With his great ballooning cheeks and trademark trumpet’s bell upturned at a 45-degree angle, Dizzy Gillespie easily has the most recognizable face in jazz. Born John Birks Gillespie, Dizzy moved to Philadelphia with his family at age 18 and joined Frankie Fairfax’s band before moving on to New York City where he joined Teddy Hill’s [...]

Andrew W. Bey was born October 28, 1939 in Newark, New Jersey. He is a jazz singer and pianist. He worked on a television show, Startime, with Connie Francis and sang for Louis Jordan. He also did notable work with Horace Silver and Gary Bartz. Later he had an album named Experience And Judgment, which [...]

James Moody was born in Savannah, Georgia on March 26, 1925. Growing up in New Jersey, he was attracted to the saxophone after hearing Don Byas and various saxophonists who played with Count Basie. He joined the US Army Air Corps in 1943 and played in the “negro band” on the segregated base. Following his [...]

Dr. Billy Taylor, a Jazz pianist, composer, educator and broadcaster who encompassed that rare combination of creativity, intelligence, vision, commitment and leadership, qualities that made him one of our most cherished national treasures, died in New York on December 28, 2010. He was 89 and lived in Riverdale, New York. The distinguished ambassador of the [...]

One of the top jazz bassists of all time, especially during 1955-1965, Paul Chambers was among the first in jazz to take creative bowed solos (other than Slam Stewart, who hummed along with his bowing). He grew up in Detroit, where he was part of the fertile local jazz scene. After touring with Paul Quinichette, [...]

George Benson is at the center of a unique musical story that stretches all the way back to his early childhood in Pittsburgh. At age eight, he was already singing and playing the ukulele in local nightclubs. By his teenage years, he had switched from ukulele to guitar, and had stopped singing to focus more [...]

Who was the New Orleans jazz pioneer who did most to make this music a unique art form? When this question is asked, the name of Louis Armstrong invariably comes to mind, and rightly so. But there is another jazz musician whose name deserves to be coupled with Armstrong as the greatest of the New [...]

From All Music. com Biography by Richard Skelly Like many great blues and classic jazz vocalists, the Savannah, GA raised Irene Reid began singing in the church. She was born on September 23, 1930 in Savannah, and attended the Alfred E. Beach/Cuyler High School. There, she learned vocal music from teacher Peter Smalls. In her [...]

One of the most sought after hard bop piano players, Parlan has overcome physical disability and thrived as a pianist despite it. His right hand was partially crippled by polio in his childhood, but Parlan’s made frenetic, highly rhythmic right hand phrases part of his characteristic style, contrasting them with striking left-hand chords. He’s also [...]

Terell Stafford has been hailed as “one of the great players of our time, a fabulous trumpet player” by piano legend McCoy Tyner. Known for being a gifted and versatile player with a voice all his own, Stafford combines lyricism and a deep love of melody with a spirited, adventurous edge. This uniquely expressive, well-defined [...]