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Sidney Bechet     
Born in New Orleans on May 14^th, 1897, Sidney Bechet was a major figure in early jazz. He was an outstanding clarinetist, and for many years the only soprano saxophone virtuoso. He played with legendary musicians such as Buddy Petit and Bunk Johnson. In 1917 he left New Orleans for Europe, and it was in London that he picked up a soprano saxophone which he eventually learned to master after a seemingly hopeless struggle.  Bechet received rave revues in Europe,-but, was briefly imprisoned in London after a dispute with a lady of ill renown. Back in the U.S.A. he worked with James P. Johnson and Duke Ellington, before returning to Europe for a lengthy period. Once again—back in the U.S.A., Bechet played extensively with Noble Sissle throughout the thirties and recorded with numerous noted jazzmen including Louis Armstrong, Tommy Ladnier and Eddie Condon.  In 1949 he made another trip to France and this time he stayed—as a king in his new homeland. He played and recorded extensively, and on his 62^nd birthday, a statue was erected in his honor in Antibes, where he settled down. Bechet was a most passionate performer who was second to none in melodic richness and emotional intensity.

Cannonball Adderly:

Julian Edwin Adderley was born in Tampa, Florida on September 15th, 1928 and was one of the great saxophonists of his generation. His fiery, blues-soaked interpretations of Charlie Parker’s tunes brought jazz to many people who had not as yet been touched by it. In the ‘60’s, Adderley launched a new genre which enjoyed popularity all the way into the ‘90’s, He created a sensation at New York’s Cafe Bohemia, playing alongside bass man Oscar Pettiford, and in 1958 Adderley signed with Riverside Records and released a series of albums over the next six years. Many of these were recorded LIVE, which laid the foundation for the ‘soul-jazz’ genre. From 1957 to ’59, Adderley was part of the classic Miles Davis Quintet, which also included John Coltrane. Asked about his inspiration, Adderley cited Benny Carter and, of course, Charlie Parker.

Bernard Addison

Once upon a time, before Elvis and the Beatles came along, the reputation of a guitarist in popular music was much less flamboyant: something along the lines of a Bernard Addison. Nicely dressed and never obtrusive in any way, this Maryland native performed on recordings with the popular groups such as The Mills Brothers and Ink Spots, but most of his credits come from the world of jazz. He had the fortune to work with many of the greatest leaders in this music, including Louis Armstrong, Sidney Bechet, oleman Hawkins and Jelly Roll Morton. He is also one of the many fine musicians involved with the '30s and '40s studio sessions of jazz vocalist Billie Holiday. He began performing professionally in the '20s, and like all jazz pickers of that time, the instrument of choice was the banjo. At that time, the banjo was a regular part of most jazz rhythm sections. While playing with "Satchmo" he decided to switch to guitar: a decision many other banjo players of his generation were also making, particularly when the electric version of the instrument was developed and possibilities of actually being heard over the drummer began to loom on the horizon. Addison really took to the guitar and developed into a topflight rhythm guitarist. He worked with violinist Stuff Smith and then began a relationship with soprano saxophonist and clarinetist Sidney Bechet that wold continue off and on through World War II and beyond and would result in Addison's appearance on a dozen or more different Bechet collections. His last jazz gig of any note was with ragtime pianist Eubie Blake in 1958.

Henry Red Allen 

Born in New Orleans on January 7th, 1908. He was one of the best and brightest young trumpeters in New Orleans by the early 1920’s (his father ran a famous brass band in that city.)  Allen first moved north to Chicago to join King Joe Oliver’s Dixie Synchopators in 1927.  He then moved back to New Orleans to work with Walter Pichon and Fate Marable, and then Victor Records hired him as that label’s answer to Louis Armstrong. Allen travelled to New York and recorded with Luis Russel’s orchestra, and then joined Russell full time. "It was the happiest band I ever worked with", he said. And he added, "It was also the swingiest band in New York. " In 1933, tempted by money and prestige, Allen joined Fletcher Henderson for a year, and then came three years with Lucky Millander, during which time he recorded his famous "Ride Red Ride" . For the last 27 years of his life, Henry Red Allen led his own bands and travelled between Boston, Chicago, San Francisco and New York, and made visits to England in 1964, 66, and 67. Henry Red Allen died of cancer in 1967.

Hayes Alvis

Beginning his life in one major American city and jazz center and ending it in another, Hayes Alvis occupied the low end of the band's sound spectrum but ran up a high number of recording credits with several all-time jazz greats. He actually started out playing drums, but during a two year term of employment with Jelly Roll Morton from 1927 to 1928 he oomphed over to tuba and double bass. From 1928 to 1930, he played the low horn in the innovative bands of Earl Hines. After moving to New York in 1931 to collaborate with one of the top New Orleans clarinetists, Jimmy Noone, Alvis performed with The Mills Blues Rhythm Band from 1931-1934, rejoining for another stint in 1936, and stepped up to perhaps the greatest jazz big band, Duke Ellington, staying with the group from 1935 through 1938 and becoming part of one of the Duke's great rhythm sections. Stints followed with another of the music's reigning megalords, Louis Armstrong, in whose combo he replaced the rambunctious bassist Pops Foster.

Albert Ammons

A major inspiration to generations of improvising musicians, Albert Ammons is best remembered as an exciting pianist who inaugurated the Blue Note record label by hammering out blues and boogie duets with Meade "Lux Lewis ", and as the father of hard bop tenor saxophonist Gene Ammons. Born in Chicago on September 23, 1907, he learned the rudiments of piano from his parents and neighbors and began cultivating an ability to play the blues when he was 12 years old.

Ernestine Anderson

Positioned squarely in the mainstream camp, at home in the worlds of jazz and pop standards as well as the blues, comfortable with small groups and big bands, Ernestine Anderson regularly receives a lot of airplay on traditional jazz radio stations these days. She fits those demographics well with her tasteful, slightly gritty, moderately swinging contralto, someone who doesn't probe too deeply into emotional quagmires (and thus doesn't disturb the dispositions of those who use the radio as background) but always gives you an honest, musical account.  Anderson's career actually got rolling in the embryonic R&B field at first; as a teenager, she sang with Russel Jacquets band in 1943.

William "Cat" Anderson

Cat Anderson was arguably the greatest high-note trumpeter of all time. His solo on "Satin Doll" from Duke Ellingtons 70^th birthday concert is a perfectly coherent chorus consisting of notes that are so high that it is doubtful if another trumpeter from all of jazz history could hit more than one or two. He first learned trumpet while at the Jenkins Orphanage in Charleston and toured with the Carolina Cotton Pickers, a group in which he made his recording debut. During 1935-1944, Anderson played with many groups including those of Claude Hopkins, Lucky Milander, Erskine Hawkins and Lionel Hampton.. Hampton loved his high-note mastery.

Ray Anthony

Louis 'satchmo' Armstrong  

Louis Armstrong was born in New Orleans, Louisiana on August 4th,1901, and was raised in and around the notorious Storyville district. It was a place of Run-down apartment building, brothels, Honky-tonks, dance halls and churches. He grew up here with his mother and younger sister..his father having abandoned the family when Louis was born. His childhood combine being free to run the street and earn money which his family needed desperately. Louis formal education was limited severely, but he was a bright child who quickly gained the kind of wisdom needed for survival. He learned to hustle for money. a lesson he never forgot. Even later in life, when he was rich and famous, Louis still regarded his career as a 'Hustle*. As a child he was singing at street corners, and by the age of thirteen--as an inmate of a colored waifs home, played percussion, and then bugle and finally cornet. It was the period that changed his life.
Amstrong had found his path. He not only displayed a remarkable affinity for music, but also understood harmony. After his release from the home, it was some time before he could afford to buy an instrument of his own. He borrowed a cornet whenever he could and played with any band that would hire him. Meanwhile, he took on other jobs, mainly delivering coal with a horse and cart. Through his late teens, Armstrong played in countless bands in New Orleans, gradually working his way up to the best of them. The precocious young cornetist attracted the attention of the city's jazz masters, one of them being Joe 'King' Oliver. Oliver became Louis' coach and occasional employer. That was around 1917. Unfortunately, there are no recordings with Louis Armstrong from that early date. It wasn't until the twenties, after he joined King Oliver in Chicago, that we hear his playing. In his autobiography, Armstrong describes his departure from New Orleans for the exciting and almost dreadful trip to Chicago to join King Oliver there. "Joe Oliver left New Orleans in 1918 and was now up in Chicago doing real swell. He kept sending me letters and telegrams telling me to come up and play second cornet for him. I had made up my mind that I would not leave New Orleans unless the King sent for me. I wouldn't risk leaving for anyone else. I finally accepted Joe's offer. The day I was leaving for Chicago I played a funeral over in Algiers on August 8th, 1922. The boys in the Tuxedo Brass Band and Oscar Celestin's band did their best to talk me out of leaving, but soon as the funeral was over I rushed home, threw my glad-rags together and hurried to the train station. The whole band came to the station to see me off. Everybody hollered and one guy yelled, "You're a lucky black son-of-a-bitch going up north to play with ol' Joe. "
For two years, Armstrong and Oliver made musical history, and if it hadn't been for the piano player in the band, they might have continued doing so for many more years. The pianist was Lil Hardin who took special interest in the young cornetist and who became the second major interest in his life: By 1924, Louis and Lil were married, and she prompted him to leave Oliver's band and head for New York. Once there, Satchmo joined Fletcher Henderson's orchestra, giving that band a quality of solo playing the likes of which that city had never heard. Armstrong's musical ideas, developed together with King Oliver, also spurred Fletcher Henderson's arranger, Don Redman. Armstrong stayed with Henderson for a little over a year and then returned to Chicago in 1925 at his wife's behest to star as "The world's Greatest Trumpeter with her band. And for the next couple of years Louis recorded extensively with the first of the famous Hot Five and Hot Seven bands. In 1932 and 1933, Armstrong made his first trips to Europe, playing to tremendously enthusiastic audiences. and from 1935 onwards, he fronted Luis Russel's orchestra, playing along with that other great trumpeter, Henry Red Allen.
Actually, Louis began fronting Russel's orchestra quite a few years earlier--in 1929.
In 1938, Louis and Lil were divorced and he married Alpha Smith. That marriage lasted about four years. He then married Lucille Wilson who survived him. From that point on, some observers suggest that Armstrong's career began to slide downwards. His musical style was, in fact, a little out of step with public demand and by the early 40's he was out of vogue.
Armstrong's promoter, Joe Glaser, had Louis form a new band: The All- Stars, and this remained the setting for Satchmo's music for the rest of his life. This was the first All Star Band: For almost half-a-century. Louis Armstrong had been an entertainer and he was not about to change. He toured on until almost the very end recovering from at least one heart attack. He had become a major influence on jazz musicians and jazz itself and hardly a trumpeter in the world didn't idolize him or ever hope of achieving his greatness. Indeed, nobody ever has matched his virtuosity or his commitment to jazz.
Louis Satchmo Armstrong died in his sleep in his New York home on July 6th, 1971 at the age of 70.

Sidney Arodin

Sidney Arnodrin was born in Westwego, Louisiana on March 29, 1901.
He began playing clarinet in his early teens and was soo working professionally. He moved to New York in the early 20’s and joined the Original New Orleans Jazz Band. He then returned to the south and played in Texas and Louisiana. Arodin made records with Wingy Manone and others and in 1930 he wrote the music for "Lazy River" for which Hoagy Carmichael wrote the lyrics. Arodin played in many of the popular bands of the time, including that of Louis Prima.

Svend Asmussen

Georgie Auld

GeorgieAuld  had a long and varied career, changing his tenor sound gradually with the times and adapting to many different musical situations. He moved from Canada to the U.S. in the late '20s and, although originally an altoist, he switched to tenor after hearing Coleman Hawkins. While with Bunny Berigan during 1937-1938, Auld sounded like a dead ringer for Charlie Barnet. After spending a year with Artie Shaw in 1939 Auld sounded much closer to Lester Young when he joined Benny Goodman., Auld was a major asset, jamming with a version of Goodmans Sextet.

Mildred Bailey

An early jazz singer with a sweet voice that belied her plump physique, Mildred Bailey balanced a good deal of popular success with a hot jazz-slanted career that saw her billed as Mrs. Swing (her husband, Red Norvo, was Mr. Swing). Born Mildred Rinker in Washington state in 1907, Bailey began performing at an early age, playing piano and singing in movie theaters during the early '20s. By 1925, she was the headlining act at a club in Hollywood, doing a mixture of pop, early jazz tunes, and vaudeville standards. Influenced by Ethel Waters , Bessie Smith, and Connie Boswell, she developed a soft, swinging delivery that pleased all kinds of nightclub audiences in the area.

Pearl Bailey

An uninhibited vocalist who gave more to her performances than any other singers around, Pearl Bailey gained fame for her work in Broadway, cabaret, and Hollywood. Bailey's sultry, slurred delivery livened up many a stale standard, including "Baby It's Cold Outside" and her only hit, "Takes Two to Tango." The daughter of a preacher, Bailey began singing at the age of three. She was performing professionally by her early teenage years and after touring as a dancer for several years, she featured both as a singer and dancer with jazz bands led by Noble Sissle, Cootie Williams and Edgar Hayes.. She began performing as a solo act in 1944, and wooed nightclub audiences with her relaxed stage presence and humorous asides. She recorded for several different labels, including Columbia, during the '40s and finally found a hit in 1952 after signing to Coral. Her version of "Takes Two to Tango," backed by Don Redmans Orchestra, hit the Top Ten. That same year, she married drummer Louie Bellson, and he left his position with Duke Ellington to become her musical director. She continued to perform on Broadway, and won a Tony award in 1970 for her title role in Hello, Dolly!. She led her own television variety show in 1971, but retired from active performance several years later. Pearl Bailey was named to the American delegation to the United Nations in 1976, and awarded the Medal of Freedom in 1988.

Paul Barbarin

Paul Barbarin was born in New Orleans on May 5^th, 1899. He became one of the most famous and best drummers in the Crescent City. With his father, an established brass player and member of the Onward Brass Band, and three brothers all playing jazz, Barbarin could hardly have done anything but become a jazz musican. Still in his teens he moved to Chicago where he worked with Joe King Oliver and Jimmy Noone. From 1928 Barbarin worked mainly in New York with Luis Russell’s band which—in 1935 came under the nominal leadership of Louis Armstrong. In 1939, he returned to New Orleans and, apart from occasional trips to Chicago in the 40’s and 50’s when he played with Henry Red Allen and Sidney Bechet, he led his own band. It was in New Orleans that he stayed and played and enjoed life as an elder statesman of jazz. Paul Barbarin—the man who composed "Bourbon Street Parade", continued family tradition when, like his father before him, he became leader of the Omward Brass Band. It was, in fact, while leading this band in a New Orleans Street Parade that he collapsed and died in February 1969.

Kenny Ball  

Chris Barber  

Dave Barbour

Barbour came out of an early generation of jazz string players who changed from banjo to guitar as the swing era took off. He began playing professionally with one-armed Dixieland trumpeter Wingy Manone in the early '30s, and at that point he was still on banjo. By 1936 Barbour had picked up guitar and was in the group of vibraphonist Red Norvo, who almost always featured guitars. Through the late '30s and into the early '40s, the guitarist was extremely busy with a variety of studio and performing groups, including those of Lennie Hayton, Charlie Barnet, Raymond Scott, Glenn Miller, and Lou Holden.. Benny Goodman hired Barbour in the summer of 1942, and not for a trim, although that was what the feisty bandleader wound up getting. In a story straight out of a '40s musical romance, the guitarist fell in love with the band's singer, Peggy Lee naturally, and the pair ran off leaving Goodman minus two band members. From 1952 on his musical appearances were limited to a small number of charity events and a 1962 Benny Carter recording session.

CHARLIE BARNET  

"Sweet" Emma Barret

Count Basie  

Mario Bauza

When Prudencio Mario Bauz stepped off the boat from Havana onto the docks in New York, in 1930, he brought with him a sophisticated knowledge of Cuban music, and a respect and penchant for American jazz. He would be a key figure in the integration of both musical principals and come to be known as "the father of Latin Jazz". He worked with several dance bands, then to Hy Clarks Missourians, and in 1933 joined up with Chick Webb, the so called King of the Savoy, the baddest cats around. Chick Webb taught the young Mario how to phrase and pronounce the trumpet like a jazzman, and also the dynamics and confidence of musicianship. It was around this time he met and jammed with Dizzy Gillespie, and begin a lifelong friendship He would stay with Chick Webb for five years, went through the bands of Don Redman, and Fletcher Henderson, joining Cab Calloway in 1938. Mario Bauza would go on through the 50s, and 60s, to record over thirty albums under a variety of labels. In a musical trajectory that spanned over seventy years Mario Bauz covered and mastered the realms of symphonic, Latin, jazz, African American, and popular dance music. He was a multi-instrumentalist, composer, arranger, bandleader, and teacher. Mario Bauz died at home on July, 11 1993

Bix Beiderbecke  

One of the legendary figures in Jazz, Leon ‘Bix’ Beiderbecke was born in Davenport, Iowa on March 10^th, 1903. His role as a ‘legend’ would have probably been amusing to him, had he lived long enough to know about it. For Bix died at the age of 28 after a tragic life-story. Beiderbecke began when he was 15, and like thousands of other white boys, was inspired by records of the Original Dixieland Jazz band and by hearing bands on the Mississippi River boarts. He started picking out tunes on the piano. Bix, who had been, by the way enrolled at a nearby military academy for the sons of middle-class families, was expelled in 1922 due to his frequent escapades and increasing use of alcohol. He joined the Cascades Band in Chicago,  played on the Great Lakes Steamer excursion boats, and met the young Benny Goodman. Now, in 1923, a band called the New Orleans Rhythm Kings was playing in Chicago. It was the first important white band in Jazz history and among those which brought to Chicago the authentic source music of New Orleans. It was their music that influenced the style of Bix and the Wolverines when they began playing in 1924. The Wolverines was the first white band composed entirely of non New Orleans musicians. At about this time, Bix broke away from his middle-class, middle-American family— German immigrants who knew European music and tried to school their son in what they thought they knew).They never forgave Bix for leaving home in favor of the jazz scene, and this had a profound effect on Bix’s future. He was already achieving fame with the "Wolverines," and went on to play with dance bands in New York and Chicago, while spending his spare time listening to the leading black musicians of the day—mainly Louis Armstrong and King Joe Oliver. In 1926 he worked with Frankie Trumbauer and, with him, moved on to the bands of Jean Goldkette and Paul Whiteman two years later. At this time --from 1927, Bix also formed his own group called "Bix and his gang" The problems plaguing Bix Beiderbecke were twofold: His desire to dignify his playing with ‘classical’ overtones. He was the first jazz musician to try broadening the harmonic scope of jazz by adding basic modern harmony and, the first improvisor to lift primitive New Orleans music by tinting it with subtile colors of European impressionist composers. If Bix was obsessed with this,—even more troubling to his mind—was being rejected by his own family. As one biographer revealed, Bix paid a visit to his home one day and found all the records that he mailed to his family still lying, unopened on a cupboard shelf. The third factor in the Beiderbecke tragedy was his general weakness of character. He took refuge in drink which quickly degenerated into chronic alcoholism. This, together with bad health, kept Bix out of the Whiteman band for long periods, although Whiteman kept his chair empty for him and paid all his bills. Let’s hear some of his work when he WAS able and willing. By the end of 1929 Bix was back home in Davenport trying vainly to restore himself. During his last year he tried out with the Casa Loma orchestra and played with pick-up bands in New York—including sessions with Benny Goodman, Red Nichols and others. During the short span of his productive years, Bix Beiderbecke continually demonstrated his fertile imagination. Although his  contribution to jazz may fall short of the advances made by Louis Armstrong , Bix often displayed a sensitivity that foreshadowed the cooler approach to the jazz trumpet of a later generation. Beiderbecke’s early death and the tragic manner of his passing, helped to make him a legend. In his book entitled "The reluctant art" Benny Green wrote. " Bix is Jazz’s Number One Saint". He was the first—perhaps the only white musician to contribute something completely original to the jazz art. He really was a key figure in the development of jazz. Hoagy Carmichael, who had a whole collection of legends about Bix, one remarked in his typically wry fashion: " When I first heard Bix play I nearly fell off the Davenport! " ( which may or may not have been a reference to his home town and this tune—"The Davenport Blues." Beiderbecke was only 28 years old. While his technique had been limited, the sound of Bix cornet had a fragile, crystalline quality—and not surprising, since he loved the music of Debussy.) He loved classical music-period ! Back in the days of his Wolverines, drummer Victor Moore testified that Bix attended concerts and said "I met Bix in New York in later years and the first thing he said to me was ‘ Come on, I’ve got tickets for the symphony tonight!’ ". Many a musician and jazz critic has rated Bix Beiderbecke as the greatest cornet player of all time, based on purity and classical precision.

Tex Benecke

Tex Beneke played a major role in establishing the Glenn Miller sound as one of the most successful inventions of the big band era. His tenor saxophone solos and amiable vocals featured prominently on many of Millers biggest hits, including In The Mood, String of Pearls, Chattanooga Choo Choo, I Got a Girl in Kalamazoo and Dont Sit Under the Apple Tree, and he was a key member of the saxophone section in his four years with the band. He joined in 1938, having been recommended to Miller by drummer Gene Krupa, and remained in the band until the trombonist disbanded the unit when he entered the armed forces in 1942. Beneke was never a member of Millers final Army Air Force Band, which was based in England prior to the bandleaders still mysterious death when his aircraft disappeared over the English Channel while on a flight to France in 1944. Instead, the saxophonist toured in the USA with The Modernaires, the vocal group formerly associated with the Miller band, then led a Navy band in Oklahoma. Glenn Millers widow approached Beneke to lead a reformed version of the posthumous Glenn Miller Orchestra in 1946. The band was an immediate success, touring intensively to wildly enthusiastic audience responses and racking up a sequence of hit records, all in the classic Miller mould.

Tommy Benford

Born in the Appalachians, drummer Tommy Benford and his brother, tuba player Bill Benford, unfortunately wound up as orphans. Both boys benefited from the extensive musical training offered by the Jenkins Orphanage of South Carolina as a result of these circumstances. Tommy Benford was hitting venues abroad as early as 1914. Following a series of concerts in London, one such tour had to be canceled due to the outbreak of the First World War. Soon thereafter, Benford began drumming with the Marie Lucas Orchestra, and was based out of Washington, D.C. The capitol city was a hotbed of new jazz developments in the '20s, and the drummer began playing with Elmer Snowden, Jelly Roll Morton and Edgar Hayes.  In these years the drummer recorded prolifically with many greats of the genre, including the gypsy guitarist Django Reinhardt, the serene soprano saxophonist Sidney Bechet and Coleman Hawkins. As he got older, Benford worked with the Saints and Sinners band and several similar revival outfits led by Danny Barker. Later in this decade, the drummer finally began to back away from gigging on a full-time basis, though he was still likely to inhabit a drum stool on weekends, indicating good health for a man who had been playing drums since the early 20th century.

Bunny Berigan  

was born Roland Bernard Berigan November 2nd, 1908 in Hilbert, Wisconsin. Heavily influenced by Louis Armstrong, he performed with his idol's power and zest at his peak He started out playing in local Wisconsin bands and then moved to Philadephia and New York. His first important engagement was with Hal Kemp with whom he toured in Europe. Actually, reports are that Kemp didn't hire Berigan at first because " he had the tinniest, most ear-splitting tone you ever heard!" Yest, Kemp did finally hire Bunny for the tours back in 1928, and two years later Berigan acquired one of the most beautiful sounds any jazz trumpeter ever had. Bunny also worked with Fred Rich's CBS studio band in 1931 and then Paul Whiteman's highly successful orchestra as a replacement for Bix Beiderbecke. The arrangement wasn't to Berigan's liking, since he felt that he had too few solo opportunities and he didn't care much for Whiteman's musical policy either. Berigan seldom liked anyone's musical policy which is why he formed he own bands time and time again. At any rate,. he did join the Dorsey Brothers, and, in 1934 he played with Abe Lyman's orchestra. In 1935 Berigan joined Benny Goodman where , while drinking pretty heavily, was present on that great night at the Palomar Ballroom in Los Angeles where the crowds went wild and the swing era was born. Benny Goodman recalled that night saying, "When Bunny stood up and blew 'Sometimes I'm Happy' and 'King Porter Stomp', the place exploded!" Berigan was never one to sit around much and seemed to move around all the time--from band to band. Like the following year-- in 1936 for example, when he joined Red McKenzie's Rhythm Kings in New York. Bunny Berigan had leadership ideas of his own. After a spell with Red McKenzie's band, Berigan started his own big band. Berigan's big band was a flop right from the start. Yet, he managed to top the metronome jazz poll with five times as many votes as his nearest rival--Louis Armstrong, and that was when Satchmo was at his absolute peak. Berigan was THE trumpeter of the year. During the few years he led his own big band, the critics and public alike were delighted. CBS engaged him for a series of network radio shows--"The Saturday night swing club", and his live appearances at clubs rivaled other bands fiercely. Haywood Henry, a musician with Erskine Hawkins band at the time recalled, "Bunny stole the show from us at the Savoy, and there were only three bands that could do that: The Duke, Lionel Hampton and-- Bunny! I've no doubt that he was the best white trumpeter!." Berigan's performances were, indeed, of unbeatable brilliance.. Unfortunately, Berigan lacked discipline in his playing which could run out of control in much the same way that his personal life ran helter-skelter.Heavy drinking had ruined his health and his bank account, and one source claims he became mentally unbalanced. Berigan rejoined Tommy Dorsey's band in 1940, but after a radio broadcast he simply walked out abruptly. "I had to fire him" said Dorsey. "I hated to do it, but I couldn't bring him 'round." Ironically Berigan had been Dorsey's most vital solo trumpeter in the years of that band leader's most successful recordings--with tunes that helped seal Dorsey's future In 1942, Berigan was scheduled to play at New York's Manhattan Center. His band turned up but Bunny didn't. He was seriously ill with liver cirrhosis and internal bleeding caused by drinking cheap rot-gut whiskey. Berigan was rushed to the hospital where he died--at the age of 34. Bunny Berigan and Louis Armstrong may have been kindred spirits, but Bunny was white and Louis black; Armstrong, beneath his easy-going manner had a streak of steel, and Bunny was weak. Armstrong saw his career as 'hustle' and a struggle to survive; Berigan took everything casually--everthing from trumpet playing to women. Armstrong's solos were polished pieces; Berigan's were audacious creations with neither Armstrong's technique nor inspiration. Berigan remains..with Bix Beiderbecke, the trumpet tragedy of the 1930's. ..a super talent that blew itself away too soon. As Armstrong said--in tribute to his rival: "Bunny was great, but he had no business dying that young.!"

Irving Berlin

Irving Berlin (1888-1989) was the most successful songwriter of the 20th century. Though, like his contemporaries, he spent the better part of his career writing songs (usually both words and music) to be used in Broadway musicals, he is better remembered for the songs themselves than for the shows (and sometimes films) in which they were introduced. This is because Berlin was a master at the kind of music that flourished from the turn of the century until World War II, shows that were really just collections of production numbers, scenes, and novelty acts (organized vaudeville presentations.

Acker Bilk

Acker Bilk or Mr. Acker Bilk, as he was billed has won immortality on rock oldies radio for his surprise 1962 hit "Stranger on the Shore," an evocative ballad featuring his heavily quavering low-register clarinet over a bank of strings. To the jazz world, though, he has a longer-running track record as one of the biggest stars of Britain's trad jazz boom, playing in a distinctive early New Orleans manner. After learning his instrument in the British Army, Bilk joined Ken Colyers 's trad band in 1954 before stepping out on his own in 1956.

Walter Bishop

He was the son of composer Walter Bishop, Sr.. In high school his friends included Kenny Drew, Sonny Rollins, and Art Taylor. He began his musical career after World War II, and played and recorded with Art Blakey, Charlie Parker, Oscar Pettiford, Kai Winding, Miles Davis, Jackie McLean, Curtis Fuller, Terry Gibbs, Clark Terry, Blue Mitchell, and Supersax. In the early 1960s he also led his own trio with Jimmy Garrison and G. T. Hogan. He continued performing into the 1990s. After studying at The Juilliard School with Hall Overton in the late 1960s, he taught music theory at colleges in Los Angeles in the 1970s. In 1983 he began teaching at The Hartt School of the University of Hartford. He also wrote a book, A Study in Fourths, about jazz improvisation based on cycles of fourths and fifths.

EUBIE BLAKE 

 
James Hubert Blake was born in Baltimore, Maryland on February 7th, 1883.
He grew up to the sounds of Ragtime music and before the turn of the century was playing piano in sporting houses and similar establishments. (Sporting house is a euphenism for brothel) Blake was also a composer and in 1915 joined forces with Noble Sissle, playing in vaudeville as a double-act. In 1921 the two wrote a score for a Broadway musical, "Shuffle along" in which the both took part—Blake at the piano. They also composed an enormous hit song, "I’m just wild about Harry". This, by the way, was a boost to President Harry Truman’s election campaign in 1948. Blake also contributed to other Broadway musicals and revues. One of the lovely ballad he wrote was "Memories of you". Blake reunited with Sissle in 1937 and later spent much of World War Two entertaining troops with the USO. In 1969, at the age of 86, Blakes fortunes were revived when John Hammond Jr. Recorded the old man playing piano and talking about his life. The revival of ragtime at the time helped his comeback and the next years were filled with honors, recordings, concerts, festivals and TV appearances and, in 1978 Blakes life and music were celecbrated in a broadway show, "Eubie" which was also televised in the USA and later stages in London. On the occasion of his 100^th birthday Blake said, "If I had known I was going to live this long I would’ve taken better care of myself." He died five days later.

In the '60s, when John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman were defining the concept of a jazz avant-garde, few knowledgeable observers would have guessed that in another 30 years the music's mainstream would virtually bypass their innovations, in favor of the hard bop style that free jazz had apparently supplanted. As it turned out, many listeners who had come to love jazz as a sophisticated manifestation of popular music were unable to accept the extreme esotericism of the avant-garde; their tastes were rooted in the core elements of "swing" and "blues," characteristics found in abundance in the music of the Jazz Messengers, the quintessential hard bop ensemble led by drummer Art Blakey.

Sharkey Bonano 

Although he lived until 1970, Perry Bradford's main importance to music was during the first half of the 1920's. He grew up in Atlanta (where his family moved when he was six) and in 1906 started working with minstrel shows. He played in Chicago as a solo pianist as early as 1909 and visited New York the following year. As a pianist, singer and composer, Bradford worked in theatre circuits for the next decade. After settling in New York, he became Mamie Smiths musical director and was responsible for her being the first blues singer to appear on record (singing his "Crazy Blues" in 1920). Bradford toured and recorded with Smith, worked with Alberta Hunter and also headed seven recording sessions of his own during 1923-27. With the rise of the Depression, Bradford (who was a spirited if limited singer) slipped away into obscurity. In later years he appeared to some to be a bit of a braggart although that was probably a reaction to him being completely forgotten.

Ruby Braff

Ruby Braff began his jazz career as an out-of-time traditionalist playing with veteran jazzmen of an earlier age, and rose to establish his own standing as one of the handful of leading artists playing in traditional and mainstream idioms.  He began working in local clubs in the Forties, and was recruited for the band led by the veteran clarinettist Edmond Hall at the Savoy Cafe in Boston in 1949. He made the move to New York in 1953, and was soon in demand for gigs and recording sessions in a traditional and mainstream vein. He worked with major band leaders like Buck Clayton, Benny Goodman and Bud Freeman as a young man. In the Eighties and Nineties he made a series of recordings for the major mainstream jazz labels Concord Jazz and Arbors, and formed highly-regarded duo partnerships with pianists like Mel Powell, Ralph Sutton, Dick Hyman, Ellis Larkins and Roger Kellaway. He was the headline artist at the first Nairn Jazz Festival in northern Scotland in 1990, and his appearance at the 2002 event was to be the last performance of his life. He cancelled a subsequent scheduled concert at the Brecon Jazz Festival in Wales and returned home. He was never fit enough to perform in public again.

Wellman Braud  

Clifford Brown

Les Brown

Les Brown and the Band of Renown brought Doris Day into prominence with their recording of "Sentimental Journey" in 1945. The release of "Sentimental Journey" coincided with the end of WWII in Europe and was the homecoming theme for many veterans. They had nine other number-one hit songs, including "I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm." Les Brown and the Band of Renown performed with Bob Hope on radio, stage and TV for almost fifty years. They did 18 USO Tours for American troops around the world, and entertained over three million. Before the Super Bowls were televised, the Bob Hope Christmas Specials were the highest-rated programs in television history. Les Brown and the Band were also the NBC house band for the Dean Martin Variety Show, which ran for ten seasons, and for the Steve Allen show. Les Brown and the Band of Renown performed with virtually every major performer of their time, including Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald and Nat "King" Cole. Les Brown went to college at Duke University from 1932-1936. He played in and then led the Duke Blue Devils band as they performed on Duke's campus and up and down the east coast. Brown took the Duke Blue Devils on a one year three month tour after he graduated in 1936. At the end of the tour "the boys went back to school" and Brown went to New York where in 1938 he formed the band that would become the Band of Renown.

Sandy Brown

Clarinet, bandleader. Another self-taught European player, Brown's tastes and style evolved from strictly traditional to mainstream and jazz-rock over the course of his career. He led a traditional jazz and swing band in Scotland in the mid-'40s. Brown moved to London in 1954, where he played occasionally with British musicians Humphrey Littleton, Ken Colyer and Chris Barber.. He recorded often as a leader from 1949 -

Lloyd Scott, Earl Horne, Gus McClung, Don Frye, Dave Wilborn, Buddy Burton, Cecil Scott

Joe Bushkin

Pianist Joe Bushkin lent his unmistakably light, spirited style to classic swing-era dates headlined by Bunny Berigan and Tommy Dorsey, , later moving into pop, cabaret, and even Broadway. The son of a cellist father, he was born in New York City on November 7, 1916 although reputedly a student of the great Polish pianist Leopold Godowsky, he in fact began his musical studies at the age of ten with lessons from a neighbor who was, in turn, a student of their landlord's son. The teenaged Bushkin also studied the trumpet after a bicycle accident injured his hand and put his piano career in jeopardy, but he quickly recovered and soon joined a jazz group formed by classmates at DeWitt Clinton high school;

Henry Busse

Traditional jazz trumpeter, leader of group known as Busse's Buzzards who recorded and performed during the '20s,'30s and '40s. Violinist Joe Venuti recorded with them in mid-'20s. He made switch to swing and big band as well as traditional in '40s. In 1917, Busse played the trumpet with the 'Frisco "Jass" Band'. Henry Busse first made it big in 1918 with the Paul Whiteman Orchestra, of which he was a founding member. Busse was the subject of discrimination due to his German accent, which caused concern among those living in post-World War 1 America. At one point, eight out of the top ten sheet music sales spots belonged to the band. During his peak with them, Busse was earning $350 weekly, while fellow band member Bing Crosby was earning just $150. He co-composed several of the band's early hit songs, including "Hot Lips ". Busse was concertmaster for the Whiteman Band when it toured Europe in the '20s, and there discovered a song written by a German doctor - Robert Katscher. Back in the States, Johnny DeSilvia penned new words and the song's name was changed to "When Day is Done"; it was a hit, and made Busse famous. While with the Paul Whiteman Orchestra, Henry Busse played alongside the Dorsey Brothers brothers. He played with Ray Bolger at the Chez Paree, a night club owned by notorious gangster Al Capone; Busse ran the house band there and worked for Capone.

Charlie Byrd was born on September 16th, 1925 in Chuckatuck, Virginia and began playing guitar while still a small child. He was already quite proficient by the start of World War Two and it was during the war that he met and played with Django Reinhardt. Soon afterwards he became a full-time professional musician, playing with a number of popular dance bands. In the late 40s Byrd abandoned jazz in favor of classical guitar and after studying under several tutors, including Andres Segovia, he returned to the USA and formed his own band in Washington D.C. He played jazzbut with techniques of his own and some forms of classical music. In the late 50s Byrd played with Woody Herman and in the 60s with Stan Getz with whom he helped generate the Bossa-nova craze. In 1973 he joined Barney Kessell and Herb Ellis to found *Great Guitars.

Mutt Carey

Thomas "Papa Mutt" Carey was an old-fashioned trumpeter who spoke of Buddy Bolden with reverence, made a point of honoring Freddy Keppard, and named Joe Oliver as a major inspiration, especially in the use of mutes. A longtime cohort of Kid Ory, he embodied the earliest stylistic manifestations of the jazz trumpet tradition. Born in Hahnville, LA, in 1891, Thomas Carey was the youngest of 17 offspring. He tried his hand at drumming, took up the guitar, and studied the peck horn with his brother Pete before settling on the cornet in 1912.

Hoagy Carmichael

One of the great composers of the American popular song, Hoagy Carmichael differed from most of the others in that he was also a fine performer. Such Carmichael songs as "Stardust," "Georgia on My Mind," "Up the Lazy River," "Rockin' Chair," "The Nearness of You," "Heart and Soul," "In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening," "Skylark," and "New Orleans" have long been standards, each flexible enough to receive definitive treatment numerous times. Carmichael, who was briefly a lawyer, loved jazz almost from the start, and particularly the cornet playing of Bix Beiderbecke. His first composition, "Riverboat Shuffle," was recorded by Bix and the Wolverines.

Harry Carney

Harry Carney's baritone saxophone was the anchor, the lodestone, the foundation of a distinctive tonal blend that virtually defined the Duke Ellington Orchestra for more than 45 years. A mainstay of the Ellington experience, he remained with Duke longer than anyone else and outlived him by only a little more than four months. Harry Howell Carney was born in Boston on the first of April 1910 and grew up in the same neighborhood as alto saxophonists Johnny Hodges and Charlie Holmes.. Together they gathered inspiration from 78-rpm jazz records.

Benny Carter

To say that Benny Carter had a remarkable and productive career would be an extreme understatement. As an altoist, arranger, composer, bandleader, and occasional trumpeter, Carter was at the top of his field since at least 1928, and in the late '90s, Carter was as strong an altoist at the age of 90 as he was in 1936 (when he was merely 28). His gradually evolving style did not change much through the decades, but neither did it become at all stale or predictable except in its excellence. Benny Carter was a major figure in every decade of the 20th century since the 1920s, and his consistency and longevity were unprecedented. Essentially self-taught, Benny Carter started on the trumpet and, after a period on C-melody sax, switched to alto. In 1927,

Bob Casey

Dick Cathcart 

Dick Cathcart was born in Michigan City, Indiana on November 6^th, 1924.
He was a splendid trumpet player, his first major appearance being with Ray McKinley’s band . Later, he performed with U.S. army bands during the second World War, and then with Bob Crosby prior to a stint in Hollywood studios. Cathcart became well known—for his playing if not by his name—in the radio series "Pete Kelly’s Blues." He also made a series of Jazz albums which were successful, and named his band ‘Pete Kelly’s Big Seven’. Cathcart was very active throughout the 60’s and 70’s and by the eighties he was back on jazz stages playing trumpet as well as ever.

Rod Cless

Clarinetist Rod Cless certainly had a respectable career in the Dixieland ensembles of leaders such as Muggsy Spanier and Bobby Hackett. He began playing in bands in college including the Varsity Five, darlings of Iowa State University. In the mid '20s he relocated to Des Moines where he first came into contact with an important influence, bandleader Frank Teschemacher, known as "Tesch" to his musical cohorts. The two went to Chicago together and began playing with groups such as the orchestra of Charie Pierce. In the late '20s, Cless toured in the south with Frank Quartells Band, including his first journey to New Orleans. The spring of 1939 marked in many ways a return to pure jazz work, Cless joining up with Spanier's band The Ragtimers for the balance of the year, followed by two years with pianist Art Hodes. Other gigs in the '40s included work with Marty Marsala, Georg Brunis and Wild Bill Davison as well as Hackett.. In 1944 he was associated with Max Kaminsky with whom he was employed at New York City's Pied Piper Club when Cless suffered catastrophic injuries toppling over the railings of an apartment, subsequently surviving for only four days in the hospital.

Junie Cobb

Alto, tenor sax, clarinet. Junie Cobb attained reputation for flexibility and versatility; he played many instruments well, though wasn't great on any one. He began as pianist in Johnny Dunns band as a teen, then moved from Arkansas to Chicago, leading his own band at the Club Alvadere in 1920 and 1921. He also doubled on clarinet. He subsequently played banjo with King Oliver and Jimmy Noone, , and also recorded as a leader on clarinet, alto and tenor sax. He retired from full time playing in 1955, but kept his hand in scene by doing periodic concerts, dates.

COZY COLE 

Bill Coleman

A mellow-toned swing trumpeter with a distinctive sound and a lyrical style, Bill Coleman was a consistent if never particularly famous musician. In 1927, he went to New York with Cecil and Lloyd Scotts band, with whom he made his recording debut. He worked with Luis Russell (1929-1932), and then in 1933 traveled to France with Lucky Millinder.. Coleman recorded with Fats Waller (1934) and played with Teddy Hills Orchestra (1934-1935), but then moved to France for the first time in 1935. While overseas, he recorded frequently as a leader.

Ornette Coleman

Early on in his career, alto saxophonist Ornette Coleman, recorded an album entitled, The Shape of Jazz To Come. It might have seemed like an expression of youthful arrogance - Coleman was 29 at the time - but actually, the title was prophetic. Coleman is the creator of a concept of music called "harmolodic," Born in a largely segregated Fort Worth, Texas on March 9, 1930, Coleman's father died when he was seven. His seamstress mother worked hard to buy Coleman his first saxophone when he was 14 years old. Teaching himself sight-reading from a how-to piano book, Coleman played at the Five Spot jazz club in New York in November, 1959. Coleman went on a journey to Morocco in 1973, to work with the Master Musicians of Jajouka in their mountain villages. Following he also visited villages in Nigeria. Soon upon his return Coleman created with a new sound that was a full frontal harmolodic attack, a double whammy of drums and electric bass, dubbed Prime Time. A metaphysician, philosopher and eternal student, Coleman continues to confound categorization. His Harmolodic world continues to expand along with the concepts of an artist beyond boundaries.

Max Collie

John Coltraine

Despite a relatively brief career (he first came to notice as a sideman at age 29 in 1955, formally launched a solo career at 33 in 1960, and was dead at 40 in 1967), saxophonist John Coltrane was among the most important, and most controversial, figures in jazz. It seems amazing that his period of greatest activity was so short, not only because he recorded prolifically, but also because, taking advantage of his fame, the record companies that recorded him as a sideman in the 1950s frequently reissued those recordings under his name and there has been a wealth of posthumously released material as well.

Ken Colyer

As one of England's leading trad jazz exponents, Ken Colyer's influence would have been confined to his own country were it not for a spin-off that would inadvertently lead to great changes in the music world at large. Self-taught on trumpet and guitar, Colyer was a founding member of the Cane River Jazz Band (1949-1953), a New Orleans-styled band. In March 1953, Colyer joined a group founded by Monty Sunshine and Chris Barber that soon became Ken Colyer's Jazzmen. Beginning in 1954, Colyer split his time between leading trad jazz groups as a trumpeter and skiffle groups as a guitarist, recording frequently for English Decca. Colyer's melodic Bunk Johnson -influenced lead trumpet gave his jazz bands a distinctive flavor of their own. Colyer's jazz band of the mid-'50s rivaled Barbers group as the leading British trad band of the day. Colyer would lead bands in the '60s and '70s with time out for bouts with illness, running his own KC record label, appearing at his own club Studio 11, and returning in the early '80s at the helm of the All Star Jazzmen-

Doc Cooke

Unlike most pioneer jazz musicians who went by "Doc" or "Professor," Charles "Doc" Cook actually had a doctorate degree in music, from the Chicago College of Music. Cook made a name for himself as conductor and music director of the Orchestra at Paddy Harmons Dreamland Ballroom from 1922 to 1927 in Chicago. Many of Chicago's finest musicians played for Cook, including Freddy Keppard, Jimmy Noone, Johnny St. Cyr, Zutty Singleton and Luis Russell.. Cook's Dreamland orchestra ended in 1927 when he took his orchestra to Chicago's Municipal Pier and on to the White City Ballroom. Cooke moved to New York in 1930 to become staff arranger at R.K.O. and Radio City Music Hall, where he remained until the early 1940s.

Morty Corb

Morty Corb, a jazz bassist who performed with Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Pearl Bailey and Nat King Cole, among others. Born in San Antonio, Corb learned to play the ukulele at age 6 and later, without training, mastered the guitar and bass. He began performing professionally at 17 with a San Antonio dance band and later played with bands in Arkansas and Missouri. After appearing with a band in the Army Air Forces, he moved to Los Angeles in 1946 and soon joined Louis Armstrong's All-Stars band. He also recorded with Claude Thornhill, Jess Stacy and Kid Ory and later performed with Jack Teagarden and Bob Crosby. Morty Corb was a double bass player who could and did play anything, anytime, with unfailing time and, in solos, articulate, melodic and uncluttered. He was a main stay in Pete Fountain's Quintet along with drummer Jack Sperling, whom Corb played together for years as regualrs on the Bob Cosby television show. Perhaps becoming most known to a new generation of jazz fans behind clarinetist Pete Fountain Quartett. A true bass virtuoso, later in his career, Morty was a mainstay at Disneyland, playing in big-bands and entertaining millions of visitors at the storied amusement park. Was a long time staff musician with the NBC Studio Orchestra.

Armando Anthony Corea was born in Chelsia, Mass. On June 12th, 1941.
After a musical home environment, his first notable professional engagements were in Latin bands, playing a style of music that continue to influence him today. Corea’s first recordings appeared in 1966 and show his leaning toward hard-bop. In 1968 he joined Miles Davis for that trumpeter’s experiments with fusion Playing on some of Davis’ most important albums, Corea’s electric piano became an integral part of the new sound. After playing with numerous top musicians in the early 80’s. --including Herbie Hancock, Corea concentrated on his acoustic and electric bands and went on to playing that involves extreme virtuosity. 

Larry Coryell

Musician magazine named him to its list of 100 greatest guitarists alive today, and after releasing more than 60 albums as a leader and playing on dozens more as a sideman in the last 40 years, Larry Coryell's definitely earned that honor. Born April 2, 1943 in Galveston, Texas, Coryell grew up in Richland, Wash., and got his musical start in the Seattle rock and pop scene. He also studied classical guitar, and developed his jazz chops after moving to New York City in 1965. He played with groups led by Chico Hamilton and Gary Burton before starting his own bands. He also started teaching at his alma mater, the University of Washington, authored a number of books including an autobiography, and designed a line of instruments for Cort Guitars. More than half a century after he first starting playing, the always eclectic Coryell is still exploring new six-string territory.

Ida Cox

         Israel Crosby 

Langston Curl

Trumpeter Langston Curl, whose name sounds like a fusion between black poetry and basic hair styling, did the main body of his recording work between 1927 and the mid 30's. Curl began gigging around his home town of Norfolk, Virginia, with a variety of local outfits but his first real professional job was in the superb McKinneys Cotton Pickers. In this outfit he developed brilliant abilities as a section player, setting a standard in the basic refinement in the sound of jazz during this period.
The group, based out of Detroit, kept a smile on Curl's face for four years, after which he joined up with Don Redman.. Hit parade listeners in the '30s also heard a good deal of his trumpet sound on sides by the Boswell Sisters and the Mills Brothers.

Cutty Cutshall