History Main / Jazz

[[folder: Jazzrock/ Jazzpop/ Fusion/ Nu Jazz]]

* Music/OscarPeterson: A Canadian jazz piano legend who was and still is often compared to Art Tatum in terms of virtuosity; indeed, Tatum was a major influence, but Oscar's style was more contemporary to the early bebop era of the mid 1940's (as opposed to the swing era of the 30's) while maintaining some of the more melodic idioms of swing as well as incredible ballad and blues playing. Criticised occasionally for his slightly formulaic approach, but one of the giants of Canadian jazz.

* Music/HerbAlpert: American trumpeter with a decades long instrumentalist career, particularly for Jazz. Also known for The Tijuana Brass which also incorporates a mariachi sound.
* Music/DerekBailey: English guitarist, impresario, writer and record label owner. Born in Sheffield, arguably indirectly responsible for prompting more Website/YouTube trolling than any other improvising musician. Was a Charlie Christian fan and Royal Navy bandsman who became a professional musician after leaving the service; worked as a top UK session man in the 50s and 60s before encountering free improvisation, whereupon he broke down his playing style and adopted a new one derived partly from his love of 20th century classical music, especially Anton Webern: splintered, dissonant, lots of artifical harmonics and note clusters, all based in absolutely rock-solid technique, but creating the impression in the minds of some people unfamiliar with atonal music that he was just plinking and bashing at random, hence the trolling. Insisted that what he played was not jazz, but free improvisation. Played with ''everybody'' on the improv scene from the late 60s to his death in 2005; wrote a brilliant book on improvisation (called ''[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Improvisation]]''); a dry, sceptical, funny presence. In later years, revisited his roots with gorgeous albums of his unique, spiky takes on standard tunes. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUgcKnwnTTE Could also shred]].

* Thundercat: While notoriously difficult to classify, Thundercat (the solo work of former Suicidal Tendencies bassist, onetime Kendrick Lamar collaborator, and frequent Flying Lotus collaborator Stephen Bruner) is generally accepted as jazz-related, as he freely mixes jazz and jazz fusion with elements of hip-hop, soul, funk, psychedelic rock, synth-funk, and yacht rock.

* Music/EsperanzaSpalding: A fusion bassist and singer who is probably best remembered outside of the jazz world for winning the Grammy for Best New Artist in 2011, which made her the first jazz instrumentalist to win the award, beating out Music/JustinBieber, Music/FlorenceAndTheMachine, Music/{{Drake}} and Music/MumfordAndSons in the process. Inside the jazz world, Spalding is one of the top contemporary fusion artists, known for incorporating indie rock, art rock, funk and R&B influences into her music.

** ''Music/{{Tourist}}'' (2000)

--> --'''Thelonious Monk'''

* Music/KamasiWashington: A popular jazz saxophonist who rose to fame after being featured on Music/KendrickLamar's ''Music/ToPimpAButterly''.

[[folder:Beat poetry]]

Poets whose recite their poetry accompanied by a bongo and conga arrangement are sometimes classified as Jazz as well.

* Music/GilScottHeron

* The Music/DaveBrubeck Quartet: Redefined what could be done with bebop, bringing odd time signatures and classical influences with such oddly-timed instant classics as "Take Five," "Blue Rondo a la Turk" and "Unsquare Dance"; pianist Brubeck was the second jazzman, after Music/LouisArmstrong, to be featured on the cover of ''Time'' magazine, although it's much to his credit that he would have preferred Music/DukeEllington to have that honor instead, and felt he himself was honored because he was white.[[note]]Ellington made it onto the cover two years later, after his band played a barnstorming performance at the 1956 Newport Jazz Festival.[[/note]] They were also one of the first well-known ''integrated'' jazz bands -- three white men and one black -- and were known for refusing to play gigs in places where their bassist Eugene Wright would be discriminated against. The Brubeck quartet gained a sizable following in the late 1950s through their concerts at university campuses, and were one of the first musical acts in any genre to make college shows a regular part of their touring schedule.

* Music/RayDraper: A prodigious musician working as both a leader and a highly sought-out sideman when he was still high school aged. Idiosyncratic in that he played tuba, an instrument already losing favor in jazz during the bop era, and could have brought it into the modern age. Unfortunately his career was sidelined for years by substance abuse problems and tragically shortened by his untimely murder, but he still left behind a significant body of work.

** Music/''JazzAtMasseyHall'' (1953)

** Music/''TheBlackSaintAndTheSinnerLady''

* Music/SonnyRollins: Pioneering saxophonist whose career is one of the longest and most influential in jazz history, starting from the late 40s to this very day. Helped codify hard bop when barely out of his teens; was a junkie and convicted armed robber by his mid-20s; then inspiringly cleaned himself up and released a string of albums that earn him the status as John Coltrane's main rival. Noted for his thoughtful, angular phrasing and interest in Afro-Caribbean music, as well as pioneering the sax/bass/drums trio format, and for his occasional sabbaticals in which he stops playing in public for a couple of years and rethinks everything (most famously, he disappeared from 1959-61, until a journalist discovered he was playing on the Williamsburg Bridge every night). Appeared on [[/index]]''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' in 2013 (where he was the inspiration for Bleeding Gums Murphy's habit of playing on bridges). Still playing in his mid-80s.[[index]]