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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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 …

Cannonball Adderley's blues-soaked tone and swinging delivery on alto sax stood out immediately when he arrived in New York in 1955. He joined the Miles Davis Quintet a few years later and appeared on the seminal KIND OF BLUE album. While many were s…

Tenor man Wayne Shorter was one of the foremost figures in jazz saxophone in the latter half of the 20th century. A hugely influential figure, he combined classical-influenced lyricism, bop fire, post-bop viscerality, and free-jazz adventurism. Over …

Pianist and composer Horace Silver was, along with Art Blakey, one of the primary instigators of the hard-bop jazz movement of the 1950s. Silver turned a limited piano technique to his advantage, welding simple but memorable phrases to driving, muscu…

A remarkable tenor player and improviser for the last three decades, Joe Henderson's career began in the '60s on Blue Note. He played a prominent role in seminal records by the diverse likes of Horace Silver, Herbie Hancock, Eric Dolphy, Andrew Hill,…

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…

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 …

Coleman Hawkins was the first great tenor saxophonist, one of those who did the most to establish that instrument's role in jazz. When he joined the Fletcher Henderson band in 1924, Hawkins's smooth legato and powerful sense of swing, combined with a…

Wes Montgomery's warm sound and hard-driving swing are, for many listeners, the epitome of jazz guitar. Rising from relative obscurity in the late 1950s, he became a huge sensation in the '60s, to the point that his recording career veered increasing…

Although he died in a car accident at the tender age of 25, Clifford Brown was a major link in the evolution of the trumpet. He possessed dazzling technique, a beautiful tone, and creativity to match. Moreover, in addition to a handful of brilliant r…

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…

One of the most original and influential pianists in jazz, Bill Evans possessed an intensely personal and lyrical approach. The release of his first records under his own name, as well as his appearance on Miles Davis's KIND OF BLUE, pushed Evans rap…

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…

Art Pepper's distinctive tone and style on the alto saxophone--warm, passionate, and rhythmically incisive--made him one of the premier players of the post-Bird generation, despite a well-publicized drug addiction. Pepper's classic sides from the '50…

A beguilingly gifted tenor player in the hard bop vein, Hank Mobley was underrated and underappreciated for most of his career. Though he was an original member of the Jazz Messengers and had a brief stint with the Miles Davis Quintet in '61, the maj…