Alto saxophonist Charlie Parker was the most influential jazz musician to follow Louis Armstrong, and one of the music’s few true revolutionaries. The style he helped to create, called bebop, or bop, established jazz as an intellectual music that was no longer viewed merely as … Read MoreCharles “Charlie” Parker, Jr. (1920-1955)
Mentor to Louis Armstrong and pioneer of what would become known as the Harmon trumpet mute, Joe “King” Oliver was a key figure in the first period of jazz history. His most significant ensemble, King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band, was a live sensation and also … Read MoreJoseph “King” Oliver (1885-1938)
Charles Gordone was born Charles Edward Fleming on October 12, 1925 in Cleveland, Ohio to parents William and Camille Fleming. He took his stepfather’s surname of Gordon when his mother remarried when he was five years old. The family moved to Elkhart, Indiana, his mother’s … Read MoreCharles Gordone (1925-1995)
One of the great innovators of jazz music, pianist Cecil Taylor has redefined modernist jazz improvisation and composition. With uncompromising vision and sheer force of expression, his demanding music has both alienated and thrilled audiences, and has largely found a more receptive audience across the … Read MoreCecil Taylor (1929- )
Jazz arose in 19th century America from music brought from West Africa by slaves. It is therefore not surprising that the many of the most successful jazz musicians come from the African American communities in the South. While there is a common belief that Jazz … Read MoreAlphonse Trent Orchestra
Jazz great Dizzy Gillespie had a long and distinguished musical career as a trumpeter, composer, and bandleader. Unlike many jazz musicians whose lives were cut tragically short, Gillespie’s career spanned the 1930s to the 1980s, from the big band swing era of the 1930s, through … Read MoreDizzy Gillespie (John Birks Gillespie) (1917-1993)
William Lineas Maples, a physician and musician, was born in Sevierville, Tennessee, on March 31, 1869. The son of Edward Maples and Martha Jane Runions, William graduated in the first class of the segregated high school in Knoxville in 1888. Showing a talent for science, … Read MoreWilliam Lineas Maples (1869-1943)
Jazz pianist Thelonious Monk became one of the 20th Century’s most influential and innovative jazz musicians. Born on October 10, 1917 in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, the son of Thelonious and Barbara Monk, young Thelonious Monk grew up in New York City after the family … Read MoreThelonious Monk (1917-1982)
Rap Music, and the culture that surrounds rapping itself, hip-hop, is a genre of music and a lifestyle which originated in the housing projects of New York City, New York in the late 1970s but which now has global influence. While not without controversy and … Read MoreRap/Hip Hop
Ella Fitzgerald was a female jazz singer considered without equal at the height of the jazz era. Her voice had an amazing and vibrant range that allowed her to sing nearly every jazz style. Ella was also an accomplished composer and bandleader who performed into … Read MoreElla Fitzgerald (1917-1996)
