Ferdinand "Jelly Roll" Morton
Jelly Roll Morton (1890 - 1941) was the first great composer and piano player of Jazz. He was a talented arranger who wrote special scores that took advantage of the three-minute limitations of the 78 rpm records.
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Julian Edwin Adderley
Julian Edwin "Cannonball" Adderley, a legendary alto saxophonist, was born in Tampa, FL on Sept. 15, 1928. The nickname “Cannonball” came to him early on in his childhood and referred to his portly stature. He will always be known for amusing and educational rapport with his audience, often-times explaining what he and his musicians were about to play.
His studied music in Tallahassee Fl (1944-48) before taking a position as high school band director in Fort Lauderdale following in the footsteps of his father who was also an educator and trumpet player.
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Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby
For many, Bing Crosby's musical legacy remains nothing more than the annual Christmas ritual of watching the 1954 film White Christmas. He appears to some as the antiquated song and dance man in black and white; the old fashioned voice of a crooner. Not that he ever complained about being a seasonal standard. "Anywhere I go I've got to sing White Christmas. It's as much a part of me as my floppy ears," Bing said in his autobiography Call Me Lucky. Crosby was more than just a song and dance man, however. His multimedia career was highly influential to future singers like Frank Sinatra, Mel Torme, Tony Bennett, Ella Fitzgerald, Perry Como, and Dean Martin among others.
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Eric Dolphy
“This is not music to roller skate by,” wrote A.B. Spellman of jazz multi-instrumentalist Eric Dolphy’s 1964 release Out to Lunch. Consisting entirely of compositions written by Dolphy, Out to Lunch demands attention from the listener from its first notes. By the third song on the album, Dolphy has taken the lead on three different instruments (alto sax, flute, and bass clarinet), and the listener through a synthesis of avant-garde, bebop, and free jazz. The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recording describes the album as a “the compositionally sophisticated work of a man finding his voice,” but it would be Dolphy’s last recording, and the end to a short, intense and influential recording career.
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Jimmy Giuffre
Jimmy Giuffre (pronounced JOO-free) was born April 26, 1921 and was a unique jazz player who started learning at the age of nine. Experimenting with tenor and baritone saxophones but, mostly, focused on clarinet; his early sound was self-formed with little precedent with the possible exception of Lester Young.
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Conrad Herwig
New York jazz trombonist Conrad Herwig has recorded over 19 albums as a leader. (Maybe more by the time you read this.) In 2009 his CD release “The Latin Side of Wayne Shorter” on Half Note Records, was nominated for a Grammy Award. This is the follow-up project to the 2005 Grammy -nominated CD, “Another Kind of Blue: The Latin Side of Miles Davis”, and the 1998 Grammy-nominated CD, “The Latin Side of John Coltrane”. These projects feature special guests Eddie Palmieri, Paquito D’Rivera, Dave Valentin and Brian Lynch. His most recent solo recordings on the CrissCross label are “A Jones for Bones Tones”, “Obligation”, “Land of Shadow”, “Hieroglyphica”, “Unseen Universe”, “Osteology”, and “Heart of Darkness” which received 4½ stars in DownBeat Magazine. He has also been voted #1 Jazz Trombonist (TDWR) in the 2002 Downbeat Jazz Critic’s Poll.
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Freddie Hubbard
Hubbard started playing the mellophone and trumpet in his school band, studying at the Jordan Conservatory with the principal trumpeter of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. In his teens Hubbard worked locally with brothers Wes and Monk Montgomery and worked with bassist Larry Ridley and saxophonist James Spaulding. In 1958, at the age of 20, he moved to New York Philly Joe Jones, Sonny Rollins, Slide Hampton, Eric Dolphy , J. J. Johnson, and Quincy Jones. In June 1960 Hubbard made his first record as a leader, Open Sesame, with saxophonist Tina Brooks, pianist McCoy Tyner, bassist Sam Jones, and drummer Clifford Jarvis.
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J. J. JOHNSON
Indianapolis-born trombonist/composer J. J. Johnson virtually reinvented the trombone for the purposes of postwar jazz. A perfectionist in the realm of music and a man utterly dedicated to making the trombone do what he wanted, Johnson evolved a level of expertise previously undreamed of in jazz, his smooth delivery of the most complex passages amazing his peers. Johnson was also the man to bring bebop harmonic and rhythmic practice to the instrument.
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CHRISTIAN MCBRIDE
Christian McBride is an American jazz bassist. His father, Lee Smith, and his great uncle, Howard Cooper, are both well known Philadelphia bassists who served as McBride's early mentors. Christian started playing electric bass at age eight and began formal training on the acoustic bass when he was eleven. Two years later he was playing professionally and, in June of 1989 graduated from the famed High School for the Creative and Performing Arts in Philadelphia. That same year Christian was accepted by The Juilliard School of Music, where he commenced studies with the legendary bass teacher, Homer Mensch. In the jazz community, McBride is widely considered to be one of the best bassists of his generation. Mostly known for his electric bass work, he is just as proficient on the acoustic upright, plucking, slapping, or bowing.
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Tito Puente
(1923 - 2000)
El Rey de Mambo Caliente
by Mark Allred
As summer rolls around the Puget Sound, the longer days and hotter temperatures can conjure memories of palm trees blocking stunning sunsets. A yearning can be felt for sand, swimsuits, swimming in the ocean, and warm Southern Hemisphere nights with a tropical breeze blowing gently where true summer heat exists. Panama hats are worn with off-white linen suits. Those Gringos wearing sandals might even be tempted to take off their socks. Our taste palates turn toward jalapeños, mangos, and grilled spicy chicken. What better accompaniment to summer than the Latin beats of the Mambo King himself? No matter where you are.
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Wayne Shorter
Wayne Shorter didn’t pick up a musical instrument until he was fifteen, a relatively late start for a jazz great. He’d always preferred the visual arts, specifically film. It wasn’t until a revelatory moment of hearing Thelonious Monk’s ‘Off Minor’ on the radio that Wayne Shorter’s direction in life was affirmed. “My ears perked up when I heard it, and something just clicked. Bebop music seemed to reflect some of what was happening, or what people wished would happen (Footprints Pg. 27).” Bebop instantly became part of Shorter’s vocabulary and he felt a profound sense that music was the direction he was supposed to take. That sentiment has prevailed through his life, and he’s still challenging himself at the age of 75. “You need to know that life is a process,” he explained in a recent article in Downbeat magazine (May 2009), “and no one can put a process in a can or box and sell it. It’s the process of mastering your life so that you play your life story.”
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Nina Simone
Though it's not positively known, Eunice Kathleen Waymon (Nina Simone) was been born sometime in February of 1933 in Tryon, North Carolina. The house was filled with music, Nina Simone later recalled, and she learned to play piano early. When her mother took a job as a maid for extra money, the family saw that young Eunice had special musical talent and sponsored classical piano lessons for her. During her last year of high school, she attended Juilliard School of Music focusing on classical piano.
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Lester Young
In his 1985 biography on Lester Young, entitled Lester Young, Lewis Porter describes Young as a man of few words, who often “spoke through silence” (Porter P.4). Young’s language was one of his own creation, wrapped in “exquisite loneliness” and passed from musician to musician as treasures of wisdom and wit (Porter P.29).
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