Oscar Peterson was born August 15, 1925 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. His parents were immigrants from the British West Indies and Virgin Islands. His father, Daniel Peterson, was boatswain on a merchant ship when he met Olivia John in Montreal, where she worked as a cook and housekeeper for an English family. Daniel gave up [...]

Born January 25, 1938, Etta James was a gospel prodigy. In 1954, she moved to Los Angeles to record The Wallflower. By 1960, her career began to soar. Despite her continued drug problems, she earned a Grammy nomination for her 1973 eponymous album. In 2006, she released the album All the Way. She is considered one [...]

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,” a musical [...]

For nearly 40 years, conguero and bandleader Ray Barretto has been one of the leading forces in Latin jazz. His hard, compelling playing style has graced the recordings of saxophonists Gene Ammons, Lou Donaldson, and Sonny Stitt, and guitarists Wes Montgomery and Kenny Burrell. Born April 29, 1929, in Brooklyn, Barretto is credited for being [...]

Marcus Roberts, Assistant Professor of Jazz Studies, is widely known as one of the preeminent American jazz pianists of his generation. Throughout his career, he has won numerous awards and competitions, including the 1982 Young Artist’s Award at the National Association of Jazz Educators’ conference and the Helen Keller Award for Personal Achievement in 1998. [...]

James W “Red” Holloway was born in Helena, Arkansas on May 31, 1927 to a mother who played piano and a father who played violin. At the age of five, he and his mother moved to Chicago, where he graduated from DuSable High School and attended the Conservatory of Music. During grade school, Red played [...]

Trumpeter Marcus Printup, who was born and raised in Conyers, Georgia, had his first musical experiences hearing the fiery gospel music his parents sang in church, and would later discover jazz as a senior in high school. While attending the University of North Florida on a music scholarship, he won the International Trumpet Guild Jazz [...]

Few, if any, free jazz saxophonists have approached music with the same degree of intellectual rigor as Sam Rivers; just as few have managed to maintain a high level of creativity over a long life. Rivers plays with remarkable technical precision and a manifest knowledge of his materials. His sound is hard and extraordinarily well-centered, [...]

Edward “Sonny” Stitt (February 2, 1924–July 22, 1982) was an American jazz saxophonist. He was a quintessential saxophonist of the bebop idiom. He was also one of the most prolific saxophonists, recording over 100 records in his lifetime. He was nicknamed the “Lone Wolf” by jazz critic Dan Morgenstern, due to his relentless touring and [...]

Clark Terry’s career in jazz spans more than seventy years. He is a world-class trumpeter, flugelhornist, educator, composer, writer, trumpet/flugelhorn designer, teacher and NEA Jazz Master. He has performed for seven U.S. Presidents, and was a Jazz Ambassador for State Department tours in the Middle East and Africa. More than fifty jazz festivals have featured [...]