Dave
Brubeck
Born December 6, 1920, in Concord, CA
“Dave Brubeck “plays ... like where the blues was born,” said stride legend Willie “the Lion” Smith. “You could put [his music] on at anybody’s house, and they’d dance all night.”...
Miles
Davis
Born May 25, 1926, in Alton, IL
Died September 28, 1991, in New York City
“The difference between me and other musicians,” Miles Davis once said, “is that I’ve got charisma.” He became a cultural icon, nearly as well known for his elegant clothes, plain-spoken opinions and rejection of every remnant of minstrelsy as for his music...
Stan Getz
Born February 2, 1927, in Philadelphia, PA
Died June 6, 1991, in Malibu, CA
“The saxophone is an imitation of the human voice,” tenor saxophonist Stan Getz once said. His own voice was breathy, light, feminine, and so touching that it captured the attention of the public without sacrificing the respect of jazz aficionados...
Dizzy
Gillespie
Born October 21, 1917, in Cheraw, SC
Died January 6, 1993, in New York City
“You only have so many notes,” John Birks Gillespie once explained, “and what makes a style is how you get from one note to the other.” Gillespie was in full command of every note on the trumpet...
Charles Mingus
Born April 22, 1922, in Nogales, AZ
Died January 5, 1979, in Cuernavaca, Mexico
“Music is a language of the emotions,” the bassist and composer Charles Mingus said. No one in jazz expressed a wider range of emotions with more musical power than he did, and no one but Duke Ellington drew upon more musical sources of inspiration...
Thelonious Monk
Born October 10, 1917, in Rocky Mount, NC
Died February 17, 1982, in Weehawken, NJ
“A genius is one who is most like himself,” said Thelonious Monk. By this standard, Monk’s brilliance was unmatched. Fingers splayed, elbows poised to collide with the keyboard, he neither played nor sounded like anyone else...
Charlie Parker
Born August 29, 1920, in Kansas City, KS
Died March 12, 1955, in New York City
“The first time I heard Bird play,” John Coltrane remembered, “it hit me right between the eyes.” Coltrane was not alone. Charlie Parker was the most influential improviser in jazz after Louis Armstrong...
Max
Roach
Born January 10, 1924, in New Land, NC
Died August 16, 2007, in New York City
“The American drummer,” Max Roach once said, “is a one-man percussion orchestra.” No one had a better right to make that claim — and no one demonstrated the truth of it so consistently for so long — than Roach...
Sonny
Rollins
Born September 9, 1930, in New York City
“I like to think there is a direct link between early jazz and jazz of our time,” tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins once told an interviewer. “I like to think that jazz can be played in a way you can hear the old as well as the new. At least that’s the way I play.”...
Sarah
Vaughan
Born March 27, 1924, in Newark, NJ
Died April 3, 1990, in Los Angeles, CA
“Sassy,” Dizzy Gillespie once said, “can sing notes other people can’t even hear.” Sassy was none other than Sarah Vaughan, who sang out serpentine lines with the agility of a horn player...
