Bessie Smith (c 1898-1937)

When my bed is empty, Makes me feel awful mean and blue. My springs are getting rusty, Living single like I do.

Sheet music: Bessie Smith

Artie Shaw (1910-2004)

You have no idea of the people I didn't marry.

Sheet music: Artie Shaw

Ma Rainey (1886-1939)

They hear it come out, but they don't know how it got there. They don't understand that's life's way of talking. You don't sing to feel better. You sing 'cause that's a way of understanding life.

Sheet music: Ma Rainey

Oscar Peterson (1925-2007)

Montreal was a very active jazz center until club owners started putting in strippers instead of music. Before long, there was nothing to hear.

Sheet music: Oscar Peterson

Charlie (Yardbird) Parker Jr. (1920-1955)

Music is your own experience, your own thoughts, your wisdom. If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn. They teach you there's a boundary line to music. But, man, there's no boundary line to art.

Sheet music: Charlie Parker

Jelly Roll Morton (1885-1941)

I have been robbed of three million dollars all told. Everyone today is playing my stuff and I don't even get credit. Kansas City style, Chicago style, New Orleans style hell, they're all Jelly Roll style.

Sheet music: Jelly Roll Morton

Thelonious Sphere Monk (1917-1982)

I hit the piano with my elbow sometimes because of a certain sound I want to hear, certain chords.

Sheet music: Thelonious Monk

Charles Mingus (1922-1979)

Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that's creativity.

Sheet music: Charles Mingus

James P Johnson (1894-1955)

Quotation

[Fats Waller's talent outstripped even his girth. He was the most celebrated of all stride pianists, the first jazz musician to record on the organ, the composer of hundreds of songs and a master singer and showman who could find high comedy in the most mundane pop tunes.] Some little people have music in them, ... but Fats was all music, and you know how big he was.

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Biographical

James P. Johnson was an important transitional figure between ragtime and Jazz piano styles. His style became known as Stride. As a boy, Johnson studied Classical music and Ragtime. He started playing professionally in a sporting house, and then progressed to rent parties, bars, and vaudeville. He eventually became known as the best piano player on the East Coast and was widely utilized as an accompanist on over 400 recordings and from 1916 on, produced hundreds of piano rolls under his own name. He backed up many of the Classic Blues singers of the 1920s, such as Ida Cox, Ethel Waters and Bessie Smith. Johnson's 1921 recording of Carolina Shout is considered to be the first recorded Jazz piano solo by some critics, although it sounds a lot like Ragtime to this listener's ears. He wrote several musical revues, including Running Wild and Plantation Days and his 1928 collaboration with his former piano student Fats Waller, Keep Shufflin. His song Charleston from Running Wild was one of the best known and most widely recorded songs of 1920s. Other hits included Old Fashioned Love and If I Could Be With You (One Hour Tonight). Johnson's composed several symphonic works, which include Yamecraw: A Negro Rhapsody (1928), Tone Poem (1930), Symphony Harlem (1932), a symphonic version of W.C. Handy's St. Louis Blues (1937), and the one-act opera De Organizer (1940), with lyrics by Langston Hughes. None of his symphonic works were very popular and have seldom been performed. Johnson is generally considered the Father of the Stride piano, and was a major influence on some of Jazz's great pianists such as Duke Ellington, Fats Waller, and Thelonious Monk. [Adapted from Red Hot Jazz]

Billie Holiday (1915-1959)

Quotation

Dope never helped anybody sing better or play music better or do anything better. All dope can do for you is kill you - and kill you the long, slow, hard way.

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Biographical

Billie Holiday, also called "Lady Day" (b. Eleanora Fagen, April 7, 1915 Philadelphia, USA; d. July 15 1959) is generally considered one the greatest Jazz vocalists of all times. Born Eleanora Fagan, she recalled a difficult childhood in her autobiography, Lady Sings the Blues, though many of the details are questionable (she claimed she had been a child prostitute). She began singing in clubs in 1930, and was discovered by producer John Hammond three years later. Hammond arranged several recording session for her with Benny Goodman. She later worked with such Jazz legends as Lester Young, Count Basie, and Artie Shaw, breaking the color barrier along the way by becoming one of the first Jazz singers of that era to perform with white musicians. Nevertheless, she was still forced to use the back entrance and described being forced to wait in a dark room away from the audience before appearing on stage.

Once before an audience, she was transformed into "Lady Day" with the white gardenia in her hair. She explained the sense of overpowering drama that featured in her songs, saying: "I've lived songs like that." Holiday's success was marred, however, by a growing dependence of drugs, alcohol, and abusive relationships. This affected her voice as well, and her later recordings have little of the youthful excitement of her earlier work. Still, her impact on other artists was substantial. Best remembered for her Commodore and Decca recordings, some of her songs, including her signature song God Bless the Child are Jazz classics. Holiday's final years were a tragedy. She was swindled out of her considerable earnings and died with only 70 cents in the bank and $750 dollars hidden about her person. [This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License and uses material adapted in whole or in part from the Wikipedia article on Billie Holiday.]

Coleman Hawkins (1904-1969)

Quotation

Some people say there was no jazz tenor before me. All I know is I just had a way of playing and I didn't think in terms of any other instrument but the tenor.

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Biographical

Coleman Hawkins was the first great saxophonist of Jazz. As a child he was a gifted musician. In 1922, Mamie Smith spotted him in Jesse Stone and his Blues Serenaders in Kansas City theatre and hired him away to play with her Jazz Hounds. Hawkins stayed with Smith 1923, and appeared on some of her records. After leaving The Jazz Hounds, he played with Wilbur Sweatman and then made his first recordings with Fletcher Henderson. He joined Henderson's Orchestra in 1924 and stayed with him for the next ten years. In addition to his work with Henderson, he recorded with McKinney's Cotton Pickers, and with Red McKenzie's Mound City Blue Blowers in 1929. When he left Henderson in 1934 he moved to Europe, and stayed there until 1939 playing first with Jack Hylton's Orchestra in England and then traveling and recording throughout the continent. In 1937 he appeared on a famous recording date with Benny Carter, Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli. In 1939 as World War II started, Hawkins wisely returned to America.

He recorded a version of Body and Soul in 1940 that became his most famous record. Hawkins was one of the few Hot Jazz musicians who made the shift to Be Bop in the Forties. He hired Thelonious Monk for his quartet in 1944 and led an early bop recording session the same year which included Dizzy Gillespie. He also hired Miles Davis and Max Roach to play on his bands early in their careers. In 1946 he recorded with J.J. Johnson and Fats Navarro. By the early 1950s, the innovations of Lester Young and Charlie Parker made Hawkins' style seem a bit old fashioned. However Hawkins was able to adapt to the changing currents in Jazz again, when he teamed up with Roy Eldridge. Throughout the rest Fifties and Sixties he appeared on records made by Thelonious Monk, Max Roach, Eric Dolphy and John Coltrane. In the early 1960s Coleman Hawkins recorded with Duke Ellington, and made a record with Sonny Rollins. [Adapted from Red Hot Jazz]

Sheet music: Coleman Hawkins

Benny Goodman (1909-1986)

Quotation

I remember Glenn Miller coming to me once, before he had his own band, saying, How do you do it? How do you get started? It's so difficult. I told him, I don't know but whatever you do don't stop. Just keep on going.

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Biographical

Benny Goodman (born Benjamin David in Chicago) was a famous Jazz musician who was, and still is, known as "King of Swing," "Patriarch of the Clarinet," and "Swing's Senior Statesman". He first started playing clarinet at a local Chicago synagogue when he was about ten. He learnt the clarinet with the help of a former musician of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. A year later he was playing in the pit band of a local theatre. He also played at school dances and other local events. In August 1925, at age 16, he joined Ben Pollack's Orchestra after playing around Chicago. He made his first recordings in 1926, and made his first recordings under his own name in 1928. Benny Goodman played in the bands of leaders such as Red Nichols (from 1929 to 1931), Isham Jones, Ben Selvin, and Ted Lewis. In these bands, the sidemen included guys like Tommy Dorsey, Glenn Miller, Joe Venuti, Jack Teagarden, Jimmy Dorsey, Eddie Lang, Gene Krupa, Dave Tough, and Fats Waller. He also worked in pit bands for Broadway musicals and did freelance work for radio bands. He appeared in Radio Shows such as his popular show "Let's Dance", the "Camel Caravan," and the "Victor Borge Show," and a biography was written about him in 1939 entitled "The Kingdom of Swing." Benny made an impressive amount of records at this time of his career. Benny even managed to do some recording for cartoons and the "talkies."

The summer of 1932 saw Benny organise his first band which starred singer Russ Columbo. The second band that he formed (in 1934) got a job at Billy Rose's Music Hall. This band made some great recordings and began appearing on the 3-hour NBC radio program called "Let's Dance." After this, the Benny Goodman Orchestra began touring (with not so fantastic results) until August 21, 1935, when the Benny Goodman Orchestra opened in the Palomar Ballroom in Los Angeles. After playing a few dance tunes, he told the band to play some Fletcher Henderson arrangements. The mostly young crowd promptly started something of a riot. After this public approval of the music - this thing called "Swing" - there was no looking back! The January 16 concert in 1938 at Carnegie Hall was also a great success. The fifteen musicians at that concert included Jess Stacy, Gordon Griffin, Hymie Schertzer, George Koenig, Allen Reuss, Vernon Brown, Red Ballard, Arthur Rollini, Babe Russin, Harry Goodman (on string bass) and Martha Tilton as vocalist.

As well as his Big Band, Goodman featured his Trio, Quartet, Quintet, Sextet, and Septet. Benny Goodman's orchestra's sound was contributed to by the highly talented arranging skills of Fletcher Henderson, Mel Powell, Eddie Sauter, and many others. The combined work of Benny Goodman and band, Eddie Sauter and Helen Forrest is especially notable, with such songs as "Perfidia," "Lazy River" and "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes." Benny approached all his recordings and performances with style, taste, maturity, timing, and technical mastery. He was a highly-influential, and formidable musician, who, like other bandleaders of the time, set unequaled standards in popular music (before or since).

Interestingly enough, Benny also made recordings playing instruments other than clarinet. On a few occasions in his career he played alto sax. At other times, he made recordings playing bass clarinet, baritone sax, soprano sax, tenor sax, and even cornet. You can even catch Benny singing on a few recordings, such as "Gotta Be This Or That" with Jane Harvey, one of Benny Goodman's many talented vocalists. Benny Goodman and his band starred in such movies as Hollywood Hotel (1938), The Powers Girl (1943), The Gang's All Here (1944), Sweet and Lowdown (1944) and Stage Door Canteen. "The Benny Goodman Story," a film made in 1955, depicted Benny Goodman's life, and Benny recorded the sound track for it.

Benny Goodman spent several years studying classical music, and frequently played with small chamber groups and became a virtuouso clarinet soloist with symphony orchestras under such conductors as Bernstein, Toscanini and Ormandy. He performed new orchestral works of Bartok, Stravinsky and Copland. In the 1950s to the 1970s he continued making lots of amazing recordings and performances, working with many of the greats in the Jazz world. He made several overseas trips and played at selected engagements with a small band, or, he would form a big band where he arrived, or even play in a full symphony orchestra. Benny also made a trip to Russia in 1962. In January 1978 he returned to Carnegie Hall to do a Concert - 40 years after the first Carnegie Hall Concert in 1938. The tickets all sold out the first day! His last studio recordings were made in January 1986. [Adapted from Benny Goodman Home Page]

George Gershwin (1898-1937)

Quotation

Life is a lot like jazz. . . it’s best when you improvise. . .

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Biographical

George Gershwin (born Jacob Gershowitz - Gershovitz was probably changed to Gershvin by an immigration official when his father arrived from Russia) (September 26, 1898 - July 11, 1937), American composer. Composed both for Broadway and for the classical concert hall, his music contains elements of both. Many of his compositions have been used in cinema, and perhaps many more are famous Jazz standards: songbooks have been recorded by Ella Fitzgerald (memorable 3 discs recording for Verve, with Nelson Riddle's orchestra), Herbie Hancock and several other singers or players. His most famous works include: Rhapsody in Blue, (1924), a symphonic Jazz composition for Jazz band, piano, and orchestra; the Piano Concerto in F* (1925); An American In Paris, a tone poem with elements of Jazz and realistic sound effects; Porgy And Bess, an opera (1935); (from the book by Dubose Heyward), a folk opera about African-American life, which contains the famous aria Summertime. Three Preludes, (1936), for piano. Brother of Ira Gershwin, lyricist, with whom most of his works were made. In 1910, the Gershwins had acquired a piano for Ira's music lessons, but George took over, successfully playing by ear.

He tried out various piano teachers for 2 years, then was introduced to Charles Hambitzer - who became his mentor (and would remain so until Hambitzer's death in 1918). Hambitzer taught George conventional piano technique, introduced him to the European masters, and encouraged him to attend orchestral concerts (at home following such concerts, young George would attempt to reproduce at the keyboard the music he had heard). He achieved wide success with his first song Swanee. In 1924, George collaborated with his brother on a musical comedy, Lady Be Good. It included standards as Fascinating Rhythm and The Man I Love. Comedy was follwed by Oh, Kay! (1926), Funny Face (1927), Strike Up the Band (1927 & 1930), Girl Crazy (1930) and Of Thee I Sing (1931) - the first musical comedy to win a Pulitzer Prize. It was in Hollywood, while working on the score of The Goldwyn Follies, that George Gershwin collapsed and, on July 11, 1937, died of a brain tumour. He was not quite 39 years old. The Gershwin estate continues to bring in significant royalties from licensing the copyrights on Gershwin's work. The estate supported the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act because its 1923 cutoff date was shortly before Gershwin had begun to create his most popular works. The copyrights on those works expire in 2007 in the European Union and between 2019 and 2027 in the United States of America. [This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License and uses material adapted in whole or in part from the Wikipedia article on George Gershwin.]

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Erroll Garner (1921-1977)

Quotation

I love it. When they stop imitating me then I'll start wondering where I'm going wrong. Every day when I sit down to play, I learn something new.

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Biographical

Errol Garner started playing piano at the age of two (three according to Johnson). He never learned to read music, probably because it was never a necessity for him. He learned to play the 'novelty' styles of Zez Confrey and others from listening to 78 records, a style which used steady left hand chord rhythms to support very free right-hand melodic interpretations. This provided a perfect basis for the hard-swinging Jazz style that Garner was to pioneer.

At the age of seven, Garner began appearing on radio station KDKA in Pittsburgh with a group called the Candy Kids, and by the age of eleven he was playing on the Allegheny riverboats. Garner began to attract attention after he moved to New York in the early forties, and shortly afterwards he made his first recordings. By 1950, Garner had established himself an international reputation, and from that point until his death on January 2, 1977, he made countless tours both at home and abroad, and produced a huge volume of recorded work.

Garner's style evolved out of the 'novelty rags' of the twenties. More contemporary Jazz influences include Earl Hines, another Pittsburgh native, and the rhythm compings of Freddie Green (Count Basie's longtime guitarist). But Garner was ultimately a very idiosyncratic player, and he doesn't fit well into any of the standard piano style groupings of 40's and 50's Jazz. His characteristic traits are of course his steady, guitaristic, left hand compings, and, most obviously, his octaval treatments of melodies and solo lines. The major seventh arpeggio in octaves which introduces Garner's biggest hit, Misty is an example. Another typical Garnerism is the pizzicato, super-syncopated introduction. These intros are often highly independent of the main part of the piece. They range from fanciful to sassy, but always their choppy staccato serves to highten the driving effect once Garner turns on his relentless left hand rhythm. [Adapted from Web Biography]

Ella Fitzgerald (1918-1996)

Quotation

I know I'm no glamor girl, and it's not easy for me to get up in front of a crowd of people. It used to bother me a lot, but now I've got it figured out that God gave me this talent to use, so I just stand there and sing.

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Biographical

Jazz singer and winner of thirteen Grammy Awards. She is noted for her purity of tone and "horn-like" improvisational ability, particularly in her scat singing. She first came to fame as a teenager in 1935, singing with Chick Webb's Orchestra in Harlem's Savoy Ballroom. She recorded several hit songs with them, including "If You Can't Sing It, You'll Have to Swing It," but it was her version of the nursery rhyme, "A Tisket A Tasket" that really launched her to stardom. When Chick Webb died in 1939, the band continued touring under the new name, "Ella Fitzgerald and Her Famous Orchestra."

She began her solo career in 1941. Among her best known recordings was a series produced by Norman Granz of the songbooks of the great American popular composers, Harold Arlen, George Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Jerome Kern, Duke Ellington, and Johnny Mercer. Porgy and Bess is the most notable of her many recordings with jazz legend Louis Armstrong. Ella Fitzgerald also appeared alongside Peggy Lee as an actress and singer in Jack Webb's Jazz film Pete Kelly's Blues. [This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License and uses material adapted in whole or in part from the Wikipedia article on Ella Fitzgerald.]

Duke Ellington (1899-1974)

Quotation

There are two kinds of worries -- those you can do something about and those you can't. Don't spend any time on the latter.

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Biographical

Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 - May 24, 1977) was an American Jazz composer, pianist and band leader. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1969. Duke Ellington is considered by many to be the greatest American composer. He had many hits including "Take the A Train", "Satin Doll", "Rockin' in Rhythm", "Mood Indigo", "Caravan" and "Sophisicated Lady". Many of these songs were written with his lifelong collaborator, Billy Strayhorn, who did not always get author credit, although Ellington's manager, Irving Mills, usually managed to get his name on compositions. His works were always tailored to the talents of the musicians in his band, including Johnny Hodges, Bubber Miley, Ben Webster, Harry Carney, Sonny Greer, and Otto Hardwicke. Many musicians stayed with him for decades. He first came to attention at the Cotton Club in Harlem where he was billed as "Duke Ellington and his Jungle Band".

These appearances featured many experiments in tonality, with trumpet screams and wah-wah, and growling saxophones. He was a musical experimenter all his life, recording with John Coltrane and Charles Mingus as well as with his own highly skilled orchestra. He frequently composed in longer forms modelled on classical music, such as his "Black, Brown and Beige" (1943), and "Such Sweet Thunder" (1957), based on Shakespeare. His "Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue" with a rocking saxophone interval by Paul Gonsalves in 1956 at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1956 greatly increased his fame and drawing power. He also wrote for films, starting with Black and Tan Fantasy in 1929, but also Anatomy of a Murder (1959) with James Stewart, in which he appeared as a bandleader, and Paris Blues (1961), which featured Paul Newman and Sidney Poitier as Jazz musicians. Ellington was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 1965, but was turned down. His reaction: "Fate is being kind to me. Fate doesn't want me to be famous too young." [This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License and uses material adapted in whole or in part from the Wikipedia article on Duke Ellington.]

John William Coltrane (1926-1967)

Quotation

Over all, I think the main thing a musician would like to do is give a picture to the listener of the many wonderful things that he knows of and senses in the universe. . . That’s what I would like to do. I think that’s one of the greatest things you can do in life and we all try to do it in some way. The musician’s is through his music.

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Biographical

Jazz saxophonist, born September 23, 1926 in Hamlet, North Carolina. Died July 17, 1967 at Huntington Hospital in Long Island, NY. 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 through the late forties until (still an alto saxophonist) he joined Dizzy Gillespie's big band in 1949. He stayed with Gillespie through the band's breakup in May 1950 and (now on tenor saxophone) worked with Gillespie's small group until April 1951, when he returned to Philadelphia to go to school. In early 1952 he joined Earl Bostic's band, and in 1953 he joined Johnny Hodges's small group (during that saxophonist's short sabbatical from Duke Ellington's orchestra), staying until mid 1954. Although there are recordings of Coltrane from as early as 1946, his real career spans the twelve years between 1955 and 1967, during which time he reshaped modern Jazz and influenced generations of other musicians. Coltrane was freelancing in Philadelphia in the summer of 1955 when he received a call from trumpeter Miles Davis.

Davis, whose success during the late forties had been followed by several years of decline, was again active, and was about to form a quintet. Coltrane was with this first edition of the Davis group from October 1955 through April 1957 (with a few absences), a period which saw influential recordings from Davis and the first signs of Coltrane's ability. This classic "First Quintet", best represented by two marathon recording sessions for Prestige in 1956, disbanded in mid-April. During the latter part of 1957 Coltrane worked with Thelonious Monk at New York's Five Spot, a legendary gig. He rejoined Miles in January 1958, staying until April 1960, during which time he participated in such seminal Davis sessions as Milestones and Kind Of Blue, and recorded his own influential sessions (notably Giant Steps). [

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License and uses material adapted in whole or in part from the Wikipedia article on John William Coltrane.]

Benny "King" Carter (1907-2003)

Quotation

You got Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and my man, the Earl of Hines, right? Well, Benny's right up there with all them cats. Everybody that knows who he is calls him 'King.' He is a king! - Louis Armstrong on "King" Carter

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Biographical

For over six decades, Benny Carter has occupied a unique place in American music. As Duke Ellington once wrote: "The problem of expressing the contributions that Benny Carter has made to popular music is so tremendous it completely fazes me, so extraordinary a musician is he." [Adapted from Benny Carter Web Site]

Eubie Blake (1883-1983)

Quotation

If I'd known I was going to live this long, I'd have taken better care of myself.

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Biographical

Jazz pianist, dancer, and composer; both of his parents had been slaves. Blake composed popular and serious music and remained active as a performer throughout his long life. [Adapted from Duke University]