- Ahmad Jamal
Ahmad Jamal Ahmad Jamal Mr. Jamal was born (Frederick Russell Jones) on July 2, 1930, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. A child prodigy who began to play the piano at the age of 3. He began formal studies...
- Ar Blakey
Art Blakey The beginning career of jazz music legend Art Blakey was amazing. He took piano lessons at school. When he was in the seventh grade he played music full-time and was leading a popular...
- Billie Holiday
Billie Holiday Billie Holiday was one of the most famous jazz music singers in America. Her real name was Eleanora Fagan. Like most lives of musicians, she had a very bad time growing up which...
- Charlie Parker
Charlie Parker Charlie Parker was one of the most important and influential saxophonists and jazz players of the 1940’s. He was the only child of Charles and Addie Parker. When Parker was still very...
- Count Basie
Count Basie Count Basie was a leading swing era jazz musician representative of big band style. After studying piano with his mother, he went to New York, where he met James P. Johnson, Fats Waller,...
- Dizzy Gillespie
Dizzy Gillespie There is not one person around who knows jazz music that did not hear the name Dizzy Gillespie. Dizzy Gillespie was a composer, singer, jazz trumpet player and bandleader. He along...
- Diana Krall
Diana Krall Diana Krall is an accomplished singer, and jazz pianist. Diana was born in British Columbia Canada in 1964. She learned to play piano when she was just four-years-old. Everyone is her...
- John Colrane
John Coltrane Coltrane grew up in High Point NC, moving to Philadelphia PA in June, 1943. He was inducted into the Navy in 1945, returning to civilian life in 1946. Coltrane worked a variety of jobs...
- Lena Horne
Lena Horne Lena Horne is one of the most popular African-American jazz legend singers. She was born in 1917 Lena Mary Calhoun Horne in New York City. She performed with the greatest jazz musicians...
- Lester Young
Lester Young Lester Young was one of the true giants of jazz, a tenor saxophonist, who had a different approach in which to play his horn, floating over bar lines with a light tone rather than...
- Lionel Hampton
Lionel Hampton One great jazz musician was Lionel Hampton. Lionel was a bandleader, actor, jazz vibraphonist and percussionist. He has worked with other famous jazz musicians such as Buddy Rich,...
- Miles Davis
Miles Davis Born in East St. Louis, IL, Miles Davis was one of the greatest visionaries and most important figures in jazz history. His family was financially secure. He became a local phenom and...
- Nat "King" Cole
Nat King Cole Pianist, singer and bandleader Nat "King" Cole may have made his name as a singer, but his work as a pianist is most musically significant. Taking the intricacies of Earl "Fatha" Hines'...
- Oscar Peterson
Oscar Peterson Oscar Emmanuel Peterson was born on August 15, 1925 in Montreal, Canada. His father, Daniel Peterson moved to Canada in 1917 where he met and married Kathleen Olivia John, Oscar's...