist I have ever heard.”	JOHN HAMMOND (1910–1987)
*
“We were all influenced by Lester (Young). Listen to the records that he made with (Count) Basie. Nobody's got what he's got. He's still the daddy.”	ZOOT SIMS (1925–1985)
*
“I’ll always remember when I first heard Lester. I’d never heard anyone like him before. He was a stylist with a different sound. A sound I’d never heard before or since. To be honest with you I didn’t like it much at first. When Prez first came to me at the Reno Club in Kansas City it was like nothing we’d ever heard. And it was consistent. In all the years he was with our band he never had a bad night. No matter what happened to him personally, he never showed it in his playing. I can only remember him as being beautiful.”	COUNT BASIE (1904–1984)
*
“The trouble with most musicians today is that they are copycats. Of course you have to start out playing like someone else. You have a model, or a teacher, and you learn all that he can show you. But then you start playing for yourself. Show them that you're an individual. And I can count those who are doing that today on the fingers of one hand.”	LESTER YOUNG (1909–1959)
*
“Well, the way I play, I try not to be a 'repeater pencil', ya dig? Originality's the thing. You can have tone and technique and a lot of other things but without originality you ain't really nowhere. Gotta be original.”	LESTER YOUNG (1909–1959)
*

(Photo by Jean Pierre Leloir (1931–2010))

Notable Achievements:^[54]

light airy unforced sound.^[55]

“Lester’s style was light, and as I said, it took him maybe five choruses to warm up. But then he would really blow; then you couldn’t handle him in a cutting session.”^[56] Mary Lou Williams

“Young burst into recorded jazz history in 1936 with a revolutionary, vibrato-less tenor sound: fast, floating, airy, clean, light. It was so completely opposed to the then-dominant model of tenor playing, Coleman Hawkins’s rhapsodic, powerful, ‘‘macho’’ tone, that it confused most black jazz musicians. Young’s combination of lightning speed, blues feeling, rhythmic balance, precise articulation, and inexhaustible melodic ideas made him, in retrospect, something like the Michael Jordan of jazz. Dizzy Gillespie called it a ‘‘cool, flowing style’’ to emphasize Young’s long, fluid phrases, strategic use of silence and space, and rhythmic mastery. Young’s sound and style represented a musical synthesis of early jazz history: from his childhood on the New Orleans streets and adolescence on the black vaudeville circuit to his responsiveness to white Chicagoan influences such as Jimmy Dorsey and Bix Beiderbecke; from his mastery of the blues and his classical virtuosity to his involvement in ‘‘the big music work-shop’’ of early 1930s Kansas City. Young influenced hundreds of white and black musicians between 1937 and 1944.^[57] (bold and bold italic not in original)

A detail from a William P. Gottlieb photograph that has been colorized on bottom half with original black and white photograph on top half of Pete Johnson at piano on left with trumpeter Red Allen in middle and Lester Young on far right side with his head bent at a 45 degree angle 📐 with a straight up and down saxophone hidden behind the piano.

(Pete Johnson (1904–1967) at piano on left with trumpeter Red Allen (1908–1967) in middle)
(and Lester Young on far right side with his head bent at a 45 degree angle 📐 with a straight up and down saxophone hidden behind the piano)

“He looked different, he played different, he was different. Lester Young stood out: green eyes, reddish hair that earned him the boyhood nickname "Red," a porkpie hat, an ankle-length black coat, his saxophone held at a 45-degree angle. In a musical field known for individuality, he was an outsider's nonconformist, swinging to his own beat: shy, sensitive, averse to loudness and ostentation, inventor of his own eccentric lingo, and progenitor of cool as hipness in music, language and persona. If he didn't invent "cool" to mean "hip," he popularized it and other phrases that spread well beyond jazz. Most important, he created a poetic new aesthetic, altering the course of music. Sixty years after his death, the tenor saxophonist continues to rank as one of the most influential jazzmen in history. . . . ”
“A decade earlier, cornetist Louis Armstrong had crystallized the model jazz solo; Lester Young—a brilliant soloist and melodist—reimagined how an extempore statement could sound. Young's feathery-floating tone; dearth of vibrato; long, flowing lines; and seemingly endless melodic ideas grabbed listeners' ears. Inspired by the white saxophonist Frankie Trumbauer, Young presented a lyrical contrast to the hot style of the dominant tenor saxophonist, Coleman Hawkins (1904–1969). Young's approach played down harmonies and emphasized melodic invention. He nailed his solos on the first take, spinning out golden melody lines at the speed of thought. Achieving a balance between lyrical and earthy, between poise and punch, Young's new paradigm made him the most influential jazz musician between the rise of Armstrong in the 1920s and saxophonist Charlie Parker in the mid-1940s.”^[58] (bold and bold italic not in original)

“It was like the horn only became a transmitter through which the soul of Lester Young was expressed. . . When he’d still be up to play I would look around, and people would slow down so they could listen, because everybody realized then, even the people who didn’t really pay that close attention to details as far as the music was concerned, everybody seemed to sense that they were witnessing one of the greatest musicians of all time. It was like he was a minister and we were his congregation out there. He was speaking words of wisdom to us, and very prophetic, because, his style, what he was doing then, changed the whole concept of tenor playing. . . it was like listening to a saxophone with the sound of a flute with that clear just mellow, rich, round sound.” — Thad Jones (1923–1986)^[59] (bold not in original)

excellent use of the blues.

Four cutout photographic images of Lester Young displayed on a rich dark hued blue background with framing around the border.

relaxed, cool tone with sophisticated harmonies.

(Colorized and enhanced detail of photo used by permission^[60] of Kansas City Museum, Kansas, MO)

lead tenor in Count Basie's orchestra. “As part of Count Basie's soon-to-be-discovered, quintessential swing band, Young made his first recordings. In 1936, on "Lady, Be Good," he plays a wondrous two-chorus solo that sparked a sensation among musicians. His solo on Basie's 1937 "One O'Clock Jump"—Young hits a B-flat 20 times in a row—was memorized by legions of tenor sax players. Young's 1939 showpiece "Lester Leaps In"—rife with rhythmic surprises—spotlights his superior note choices and interlinking melodic ideas. These recordings have much to offer listeners today.”^[58]

member of Norman Granz's Jazz at the Philharmonic (JATP) troupe for 12 years beginning in 1946.

accompanied Billie Holiday (1937–1941, 1957). Young and singer Billie Holiday had a warm friendship and gave each other admiring nicknames: "Lady Day" (short for Holiday) and she called him "The President" or "Prez" recording such classic songs as "Mean to Me" (1937) and "I Must Have That Man" (1941).

appeared on CBS television special "The Sound of Jazz" (1957).

In 1944, shortly after appearing in a celebrated, arty movie short, "Jammin' the Blues," he was drafted into the U.S. Army.

As his alcoholism grew worse in the 1950s, his tone grew huskier, his vibrato wider, and his pitch range lower.

Dying at age forty-nine in 1959 ended his recording career of twenty-three years.

G.O.A.T.

influenced scores of saxophonists—such as Stan Getz (1927–1991) and Dexter Gordon (1923–1990)—as well as bebop, cool jazz, bossa nova and Hollywood soundtracks.

beat writers Allen Ginsberg (1926–1997) and Jack Kerouac (1922–1969) hero-worshiped Young.

Bertrand Tavernier (1941–2021) would base his 1986 movie "'Round Midnight" on the lives of Young and pianist Bud Powell (1924–1966).
Downbeat magazine Hall of Fame, Reader's Poll (1959).

Listen to Young's music at Jazz Rhythm: "Lester Young: 'PREZ'."

Lester Young website

(Colorized and enhanced detail of Prez photo #4 at Jazz Rhythm by Paul Nodler)
(from an improvisation session run by Norman Granz)
(at a studio on 23rd St. in New York City in 1950)

(Colorized and enhanced detail of Prez photo #2 at Jazz Rhythm by Paul Nodler)
(from an improvisation session run by Norman Granz)
(at a studio on 23rd St. in New York City in 1950)

Read Matt Fripp's "Lester Young—Ten Defining Moments From The Tenor Sax Legend," JazzFuel.com, last updated Aug 28, 2021.

Read Lester Young's biography and discography at Mosaic Records

Count Basie[edit]

Name & Pictures	Instrument Roles Style/Genre Years Active	Notable Achievements^[61]

Count Basie (1904–1984) (Detail of Count Basie and Bob Crosby, Howard Theater, Washington, D.C. (ca. 1941) (Photo by William P. Gottlieb)	piano organist big band conductor combos solo pianist^[62] piano accompanist^[62] music director for blues singers, dancers, and comedians^[62] Big band swing Kansas City style 1924→1984	distinctively bright tinkling piano style. led the Count Basie Orchestra for almost 50 years.^[63] “created innovations such as the use of two "split" tenor saxophones, emphasizing the rhythm section, riffing with a big band, using arrangers to broaden their sound, and others.”^[63] “many musicians developed under his direction, including the tenor saxophonists Lester Young and Herschel Evans, guitarist Freddie Green, the trumpeters Buck Clayton and Harry "Sweets" Edison and singers Jimmy Rushing, Helen Humes, Thelma Carpenter, and Joe Williams.”^[63] claimed to compose/arrange "Moten Swing."^[64] “that was widely acclaimed and was an invaluable contribution to the development of swing music”^[65] "One O'clock Jump" became the Basie band's signature tune. Basie's bands always known for a riffing rhythm section and dueling tenor saxophone players.^[66] “Basie's sound was characterized by a "jumping" beat and the contrapuntal accents of his own piano^[67] Listen to the Basie bands at Jazz Rhythm: "Count Basie and his Orchestra: World's Greatest Swing Orchestra" “favored the blues, and showcased some of the most notable blues singers of the era after he went to New York: Billie Holiday, Jimmy Rushing, Big Joe Turner, Helen Humes, and Joe Williams.”^[67] “hired arrangers who knew how to maximize the band's abilities, such as Eddie Durham and Jimmy Mundy.”^[67] Downbeat magazine Hall of Fame, Reader's Poll (1958) NEA (National Endowment for the Arts) Jazz Master (1983) President Ronald Reagan posthumously awarded Count Basie with the Medal of Freedom (1985) for his contribution in the fields of entertainment and the arts. Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (2002) See Los Angeles Times Obituary April 27, 1984.

Mary Lou Williams[edit]

(her Harlem apartment, New York, N.Y., ca. August 1947)
(Mirror image detail of Photo by William P. Gottlieb)

Mary Lou Williams /
Mary Elfrieda Scruggs
(birth name)
(1910–1981)
(active 1920→1981)

piano

soloist

combos

arranger

composer

Spirituals

Ragtime

Stride piano

Gospel

Blues

Ballads

Swing

Bebop

Post-Bop

Third stream

Free jazz

(Detail of portrait of Mary Lou Williams in her apartment, New York, N.Y., August, 1947)
(Photo by William P. Gottlieb)

An enhanced and colorized photographic cutout of Mary Lou Williams turned slightly towards viewer's left wearing long dangly metal earrings circa 1947.

as can easily be seen by all of the jazz genres Williams performed over her career listed above, she was open and adaptive to new music.

Williams took the name "Mary Lou" at the suggestion of Brunswick Record's Jack Kapp as quoted in Max Jones's Jazz Talking: Profiles, Interviews, and Other Riffs on Jazz Musician's, Da Capo Press, 2000, 190. Her last name of Williams came from her husband, saxophonist John Williams, who she married at age 16.

musical prodigy who could pick out simple tunes at age two, who taught herself to play the piano at three years old, including playing back a tune she heard her mother play on the family organ at that age, and discovered in high school she had perfect pitch.^[68]^[69]

supported her large family by playing at parties at six years old.

began performing publicly at the age of seven when she became known in Pittsburgh as "The Little Piano Girl."

her professional debut with big bands came in 1922, at age 12, when she substituted for a pianist in the Buzzin' "Sparrow" Harris and His Hits and Bits Revue, a traveling show.^[70]

billed as Mary Lou Burley, she toured occasionally for the next few years (early 1920s) passing through New York City several times, playing for such artists as Jelly Roll Morton, Willie (“the Lion”) Smith, Fats Waller, and Duke Ellington. Played with Duke Ellington's Washingtonians when only twelve years old, as well as with Johnny Hodges and Benny Carter, according to Williams in her interview on Marian McPartland's "Piano Jazz" (1978).

known as "the first lady of the jazz keyboard."

A William P. Gottlieb photograph of Mary Lou Williams with a grand piano fretboard in foreground.

(Photo by William P. Gottlieb)

(New York, NY ca. 1946)
(Photo by William P. Gottlieb)

one of the earlier women recognized as highly successful in jazz.

(Café Society Downtown, New York, N.Y., ca. June 1947)
(Photo by William P. Gottlieb)

“No woman other than the vocalists Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald had so dominated the swing scene or earned the genuine respect of bandleaders and musicians alike.”^[71]

joined the St. Louis based band the Synco Jazzers in 1925 led by John Overton "Bearcat" Williams (1905-1996), whom she married in 1926.

played with John Williams's Syncopators (1926–1929).

served as deputy pianist and arranger for Andy Kirk's

(Andy Kirk (1898-1992))

Twelve Clouds of Joy band until April 1930, at which time she became a regular member.

the Kirk band in the 1930s success was largely due to her distinctive arrangements, compositions and solo performances on the piano.^[72] Listen to Andy Kirk's Clouds of Joy with arrangements and compositions by Williams. See Andy Kirk and his Clouds of Joy discography.

“an important swing pianist, with a lightly rocking, legato manner based on subtly varied stride and boogie-woogie bass patterns.”^[73]

(Photo taken around 1947)

(her apartment, New York, N.Y., ca. August 1947)
(Detail of Photo by William P. Gottlieb)

(Portrait taken between 1938 and 1948)
(Detail of Photo by William P. Gottlieb)

wrote and arranged "Camel Hop" written for Benny Goodman's radio show sponsor, Camel cigarettes, followed by another big hit for Goodman in her "Roll 'Em" (a boogie-woogie piece based on the blues) (1937), "What's Your Story, Morning Glory" for Jimmie Lunceford, arrangements for the biggest act at the time of Cab Calloway, rearranged Irving Berlin's "Blue Skies" as "Trumpets No End" (1943) a big hit for Duke Ellington that Ellington recorded in 1946^[74] and the Dizzy Gillespie smash hit, "In the Land of Oo-Bla-Dee" (1949).

supplied noteworthy swing-band scores arranging for Louis Armstrong, Tommy Dorsey, and Earl Hines, during the late 1930's.^[74]

became involved with a younger group of New York musicians including Bud Powell, Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker, Tadd Dameron, and Dizzy Gillespie (1943), moving from what Encyclopedia Brittanica describes as “an established musician in the swing style, she easily made the transition to bebop. Her apartment became a meeting place, and she wrote several important compositions in the bebop style, including “In the Land of Oo-Blah-Dee,” “Tisherone,” “Knowledge,” “Lonely Moments,” and “Waltz Boogie.” The latter was recorded with Girl-Stars, one of her several women’s bands, in 1946.”

quit the Kirk band to form her own small group in New York with her second husband, trumpeter Shorty Baker, (1942).^[74]

premiered the first of many large compositions including the 12-movement Zodiac Suite whose “Capricorn” movement was created especially for dancer Pearl Primus who also performed at Café Society (1945).

moved to Europe performing in both Paris and London (1952).

famously halted a 1954 Paris concert beginning her hiatus from the stage before starting again to perform in 1957 with Dizzy Gillespie at the Newport Jazz Festival and later performing with her own trio.

founded Mary Records, the first recording company begun by a woman.

three movements from her "Zodiac Suite" were performed in Carnegie Hall by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra—a very early instance of the recognition of jazz by a leading symphony orchestra (1946).

among the first jazz artists to perform at Carnegie Hall and St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan, New York City (1946).

an important figure in Bebop who contributed scores to Dizzy Gillespie’s big band.

worked with some of music’s greatest legends, including Ben Webster, Bud Powell, and Thelonious Monk.

based in Europe between 1952 and 1954.

retired from music in 1954 to pursue religious and charitable interests.

resumed her career in 1957 where she remained active throughout the 1960s and 1970s leading her own groups in New York clubs, composing sacred works for jazz orchestra and voices, and devoting much of her time to teaching.

long regarded as one of the most significant female musicians in jazz, as an instrumentalist, as a composer, and as an arranger.^[75]

retained the status of a modernist for most of her career.

“easily adapting in the 1940s to the new Bebop idiom and in the 1960s her play attained a level of complexity and dissonance that rivaled avant-garde pianism of the time, but without losing the underlying blues feeling."^[76]

breadth of her work as a composer and arranger can be seen from her expert swing-band scores for Andy Kirk's Clouds of Joy (Listen to Walkin’ and Swingin’, or Mary’s Idea, etc.) to the large-scale sacred works of the 1960s and 70s.

her "Waltz Boogie" (1946) was one of the earliest attempts to adapt jazz to non-duple meters.

wrote hundreds of compositions and arrangements recorded in 78, 45, and LP formats. See some of her album covers below and click on any of them to go to her discography.

A collage of Mary Lou Williams album covers.

friend, mentor, and teacher to Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Tadd Dameron (to the right of Mary Lou in photograph), Bud Powell, and Dizzy Gillespie (Dizzy partially hidden by piano player; click on photo for who else is in photograph by William P. Gottlieb).

In the 1960s and ’70s composed a number of her sacred works and liturgical pieces for jazz ensembles, including a cantata, "Black Christ of the Andes" (1962); three masses that included "Black Christ of the Andes" (see track list for "Black Christ of the Andes") (1963)^[77], "Mass for the Lenten Season" (1968), "Music for Peace" (1970), popularly known as "Mary Lou’s Mass" which (1970) became well known in a version choreographed by Alvin Ailey.

In 1970 as a solo pianist and providing her own commentary, she recorded a comprehensive performance-lecture entitled "The History of Jazz." (FW2860)

Listen to Mary Lou playing boogie-woogie piano and her own tune "Roll 'em."

made an appearance (click on "appearance" to view video) on
Mister Roger’s Neighborhood (PBS) with bassist Milton Suggs (1973).

Guggenheim Fellowships, 1972 and 1977.

“Why have jazz historians generally avoided serious consideration of her music and her contributions to jazz, even as she garnered praise and respect from her peers? One obvious answer is that Mary Lou Williams was a woman performing and writing in the male-dominated field of jazz music whose abilities enabled her to defy the conventional gender roles implicit in the jazz narratives of her day. According to this view, women in jazz were rare, women pianists rarer still, and women who, besides their superiority as players, could also compose and arrange first-class music for big band and combo were simply unheard of. Yet Duke Ellington famously described (in his autobiography, Music Is My Mistress) that Williams was "perpetually contemporary," going on to say that "her writing and performing are and have always been just a little ahead throughout her career."^[78]

nominee Grammy Awards, Best Jazz Performance – Group, for the album "Giants—Dizzy Gillespie, Bobby Hackett, Mary Lou Williams" (1971); also released under the title "Mary Lou Williams and the Trumpet Giants."

honorary degree from Fordham University in New York (1973).

In 1975 was appointed to the faculty of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and in 1977 to the faculty at Duke University.

performed duets in concert with avant-garde player Cecil Taylor (1977).

founded the Mary Lou Williams Foundation (1980).

honorary degree from the Jesuit school Rockhurst University in Kansas City, Missouri (1980).

taught on the staff of Duke University as the first Artist-in-Residence from 1977 until her death in 1981.

received the Duke University's Trinity Award 🥇 (May 10, 1981)^[79] for service to the university, an award voted on by Duke University students.

Duke University established the Mary Lou Williams Center for Black Culture (1983).

the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. has an annual Mary Lou Williams Women in Jazz Festival (annually since 1996).

her archives are preserved at Rutgers University's Institute of Jazz Studies in Newark (since 2000).

her Pennsylvania State Historic Marker is placed at 328 Lincoln Avenue, Lincoln Elementary School, Pittsburgh, PA, noting her accomplishments and the location of the school she attended.

trumpeter Dave Douglas released the album "Soul on Soul" as a tribute to her, featuring original arrangements of her music and new pieces inspired by her work (2000).

the album "Impressions of Mary Lou" by pianist John Hicks featured eight of her compositions (2000).

had a small cameo in Ken Burns’s documentary "Jazz" on PBS (Public Broadcasting System) (2001).

the Dutch Jazz Orchestra researched and played rediscovered works of Williams on their album "Lady Who Swings the Band" (2005).

Geri Allen's Mary Lou Williams Collective released their album "Zodiac Suite: Revisited" (2006).

a YA historical novel based on Mary Lou Williams entitled Jazz Girl, by Sarah Bruce Kelly, published in 2010.

merited a children's book based on Mary Lou William's early life, entitled The Little Piano Girl by Ann Ingalls and Maryann MacDonald with illustrations by Giselle Potter, (published in 2010).

a poetry book by Yona Harvey entitled Hemming the Water published in 2013, inspired by Williams and featuring the poem "Communion with Mary Lou Williams" (2011).

the American Musicological Society published Mary Lou Williams's Selected Works for Big Band, a compilation of eleven of her big band scores (2013).

Her New York Times obituary reports that “Miss Williams was an important contributor to every aspect of jazz that developed during a career that began in the late 1920's and lasted for more than half a century.”^[80]

an award-winning documentary film entitled, "Mary Lou Williams: The Lady Who Swings the Band,"
produced and directed by Carol Bash, premiered on American Public Television and was screened at various domestic and international film festivals (2015).

What'sHerName women's history podcasts aired the episode "THE MUSICIAN: Mary Lou Williams," with guest expert "Mary Lou Williams: The Lady Who Swings the Band," producer and director Carol Bash (2018).

Listen to an "Interview with Mary Lou Williams" (recorded live in 1976).

Listen to "NPR's 'Jazz Profiles' on Mary Lou Williams, 'Perpetually Contemporary'," July 25, 2007.

Listen to Mary Lou Williams playing, even singing, and being interviewed by Marian McPartland (1918–2013)

on the very first episode of McPartland's "Piano Jazz" (recorded live in 1978) with bassist Ronnie Boykins (1935–1980).

Album cover of Mary Lou Williams on the very first episode of Marian McPartland's "Piano Jazz" radio program.

Listen to "Mary Lou Williams Centennial On JazzSet," from radio station WBGO, broadcast May 6, 2010. The first concert is from the University of Michigan (1978) where she plays her history of jazz medley first playing solo piano on spirituals (her own composition), Ragtime playing "Fandangle" a rag her mother had taught her, demonstrates Kansas City Swing (a "Blues,") a swinging left hand untitled number, a boogie-woogie on "Baby Bear Boogie." Adding bassist Ronnie Boykins, they perform "On Green Dolphin Street," "Baby Man" (by John Stubblefield), "Jeep Is Jumpin'" (by Johnny Hodges), and "Let's Do the Froggy Bottom." The University of Wisconsin, Madison concert adds drummer Charlie Persip where the trio plays Dizzy Gillespie's "Olinga," followed by "Medi II," then "Bag's Groove" by Milt Jackson.

Mary Lou Williams Lane, a street near 10th and Paseo in Kansas City, Missouri, was named after her (2018).

(Photo by Michelle Pond)

Tammy L. Kernodle, (B.M., M.A.), "Anything You are Shows Up in Your Music: Mary Lou Williams and the Sanctification of Jazz," Ph.D. dissertation, Ohio State University, 1997.

Tammy L. Kernodle, Soul on Soul: The Life and Music of Mary Lou Williams (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 2004).

Ayana Contreras, "Mary Lou Williams, Writ Large," DownBeat, December 7, 2020.

Kenny Clarke[edit]

Name & Pictures	Instrument Roles Style/Genre Years Active	Notable Achievements^[81]

Kenny Clarke (1914–1985)	drums Bebop Hard Bop 1931→1984	pioneered Bebop drumming developed new musical timekeeping on "ride" cymbal , and not on the hi-hat , freeing up his left hand and using his snare drum or bass drum to play what is called 'dropping bombs' where one plays spontaneous, accented hits. Downbeat magazine Hall of Fame, Critic's Poll (1988)

Charlie Christian[edit]

Charlie Christian (1916–1942) (active 1931→1942) Instrument: electric guitar Roles: featured soloist rhythm section Style/Genre: Bebop pioneer Notable Achievements^[82] born in Bonham, Texas on July 29, 1916 and raised in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma where he often jammed along the city's "Deep Deuce" section on N. E. Second Street. ^[83] from a musical family, he first began playing the trumpet and at age 12 was playing a cigar box guitar he made himself.^[84] received his first real guitar as a member of his family's group when his father and brothers formed a quartet.^[84] played Oklahoma City clubs, including those in historic Deep Deuce (Northeast Second street), before his reputation spread and he began touring across the United States then moving to California at the age of 23.^[84] In the 1930s he played string bass with Alphonso Trent's (1905–1959) band. in 1937 he discovered the instrument that he helped pioneer—the electric guitar. took guitar and music lessons from guitarist, trombonist, composer, and arranger Eddie Durham (1906–1987), of the Count Basie orchestra, and from Jim Daddy Walker (1902–1949), of the Jap Allen band. he helped change the electric guitar from a rhythm instrument to an important solo one where his distinctive stylistic innovations had an undeniable influence on future generations of jazz and popular music guitarists. on the advice of Mary Lou Williams "discovered" by music promoter John Hammond (1910–1987), who in 1939 recommended Christian to Hammond's brother-in-law, Benny Goodman (1909–1986), at that time leading one of the most famous big bands of the swing era, bringing Christian into the public eye in the United States. he mostly played in Goodman's sextet and only occasionally with the full orchestra. Rock & Roll Hall of Fame: Charlie Christian summarizes Christian's achievements: “Though his life was short, his hornlike, single-note style, which capitalized on innovations in amplification technology, revolutionized and redefined the role of the electric guitar in popular music. The reverberations from Christian’s pioneering efforts have echoed down the decades, through Western swing, rockabilly and rock and roll to the present days.” an important early performer on the electric guitar 🎸 where his single-string technique, combined with amplification, helped bring the guitar out of the rhythm section and into the forefront as a solo instrument thereby paving the way for more electric guitars.^[85] gained national exposure as a member of the Benny Goodman (1909–1986) Sextet and Orchestra from August 1939 to June 1941. recorded his “Seven Come Eleven” (Listen to it by clicking on title) with the Benny Goodman Sextet showing influences in country music forming an odd hybrid with jazz. an important figure in the early development of Bebop.^[86] a creative melodic improviser of whom it was claimed by both John Hammond^[87] and George T. Simon^[88] to be “the best improvisational talent of the swing era.” his recording career lasted less than two years because he contracted tuberculosis and died on March 2, 1942 in New York. twice (1940 & 1941) Metronome All Stars member. DownBeat magazine Hall of Fame, Critic's Poll (1966). his single-string technique established a solo style that was carried on by such contemporaries as T-Bone Walker and emulated by later disciples like B. B. King and Chuck Berry. (T-Bone Walker) (B. B. King) (Chuck Berry) his influence reached beyond jazz and swing as revealed by his induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the category Early Influence (1990). Oklahoma City renamed a street in its Bricktown entertainment district "Charlie Christian Avenue" (2006). inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame (2018).

Thelonious Monk[edit]

Thelonious Monk (1917–1982) (active 1940→1970) (Photos by William P. Gottlieb) Instrument: piano Roles: bandleader composer Style/Genre: Stride^[89] Bebop Monkisms^[90] Notable Achievements:^[91] started playing piano at the age of six and was largely self-taught. in his early teens, toured with an evangelist, playing the church organ, and in his late teens he began to find work playing jazz. house pianist at Minton's Playhouse^[92] a Manhattan nightclub in the early to mid 1940s where he participated in after-hours cutting contests, which featured many leading jazz soloists of the time. mentored by Mary Lou Williams (1910–1981). (Detail of Art Kane's (1925 – 1995) photograph for Esquire magazine from "A Great Day in Harlem" (1958)) made his first studio recordings with the Coleman Hawkins (1904–1969) Quartet (1944) because Hawkins was one of the earliest established jazz musicians to promote Monk, and the pianist later returned the favor by inviting Hawkins to join him on the album "Monk's Music" (1957) with John Coltrane (1926–1967). introduced by Ike Quebec to Lorraine Gordon , (wife of Village Vanguard owner Max Gordon,) (Max Gordon seen seated on the cover of his book) in 1947, who championed Monk's music ever after and through the influence of Lorraine Gordon and Ike Quebec Blue Note recorded (1947 & 1948) some of Monk's greatest compositions eventually compiled (first in 1951) into four different compilations each with the title of "Genius of Modern Music: Volume 1." composed numerous jazz standards including "'Round Midnight", "Blue Monk", "Straight, No Chaser", "Ruby, My Dear", "In Walked Bud", and "Well, You Needn't" chosen from only seventy-three compositions.^[93] Read about his many recordings at "Thelonious Monk: Essential Recordings." recorded albums for Prestige Records (1952-54) including collaborations with the saxophonist Sonny Rollins (1930–202 ) and the drummers Art Blakey (1919–1990) and Max Roach (1924–2007). participated in a 1954 Christmas Eve session, which produced most of the albums "Bags' Groove" and "Miles Davis and the Modern Jazz Giants" by Miles Davis. paid his first visit to Paris in 1954 where he both performed in concerts and recorded a solo piano session for French radio (later issued as an album by Disques Vogue). idiosyncratic style in fashion & music. Watch Monk perform his composition "'Round Midnight" solo in "Extrait de "Jazz Portrait" de Thelonious Monk par Henri Renaud en 1970: contributed to the development of Bebop. one of only five jazz musicians (others are Louis Armstrong, Dave Brubeck, Duke Ellington and Wynton Marsalis) featured on the cover of Time magazine^[94] (1964). Spotify.com's Thelonious Monk discography "Thelonious Monk biography," Blue Note Records: Thelonious Monk observes: “The most important jazz musicians are the ones who are successful in creating their own original world of music with its own rules, logic, and surprises. Thelonious Monk, who was criticized by observers who failed to listen to his music on its own terms, suffered through a decade of neglect before he was suddenly acclaimed as a genius; his music had not changed one bit in the interim.”^[95] (bold and bold italic not in original) Downbeat magazine Hall of Fame, Reader's Poll (1963). Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (1993). U. S. Commemorative stamp (1995). posthumous jazz composer Pulitzer prize Special Citation (2006) for “a body of distinguished and innovative musical composition that has had a significant and enduring impact on the evolution of jazz.” in his honor, the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz was established (1986) (now the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz since January 2019) by the Monk family and Maria Fisher with a mission to offer public school-based jazz education programs for young people around the globe, helping students develop imaginative thinking, creativity, curiosity, a positive self-image, and a respect for their own and others' cultural heritage. Beginning in 1987 the institute hosts an annual International Jazz Competition and through its partnership with UNESCO since 1987 has promoted International Jazz Day celebrated around the world 🌎 🌍 🌏 on April 30th to “highlight jazz and its diplomatic role of uniting people in all corners of the globe.”^[96] Monk star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Hollywood, CA at the North side of the 7000 block of Hollywood Boulevard. Thelonious Sphere Monk Circle ⭕️ at West 63rd Street in Manhattan named in Monk's honor. inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame (2009). (Thelonious (husband), Nellie (wife), Barbara (daughter) at Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York)

Dizzy Gillespie[edit]

Dizzy Gillespie (1917–1993) (active 1935→1993) (Famous Door, New York, N.Y., ca. June 1946) (Photo by William P. Gottlieb) (Taken in New York, ca. May 1947) (Photo by William P. Gottlieb) (Portrait of Dizzy Gillespie, 52nd Street, New York, N.Y., between 1946 and 1948) (Photo by William P. Gottlieb) Instrument: trumpet piano conga drums ^[97] Roles: big band bandleader & soloist conductor composer combos singer comic performer businessman Style/Genre: Bebop Afro-cuban jazz Notable Achievements: Wikipedia: Dizzy Gillespie notes that he was “a trumpet virtuoso and improviser, building on the virtuoso style of Roy Eldridge but adding layers of harmonic and rhythmic complexity previously unheard in jazz.” developed Bebop with Charlie Parker & others and his styles of improvising and trumpet playing were widely imitated in the 1940s and 1950s. he is one of the most influential players in the history of jazz teaching, amongst many others, trumpeters Miles Davis, Jon Faddis, Fats Navarro, Clifford Brown, Arturo Sandoval, Lee Morgan, Chuck Mangione, and balladeer Johnny Hartman.^[98] (Charlie Parker front left on alto saxophone & Dizzy Gillespie front right on trumpet) at the age of 12 began to teach himself to play trombone and trumpet and later took up the mellower sounding cornet. in 1932 at age 16 attended Laurinburg Institute in North Carolina because the school needed a trumpet player for its band. During his years there, he practiced the trumpet and piano intensively, still largely without formal guidance.^[99] “moved back to Philadelphia to be with his family in 1935 and shortly later joined a band led by bandleader and union organizer Frank Fairfax (1899-1972), which also included Charlie Shavers (1920-1971). Shavers knew many of the trumpet solos of Roy Eldridge (1911-1989), and Gillespie learned them by copying Shavers (he had previously known only a handful of phrases by Eldridge, the man who became his early role model). While he was in Fairfax's band, Gillespie's clownish behavior earned him his Dizzy nickname when bestowed upon him for his zestful behavior by fellow trumpeter, Fats Palmer, whose life Gillespie saved when Palmer was overcome by fumes in a gas-filled room during a tour with the Frankie Fairfax band.”^[100] (Photo taken between 1946-1948 by William P. Gottlieb) moved to New York City in 1937 and sat in with many different bands and at many jam sessions eventually earning a job with Teddy Hill's big band mostly because he sounded like Roy Eldridge who had been Hill's trumpet soloist. Immediately after joining the Hill band they toured France 🇫🇷 and Great Britain 🇬🇧 for two months. arriving back to New York City from Europe he worked in several groups including Al Cooper's (1911-1981) Savoy Sultans and the Afro-Cuban band of Alberto Socarras (1908-1987), before returning to Hill's band. joined Cab Calloway's big band (1939), one of the highest-paid black bands in New York City. While in this group, he began to develop an interest in the fusion of jazz and Afro-Cuban music, largely because of his friendship with Mario Bauzá, who had helped recruit Gillespie into Calloway's band. While on tour in 1940, Gillespie met Charlie Parker in Kansas City and soon afterwards began participating in after-hours jam sessions in New York with him together with Thelonious Monk, Bud Powell, Kenny Clarke, and electric guitarist Charlie Christian, often at Minton's Playhouse experimenting and developing the new complex style of jazz known as Bebop. The recording of the tune "Kerouac" (Listen to it by clicking on title) (1941) at Minton's Playhouse reveals this new emergent style. a dispute with bandleader Cab Calloway led to Gillespie's being (unjustly, except for the knife part) fired in 1941. He then worked briefly with many leaders, including Ella Fitzgerald, Coleman Hawkins, Benny Carter, Charlie Barnet, Les Hite, Lucky Millinder, Earl Hines (whose band also included Parker), and Duke Ellington. with Lucky Millinder, recorded a fully formed Bebop solo within a swing band context on "Little John Special" (Listen to it by clicking on title) (1942). After Gillespie's solo, the band plays a riff which he later develops into the song "Salt Peanuts" (Click here to hear "Salt Peanuts.") joined the orchestra of Ella Fitzgerald (1942), and later the orchestra of Earl Hines (1943). During the winter of 1943–44, Gillespie led a small group with Oscar Pettiford. In 1944, Billy Eckstine, the singer with the Earl Hines band, formed a big band of his own and engaged Gillespie to play and to be the music director. At about the same time, Gillespie made some of the first small-group bop recordings, some with Coleman Hawkins's band and others, including the songs "Salt Peanuts" and "Hot House," under his own name with Charlie Parker. “Early in 1945, Gillespie organized his own short-lived big band. Failing to achieve financial success with this group, he then formed a bop quintet with Parker in November. He later expanded the group to a sextet, but his desire to lead a big band inspired him to try once more, and this time he was able to keep its members together for four years.”^[101] During this period, the band made some early attempts to fuse Afro-Cuban rhythms with Afro-American jazz. Gillespie added Chano Pozo to the rhythm section, and the two men recorded "Cubana Be/Cubana Bop" (written by George Russell) and Manteca (by Gillespie and Chano Pozo). By 1947, the band's rhythm section consisted of John Lewis, Milt Jackson, Kenny Clarke, and Ray Brown, who went on to form the Modern Jazz Quartet in 1952. At various times such prominent bop players as J. J. Johnson, Sonny Stitt, James Moody, Jimmy Heath, Paul Gonsalves, and John Coltrane (several are NEA Jazz Masters) were also members of Gillespie's band. Financial problems made Gillespie give up his big band in 1950. was a featured soloist with Stan Kenton's big band before he organized his own sextet (1950–51). formed his own record company (1951), Dee Gee Records, but it was financially unsuccessful and folded in 1953. Gillespie continued to perform and record extensively with his various small groups into the late 1980s. In addition, he appeared occasionally in all-star groups such as the Giants of Jazz (1971-72), a sextet with Kai Winding (trombone), Sonny Stitt (alto and tenor saxophones), Thelonious Monk (piano), Al McKibbon (bass), and Art Blakey (drums). Also, he regularly performed on Caribbean cruise ships that featured jazz artists. (Bronze Statue of Dizzy at Dizzy's Nightclub in the Viking Crown Lounge on the Explorer of the Seas - Pacific Coastal Cruise 🚢) (Photograph by Jasperdo) “Although he was once viewed as a musical iconoclast, his music is no longer considered radical. (Dizzy Gillespie Statue in his hometown of Cheraw, South Carolina) He is viewed rather now as a legend of jazz, and his outgoing personality and impish sense of humor have endeared him to the general public through his multiple appearances on television and now YouTube.com.”^[102] international jazz promoter. (Detail of photo taken in Per Asplin’s home, Oslo, Norway 1956 by Tore Fredenlund) Downbeat magazine Hall of Fame, Reader's Poll (1960) NEA (National Endowment for the Arts) Jazz Master (1982). awarded the National Medal of Arts (1989) created by the United States Congress in 1984 for the purpose of honoring artists and patrons of the arts, a prestigious American honor, and the highest honor specifically given for achievement in the arts conferred to an individual artist on behalf of the people of the United States selected by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), and ceremoniously presented by the President of the United States. published his autobiography To Be or Not to Bop (1979). Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (1989)

A colorized and enhanced photograph of alto saxophonist Charlie Parker, pianist Thelonious Monk, bassist Charles Mingus, and drummer Roy Haynes jamming at The Open Door in Greenwich Village, September, 1953.

(Charles Mingus, Roy Haynes, Thelonious Monk, and Charlie Parker (l. to r.) jam at The Open Door in Greenwich Village, September, 1953)
(Photo by Bob Parent (1923–1987) — enhanced and colorized)

Charlie Parker[edit]

Charlie "Bird" Parker (1920–1955) (active 1937→1955) (First photo in this row is of a photographic detail taken at the Three Deuces club in New York City, ca. August 1947) (Photo by William P. Gottlieb) (Detail of portrait of Charlie Parker and Tommy Potter, Three Deuces Club, New York, N.Y., ca. Aug. 1947) (Photo by William P. Gottlieb) Instrument: alto saxophone Roles: composer big band lead player combos Style/Genre: Big bands Bebop combos was taught improvisation and mentored by Buster Smith (1904–1991) who inspired the use of double and triple time instilling in Parker a penchant for a fast, free style. helped to develop Bebop. enlarged harmonic pallet.^[103] recorded his first solos as a member of Jay McShann’s band (1937–1942), with whom he toured the eastern United States in 1940–1942. “genius lay primarily in creative improvisations as a soloist.”^[104] seemingly effortless improvisations. inspired many musicians and imitators. “one of the three (Louis Armstrong, Ornette Coleman) great revolutionary geniuses in jazz.”^[105] “one of the 20th century’s most acclaimed musicians.”^[106] “Bird was the real goods, a genius who took the material at hand and transformed it into a personal vision. His place in jazz is roughly similar to Picasso's in art in that he established a school of seemingly infinite variations and a colossal indifference to the dichotomy between what is considered "pretty" and "ugly."^[107] U. S. Commemorative stamp (1995). DownBeat magazine Hall of Fame, Reader's Poll (1955) Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (1984). Read Charlie Parker interview in DownBeat magazine September 9, 1949. See CharlieParker.com Official website.

Charles Mingus[edit]

Charles Mingus (1922–1979) (active 1943→1979) Instruments double bass piano cello Roles bandleader soloist masterful improviser composer Style/Genres: Jazz Bebop Hard Bop Post Bop Third Stream Orchestral jazz Avante-garde jazz Free jazz considered a bass prodigy.^[108] “drew inspiration from Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, African-American gospel, and Mexican folk music, as well as traditional jazz and 20th-century concert music. Though most of his best work represents close collaborations with improvising musicians such as trumpeter Thad Jones, drummer Dannie Richmond, alto saxophonist Jackie McLean, and woodwind-player Eric Dolphy, he also wrote for larger instrumentations and composed several film scores.”^[109] a proponent of collective improvisation. considered one of the greatest jazz musicians and composers in history. career spanning three decades. studied for five years with Herman Reinshagen, principal bassist of the New York Philharmonic, and compositional techniques with Lloyd Reese. first major professional job was playing with former Duke Ellington clarinetist Barney Bigard (1942). toured with Louis Armstrong (1943). recorded in Los Angeles in a band led by Russell Jacquet (early 1945) and in a band led by Howard McGhee (May, 1945). played with Lionel Hampton's band in the late 1940s who recorded several of Mingus's compositions. had a popular trio with vibraharpist Red Norvo and guitarist Tal Farlow (1950–51). briefly a member of Duke Ellington's band (1953) as a substitute for bassist Wendell Marshall, but his notorious temper led to him being one of only three musicians personally fired by Ellington (Bubber Miley and drummer Bobby Durham are the other two), after an on-stage fight between Mingus and Juan Tizol. played gigs with Charlie Parker, (early 1950's) who Wikipedia: Charles Mingus reports “considered Parker the greatest genius and innovator in jazz history” and “whose compositions and improvisations greatly inspired and influenced him.” collaborated with other jazz legends including Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Dannie Richmond, and Herbie Hancock. co-founded Debut Records (1952) with Max Roach recording the most prominent figures in Bebop. joined Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Bud Powell, and drummer Max Roach for a concert recorded as "Jazz at Massey Hall" in Toronto (May 15, 1953), which is the last recorded documentation of Gillespie and Parker playing together. organized a series of jazz workshop concerts at the Putnam Central Club in Brooklyn (1953) with musicians Max Roach, Thelonious Monk, Horace Silver, and Art Blakey. formed a Composer's Workshop (1954) in collaboration with Bill Coss of Metronome, that included Teddy Charles, John LaPorta, and Teo Macero. Much of his oeuvre before and after the coining of the term "Third Stream" parallels Gunther Schuller's Third Stream ideas. The two-part album "Jazzical Moods" (1955) shows a blend of "jazz" and "classical" and Wikipedia: Third Stream reports may have helped inspire Schuller's Third Stream approach. Some early Mingus compositions were later recorded conducted by Gunther Schuller incorporating elements of classical music and released as "Pre-Bird" (1961), then later under the title "Mingus Revisited." (1965) developed the Jazz Workshop using a mid-sized ensemble of 8–10 members of rotating musicians including Pepper Adams, Jaki Byard, Booker Ervin, John Handy, Jimmy Knepper, Charles McPherson and Horace Parlan that Wikipedia: Charles Mingus reports “in many ways anticipated free jazz and some musicians dubbed the workshop a "university" for jazz.” released Pithecanthropus Erectus (1956), his first major work as both a bandleader and composer and the title song is a ten-minute tone poem containing a section with free improvisation lacking standard musical structure or theme. recorded "The Clown" (1957) on Atlantic Records featuring improvised narration by male humorist Jean Shepherd and using drummer Dannie Richmond who remained his preferred drummer until Mingus's death. recorded with his jazz workshop musicians one of his best-known albums, Mingus Ah Um (1959) featuring such classic Mingus compositions as "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat" (an elegy to Lester Young) and the vocal-less version of "Fables of Faubus" (a protest against segregationist Arkansas governor Orval E. Faubus) that features double-time sections. recorded the album Blues & Roots (1959) released in 1960. after seeing Ornette Coleman's quartet at the Five Spot cafe in 1960, formed a quartet with drummer Dannie Richmond, trumpeter Ted Curson and multi-instrumentalist Eric Dolphy, often thought of as Mingus rising to the challenging new standard established by Coleman. The quartet recorded on both "Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus" (released 1961) and "Mingus" (1960). had a disastrous Town Hall Concert (1962). recorded "The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady" (1963), a sprawling, multi-section masterpiece, described as “one of the greatest achievements in orchestration by any composer in jazz history.”^[110] recorded himself on piano as "Mingus Plays Piano" (1963), an unaccompanied album featuring some fully improvised pieces. recorded "Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus" (1963) , an album admired by music critic Nat Hentoff. formed a sextet including Dannie Richmond, Jaki Byard, Eric Dolphy, trumpeter Johnny Coles, and tenor saxophonist Clifford Jordan that recorded frequently over its brief existence (1964). wrote his autobiography Beneath The Underdog (published 1971). taught for a semester at the University at Buffalo, The State University of New York as the Slee Professor of Music (1971). formed another sextet with Charles McPherson, trumpeter Eddie Preston and saxophonist Bobby Jones (early 1970s). DownBeat magazine Hall of Fame, Reader's Poll (1971). formed a quintet with drummer Dannie Richmond, pianist Don Pullen, trumpeter Jack Walrath and saxophonist/flutist/bass clarinetist George Adams who recorded two well-received albums, "Changes One" and "Changes Two" (1975). recorded with Charles McPherson in many of his groups resulting in "Cumbia & Jazz Fusion" (1974). at the time of his death was working with Joni Mitchell on her "Mingus," (1979) with lyrics added by Mitchell to his compositions, including "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat."

See and hear Mingus announcing this song title: "Cell Block F Tis' Nazi USA 🇺🇸".

Be sure to click off the mute button here

so you can hear Mingus announcing.

A framed photograph of a Hubble telescope deep space starfield with PoJ.fm logos added.

Art Blakey[edit]

Art Blakey (1919–1990) (active 1942→1990) (Top photo in cross by J. F. Hayeur) drums bandleader Bebop Hard Bop pioneered Bebop. went to New York City with Mary Lou Williams's combo as a drummer (1939–1942). worked with Fletcher Henderson's band (1943). joined alto saxophonist Charlie Parker, jazz vocalist Sarah Vaughan, in Billy Eckstine's embryonic bebop band (1944–1947). DownBeat New Star Award (1953). began working New York clubs and contributing to recording sessions by Miles Davis on Prestige Records "Miles Davis Quartet" (1954) and Thelonious Monk on "Thelonious Monk Trio/Monk's Moods" (1954). formed the Jazz Messengers band with pianist Horace Silver (1954) with Kenny Dorham on trumpet and Hank Mobley on tenor saxophone recording the Blue Note LP "At The Café Bohemia." recruited and graduated a veritable who's who of musicians, including trumpeter Kenny Dorham, alto saxophonist Lou Donaldson and double bassist Gene Ramey (1953) as the original Jazz Messengers, then on February 21, 1954, the "Art Blakey Quintet" produced a live set titled "A Night at Birdland" with pianist Horace Silver, trumpeter Clifford Brown, alto saxophonist Lou Donaldson and bassist Curly Russell, later playing at different times with pianists McCoy Tyner, Keith Jarrett, and Chick Corea, and later with saxophonist Donald Harrison (1982–1989). after Horace Silver left the band continued to play with superlative young players in the 1950's including trumpeters Bill Hardman, Lee Morgan, and Donald Byrd (1955), saxophonists Jackie McLean and Benny Golson (who provided the band with the now jazz standards "Blues March" and "Along Comes Betty") and pianist Bobby Timmons who composed the Grammy winning tune "Moanin'." worked with tenor saxophone player Wayne Shorter, trumpeter Freddie Hubbard and trombonist Curtis Fuller in the Jazz Messengers for part of the '60s, touring and cutting Blue Note albums "Mosaic" (1961) and "Free For All" (1964). in the 1960's and 70's mentored and performed with trumpeter Woody Shaw, pianist George Cables, saxophonist Bobby Watson and flugelhornist Chuck Mangione. awarded the JazzMobile Development and Preservation of Jazz (1970). (Photo uploaded by Jon Nicholls) inducted into the Newport Jazz Festival Hall of Fame (1976). recruited 19-year-old trumpeter Wynton Marsalis (1979) leading to enhanced interest in his groups and in 1980 hired Wynton's brother Branford for a European tour. the Messengers rejuvenation (1976–90) of the Jazz Messengers in the 1980's included trumpeter Terence Blanchard, saxophonist Donald Harrison, slide trombonist Robin Eubanks, pianist Benny Green, (1988) saxophonist Kenny Garrett, (1986) and pianist Geoffrey Keezer (1990). entered the DownBeat Jazz Hall of Fame Reader's Choice Award (1981) . Smithsonian Performing Arts - Certificate of Appreciation (1982). Lee Morgan Memorial Award/Search for Truth (1982). (Photo by rocor) Nomination - National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences/Best Instrumental Performance for "Straight Ahead" album (1982). Jazz Master Award (1983). Jazz Hall of Fame (Institute of Jazz Studies) Rutgers, The State University of NJ, (1983). Nomination - National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences/Best Jazz Soloist for "Keystone 3" album (1983). Nomination - National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences/Best Jazz Instrumental Performance for "Keystone 3" album (1983). won Grammy Award in "Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Individual or Group," (1984) for the album "The New York Scene" . The Coveted Gold Disc Award - Japan’s Swing Journal for "Live at Sweet Basil" Album (1985). Jazznote Award (1986). honorary Doctorate of Music from the Berklee College of Music (1987). National Endowment For The Arts — Jazz Masters Award (1988). Northsea Festival Charlie Parker Award (1989). Grammy Nominee (1990). received the Martin Luther King Humanitarian Award (1991). Grammy Hall of Fame Induction Award for the single "Moanin'"(1998). Pittsburgh Mellon Jazz Festival Honoree (1999). Grammy Hall of Fame Award: “Moanin” (1957) (Album) Inducted 2001. Pittsburgh Jazz Festival Award (2003). Café Bianluca Jazz Hall of Fame Award (2003). Grammy Hall of Fame Award: “A Night At Birdland” Recording (2005). posthumously awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (2005). Tribeca Arts Center Jazz Award/BMCC (2006). Pittsburgh Jazz Festival Award (2007). Jazz at Lincoln Center—Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame (2013). Percussion Art Society Jazz Hall of Fame (2014).

Exploding blue uneven pointed glass-like shards outward from a center in all directions.

Max Roach[edit]

Name & Pictures	Instrument Roles Style/Genre Years Active	Notable Achievements^[111]

Max Roach (1924–2007) (Portrait of Max Roach by William P. Gottlieb) (Three Deuces Club, New York, N.Y., ca. Oct. 1947) (Max Roach in 2000)	drums bandleader composer educator social/political activist Bebop Hard Bop Free jazz 1940→2004	began studying piano at a neighbourhood Baptist church when he was eight and took up the drums at ten years old.^[112]^[113] at age 18 filled in for drummer (pictured) Sonny Greer , no slouch in the drum department having played with the Duke Ellington Orchestra for 18 years at this point (total of 27 years), at the Paramount Theater in New York City (1942). pioneered Bebop. followed Kenny Clarke in developing new musical timekeeping that established a fixed pulse on the "ride" cymbal instead of the bass drum.^[113] a member of Charlie Parker's historic bebop quintet (1947-1949). led a quintet with American trumpeter Clifford Brown (1954-1956), which came to exemplify the aggressive style of jazz known as hard bop.^[113] formed M' Boom, a ten-member ensemble representing diverse percussion traditions from around the world (1970).^[113] Roach toured widely as a lecturer on African-American music in the United States and in Europe, appearing in concert halls, on college campuses, and at major jazz festivals.^[113] composed works for soloists, chorus, orchestra, theater, dance, television, and film.^[113] attended the Manhattan School of Music.^[113] “I have been blessed to have shared my music with the finest musicians in the business. I began early enough to play with Coleman Hawkins and then Louis Armstrong, then through Duke Ellington, Bird (Charlie Parker) and Dizzy (Gillespie).”^[112] played in the "Birth of the Cool" band with Miles Davis, John Lewis, Lee Konitz and Gerry Mulligan. Mulligan tells the Library of Congress that “Another thing that made it worthwhile was Max Roach on the first date. The first set of dates was really wonderful. He was far and away the best drummer for the thing because he could approach the things as a composer and he took the kind of care with playing with the ensemble that showed his compositional awareness.”^[114] and Wikipedia: "Birth of the Cool" (8th paragraph) reports that “Drummer Max Roach had been a member of Parker's quintet with Davis and was a natural choice for the group due to his enthusiastic engagement in the ideals of the nonet.” The New York Times reports that “Over the years he challenged both his audiences and himself by working not just with standard jazz instrumentation, and not just in traditional jazz venues, but in a wide variety of contexts, some of them well beyond the confines of jazz as that word is generally understood.”^[115] led a “double quartet” consisting of his working group of trumpet, saxophone, bass and drums plus a string quartet.^[115] duetted with uncompromising avant-gardists like the pianist Cecil Taylor and the saxophonist Anthony Braxton.^[115] performed unaccompanied.^[115] wrote music for plays by Sam Shepard and dance pieces by Alvin Ailey.^[115] collaborated with video artists, gospel choirs and hip-hop performers.^[115] donated over 100,000 items to the Max Roach papers at the U.S. Library of Congress (2014), Librarian of Congress James H. Billington said. “(Max Roach's) collection will have high research value not just for musicians and jazz scholars, but for anyone exploring the rise of political consciousness among African-Americans in the post-World War II period. His collection will now be preserved in the nation’s library so that his legacy and works might inspire generations to come.”^[116] Civil Rights movement composer of "We Insist!". sought new forms of musical expression.^[117] “The roundness and nobility of sound on the drums and the clarity and precision of the cymbals distinguishes Max Roach as a peerless master of this uniquely American instrument. His stature as a musician, composer and bandleader is the result of his having created a larger and more varied body of work than any other drummer-leader. He has done solo pieces, pieces for drums and voice, for jazz ensembles, percussion ensembles, for choirs, and has performed with video. While working with Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, Bud Powell and Clifford Brown, he developed a unique vocabulary that gave the drums another level of identity. He played the drums in a way that not only kept time and accentuated the beat, but he also developed the call-and-response idea central to the foundations of American music. He has refined his style over the course of the years, and his playing now has the grandeur found only in those who had exceptional talent to begin with, and matched that talent with an ongoing dedication to sustained development.”^[118] DownBeat magazine Hall of Fame, Critic's Poll (1980). one of the first jazz musicians to teach full time at the college level when he was hired as a professor in 1972 in the Department of Music and Dance at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, from which he retired in 1994.^[119]^[113] Marian McPartland (1918–2013) interviews him for NPR's "Max Roach on Piano Jazz" on April 21, 1998. The interview originally airs on September 29, 1998. Here's how NPR describes the broadcast: “Being a legendary drummer was only part of Max Roach's musical personality; he was also an accomplished composer and storyteller. On this 1998 episode of Piano Jazz, Roach (1924–2007) relates a few of his many musical memories from performing with greats like Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk and Dizzy Gillespie. Roach also treats listeners to a selection of his own compositions. And he, host Marian McPartland and bassist Ray Drummond collaborate on "I'll Remember Clifford" and "Joy Spring." The set list includes: "Drum Also Waltzes" (Roach) "Now's The Time" (Parker) "Billy The Kid" (Roach) "I Remember Clifford" (Golson) "The Smoke That Thunders" (Roach) "Joy Spring" (Hendricks, Brown) "Giant Steps" (Coltrane) "All The Things You Are" (Hammerstein)”^[120] the first jazz musician to receive a so-called genius grant from the MacArthur Foundation (1988). Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (2008). Read NPR Obituary: "Jazz World Mourns Loss of Max Roach," August 12, 2016. See Encyclopedia.com's Max Roach. Read New York Times Obituary for Max Roach, "Max Roach, a Founder of Modern Jazz, Dies at 83" by Peter Keepnews, August 16, 2007.

John Coltrane[edit]

John Coltrane (1926–1967) (active 1946→1967) Instrument: alto saxophone soprano saxophone tenor saxophone flute Roles: composer combos bandleader Style/Genre: Great American standards Bebop Hard Bop Modal Free jazz Avant-garde jazz Notable Achievements:^[121] first professional gigs were in a cocktail lounge trio in early to mid–1945.^[122] Enrolled in the United States. 🇺🇸 Navy “to avoid being drafted by the Army, on August 6, 1945, the day the first U.S. atomic bomb was dropped on Japan”^[123] and was stationed at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii at the Manana Barracks, the largest posting of African-American servicemen in the world. Wikipedia: John Coltrane describes Coltrane's situation as it progressed during his Navy career: “By the time he (Coltrane) got to Hawaii, in late 1945, the Navy was already rapidly downsizing. Coltrane's musical talent was quickly recognized, though, and he became one of the few Navy men to serve as a musician without having been granted musician's rating when he joined the Melody Masters, the base swing band. As the Melody Masters was an all-white band, however, Coltrane was treated merely as a guest performer to avoid alerting superior officers of his participation in the band. He continued to perform other duties when not playing with the band, including kitchen and security details. By the end of his service, he had assumed a leadership role in the band. His first recordings, an informal session in Hawaii with Navy musicians, occurred on July 13, 1946. Coltrane played alto saxophone on a selection of jazz standards and bebop tunes.” Wikipedia: John Coltrane states what happens immediately upon exiting the Navy in 1946 when “Coltrane returned to civilian life in 1946 and began studying jazz theory with Philadelphia guitarist and composer Dennis Sandole.” studied jazz theory with guitarist and composer Dennis Sandole and continued under Sandole's tutelage through the early 1950s. in 1947 Coltrane began playing tenor saxophone instead of his original alto saxophone with the Eddie Vinson Band. Listen to Coltrane's voice at Blank on blank - "John Coltrane on "Giant Steps"" interviewed by Frank Kofsky. toured with King Kolax immediately after getting out of the Navy. joined a Philly-based band led by Jimmy Heath, who was introduced to Coltrane's playing by his former Navy buddy, the trumpeter William Massey, who had played with Coltrane in the Melody Masters. Wikipedia: John Coltrane reports that according to tenor saxophonist Odean Pope, Coltrane was “significantly influenced by the obscure Philadelphia pianist, composer, and theorist Hasaan Ibn Ali who took the Muslim name of the grandson of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad. "Hasaan was the clue to . . . the system that Trane uses. Hasaan was the great influence on Trane’s melodic concept” apparently possibly influencing Coltrane's well known sheets of sound approach saw and heard Charlie "Bird" Parker for the first time on June 5, 1945 with Coltrane playing some with Parker in the late 1940's. member of groups led by Dizzy Gillespie (1917–1993), Earl Bostic (1913–1965), and Johnny Hodges (1907–1970), in the early to mid–1950s. in the summer of 1955, Coltrane was freelancing in Philadelphia while studying with guitarist Dennis Sandole when he was recruited by Miles Davis that formed Davis's "First Great Quintet" with Red Garland on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, and Philly Joe Jones on drums from October 1955 to April 1957 (with a few absences). promoted spirituality in jazz.^[124] easily recognizable idiosyncratic style and tone, especially on soprano saxophone. plaintive expressive passionate energetic sound in his solos. playing has a lot of drive. driven to practice his instrument and did so constantly. famous for what music critic Ira Gitler termed his "sheets of sound" producing rapid-fire attacks in an attempt to play every possible harmonic implication during his solo–every possible chord and every possible scale for each chord.^[125] “influenced innumerable musicians, including non-saxophonists.”^[126] constantly seeking musical insight and musical expressiveness. member of Miles Davis's first quintet comprised of Davis on trumpet, Sonny Rollins on tenor saxophone, Red Garland on piano, Paul Chambers on double bass, and Philly Joe Jones on drums when Coltrane replaces Sonny Rollins in Fall, 1955. Sonny Rollins (b. 1930) Miles Davis expanded this first quintet with Coltrane into a sextet with the addition of Cannonball Adderley Julian "Cannonball" Adderley (1928–1975) on alto saxophone in 1958 producing one of the definitive hard bop groups recording the Columbia albums Round About Midnight. , Milestones , and the marathon sessions for Prestige Records resulting in five albums (Miles, Cookin', Relaxin', Workin', and Steamin') collected on The Legendary Prestige Quintet Sessions. In mid–1958, Bill Evans replaced Garland on piano and Jimmy Cobb replaced Philly Joe Jones on drums, but Evans only lasted about six months, in turn replaced by Wynton Kelly as 1958 turned into 1959. This group backing Davis, Coltrane, and Adderley, with Evans returning for the recording sessions, recorded Kind of Blue , considered one of the most important, influential and popular albums in jazz. Members of the First Miles Davis Quintet/Sextet (1955–58) with John Coltrane (tenor saxophone), Cannonball Adderley (alto saxophone), Jimmy Cobb (drums), Miles Davis (trumpet), Wynton Kelly (piano), Paul Chambers (double bass), & Bill Evans (piano). formed his "Classic Quartet" with McCoy Tyner on piano, Elvin Jones on drums, and Jimmy Garrison on bass (1961). The performance of "Chasin' The Trane" consisting of eighty choruses of Coltrane improvising on the blues was on his tenth album Coltrane "Live" at the Village Vanguard released in 1962 on Impulse Records featuring for the first time the members of the "Classic Quartet" of himself with McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison, and Elvin Jones. Contrasting with the positive reaction to his previous album for Impulse!, “this one generated much turmoil among both critics and audience alike with its challenging music” and began John Coltrane's experiments into avant-garde jazz (1961) recorded what is considered his most spiritually important album "A Love Supreme" with his "Classic Quartet" (1965). Read reviewer's reactions to the album fifty years on as well as Listen to songs at DavesMusicDatabase.com. took the lead in extensively exploring the limits of modal improvisation and composition with his quartet, featuring Elvin Jones (drums), McCoy Tyner (piano), and Reggie Workman and Jimmy Garrison (bass). Several of Coltrane's albums are recognized as examples of modal jazz: Africa/Brass (1961), Live! at the Village Vanguard (1962), Crescent (1964), A Love Supreme (1964), and Meditations (1965). in his avant-garde playing used new extended techniques, such squeals, split tones, and multiphonics contributed to extending the upper register of the saxophone. canonized as a Saint (1982) in the St. John Coltrane African Orthodox Church of San Francisco, CA^[127] (Photo by John Martin) DownBeat magazine Hall of Fame, Reader's Poll (1965) Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (1992). Pulitzer prize posthumous jazz composer Special Citation (2007). Gravesite located at Pinelawn Memorial Park (aka Pinelawn Memorial Cemetery) at Pinelawn Road and Wellwood Avenue, East Farmingdale, Suffolk County, New York.

Miles Davis[edit]

Miles Davis looking straight ahead with golden shirt and white beaded necklace.

Miles Davis (1926–1991)
(active 1945→1991)

(Montreux, Switzerland
Photo by Dennis Jarvis)

(Photo by Lajos Jardai at Colozine but colorized)

A composit of a mid-twenties Miles Davis slouching in chair on left with a middle-aged unsmiling Miles with curly hair.

(Photo on right by Tom Palumbo)

A composite of six color photographic cutouts of Miles Davis on a rich deep darkish blue background with a variety of expressions on his face.

An enhanced composite of six color photographic cutouts of Miles Davis on a bluish background with a variety of expressions on his face.

Instrument:

trumpet

electrified trumpet

flugelhorn

Roles:

bandleader

composer

soloist

Style/Genre:

Bebop

Hard Bop

Cool

Modal

Jazz-Rock fusion

A composite of the iconic Miles Davis slouching posture while playing trumpet.

Notable Achievements:^[128]

“arguably the most influential jazz musician in the post-World War II period, being at the forefront of changes in the genre for more than 40 years.”^[129] (bold and bold italic not in original)

cool^[130] persona and dresser.^[131]
“By 1960 Miles was a GQ fashion plate and on Esquire’s best-dressed list. Ever ahead of the pack, he’d already moved on to slim-cut European suits. Press releases for upcoming concerts detailed the sartorial as well as musical program.”^[132]

(Miles Davis at Strasbourg 1987
Photo by Jean Fortunet)

“Throughout his four decades in jazz, in which he was at the forefront of every major innovation, Miles Davis always shunned the stale and the hackneyed—what he called “warmed-over turkey.” This artistic integrity, this determination to be unpredictable, to stand for the new and to take risks, is key to understanding Davis’s chameleon-like role as style icon.”^[133] (bold not in original)

A cutout photo of Miles Davis as a young man wearing a sports jacket and smiling while holding his trumpet down by his left side.

A colorized cutout photo of Miles Davis as a young man wearing a sports jacket and smiling while holding his trumpet down by his left side.

stylist innovator: hard bop, cool, modal, jazz/rock fusion, rap hip-hop jazz on the album "Doo-Bop" with rapper Easy Mo Bee.

“formed a nonet with arranger-pianist Gil Evans, saxophonists Gerry Mulligan and Lee Konitz, and pianist John Lewis to record his first major musical statement, "Birth of the Cool," using the standard piano, bass, and drums rhythm section, along with the nonet's horn section of French horn, tuba, trombone, and alto and baritone saxophones, lending the band a unique harmonic 'cool' sound”; (hence birth of the cool).”^[134]

in a professional career lasting 50 years, he was at the forefront of Bebop, cool, Hard bop, orchestral jazz (Third Stream), Modal jazz, Jazz-rock fusion and Techno-funk.^[135]

“played the trumpet in a lyrical, introspective, and melodic style, often employing a stemless Harmon mute to make his sound more personal and intimate.”^[135]

A photograph of a framed high school diploma for Miles Davis Jr. from 1944.

attended for a year the Institute of Musical Art in New York City (renamed Juilliard) in September 1944.

joined Benny Carter's band and made his first recordings as a sideman (1945).

played with Billy Eckstine in 1946–1947.

member of Charlie Parker's group in 1947–1948.

A black and white photograph by Herman Leonard of from left to right Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Allen Eager, and Kai Winding respectively playing the alto saxophone, trumpet with mute, tenor saxophone, and trombone.

(Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Allen Eager, and Kai Winding)
(Original Photo by Herman Leonard (1923–2010))

A black and white photograph by Herman Leonard now colorized of from left to right Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Allen Eager, and Kai Winding respectively playing the alto saxophone, trumpet with mute, tenor saxophone, and trombone.

A black and white photograph by Herman Leonard now more colorized of from left to right Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Allen Eager, and Kai Winding respectively playing the alto saxophone, trumpet with mute, tenor saxophone, and trombone.

(Original Photo by Herman Leonard (1923–2010) colorized)

recording debut as a leader on a 1947 session that featured Charlie Parker, pianist John Lewis, bassist Nelson Boyd, and drummer Max Roach.

recorded three sessions (Jan. 21 & Apr. 22, 1949; March 9, 1950) in New York City that became the "Birth of the Cool" compilation album released on Capitol Records (1957). Wikipedia: Birth of the Cool reports that the music featured “unusual instrumentation and several notable musicians, the music consisted of innovative arrangements influenced by classical music techniques such as polyphony, and marked a major development in post-bebop jazz.”

The bottom half of a hand written in black font tree diagram of Miles Davis's groups from September 1957 to May 1958 constructed by Paul Barber.

(Detail of Jazz Tree of "Miles Davis Live Bands (1955–1975) by Paul Barber as published in Even More Rock Family Trees Paperback—November 1, 2011 by Pete Frame (b. 1942))

Performing onstage in West Germany around 1959 in a pin-striped suit with right hand on his right cheek with trumpet hanging down on his left side.

(performing onstage circa 1959 in West Germany 🇩🇪)
(photographed by Michael Ochs (b. 1943))

🔵 "Kind of Blue: How Miles Davis Changed Jazz"

recorded the landmark modal jazz album "Kind of Blue" (1959) with his first great sextet

Bill Evans on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, Miles on trumpet, John Coltrane on tenor saxophone, and Cannonball Adderly on alto saxophone. Wynton Kelly on piano only on the song "Freddie Freeloader", and Jimmy Cobb on drums (not seen in photograph).

The album is ranked #12 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

formed his "second great quintet" of [reading left to right in photograph below] Herbie Hancock on piano/keyboards, Miles on trumpet,
Ron Carter on bass, Wayne Shorter on tenor saxophone, and Tony Williams [obscured] on drums.

(Photo by David Redfern)

They recorded 1964's "Miles in Berlin," made after Shorter joined, followed by "ESP" (1965), "Sorcerer" (1967), "Nefertiti" (1967/1968), "Miles in the Sky" (1968), (hinting at the beginnings of jazz rock, with Hancock introducing the Fender Rhodes), "Filles de Kilimanjaro" (1968/1969), and the stunning "The Complete Live At the Plugged Nickel" (1965/1995).

(Photo by David Redfern—colorized)

recorded the album ESP (1965) that pointed the way to the fusion of jazz and rock.

Miles Davis in a blue jean suit blowing his trumpet into a microphone stand probably around early 1970s.

recorded landmark jazz/rock fusion album "Bitches Brew" (1969).
Read an assessment of the forty years of inspirational impact "Bitches Brew" has had on culture and art.
Read Paul Tingen's (b. 1959) "The Making of 'The Complete Bitches Brew Sessions'."

(Miles Davis performing live on stage at the Isle Of Wight Festival)
(at Afton Down on the Isle of Wight, England on August 29, 1970)
(Photo by David Redfern (1936–2014))

A framed composite of twenty-two of the same drawing of Miles Davis bent forward playing his trumpet, but with different colorations and each drawing inside of a monochrome square of different colors with PoJ.fm logos.

together with producer Teo Macero^[136] made "the most hated album in jazz" thus having the distinction of making both the best liked album of all time (most sales) in "Kind of Blue" (1959) together with what was once considered the worst jazz album in "On The Corner" (1972).

The yellow album cover for "On the Corner" by Miles Davis with cartoon black people by artist Corky McCoy.

See why people think it was or was not a 'sell out.'

was the only major jazz figure to appear with top rock bands in stadiums and theaters around the world.

Miles at North Sea Jazz Festival 1991
(Photo by Peter Buitelaar)

NEA (National Endowment for the Arts) Jazz Master (1984)

has the most immediately recognizable iconic profile silhouette in jazz history: !

A colorized diptych of a young man Miles Davis in white shirt sitting on a chair on the left side with an older Miles Davis with curly long hair on right side.

(Click on picture to see 3D version,
then hit back arrow of browser to return to PoJ.fm)

What he did, says fellow trumpeter Lester Bowie (1941–1999), is play “completely different from anybody else in his era. The way he plays his intervals, the way he plays through chord changes, that’s what made him really different. Everybody else played sort of the same, up and down, musical passages, chord changes, in intervals of seconds, thirds, fourths, fifths, and sixths. But Miles plays in between all of that. He plays sideways. He runs through whole tunes sideways. It was really different from the way anybody else had ever approached the trumpet. It takes genius to come up with a different idea, a different way of doing something. Considering all the great trumpet players who had come before him, it took quite a bit for Miles to come up with a new and different approach. He was the innovator on the trumpet.”^[137] (bold not in original)

A photographic cutout of late Miles Davis facing to the right with an open shirt and several chains with medallions exposed on his bare chest while holding his trumpet in is left hand at chest height with bell pointing straight down.

A colorize photographic cutout of late Miles Davis facing to the right with an open shirt and several chains with medallions exposed on his bare chest while holding his trumpet in is left hand at chest height with bell pointing straight down.

inducted into Downbeat magazine's Jazz & Blues Hall of Fame in Reader's Poll, 1962.

Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (1990).

A 2D picture of a 3D colorization of Miles Davis playing his trumpet while standing and facing to his left in a white shirt at a standing microphone.

(Click on picture to see 3D version,
then hit back arrow of browser to return to PoJ.fm)

A framed color composite of four photographic cutouts of Miles Davis.

See the list of where Miles Davis is ranked as an artist (currently 16th greatest of all-time) and where his albums rank at AcclaimedMusic.net.

Read Gary Giddins's review of Miles's Autobiography "Juilliard Dropout Makes Good," originally published in the New York Times October 15, 1989, Section 7, Page 7.

Animated Miles Davis's

Miles Davis's Interviews:

Listen to Miles Davis's voice in this 1953 "Interview with DJ Harry Frost" on KXLW, East St. Louis radio. prior to his permanently injuring it after removal of nodes from his larynx from shouting making his voice into a rasp.

Listen to Miles Davis's voice announcing song title's during The Miles Davis/Tadd Dameron Quintet—In Paris Festival International De Jazz—May, 1949 a few years before he injured it. You can hear him announcing tunes at 4:34–4:37 (Count Basie and Tad Dameron's "Good Bait"), 10:22–10:23 ("Don't Blame Me"), 14:41–14:43 (Tad Dameron's "Lady Bird"), and 29:41–29:44 ("Embraceable You"). Miles also plays a lot of terrific Bebop trumpet on this date.

Read one of the best interviews ever on how Miles Davis made music at the end of his career from Marcus Miller being interviewed by Brett Premack, "Marcus Miller Remembers Miles Davis" (aka "Marcus Miller Spills the Tea on Miles Davis"), January 8, 1998.

Read Alex Hailey's interview with Miles Davis for Playboy magazine September, 1962.

Read "Last Miles: Our 1991 Miles Davis Interview," SPIN magazine, December 1991.

Read about Marc Crawford's article in Ebony magazine titled "Miles Davis: Evil Genius of Jazz."

Read Mark Crawford's "Miles Davis: Evil Genius of Jazz," Ebony (January 1961), 69–71, 74, 76, 78. and see it with photographs below.

The cover of Ebony magazine from January 1961 of an Afro-American women standing and smiling wearing a blue jump suit and matching blue head scarf with Southern France with boats in the background on the left side and the table of contents on the right side.

The opening pages of the article in the January 1961 Ebony magazine of "Miles Davis: Evil Genius of Jazz" from p. 69 followed on right side by page 70.

Pages 71, 74, 76 of the article in the January 1961 Ebony magazine of "Miles Davis: Evil Genius of Jazz."

Pages 76 and 78 of the article in the January 1961 Ebony magazine of "Miles Davis: Evil Genius of Jazz."

A NASA photograph using the Hubble Space Telescope of Spiral Planetary Nebula NGC 5189.

(Background photos by NASA and the Hubble Space Telescope using false but natural colors in 2012 with PoJ.fm logos added)

Lennie Tristano[edit]

Lennie Tristano (March 19, 1919–November 18, 1978) (active 1940→1969) (Pied Piper jam, New York, N.Y., September, 1947) (Detail of photograph by William P. Gottlieb) Instrument: piano could also play tenor saxophone, clarinet, and cello Roles: composer arranger teacher of jazz improvisation on all instruments Style/Genre: Bebop Cool jazz Early free improvisation Post-bop Avant-garde jazz (New York, N.Y., ca. Aug. 1947) (photograph by William P. Gottlieb) Notable Achievements:^[138] born in Chicago, Illinois, where he lost his eyesight at age 8. graduated from the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago with a B.A. in Music (1941). was influenced by pianists Earl "Fatha" Hines (1903–1983), Teddy Wilson (1912–1986) and Art Tatum (1909–1956). became a jazz fixture in Chicago acquiring a loyal following of students. in 1946 moved to New York City, formed a jazz trio, and began formal teaching of jazz and improvisation. “was the first person on record to persuade players to improvise simultaneously without any pre-set limits as to key or duration, and to do so in public rather than in a studio.”^[139] “sought to make improvisation less predictable and more open-ended, and aspired to a purely dispassionate sound to his music.”^[139] taught many jazz players over thirty years, including tenor saxophonists Bud Freeman (1906–1991) and Warne Marsh (1927–1987), alto saxophonist Lee Konitz (1927–2020), clarinetist and composer John LaPorta (1920–2004), guitarist Billy Bauer (1915–2005), and bassist Arnold Fishkind (1919–1999). Metronome's musician of the year in 1947. Konitz and Marsh joined his pioneering sextet and recorded for Capitol Records in 1949. From 1955 to 1958, the threesome also recorded together and separately for Nesuhi Ertegun's (1917–1989) newly established Atlantic Records. Read a review of "Charlie Parker & Lennie Tristano: Complete Recordings." elected to DownBeat magazine Hall of Fame, Critic's Poll (1979). inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2013 for "Crosscurrents," an album of recordings from 1949. added to the Ertegun Hall of Fame in 2015. Read Arabella Sprot's "Lennie Tristano: 10 Great Albums from the Jazz Innovator," last updated November 3, 2021. Read Barry Ulanov's "Lennie Tristano: Master in the Making (The remarkable life of Lennie Tristano who wrested order out of chaos and art out of affliction)," Metronome, August 1949, 14–15 & 32–33.

Chet Baker[edit]

Chet Baker (1929–1988) (active 1949→1988) Instrument: trumpet vocals flugelhorn piano Roles: sideman singer band leader soloist Style/Genre: Bebop Cool jazz West Coast jazz Notable Achievements:^[140] born in 1929 in Yale, Oklahoma the son of guitarist Chesney Henry Baker, Sr. with the family moving to Glendale, California in 1940. when a young boy he sang in the church choir as well as in amateur competitions. when a teenager, his father bought him a trombone, which Chet found unwieldy, so later is replaced by a trumpet. first musical training was at Glendale Junior High School in California. dropped out of high school at sixteen and enlisted in the army (1946) where he played in the Army Band of the 298th Army regiment in Berlin, Germany. studied music theory and harmony at El Camino College in Los Angeles, California (1948) while playing in local jazz clubs. He dropped out of college in his sophomore year. enlisted again in the army and became a member of the Sixth Army Band (1949) at the Presidium in San Francisco. continued to perform at numerous clubs around San Francisco, including Bop City and the Black Hawk. in 1952 his first notable performances were with saxophonist Vido Musso’s band and tenor saxophonist Stan Getz. in the summer of 1952, Charlie Parker chose him to play in his new band in a series of concerts on the West Coast. after finishing with Parker, he began playing in Gerry Mulligan’s quartet, where they used only a baritone saxophone, trumpet, bass and drums, but no piano, gaining notoriety performing at the Haig nightclub and coming under contract with the new record label Pacific Jazz Records (later known as World Records Pacific). The band stood out for the interaction between Mulligan's baritone saxophone and Baker's trumpet. Rather than playing melodic lines in unison like bebop giants Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, the two developed musical phrases from contrapuntal techniques. Baker became famous for his unusually effective expressive abilities, especially because of his interpretation of "My Funny Valentine" in the band's first LP, Gerry Mulligan Quartet. because of Mulligan's drug problems (he served time in prison) and economic and character disagreements, Baker formed his own jazz band, where he played trumpet and sang. won the Best Instrumentalist award in DownBeat magazine's poll (1954), beating Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, and rising star Clifford Brown, among others. in 1959 and 1960 Baker toured Italy and recorded records with the orchestra of Maestro Ezio Leoni (an artistic pseudonym for Len Mercer) playing with Italian musicians Franco Cerri, Gianni Basso, Renato Sellani, Glauco Masetti, Franco Mondini, Fausto Papetti, and pianist Luca Flores. began playing the soprano flugelhorn during his performances in the early 1960s. famous for having life long drug problems, especially cocaine and heroin, where his dependence on heroin got him a year in an Italian prison, and subsequent expulsions from West Germany and England. stopped playing in 1966 due to serious problems with his front teeth, which had to be extracted because of their causing severe pain. fellow trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie recognized Baker while working as a gas pump clerk and helped him fix his dentures and encouraged him to play again. Baker moved to New York, where he began recording with renowned jazz guitarist Jim Hall (with whom he recorded the excellent "Concierto"), and then finally returned to living in Europe. collaborated with English musician Elvis Costello in the song "Shipbuilding." Discogs lists a total of 7,848 albums that Baker plays on with 829 exclusively featuring Baker. Click on any of the three-hundred forty-five album covers below to confirm. moved almost permanently out of the United States living around Europe, especially Holland, where the permissive laws on narcotics allowed him to satisfy his heroin dependence relatively easily. collaborated with Italian flutist Nicola Stilo, discovered by Baker. in Rome, Italy he met the Brazilian pianist and singer Jim Porto with whom recorded Rio (1983). invited to perform at the 1985 Free Jazz Festival in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, Brazil. died falling out of a window at the Prins Hendrik Hotel in Amsterdam, under the influence of cocaine and heroin, on May 13, 1988. A bronze plaque memorializes the location of his death. he is buried in Inglewood Cemetery, California.

Ornette Coleman[edit]

(Ornette Coleman [1930–2015] and Jelly Roll Morton [1890–1941] looking on quizzically!) (Randolph Denard) Ornette Coleman (1930–2015) (active 1949→2015) (Photo by Tom Beetz, taken July 9, 2010) (Caravan of Dreams, Fort Worth, TX, 1985 Craig Howell photo) (The Roots at the Royal Festival Hall, June 13, 2009) (Featuring special guests Ornette Coleman, David Murray and Andy Hamilton) (Photo by Ian Duffy) (Photo by Nomo Michael Hoefner) (Photo by Bruno Bollaert, taken July 8, 2010) (Ornette Coleman at Royal Festival Hall in London, England at the Meltdown Festival June 21, 2009) (Photo by Wonker) (Photo by Tom Beetz, taken July 9, 2010) Instrument: alto saxophone tenor saxophone trumpet violin (Caravan of Dreams, Fort Worth, TX, 1985 Photo by Craig Howell) Roles: bandleader composer Style/Genre: Harmolodics (word derived from "harmony," "movement (of sound)," and "melody") Free jazz Jazz-rock fusion Notable Achievements:^[141] Played in barroom rhythm-and-blues bands and traveling in the South with a traveling carnival/minstrel show called Silas Green from New Orleans (1949). recorded debut album "Something Else!!!!: The Music of Ornette Coleman" for Les Koenig's Contemporary Records (1958). followed up by "Tomorrow Is The Question" (1959) invited to a summer concert series by the Modern Jazz Quartet's pianist and musical director John Lewis held at the Lenox School of Jazz in Massachusetts (1959). “Gunther Shuller: 'I remember vividly Ornette Coleman just going out of his mind the first time he heard Jelly Roll Morton’s "Black Bottom Stomp"—he thought it was the best thing he’d ever heard in his life. I played a lot of Louis Armstrong, Bessie Smith, God knows what, and a lot of it was a revelation to him about his own heritage.'”^[142] (bold not in original) early supporters of Coleman, besides John Lewis, included, the conductor Leonard Bernstein, the jazz critics Nat Hentoff and Martin Williams and the composer Gunther Schuller, the last three all wrote for the magazine The Jazz Review. Coleman and his quartet (Don Cherry 🍒 on pocket trumpet, double bassist Charlie Haden and drummer Billy Higgins) came to New York City for a two-week engagement (stretching to ten weeks) at the Five Spot Cafe in November 1959 with Leonard Bernstein, Gunther Schuller, Neshui and Ahmet Ertegun, John Hammond and almost every musician in town in the audience on the first night.^[143] (l. to rt. Don Cherry, Charlie Haden, Ornette Coleman, Ed Blackwell) (Photograph originally published in the Japanese magazine Swing Journal October 1969) (Photo by Takahashi Arihara) “For the players, however, it was something that, according to Haden, they “worked out as we went along. We did it all by ear. At first when we were playing and improvising, we kind of followed the pattern of the song, sometimes. Then, when we got to New York, Ornette wasn’t playing on the song patterns, like the bridge and the interlude and stuff like that. He would just play. And that’s when I started just following him and playing the chord changes that he was playing: on-the-spot new chord structures made up according to how he felt at any given moment. And Cherry was kind of playing like that, too, so Billy [Higgins] and I kind of followed it. “The truth is,” he continues, “that when we had first met, we were kind of all hearing that way already. We just happened to be at the right place at the right time, all together, to make this thing happen. And it just kept getting better and better.”^[144] (bold not in original) occasionally used a non-tempered musical scale with notes sounding at a natural rather than a well-tempered pitch, abandonment of chord changes and the conventions of the 32-bar AABA song form and emphasizing group improvisational interplay. From 1959 through the 1960's, viewed as “either a visionary or a charlatan, and there was no middle ground between advocacy and disapproval.”^[145] His alto saxophone playing had a “suppleness of phrasing and (a) keening vox-humana quality of his intonation.”^[146] “(Colemen's) music looked back through the jazz tradition with its collective improvisations and its personal, speechlike approach to intonation and phrasing, so much like the ensemble and solo styles of the early Southern and Southwestern blues and jazz musicians. . . . In twelve years the style had become classic, distilled into the kind of unique, breathtaking perfection . . . ”^[147] (bold not in original) “Despite the nonstandard details of the situation (Coleman playing a white plastic alto saxophone, exploiting modal rather than chordal approaches to improvisation, and so forth), Coleman's early work mobilizes traditional forms and rhythms: Charlie Haden and Billy Higgins provide recognizable, solid foundation for Coleman's and Cherry's improvisational experimentation. This might explain why Coleman was drawn into the pantheon of jazz (despite rancorous controversy) in a way that Albert Ayler was not.”^[148] (bold not in original) “One way into Coleman’s music is to think of it as avant-gutbucket. Hailing from Fort Worth . . . , he got his start in rhythm and blues and the blues are, conspicuously, at the forefront of his achievement. . . . The forbidding harmonic intricacy of bebop sparked several responses in the fifties, but Coleman’s was the most radical. He threw out the chord changes, famously excluding pianists from his primordial groups, thus eliminating “comping,” or chord-prompting that kept soloists in line, and played music that often had the furious speed of bop but lacked its tonal anchors. His melodies and solos were filled with catchy bluesy riffs and soul-chilling cries, but he shifted notes (or, rather, from pitches) without regard for traditionally recognizable relations of consonance.” “That’s why, when he came to New York, in 1959, Coleman was instantly considered an enfant terrible who brazenly imported something like atonality into jazz. But what really made his style catch on was that his phrases were, in fact, fluently, melodically, catchily, deep-in-the-bone singable—close in feel to the primal wails of blues singers. Coleman wasn’t so much against harmony as he was questioning it; wasn’t opposed to chords (he employed marvellous bass players, including Charlie Haden, . . . ) but to constraints; and, as his solos took flight, they were received as signal acts of modernism, exposing the conventions of jazz while defying them, turning jazz performance into an act of spontaneous thought, constant musical invention, and self-questioning. What made his 1959 performances seminal moments of free jazz was the very idea of freedom that they embodied.”^[149] (bold and bold italic not in original) recorded "The Shape of Jazz to Come" (1959) and the first track, Lonely Woman, became a jazz standard. original group signed to Atlantic Records where the essential music was finished within a short time recording his third album "The Shape Of Jazz To Come" (1959), fourth album "Change Of The Century" (1959), fifth album "This Is Our Music" (1961), sixth album "Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation" with Eric Dolphy on bass clarinet and trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, seventh album "Ornette!" (1961), and eighth album "Ornette On Tenor" (1961). released "Free Jazz" (1960), an album containing improvised performances by two quartets often playing simultaneously: Left channel: Ornette Coleman – alto saxophone, Don Cherry – pocket trumpet, Scott LaFaro – bass, Billy Higgins – drums Right channel: Eric Dolphy – bass clarinet, Freddie Hubbard – trumpet, Charlie Haden – bass, Ed Blackwell – drums) essentially consisting of forty minutes of often simultaneous free group improvisations. toured England 🇬🇧, France 🇫🇷, and Sweden 🇸🇪 (1965), “setting in motion an avant-garde jazz movement in Europe that continued unabated for decades.”^[150] Downbeat magazine Hall of Fame, Reader's Poll (1969). twice awarded a Guggenheim scholarship (1967 & 1974 for Music Composition). composed "Skies of America," (1972) a full-length work for soloist and symphony orchestra, performed by the London Philharmonic (1972) with the U.S. premiere at the Newport-in-New York jazz festival at Lincoln Center with the American Symphony Orchestra (July 1972).^[151] traveled to Nigeria 🇳🇬 (early 1970's) and Morocco 🇲🇦 and played and recorded "Dancing In Your Head" released (1977) with the Master Musicians of Joujouka. (1973). formed (Saturday Night Live 1979 photo courtesy NBC) Prime Time double quartet with two guitarists, two drummers, two bassists, and Coleman on sax, violin and trumpet (circa 1975). created arts center, New York City (early 1980s). received the key to his hometown Fort Worth, TX (1983) documented in Shirley Clark’s film “Ornette: Made In America.” “had a huge impact on the early world of Progressive Rock, especially bands such as King Crimson, Henry Cow, Soft Machine and Gentle Giant.^[152] National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Jazz Masters Fellowship (1984). recorded "Song X" with guitarist Pat Metheny (1985). Hartford Real Art Ways retrospective, including performance of Coleman's recently composed chamber music; subsequent commissions for the Kronos Quartet (1985). recorded Virgin Beauty featuring the late Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia (1942–1995) on three tracks (released 1988). named Jazz Artist of the Century, Texas Monthly magazine (1985?). Ornette Coleman Festival at Carnegie Hall, NY (1986). reunited with original quartet for album "In All Languages" (1987). his "Broadway Blues" became a jazz standard and a key work in the free jazz movement.^[153] Honorary doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania (1988). composed his classical work, "Freedom Symbol: La Statue (The Country That Gave the Freedom Symbol to America)," (1989), a composition commissioned by the French government and inspired by the Statue of Liberty. premiere of Architecture in Motion, Harmolodic ballet; soundtracks for Naked Lunch and Philadelphia (1990s). Honorary degree from the California Institute of the Arts (1990). featured performer and composer of several of the soundtracks for “Naked Lunch,” a film of the William S. Burroughs's novel by filmmaker David Cronenberg together with music composed by Howard Shore (1991). featured a four-day celebration of his music at New York City’s Lincoln Center Festival, including rare performances of his “Skies of America” symphony with the New York Philharmonic (1997). +++++++++++ Honorary Degree from the Boston Conservatory of Music (1993). awarded a "Genius" (really a creativity)^[154] grant by the MacArthur Fellowship (1994). started Harmolodics label (1994–97). named Jazz Artist of the Year, 46th Annual Down Beat International Critics Poll (1996). inducted as Officier (Officer) in France's Order of Arts and Letters (1998). Awarded the Praemium Imperiale Prize for Music, Japan Art Association, Tokyo a prize worth ¥15 million, about $130,000, given under the patronage of Prince Hitachi of Japan, the brother of Emperor Akihito and presented by former French prime minister, Raymond Barre, who is on the board of the Japan Art Association (2001). Gish Prize (2004). started Sound Grammar label in 2006. Pulitzer prize for music for album "Sound Grammar" (2007). over 50 recordings.^[155] top of Village Voice jazz critic's poll (2006). Grammy Award nomination for album "Sound Grammar." Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (2007). Honorary Doctor of Music Degree from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, with 44th President of the United States Barack Obama in attendance (2010). Richard Williams, "The world came to recognise the courage and rightness of Ornette Coleman," The Guardian, June 11, 2015. “His music confronted people so directly that he was once beaten up by concertgoers—but Ornette came to be one of jazz’s torch bearers.” Andrew Purcell, "Free Radical," The Guardian, June 29, 2007. “Ornette Coleman didn't just move jazz on—he took it on a wild journey some will never forgive him for. He talks to Andrew Purcell about liberating sound, his theory of 'harmolodics', and being beaten up for playing his sax out of tune.” John Fordham, "Ornette Coleman Obituary," The Guardian, June 11, 2015. Hank Williams, "Everything is Music: A Riverside Church Farewell to Ornette Coleman," July 6, 2015.

Don Cherry[edit]

Don Cherry 🍒 (1936–1995) (active 1952→1994) Instrument: trumpet pocket trumpet/cornet cornet keyboards wooden flutes shehnai harmonium tanpura gamelan doussn'gouni a hunter's guitar/harp from Mali with a calabash, six strings and a rattle. melodica Roles: sideman bandleader combos composer Style/Genre: Jazz Free Jazz Avant-garde Jazz World Music Notable Achievements:^[156] one of the pioneering figures in free jazz with Ornette Coleman (1957). closely identified with what almost everyone calls a pocket trumpet, although technically it was a pocket cornet. “Very few “name” players are identified with pocket cornets. Certainly the best known would be the late “free jazz” player Don Cherry, who played a 1930’s vintage Besson MEHA pocket cornet (almost always identified as a “pocket trumpet”). I’ve read that he first played a Pakistani pocket cornet—the first photo shows him playing something other than his Besson. You can see (and hear) several videos of Cherry playing his Besson^A at the website YouTube^B.”^[157] (bold and bold italic not in original) stayed with Ornette Coleman through the early 1960s, playing on the first twelve (and most influential) of the saxophonist’s albums listed below: NOTE: Click on album title for Wikipedia page and click on album cover for more information about it. In the albums below, the recording date(s) are listed first separated by a forward slash "/" followed by its release date. If the album was recorded and released in the same year only one date is used. "Something Else!!!!" (Contemporary, 1958) "Tomorrow Is the Question!" (Contemporary, 1959) "The Shape of Jazz to Come" (Atlantic, 1959) "Twins" (Atlantic, 1959–1961 / 1971) "The Art of the Improvisers" (Atlantic, 1959–1961 / 1970) "Change of the Century" (Atlantic, 1959 / 1960) "To Whom Who Keeps a Record" (Atlantic, 1959–1960 / 1975) "The Ornette Coleman Legacy" (Atlantic, 1961) "This Is Our Music" (Atlantic, 1961) "Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation" (Atlantic, 1961) "Ornette!" (Atlantic, 1962) "Ornette on Tenor" (Atlantic, 1962) In 1960, recorded "The Avant-Garde" (Atlantic, 1960 / 1966) with John Coltrane (1926–1967). After leaving Coleman’s band, played with Albert Ayler (1936–1970) on "New York Eye and Ear Control" (1964) and Ayler's legendary album "Ghosts" (1965). co-led the New York Contemporary Five with Archie Shepp (b. 1937) and John Tchicai (1963–1964). (Click on any of the three .gif pictures to listen to a special mix of "Don Cherry Around the World." Click on center 2D picture to see the 3D version, then hit back arrow of browser to return to PoJ.fm) led a band in Europe with Argentinian saxophonist Gato Barbieri (1932–2016) from 1964–1966 and recorded two of his most highly regarded albums, "Complete Communion" (1965/1966) and "Symphony for Improvisers." (1966/1967). appeared on records alongside many other icons of modern jazz, including Archie Shepp, John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Carla Bley, Charlie Haden, Steve Lacy, and Sun Ra. taught music at Dartmouth College (1970). recorded with the Jazz Composer’s Orchestra (1973). starting in early 1970s lived in Sweden with his wife Moki (1943–2009) and their children for four years and used the country as a base for his travels around Europe and the Middle East. became increasingly interested in other, mostly non-Western, styles of music. performed and recorded with Codona with percussionist Naná Vasconcelos (1944–2016) (on right in photo below) and multi-instrumentalist Collin Walcott (1945–1984) (in middle of photo below) playing a mixture of African, Asian, and other indigenous musics (late 1970s and early 1980s). joined with ex-Coleman associates Charlie Haden, Ed Blackwell, and Dewey Redman to form Old and New Dreams that played the compositions of Ornette Coleman. formed the band called Nu with Naná Vasconcelos (1944–2016) and alto saxophonist Carlos Ward (b. 1940). recorded the album "Art Deco" with bassist Charlie Haden, drummer Billy Higgins, and saxophonist James Clay (1988). learned to play and compose for wood flutes, tambura, gamelan, and various other non-Western instruments. applying his knowledge of non-Western musical elements he recorded "Multi Kulti" that celebrated musical diversity (1990). inducted into the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame (2011). helped to promote other countries music into a jazz context, so-called world music. Listen to Don Cherry's voice discussing his meeting with saxophonist Albert Ayler (1936–1970). Listen to Don Cherry playing and incorporating world music. “On the occasion of the release of the first book in the history of humanity on this too little-known genius of Great Black Music, we take you on a real world tour thanks to the many cosmopolitan encounters Don Cherry made during his life as a volunteer nomad. On the [musical] program of this unprecedented and certified organic trip: India 🇮🇳, Germany 🇩🇪, Morocco 🇲🇦, Greece 🇬🇷, or Republic of the Gambia 🇬🇲.”^[158] (bold not in original) Watch video of "Bemsha Swing" with Don Cherry and Herbie Hancock. Encyclopaedia Brittanica: "Don Cherry." Read from the Notable Names Database on "Don Cherry." Read the biography entry for "Don Cherry, Jazz Artist Born" at African American Registry.

(Lee Morgan riding a Morgan horse)

Lee Morgan[edit]

Name & Pictures	Instrument Roles Style/Genre Years Active	Notable Achievements^[159]

Lee Morgan (1938–1972)	trumpet bandleader composer Jazz Bebop Hard Bop 1956→1972	one of the pioneering figures in hard bop

John McLaughlin[edit]

Name & Pictures	Instrument Roles Style/Genre Years Active	Notable Achievements^[160]

John McLaughlin (1942– ) (Berklee, 2017)	guitar electric guitar (Photo courtesy of Alfred Publishing) bandleader composer Jazz Jazz/Rock Fusion Indian music (fusing both Hindustani and Carnatic music traditions) with Euro-American jazz World Music 1963 → present	played jazz, rock, and blues in his native England with Alexis Korner and also Ginger Baker (1960's). pioneer in jazz/rock fusion. active in jazz, jazz/rock fusion, world fusion, progressive rock, psychedelic rock, Indian classical music, Western classical music, flamenco and the blues. recorded his debut album, "Extrapolation," (1969) and started working with Tony Williams with organist Larry Young in William's trailblazing group Life Time. featured guitarist on Miles Davis's albums "In A Silent Way" (1969) "Bitches Brew," (1970), and "Jack Johnson" / "A Tribute To Jack Johnson" (1971). founded (1971) and led the Mahavishnu Orchestra with (l-r) Jerry Goodman (violin), Jan Hammer (keyboards), John McLaughlin (double neck electric guitar), Billy Cobham (drums/percussion), Rick Laird (electric bass) (Photo at New York Philharmonic Hall, December, 1973). founded (1974) and led acoustic world fusion group (combining Indian music with elements of jazz) Shakti with (l-r) T. H. "Vikku" Vinayakram (ghatam), L. Shankar (Indian violin), cat, John McLaughlin (acoustic guitar), Zakir Hussain (tabla), Ramnad Raghavan (not shown)(mridangam). “influenced many fusion guitarists including Al DiMeola, Pat Metheny, Mike Stern, John Scofield, Bill Connors and Scott Henderson.”^[161] had a brief Mahavishnu Orchestra reunion (1984). acoustic guitar summit with Al DiMeola and Paco de Lucia (1982). produced a classical album with the London Symphony Orchestra (1988).

Wynton Marsalis[edit]

Wynton Marsalis (b. 1962) Instrument: trumpet Roles: singer bandleader soloist composer artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center (Wynton Marsalis standing front right with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra in rear at left in 2022) Style/Genre: Classical Jazz jazz educator Dixieland Years Active: 1980 → present Notable Achievements:^[162]^[163] pivotal figure in the neo-traditionalist movement in jazz a Pulitzer Prize. nine Grammy Awards. two Emmy nominations. a National Medal of Arts. National Humanities Medal. DownBeat Hall of Fame (2017). has sold seven million albums worldwide. Read Playthell Benjamin, "Urgent notes in a dazzling language," The Guardian, June 4, 1992, 25. “Jazz, the invention of black America, has long been neglected by New York's Waspish elite. But one man is changing that, a man whose trumpet sings with a unique, polished voice. He is so good, even the white establishment is impressed.” See and hear "Wynton Marsalis interview "Music is Life" at the ideafestival. Read Patrick Jarenwattananon's review of "Wynton Marsalis: At 50, At The Vanguard, In History," at A Blog Supreme, NPR Music, October 25, 2011.

Internet Resources on Jazz's Notable Achievements[edit]

"A Flourish of Jazz," Time magazine, July 5, 1976.

"Top Jazz albums" from acclaimedmusic.net

"Top Avant-garde jazz albums" from acclaimedmusic.net

"Top BeBop albums" from acclaimedmusic.net

"Top Hard Bop albums" from acclaimedmusic.net

"Top Big Band albums" from acclaimedmusic.net

"Top Swing albums" from acclaimedmusic.net

"Top Vocal Jazz albums" from acclaimedmusic.net

"Top artists from 1890–1949" from acclaimedmusic.net includes twelve jazz musicians out of the top twenty and six out of the top ten, including first place (Duke Ellington), second place (Louis Armstrong), and third place (Billie Holiday).

(Photo of the South side of 52nd Street between 5th & 6th Avenues looking east from 6th Avenue (c. 1948) by William P. Gottlieb)

• Cannonball Adderley
• Gene Ammons
• Albert Ayler
• Chet Baker
• Art Blakey
• Jimmy Blanton
• Tina Brooks
• Clifford Brown
• Dave Brubeck
• Ray Bryant
• Donald Byrd
• Sonny Clark
• Chick Corea
• Sonny Criss
• Paul Desmond
• Eric Dolphy
• Lou Donaldson
• Kenny Dorham
• Kenny Drew
• Bill Evans
• Ella Fitzgerald
• Tommy Flanagan
• Red Garland
• Stan Getz
• Dexter Gordon
• Grant Green
• Johnny Griffin
• Al Haig
• Hampton Hawes
• Joe Henderson
• Billie Holliday
• Milt Jackson
• Keith Jarrett
• Elvin Jones
• Philly Joe Jones
• Duke Jordan
• Wynton Kelly
• Rahsaan Roland Kirk
• Scott LaFaro
• Booker Little
• Branford Marsalis
• Jackie McLean
• Pat Metheny
• Hank Mobley
• Wes Montgomery
• Lee Morgan
• Fats Navarro
• Phineas Newborn Jr.
• Duke Pearson
• Art Pepper
• Oscar Peterson
• Bud Powell
• Max Roach
• Sonny Rollins
• Pharoah Sanders
• Shirley Scott
• Archie Shepp
• Wayne Shorter
• Horace Silver
• Zoot Sims
• Bobby Timmons
• Stanley Turrentine
• McCoy Tyner
• Mal Waldron

NOTES[edit]

↑ "The Making of a GREAT DAY FOR JAZZ," Issue 2004, No. 1.
↑ “Thank you for contacting the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and for your interest in the NEA Jazz Masters photo. As long as you are not looking to use the photograph for financial gain, rather for informational purposes, you may use it with the following credit: Photo by Tom Pich for the NEA. We wish you the best in all your creative endeavors. Signed: Allison Hill, Staff Assistant in Public Affairs, National Endowment for the Arts, 400 7th Street SW, Washington DC 20506, hilla@arts.gov; 202-682-5037; 202-682-5084.
↑ ‘’Wikipedia’’: William P. Gottlieb.
↑ May 1, 2020. "We are happy for you to use the picture from the front of the "Kitten on the Keys" with our wording removed. As the picture is our copyright (the original was a greyscale image) we would appreciate a credit to Saydisc Records, if this is possible. I imagine you will be including details of our albums "Kitten on the Keys", “Pianola Jazz” and “Pianola Ragtime” on your website." After having been sent the finished image that was being put on the PoJ.fm website, Gef wrote back via email on May 2, 2020 that "Yes, the picture's fine and we are happy to confirm that we grant permission for use as you describe. A hyperlink to our website is acceptable." With best wishes, Gef Lucena, Saydisc Records, The Barton, Inglestone Common, Badminton, S. Glos. GL9 1BX, England. E-mail: Saydiscrecords@aol.com. Web site: www.saydisc.com.
↑ ^5.0 ^5.1 ^5.2 Ted Gioia, The History of Jazz, 2nd edition (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), 33.
↑ "The People of Traditional New Orleans Jazz: Buddy Bolden: Calling His Children Home 1877–1931, National Park Service, New Orleans Jazz, National Historical Park Louisiana.
↑ For musical examples see:
++ ‣ "Essential Solos: 40 Great Improvisations: (100) Jazz artists and critics pick their favorite solos from the music's past and present," Jazz Times, November 2, 2017.
++ ‣ "Perfect Jazz Recordings," Richard Brody, The New Yorker, September 23, 2014.
++ ‣ Also see the Jazz Discography Project.
↑ "Charles "Buddy" Bolden," National Park Service, New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park website, second paragraph, second sentence. Accessed September 7, 2019.
↑ Ted Gioia goes so far as to call Bolden “the elusive father of jazz” and “often cited as the first jazz musician” in The History of Jazz, 2nd ed., (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), 33–34.
↑ The date of 1895 can be heard recited here at Jazz Rhythms. It is also referenced at JazzOnTheTube's "Buddy Bolden".
↑ Ted Gioia, The History of Jazz, 2nd edition, (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), 34.
↑ ^12.0 ^12.1 Ira Steingroot, "Arts: Yoshi’s Honors Memory of Jazz Legend Clifford Brown," The Berkeley Daily Planet, Special to the Planet, October 21, 2005.
↑ Matt Micucci, "A Short History of . . . The Legend of Buddy Bolden," Jazziz magazine, March 6, 2019.
↑ Wikipedia: Buddy Bolden confirms his notable accomplishments under the sub-heading "Musical career and early decline":
“ . . . known as King Bolden, his band was popular in New Orleans (the city of his birth) from about 1900 until 1907, when he was incapacitated by schizophrenia (then called dementia praecox). Bolden was known for his loud sound and improvisation. He made a big impression on younger musicians.”
↑ See these further biographies and discographies:
++++ ‣ Ferdinand "Jelly Roll Morton" Lamothe
++++ ‣ Doctor Jazz's Jelly Roll Morton website
++++ ‣ Doctor Jazz's Jelly Roll late news and references
↑ Morton often gave his birthdate as being 1885 to make it more likely he could have invented jazz. This date was false, as reported at AllMusic.com, Uncle Dave Lewis, "Don't You Leave Me Here: Tributary of a Blues Stream," Aug. 13, 2009: “The discovery in 2005 of a visa Morton had taken out to work in Mexico in 1921 reveals that Jelly Roll Morton really knew that he'd been born in 1890. But by 1938, he was backdating himself to appear five years older—for the longest time "1885" was the accepted birthdate for Morton, only to be undone decades after his death by virtue of a baptismal registry discovered in a New Orleans church.”
↑ Robert Walser, ed. Keeping Time: Readings in Jazz History, NY: Oxford, 1999, 16.
↑ For musical examples see:
++ ‣ "Essential Solos: 40 Great Improvisations: (100) Jazz artists and critics pick their favorite solos from the music's past and present," Jazz Times, November 2, 2017.
++ ‣ "Perfect Jazz Recordings," Richard Brody, The New Yorker, September 23, 2014.
++ ‣ Also see the Jazz Discography Project.
↑ "Jazz Milestones: Noteworthy Dates in the History of Jazz Music (1895–1977), entry under 1902: at APassion4Jazz.com.
↑ ^20.0 ^20.1 ^20.2 John Edward Hasse, "Plotting His Way Into Jazz History," Wall Street Journal, September 7, 2018.
↑ Encyclopedia Brittanica: "Jelly Roll Morton," first paragraph.
↑ Howard Reich and William Gaines, Jelly's Blues: The Life, Music, and Redemption of Jelly Roll Morton (Cambridge, Mass.: Da Capo Press), 2003, 144.
↑ Jeffrey Magee, "'King Porter's Stomp' and the Jazz Tradition," Current Musicology, "Special Issue - Jazz Studies," at Jazz Studies Online.
↑ See Katy E. Martin, "The Preoccupations of Mr. Lomax, Inventor of the 'Inventor of Jazz'," M.A. thesis, graduate degree program in English and the Graduate Faculty of the University of Kansas, 2008, 2.

Also available in Popular Music and Society, "The Preoccupations of Mr. Lomax, Inventor of the “Inventor of Jazz”," Volume 36, 2013, Issue 1, April 18, 2012, 30–39. Also found in a thesis imprint by ProQuest, UMI Dissertation Publishing (September 1, 2011), .
↑ John Fordham, "50 great moments in jazz: The arrival of Duke Ellington," Music blog: Jazz, The Guardian, March 27, 2009.
↑ "The Fantastic Mr. Jelly Lord," Jazz at Lincoln Center's 2017–18 Opening Weekend concerts, September 14–16, 2017.
“The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis kicks off the 30th anniversary season with a celebration of New Orleans legend Jelly Roll Morton (1890–1941). Jazz’s first great composer, musical intellect, and piano virtuoso, Morton provided the musical blueprint of an eternal New Orleans and jazz as it is known today. Through both classic and never-before-heard arrangements of essential tunes like “King Porter Stomp,” “Jungle Blues,” “Black Bottom Stomp,” and “The Pearls,” the JLCO (Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra) will showcase the contemporary power and depth of possibility in the earliest jazz. The concepts found in these pieces have been explored by master musicians for the past century and made truly modern through the lens of Jelly Roll.” (bold not in original)
↑ For musical examples see:
++ ‣ "Essential Solos: 40 Great Improvisations: (100) Jazz artists and critics pick their favorite solos from the music's past and present," Jazz Times, November 2, 2017.
++ ‣ "Perfect Jazz Recordings," Richard Brody, The New Yorker, September 23, 2014.
++ ‣ Also see the Jazz Discography Project.
↑
↑ "Top 20 Musicians of All Time, in Any Genre: #5: Louis Armstrong," Chris Walker, LA Weekly, January 12, 2012.
↑ See Armstrong singing in the only known footage of him in a recording studio at Time magazine's Rare footage of Armstrong in recording studio.
↑ DownBeat magazine, "The First Recordings," fourth paragraph.
↑ Louis Armstrong purchased this modest house in 1943, built by Robert W. Johnson in 1910, and lived there until his death in 1971 of a heart attack. The house was put on the National Register #76001265 in 1976. In 1983, Armstrong's widow, Lucille, willed the house and its contents to New York City for the creation of a museum and study center devoted to Armstrong's career and the history of jazz. The Louis Armstrong House was designated a landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1988.
↑ For musical examples see:
++ ‣ "Essential Solos: 40 Great Improvisations: (100) Jazz artists and critics pick their favorite solos from the music's past and present," Jazz Times, November 2, 2017.
++ ‣ "Perfect Jazz Recordings," Richard Brody, The New Yorker, September 23, 2014.
++ ‣ Also see the Jazz Discography Project.
↑ Wikipedia: Sydney Bechet, "Biography," first paragraph, second sentence. The first paragraph of this Wikipedia entry is verbatim from Scott Yanow's artist biography of Bechet from AllMusic.com.
↑ AllMusic.com's artist blurb overview.
↑ ^36.0 ^36.1 “His (Bechet's) playing style was intense and passionate and had a wide vibrato. He was also known to be proficient at playing several instruments and a master of improvisation (both individual and collective). Bechet liked to have his sound dominate in a performance, and trumpeters found it difficult to play alongside him.” found at Wikipedia: Sidney Bechet, "Career," second paragraph.
↑ "Sidney Bechet, master of New Orleans jazz – archive, from September 10, 1956," The Guardian, Friday September 10, 2021, third and fourth paragraph.
↑ "Sidney Bechet: Profiles in Jazz," Syncopated Times, Scott Yanow, Profiles In Jazz, second paragraph, July 1, 2017.
↑ "Artist Biography by Scott Yanow," AllMusic.com, fourth and last paragraph.
↑ Wikipedia: Sydney Bechet, "Biography," 14th paragraph.
↑ For musical examples see:
++ ‣ "Essential Solos: 40 Great Improvisations: (100) Jazz artists and critics pick their favorite solos from the music's past and present," Jazz Times, November 2, 2017.
++ ‣ "Perfect Jazz Recordings," Richard Brody, The New Yorker, September 23, 2014.
++ ‣ Also see the Jazz Discography Project.
↑ ^42.0 ^42.1 His awards, as well as the number of Ellington's performances around the world, and the figure of over 3,000 songs for the number of Ellington's compositions are all stated at "Duke Ellington Biography" at DukeEllington.com, the Official Site of jazz legend Duke Ellington.
↑ “I was always awed by Duke Ellington. Everything about him dazzled me--his music, of course, but also his energy, his hipness, his appearance.... handsome, elegant, suave, sophisticated.” William P. Gottlieb in The Golden Age of Jazz.
↑ See Terry Teachout's discussion of this situation in his biography of Duke Ellington, Duke: A Life of Duke Ellington, on pp. 66-67 and 399.
↑ John Gennari, "But Is It Jazz?," Reviews in American History, Vol. 23, No. 1 (March, 1995), 92.
↑ At WyntonMarsalis.com Ellington explains in his own words how and why he tailored specific parts of his compositions for specific members of his orchestra.
“Ellington, for instance, predicated portions of his compositions on what he expected his musicians to invent on the spot: “My aim is and always has been to mold the music around the man,” Ellington wrote in 1942. “I study each man in the orchestra and find out what he can do best, and what he would like to do.” Ellington routinely leaves room for musicians to riff freely, asking them not for specific notes but, instead, for the character of sound, color and rhythm he knows each uniquely can produce.

There’s almost always some open space in most of the Ellington pieces,” says Harbison. “The solo spots are kind of part of the conception, but they’re not specific. Jazz composition includes non-determined elements. And that’s just something that people have to come to terms with, to take a certain stance on. It seems that in the great pieces of Ellington, the building in of the soloist—and even the voice of the soloist—has been a part of the composition.” (quoted from "The Story Behind the First Pulitzer for Jazz") (bold not in original)
↑ According to Jazz by Gary Giddins and Scott Deveaux, 2009, Ellington compositions are the most recorded in jazz history.
↑ Wynton Marsalis, Music: "What jazz is—and isn't," New York Times, 21st paragraph, July 31, 1988.
↑ “U.S. #2211 22¢ Duke Ellington Performing Arts Series.
* Issue Date: April 29, 1986
* City: New York, NY
* Quantity: 130,000,000
* Printed By: American Bank Note Co.
* Printing Method: Photogravure
* Perforations: 11
* Color: Multicolored
“This stamp honors popular jazz pianist, composer, and band leader Duke Ellington (1899-1974). Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington wrote more than 6,000 songs during his long career, including "Satin Doll" and "Sophisticated Lady." Ellington was hailed by some as the greatest composer American society has ever produced.” (quoted from Mystic Stamp Company). Click on the stamp image to go to their website.
↑ For musical examples see:
++ ‣ "Essential Solos: 40 Great Improvisations: (100) Jazz artists and critics pick their favorite solos from the music's past and present," Jazz Times, November 2, 2017.
++ ‣ "Perfect Jazz Recordings," Richard Brody, The New Yorker, September 23, 2014.
++ ‣ Also see the Jazz Discography Project.
↑ ^51.0 ^51.1 ^51.2 "The Evolution of Jazz Saxophone Styles," "Coleman Hawkins," by Michael Verity, Thoughtco.com: Jazz, Updated August 18, 2017.
↑ "Biography of Coleman Hawkins," Scott Yanow, at AllMusic.com.
↑ Scott Yanow's Coleman Hawkins biography.
↑ For musical examples see:
++ ‣ "Essential Solos: 40 Great Improvisations: (100) Jazz artists and critics pick their favorite solos from the music's past and present," Jazz Times, November 2, 2017.
++ ‣ "Perfect Jazz Recordings," Richard Brody, The New Yorker, September 23, 2014.
++ ‣ Also see the Jazz Discography Project.
↑ JazzTimes magazine confirms Lester Young's lighter sonic approach to the saxophone contrasting with Coleman Hawkin's that they describe as “intricate, heavy, deadly serious sound that bore down like a dreadnought.” Young's sound contrasts with this because it had an “effervescent tone, seeming as it did to float over the rollicking rhythmic momentum of Count Basie, Freddie Green, Walter Page, and Jo Jones, is impossible to understate. Likewise for a line that, if it wasn’t as complex as Hawk's, was nearly delirious in its bounce. It also sounds spontaneous throughout, even in the obviously prearranged hit on the accents with (Jo) Jones . . . .”

JazzTimes continues by pointing out that when playing with Billie Holiday that “Young’s phrases are cool and sinuous. Even as the track closes, and the other two horn players (trumpeter Buck Clayton and clarinetist Edmond Hall) throw some more juice into the mix, Young is relaxed, detached, and thoroughly beautiful.”
↑ Loren Schoenberg (b. 1958), "Lester Young," Mosaic Records, liner note excerpts from Mosaic Records: "The Lester Young Count Basie Sessions 1936–1940" and "Classic Columbia, OKeh and Vocalion Lester Young — Lester Young with Count Basie 1936–1940."
↑ Joel Dinerstein, "Lester Young and the Birth of the Cool," third paragraph.
↑ ^58.0 ^58.1 John Edward Hasse, "How Lester Young Altered the Course of Music," Cultural Commentary, Wall Street Journal, March 13, 2019.
↑ Loren Schoenberg (b. 1958), "Lester Young," Mosaic Records, liner note excerpts from Mosaic Records: "The Lester Young Count Basie Sessions 1936–1940" and "Classic Columbia, OKeh and Vocalion Lester Young — Lester Young with Count Basie 1936–1940."
↑ Permission granted to use detail of photo by Denise Morrison, Director of Collections & Curatorial Services, Kansas City Museum, kansascitymuseum.org, c/o: Union Station Kansas City, 30 W. Pershing Rd., Kansas City, MO 64108, Email:denise.morrison@kcmo.org, Desk Phone: 816-513-7569 on February 8, 2019.
↑ For musical examples see:
++ ‣ "Essential Solos: 40 Great Improvisations: (100) Jazz artists and critics pick their favorite solos from the music's past and present," Jazz Times, November 2, 2017.
++ ‣ "Perfect Jazz Recordings," Richard Brody, The New Yorker, September 23, 2014.
++ ‣ Also see the Jazz Discography Project.
↑ ^62.0 ^62.1 ^62.2 Wikipedia: Count Basie, "Early career," second paragraph.
↑ ^63.0 ^63.1 ^63.2 Wikipedia: Count Basie, second paragraph.
↑ William "Count" Basie & Albert Murray, Good Morning Blues: The Autobiography of Count Basie (New York: Da Capo Press, 2002), 127. ISBN 978-0-306-81107-4.
↑ Wikipedia: Count Basie, "Kansas City years," first paragraph.
↑ Wikipedia: Count Basie, reports that “Right from the start, Basie's band was noted for its rhythm section. Another Basie innovation was the use of two tenor saxophone players; at the time, most bands had just one (tenor saxophonist). When (Lester) Young complained of Herschel Evans' vibrato, Basie placed them on either side of the alto players, and soon had the tenor players engaged in "duels".”
↑ <

[1] "The Making of a GREAT DAY FOR JAZZ," Issue 2004, No. 1.

[2] “Thank you for contacting the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and for your interest in the NEA Jazz Masters photo. As long as you are not looking to use the photograph for financial gain, rather for informational purposes, you may use it with the following credit: Photo by Tom Pich for the NEA. We wish you the best in all your creative endeavors. Signed: Allison Hill, Staff Assistant in Public Affairs, National Endowment for the Arts, 400 7th Street SW, Washington DC 20506, hilla@arts.gov; 202-682-5037; 202-682-5084.

[3] ‘’Wikipedia’’: William P. Gottlieb.

[4] May 1, 2020. "We are happy for you to use the picture from the front of the "Kitten on the Keys" with our wording removed. As the picture is our copyright (the original was a greyscale image) we would appreciate a credit to Saydisc Records, if this is possible. I imagine you will be including details of our albums "Kitten on the Keys", “Pianola Jazz” and “Pianola Ragtime” on your website." After having been sent the finished image that was being put on the PoJ.fm website, Gef wrote back via email on May 2, 2020 that "Yes, the picture's fine and we are happy to confirm that we grant permission for use as you describe. A hyperlink to our website is acceptable." With best wishes, Gef Lucena, Saydisc Records, The Barton, Inglestone Common, Badminton, S. Glos. GL9 1BX, England. E-mail: Saydiscrecords@aol.com. Web site: www.saydisc.com.

[GioiaHistory33-5] 5.0 ^5.1 ^5.2 Ted Gioia, The History of Jazz, 2nd edition (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), 33.

[6] "The People of Traditional New Orleans Jazz: Buddy Bolden: Calling His Children Home 1877–1931, National Park Service, New Orleans Jazz, National Historical Park Louisiana.

[7] For musical examples see:
++ ‣ "Essential Solos: 40 Great Improvisations: (100) Jazz artists and critics pick their favorite solos from the music's past and present," Jazz Times, November 2, 2017.
++ ‣ "Perfect Jazz Recordings," Richard Brody, The New Yorker, September 23, 2014.
++ ‣ Also see the Jazz Discography Project.

[8] "Charles "Buddy" Bolden," National Park Service, New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park website, second paragraph, second sentence. Accessed September 7, 2019.

[9] Ted Gioia goes so far as to call Bolden “the elusive father of jazz” and “often cited as the first jazz musician” in The History of Jazz, 2nd ed., (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), 33–34.

[10] The date of 1895 can be heard recited here at Jazz Rhythms. It is also referenced at JazzOnTheTube's "Buddy Bolden".

[GioiaHistory34-11] Ted Gioia, The History of Jazz, 2nd edition, (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), 34.

[Steingroot-12] 12.0 ^12.1 Ira Steingroot, "Arts: Yoshi’s Honors Memory of Jazz Legend Clifford Brown," The Berkeley Daily Planet, Special to the Planet, October 21, 2005.

[13] Matt Micucci, "A Short History of . . . The Legend of Buddy Bolden," Jazziz magazine, March 6, 2019.

[14] Wikipedia: Buddy Bolden confirms his notable accomplishments under the sub-heading "Musical career and early decline":
“ . . . known as King Bolden, his band was popular in New Orleans (the city of his birth) from about 1900 until 1907, when he was incapacitated by schizophrenia (then called dementia praecox). Bolden was known for his loud sound and improvisation. He made a big impression on younger musicians.”

[15] See these further biographies and discographies:
++++ ‣ Ferdinand "Jelly Roll Morton" Lamothe
++++ ‣ Doctor Jazz's Jelly Roll Morton website
++++ ‣ Doctor Jazz's Jelly Roll late news and references

[16] Morton often gave his birthdate as being 1885 to make it more likely he could have invented jazz. This date was false, as reported at AllMusic.com, Uncle Dave Lewis, "Don't You Leave Me Here: Tributary of a Blues Stream," Aug. 13, 2009: “The discovery in 2005 of a visa Morton had taken out to work in Mexico in 1921 reveals that Jelly Roll Morton really knew that he'd been born in 1890. But by 1938, he was backdating himself to appear five years older—for the longest time "1885" was the accepted birthdate for Morton, only to be undone decades after his death by virtue of a baptismal registry discovered in a New Orleans church.”

[17] Robert Walser, ed. Keeping Time: Readings in Jazz History, NY: Oxford, 1999, 16.

[18] For musical examples see:
++ ‣ "Essential Solos: 40 Great Improvisations: (100) Jazz artists and critics pick their favorite solos from the music's past and present," Jazz Times, November 2, 2017.
++ ‣ "Perfect Jazz Recordings," Richard Brody, The New Yorker, September 23, 2014.
++ ‣ Also see the Jazz Discography Project.

[19] "Jazz Milestones: Noteworthy Dates in the History of Jazz Music (1895–1977), entry under 1902: at APassion4Jazz.com.

[HasseMorton-20] 20.0 ^20.1 ^20.2 John Edward Hasse, "Plotting His Way Into Jazz History," Wall Street Journal, September 7, 2018.

[21] Encyclopedia Brittanica: "Jelly Roll Morton," first paragraph.

[22] Howard Reich and William Gaines, Jelly's Blues: The Life, Music, and Redemption of Jelly Roll Morton (Cambridge, Mass.: Da Capo Press), 2003, 144.

[23] Jeffrey Magee, "'King Porter's Stomp' and the Jazz Tradition," Current Musicology, "Special Issue - Jazz Studies," at Jazz Studies Online.

[24] See Katy E. Martin, "The Preoccupations of Mr. Lomax, Inventor of the 'Inventor of Jazz'," M.A. thesis, graduate degree program in English and the Graduate Faculty of the University of Kansas, 2008, 2.

Also available in Popular Music and Society, "The Preoccupations of Mr. Lomax, Inventor of the “Inventor of Jazz”," Volume 36, 2013, Issue 1, April 18, 2012, 30–39. Also found in a thesis imprint by ProQuest, UMI Dissertation Publishing (September 1, 2011), .

[25] John Fordham, "50 great moments in jazz: The arrival of Duke Ellington," Music blog: Jazz, The Guardian, March 27, 2009.

[26] "The Fantastic Mr. Jelly Lord," Jazz at Lincoln Center's 2017–18 Opening Weekend concerts, September 14–16, 2017.
“The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis kicks off the 30th anniversary season with a celebration of New Orleans legend Jelly Roll Morton (1890–1941). Jazz’s first great composer, musical intellect, and piano virtuoso, Morton provided the musical blueprint of an eternal New Orleans and jazz as it is known today. Through both classic and never-before-heard arrangements of essential tunes like “King Porter Stomp,” “Jungle Blues,” “Black Bottom Stomp,” and “The Pearls,” the JLCO (Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra) will showcase the contemporary power and depth of possibility in the earliest jazz. The concepts found in these pieces have been explored by master musicians for the past century and made truly modern through the lens of Jelly Roll.” (bold not in original)

[27] For musical examples see:
++ ‣ "Essential Solos: 40 Great Improvisations: (100) Jazz artists and critics pick their favorite solos from the music's past and present," Jazz Times, November 2, 2017.
++ ‣ "Perfect Jazz Recordings," Richard Brody, The New Yorker, September 23, 2014.
++ ‣ Also see the Jazz Discography Project.

[28] ↑

[29] "Top 20 Musicians of All Time, in Any Genre: #5: Louis Armstrong," Chris Walker, LA Weekly, January 12, 2012.

[30] See Armstrong singing in the only known footage of him in a recording studio at Time magazine's Rare footage of Armstrong in recording studio.

[31] DownBeat magazine, "The First Recordings," fourth paragraph.

[32] Louis Armstrong purchased this modest house in 1943, built by Robert W. Johnson in 1910, and lived there until his death in 1971 of a heart attack. The house was put on the National Register #76001265 in 1976. In 1983, Armstrong's widow, Lucille, willed the house and its contents to New York City for the creation of a museum and study center devoted to Armstrong's career and the history of jazz. The Louis Armstrong House was designated a landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1988.

[33] For musical examples see:
++ ‣ "Essential Solos: 40 Great Improvisations: (100) Jazz artists and critics pick their favorite solos from the music's past and present," Jazz Times, November 2, 2017.
++ ‣ "Perfect Jazz Recordings," Richard Brody, The New Yorker, September 23, 2014.
++ ‣ Also see the Jazz Discography Project.

[34] Wikipedia: Sydney Bechet, "Biography," first paragraph, second sentence. The first paragraph of this Wikipedia entry is verbatim from Scott Yanow's artist biography of Bechet from AllMusic.com.

[35] AllMusic.com's artist blurb overview.

[WikiBechet-36] 36.0 ^36.1 “His (Bechet's) playing style was intense and passionate and had a wide vibrato. He was also known to be proficient at playing several instruments and a master of improvisation (both individual and collective). Bechet liked to have his sound dominate in a performance, and trumpeters found it difficult to play alongside him.” found at Wikipedia: Sidney Bechet, "Career," second paragraph.

[37] "Sidney Bechet, master of New Orleans jazz – archive, from September 10, 1956," The Guardian, Friday September 10, 2021, third and fourth paragraph.

[38] "Sidney Bechet: Profiles in Jazz," Syncopated Times, Scott Yanow, Profiles In Jazz, second paragraph, July 1, 2017.

[39] "Artist Biography by Scott Yanow," AllMusic.com, fourth and last paragraph.

[40] Wikipedia: Sydney Bechet, "Biography," 14th paragraph.

[41] For musical examples see:
++ ‣ "Essential Solos: 40 Great Improvisations: (100) Jazz artists and critics pick their favorite solos from the music's past and present," Jazz Times, November 2, 2017.
++ ‣ "Perfect Jazz Recordings," Richard Brody, The New Yorker, September 23, 2014.
++ ‣ Also see the Jazz Discography Project.

[Ellingtondotcom-42] 42.0 ^42.1 His awards, as well as the number of Ellington's performances around the world, and the figure of over 3,000 songs for the number of Ellington's compositions are all stated at "Duke Ellington Biography" at DukeEllington.com, the Official Site of jazz legend Duke Ellington.

[43] “I was always awed by Duke Ellington. Everything about him dazzled me--his music, of course, but also his energy, his hipness, his appearance.... handsome, elegant, suave, sophisticated.” William P. Gottlieb in The Golden Age of Jazz.

[44] See Terry Teachout's discussion of this situation in his biography of Duke Ellington, Duke: A Life of Duke Ellington, on pp. 66-67 and 399.

[45] John Gennari, "But Is It Jazz?," Reviews in American History, Vol. 23, No. 1 (March, 1995), 92.

[46] At WyntonMarsalis.com Ellington explains in his own words how and why he tailored specific parts of his compositions for specific members of his orchestra.
“Ellington, for instance, predicated portions of his compositions on what he expected his musicians to invent on the spot: “My aim is and always has been to mold the music around the man,” Ellington wrote in 1942. “I study each man in the orchestra and find out what he can do best, and what he would like to do.” Ellington routinely leaves room for musicians to riff freely, asking them not for specific notes but, instead, for the character of sound, color and rhythm he knows each uniquely can produce.

There’s almost always some open space in most of the Ellington pieces,” says Harbison. “The solo spots are kind of part of the conception, but they’re not specific. Jazz composition includes non-determined elements. And that’s just something that people have to come to terms with, to take a certain stance on. It seems that in the great pieces of Ellington, the building in of the soloist—and even the voice of the soloist—has been a part of the composition.” (quoted from "The Story Behind the First Pulitzer for Jazz") (bold not in original)

[47] According to Jazz by Gary Giddins and Scott Deveaux, 2009, Ellington compositions are the most recorded in jazz history.

[48] Wynton Marsalis, Music: "What jazz is—and isn't," New York Times, 21st paragraph, July 31, 1988.

[49] “U.S. #2211 22¢ Duke Ellington Performing Arts Series.
* Issue Date: April 29, 1986
* City: New York, NY
* Quantity: 130,000,000
* Printed By: American Bank Note Co.
* Printing Method: Photogravure
* Perforations: 11
* Color: Multicolored
“This stamp honors popular jazz pianist, composer, and band leader Duke Ellington (1899-1974). Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington wrote more than 6,000 songs during his long career, including "Satin Doll" and "Sophisticated Lady." Ellington was hailed by some as the greatest composer American society has ever produced.” (quoted from Mystic Stamp Company). Click on the stamp image to go to their website.

[50] For musical examples see:
++ ‣ "Essential Solos: 40 Great Improvisations: (100) Jazz artists and critics pick their favorite solos from the music's past and present," Jazz Times, November 2, 2017.
++ ‣ "Perfect Jazz Recordings," Richard Brody, The New Yorker, September 23, 2014.
++ ‣ Also see the Jazz Discography Project.

[VerityEvolution-51] 51.0 ^51.1 ^51.2 "The Evolution of Jazz Saxophone Styles," "Coleman Hawkins," by Michael Verity, Thoughtco.com: Jazz, Updated August 18, 2017.

[52] "Biography of Coleman Hawkins," Scott Yanow, at AllMusic.com.

[53] Scott Yanow's Coleman Hawkins biography.

[54] For musical examples see:
++ ‣ "Essential Solos: 40 Great Improvisations: (100) Jazz artists and critics pick their favorite solos from the music's past and present," Jazz Times, November 2, 2017.
++ ‣ "Perfect Jazz Recordings," Richard Brody, The New Yorker, September 23, 2014.
++ ‣ Also see the Jazz Discography Project.

[55] JazzTimes magazine confirms Lester Young's lighter sonic approach to the saxophone contrasting with Coleman Hawkin's that they describe as “intricate, heavy, deadly serious sound that bore down like a dreadnought.” Young's sound contrasts with this because it had an “effervescent tone, seeming as it did to float over the rollicking rhythmic momentum of Count Basie, Freddie Green, Walter Page, and Jo Jones, is impossible to understate. Likewise for a line that, if it wasn’t as complex as Hawk's, was nearly delirious in its bounce. It also sounds spontaneous throughout, even in the obviously prearranged hit on the accents with (Jo) Jones . . . .”

JazzTimes continues by pointing out that when playing with Billie Holiday that “Young’s phrases are cool and sinuous. Even as the track closes, and the other two horn players (trumpeter Buck Clayton and clarinetist Edmond Hall) throw some more juice into the mix, Young is relaxed, detached, and thoroughly beautiful.”

[56] Loren Schoenberg (b. 1958), "Lester Young," Mosaic Records, liner note excerpts from Mosaic Records: "The Lester Young Count Basie Sessions 1936–1940" and "Classic Columbia, OKeh and Vocalion Lester Young — Lester Young with Count Basie 1936–1940."

[57] Joel Dinerstein, "Lester Young and the Birth of the Cool," third paragraph.

[JEHasse-58] 58.0 ^58.1 John Edward Hasse, "How Lester Young Altered the Course of Music," Cultural Commentary, Wall Street Journal, March 13, 2019.

[59] Loren Schoenberg (b. 1958), "Lester Young," Mosaic Records, liner note excerpts from Mosaic Records: "The Lester Young Count Basie Sessions 1936–1940" and "Classic Columbia, OKeh and Vocalion Lester Young — Lester Young with Count Basie 1936–1940."

[60] Permission granted to use detail of photo by Denise Morrison, Director of Collections & Curatorial Services, Kansas City Museum, kansascitymuseum.org, c/o: Union Station Kansas City, 30 W. Pershing Rd., Kansas City, MO 64108, Email:denise.morrison@kcmo.org, Desk Phone: 816-513-7569 on February 8, 2019.

[61] For musical examples see:
++ ‣ "Essential Solos: 40 Great Improvisations: (100) Jazz artists and critics pick their favorite solos from the music's past and present," Jazz Times, November 2, 2017.
++ ‣ "Perfect Jazz Recordings," Richard Brody, The New Yorker, September 23, 2014.
++ ‣ Also see the Jazz Discography Project.

[WikiBasie-62] 62.0 ^62.1 ^62.2 Wikipedia: Count Basie, "Early career," second paragraph.

[WikiBasie2ndparagraph-63] 63.0 ^63.1 ^63.2 Wikipedia: Count Basie, second paragraph.

[64] William "Count" Basie & Albert Murray, Good Morning Blues: The Autobiography of Count Basie (New York: Da Capo Press, 2002), 127. ISBN 978-0-306-81107-4.

[65] Wikipedia: Count Basie, "Kansas City years," first paragraph.

[66] Wikipedia: Count Basie, reports that “Right from the start, Basie's band was noted for its rhythm section. Another Basie innovation was the use of two tenor saxophone players; at the time, most bands had just one (tenor saxophonist). When (Lester) Young complained of Herschel Evans' vibrato, Basie placed them on either side of the alto players, and soon had the tenor players engaged in "duels".”

[WikiBasie1-67] <

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Ep16*. What are jazz legend's notable accomplishments

Contents