Copper
Miles Davis: Eight Great Tracks
In 1944, as a teen trumpeter in St. Louis, Miles Davis was tapped to fill in for Art Blakey at a Billy Eckstine concert, and the pros encouraged him. So,...
Johnny Hodges: Sax Player for Duke Ellington an...
When you think of classic recordings by Duke Ellington’s big band, an important part of that sound in your head is Johnny Hodges on lead alto sax. Hodges joined Ellington...
The Elegant Jazz Piano of Marian McPartland
Britain still had a few more months of World War I to endure when Margaret Marian Turner was born in Slough, England in 1918. By the time World War II...
Vassar Clements: Not Just Bluegrass Fiddle
Musicians in one genre are often compared to those in another. But for a fiddler like Vassar Clements, who was equally gifted in bluegrass, jazz, rock, and country, the comparisons...
Bassist Ron Carter: 60 Years of Jazz – and Coun...
According to reliable sources, bassist Ron Carter has well over 2,000 recording credits. On the majority of those he’s a sideman for other people’s albums, but it’s still a staggering...
Kurt Elling: Vocalese Virtuoso
Instead of going to music school, singer Kurt Elling earned a history degree from a small liberal arts college and then went to the University of Chicago Divinity School. As...
Tito Puente: El Rey de la Percusión Latina
When Tito Puente (1923 – 2000) was a kid, he won a “Play Like Gene Krupa” contest. He always considered drums and the big band sound to be the basis...
Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis: A Firm Grasp on Saxophon...
Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis (1922 – 1986) was often just called “Jaws,” a sign of respect for his mastery of the tenor saxophone as well as a description of the way...
Jutta Hipp: The Jazz Piano Virtuoso Who Disappe...
There was nothing ordinary about Jutta Hipp, from the fact that she was the only white European woman signed to Blue Note Records in the 1950s to the fact that,...
Chet Baker: A Rough Life Full of Smooth Trumpet...
Chet Baker’s life was as rough as his vocal and trumpet sounds were smooth. His vibe is unmistakable and had a big influence on some of the biggest stars in...
Diana Krall: Finding the Perfect Song
Everybody sings the standards. That’s why they’re called standards. But it takes a special touch to give well-worn songs a unique sparkle. No doubt about it, singer and pianist Diana...
Saxophonist Stanley Turrentine: Soulful Jazz
They called him “Mr. T” and “Sugar Man.” Stanley Turrentine was a tenor saxophonist whose greatest inspiration came from two of the best jazz organists of the 20th century, responding...
Pat Metheny: Versatile Jazz Guitar Virtuoso
Jazz fusion and contemporary jazz guitarist/composer Pat Metheny is the only person to have won Grammy awards in 10 different categories. And while his cache of 20 Grammys is not...
Astrud Gilberto: The Essence of Bossa Nova
She was hardly a powerhouse singer. In fact, her voice was thin, barely more than a whisper. But Astrud Gilberto’s low-key vocal style captured the essence of bossa nova at...
Trumpeter Roy Eldridge: Nifty Cat
Trumpeter Roy Eldridge used to tell people that he got his incredible ear for music from his mom, who could reproduce anything at the piano. Ironically, while his mother was...
Toshiko Akiyoshi: Founder of Big Band’s Rebirth
When one thinks of women in the big band era, it’s normal to picture a female singer backed up by an all-male band. That’s one reason Toshiko Akiyoshi is so...
Zoot Sims: A Saxophonist’s Saxophonist
He had the coolest name to go with his cool sound. Zoot Sims was a saxophonist’s saxophonist, a musician everybody wanted to work with because he made everything he played...
James Reese Europe: Jazz Rhythm in Army Boots
There are great bandleaders, great composers, and great organizers, inventors, and advocates. And then there was James Reese Europe (1881 – 1919), who excelled in every one of those endeavors....
Lester Young: President of Jazz
In 1909, a jazz master was born, one whose legacy should get more attention than it does. Maybe it’s because Lester Young played with Count Basie for so long that...
Clarinetist Don Byron: You Can't Pin Him Down
Some things in this world are impossible to pin down. Clarinetist Don Byron’s favorite genre seems to be one of them. Jazz? Yes, but jazz is a whole universe of...
Regina Carter: A New Take on Jazz Violin
Regina Carter grew up playing classical music: first piano, then violin, and even a bit of oboe. But while studying at New England Conservatory, she realized she had the jazz...
Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen: Danish Bass Virt...
His full name was Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen, so everyone called him NHØP. Colleagues in the jazz world called him one of the best and most versatile bass players in the...
Elvin Jones: Hall of Fame Drummer
There must have been some great music at home when drummer Elvin Jones was growing up in Pontiac, Michigan. He and his brothers, trumpeter Thad and pianist Hank, all turned...
Jane Ira Bloom: A Unique Voice on Soprano Sax
Jane Ira Bloom embodies the point where formal academic training and traditional jazz performance meet. With a master’s degree from Yale School of Music, this Grammy-winning composer and soprano saxophonist...
Joe Williams: I Just Want to Sing
With a deep, earnest voice that was as sincere as it was expressive, Joe Williams moved jazz singing in a new direction. Although he was born in Georgia, Williams grew...
Bobby Hutcherson: Good Vibes
Given the up-and-coming jazz greats who surrounded him, Bobby Hutcherson was likely to become a musician. While they were growing up in Los Angeles, Hutcherson’s brother was a good friend...
Stuff Smith: Black Violin
Leroy “Stuff” Smith, born in 1909, helped turn the violin into a jazz instrument. His dad taught him classical violin when he was growing up in Ohio, but when Louis...
Stanley Clarke: Taking the Lead on Bass
Before Stanley Clarke, most jazz fans thought of the bass as an instrument that kept the rhythmic and harmonic foundations of the music together, and maybe got the occasional solo....
International Sweethearts of Rhythm: Swing Is a...
Although they are not as well remembered as their male counterparts, there were a number of female-only bands in the early decades of jazz. Harlem musician Lil Hardin had her...
Illinois Jacquet: Reed Man
Sometimes a career is all about meeting the right people at the right time. That was the case when teenaged alto saxophonist Jean-Baptiste Illinois Jacquet got to play for Nat...
Art Farmer: A Trumpeter for Every Style
Art Farmer was unusual for his time for loving swing and bebop equally. His work as a small-group innovator – in particular, with his Jazztet – was no less important...
Sonny Rollins: Tenor Colossus
Known as the Saxophone Colossus, tenor sax master Sonny Rollins worked tirelessly in the jazz scene for over 70 years. Retired now at age 91, he’s one of the few...
Dinah Washington: What a Difference the Blues Make
St. Luke’s Baptist Church has served Chicago’s Black community on the South Side since 1918. One of its parishioners in the 1930s was a girl named Ruth Lee Jones, who...
Max Roach: Bebop Pioneer
Born in North Carolina swamp country in either 1924 or 1925 (he wasn’t sure himself) and raised in Brooklyn, Max Roach listened to his mother sing gospel music and was...
Herbie Hancock: A Lifelong Musical Voyage
Born in 1940 to working-class parents in Chicago, piano prodigy Herbie Hancock performed Mozart with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at age 11. His classical ear was turned toward jazz by...
Toshinori Kondo: Playing in Uncharted Territory
There’s a lot more to jazz than late nights on a club stage reading standards charts. Experimental trumpeter Toshinori Kondo sought to expand the definition of jazz to include the...
Mary Lou Williams: Hidden Figure of Piano Jazz
Considering that she wrote arrangements for Duke Ellington and mentored Thelonious Monk, jazz pianist and composer Mary Lou Williams should be much more famous than she is. She was also...
Milt Hinton: Dean of the Jazz Bass
When Milt Hinton was born in 1910, Mississippi was far from a welcoming place for Black people. Hinton once told a reporter that he saw a lynching when he was...
Sam Rivers: Free Jazz Trailblazer
When Sam Rivers (1923 – 2011) was growing up in Oklahoma, he often heard his father singing gospel music. The elder Rivers had been a member of the celebrated Fisk...
The Incredible Jimmy Smith!
When Jimmy Smith was growing up near Philadelphia in the 1930s, he taught himself to play boogie-woogie piano well enough to win a radio-sponsored contest. He discovered the joys of...
Bill Watrous: Eight Great Tracks
It’s easy to dismiss the trombone as a backing instrument that carries the middle and lower voices in arrangements. At its worst, it’s a sluggish, blatting elephant. At its best,...
Jelly Roll Morton: Early Master of Piano Jazz
If you love the up-tempo, jangly blues and stride piano of Fats Waller and Fletcher Henderson, don’t forget to give thanks to Jelly Roll Morton, who practically invented that sound....
Marcus Miller: Burning Up the Bass
Born in Brooklyn in 1959, Marcus Miller grew up surrounded by music. His dad was an organist and church choir director who made sure his son had classical music teachers...
Lee Morgan: Eight Great Tracks, Redux
[FYI: from Columbia University’s Jazz Glossary—yes, there is such a thing: “Also ‘trading fours,’ etc. Soloists taking turns at improvising, playing for eight (or four, etc.) bars at a time.” In...
Nancy Wilson: Eight Great Tracks
When Nancy Wilson was growing up in Chillicothe, Ohio, in the 1940s, her father bought every Nat “King” Cole and Billy Eckstine album that came out. Besides the record player...
Hugh Masekela, Jazz Legend
Some artists get a helping hand exactly when it’s needed. Hugh Masekela, a black South African, was given a trumpet at age 14 by Rev. Trevor Huddleston, who taught at...
Coleman Hawkins: Eight Great Tracks
Before Coleman Hawkins, few musicians took the tenor saxophone seriously as a jazz instrument. Once Hawkins hit the scene, everyone clamored for it. Hawkins was born in 1904 in St....
Poncho Sánchez: Eight Great Tracks
He’s the best Latin jazz musician you may never have heard of. But while Poncho Sánchez might not have the household-name recognition of some of his colleagues, he sure does...
Miles Davis: Eight Great Tracks
Here’s something you don’t hear every day: Miles Davis has a new album! Yes, the great trumpeter has been dead since 1991, but his record Rubberband was just released this September. And...
Emily Remler: Eight Great Tracks
When Emily Remler was a kid in Englewood Cliffs, NJ, she tried out her brother’s Gibson guitar and loved it. Soon she could figure out 1960s rock songs by ear...