Few musicians have managed to change the course of music--trumpeter Miles Davis did it several times. An early disciple of Charlie Parker, Davis created an austere, understated approach that became the model for cool. His superb albums in the 1950s m…

Through both the force of his music and his personal character, saxophonist John Coltrane remains among the most influential jazz artists of all time. After a stint with the classic Miles Davis band of the late 1950s, the tenor titan embarked on a de…

Among the most prodigiously recorded artists in all of jazz, pianist Oscar Peterson early on forged a strong relationship with producer Norman Granz, and since the 1950s he has been one of the cornerstones of Granz's labels (Verve, Pablo). Peterson h…

If Charlie Parker was the chief architect of the bop revolution of the 1940s, Dizzy Gillespie was its standard-bearer, an evangelist who battled public hostility and incomprehension with rapier wit. A trumpeter of dazzling virtuosity, he matched Park…

Thelonious Monk, underappreciated at the beginning of his career in the 1940s, was eventually recognized as one of the most brilliant figures in modern jazz, with a piano and compositional style that began in a classic stride and then veered off, glo…

Duke Ellington's gift for combining blues simplicity, gospel emotion, and sophisticated musical themes reflected a unique style that drew fans from around the world. From the 1920s to the 1970s, he created a huge body of work that ranks among the gre…

Trumpeter/vocalist Louis Armstrong is perhaps the single most influential artist in the history of jazz. He started out in the "hot" bands of 1920s New Orleans, and was one of the first to introduce solo improvisation into the jazz idiom. Over the ne…

Harry Connick, Jr. is an accomplished singer, pianist, and actor who emerged in the late 1980s as a Sinatra-style crooner for a new generation. As a musician, his influences include bebop, New Orleans jazz, and big-band swing. His score for the film …

Charles Mingus poured the full weight of his experience into everything he played. He was a powerful virtuoso on bass, and as a composer he drew on the whole history of jazz to produce works of trenchant beauty. Above all, he was an artist whose unco…

Saxophonist Branford Marsalis (along with his trumpet-icon brother Wynton) helped usher in a new age of traditonal jazz in the 1980s. High-profile gigs with Miles Davis and Sting soon elevated him to stardom, as he proved himself a brilliant tenor pl…

Not content to be a highly respected post-bop trumpeter and flugelhorn player, displaying technical mastery and graceful expressiveness, Roy Hargrove continually explores musical possibilities. He has led jazz quartets, big bands, an Afro-Cuban ensem…

One of the most open-eared and forward-thinking jazz musicians of his day, Hancock has, more than just about anyone else, consistently tried to broaden the music's horizons by mixing it with the most interesting elements of contemporary pop. Hancock …

Through unparalleled ability and judicious choice of repertoire, Ella Fitzgerald became the foremost female interpreter of the 20th-century Great American Popular Song Book. With producer Norman Granz she worked on the "songbook" series, placing on r…

b. Nicholas Anthony Payton, 26 September 1973, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. Born into a musical family, Payton took up the trumpet at the age of four. Encouraged by his pianist-singer mother and his bass-playing father, he swiftly reached a level of …

Los Angeles-born Dexter Gordon, the premier tenor saxophone player of the bop era, began his career with Lionel Hampton and the legendary Billy Eckstine band in the 1940s. After a decade blighted by drug problems, he made a comeback in the '60s with …

As the poster boy for cool jazz in the '50s, trumpeter and vocalist Chet Baker symbolized, at least briefly, that decade's soulful underside. But rather than ascend the throne of celebrity, he remained the outsider, the quintessential beautiful loser…

Charlie Parker's combination of sheer genius and pure emotion on the soprano sax has few rivals, and after him, nothing would be the same. As one of the creators of bebop in the 1940s and 1950s (alongside Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell, and others), Par…

Chris Botti rose to fame as a crackerjack session and touring trumpeter for the likes of Sting, Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin, Paul Simon, and Natalie Merchant. A trained jazz musician, Botti's solo albums evoke a cool-jazz persona similar to Chet Baker…

b. 1 February 1969, Berkeley, California, USA. The latest in a long line of intensively marketed young jazz musicians, Joshua Redman saw his star rise dramatically in 1991, when he burst suddenly into the international arena in his (very) early 20s w…

Dave Brubeck is one of the great post-bop jazz innovators of the 1950s, whose use of irregular time signatures, a restrained, classical-influenced approach to the piano, and exceptional composing skills have allowed him to make bold musical statement…