History Main / Jazz

* Music/JohnColtrane: Master saxophonist and spiritual thinker who covered nearly every jazz style of his time (even creating a few).

* ''Music/{{Emergency}}''

* Benny Goodman: A classically trained clarinet player known as the "King of Swing", Goodman was responsible for helping to bring hot swing which focused on improvisation into the mainstream in the 1930s, and made an effort to employ black musicians at a time when the music industry was segregated.

* Music/MilesDavis: Jazz trumpet virtuoso started in bebop, went on to pioneer multiple styles of jazz (Modal Jazz, Cool Jazz, and Fusion, among others). His 1959 album ''Kind of Blue'' is the best selling jazz album in history, with 1970's ''Bitches Brew'' not far behind. Many great jazz musicians, from the 50's to the 70's, and beyond went through his band for at least a short time.

* John Coltrane: Master saxophonist and spiritual thinker who covered nearly every jazz style of his time (even creating a few).

* Bill Evans: Considered one of the most influential jazz pianists of all time. He eschewed virtuoso showmanship and fancy ornamentation, choosing languid, breezy sound colors and drawn out musical passages. The jazz ballade, "A Waltz for Debby", became an international hit, and a jazz standard. Lyrics have been added to the piece in many different languages.

* Music/MilesDavis: Jazz trumpet virtuoso started in bebop, went on to pioneer multiple styles of jazz (Modal Jazz, Cool Jazz, and Fusion, among others). His 1959 album ''Kind of Blue'' is the best selling jazz album in history, with 1970's ''Bitches Brew'' not far behind.

* John Coltrane: Master saxophonist and spiritual thinker who covered nearly every jazz style of his time (even creating a few); many great jazz musicians, from the 50's to the 70's, and beyond went through his band for at least a short time.

Jazz has left a deep impression in music. Improvised and/or extended solos are the primary example of this. jazz also contributed to the development of musical instruments, most famously the modern drum set, which was largely developed by early jazz musicians.

OK, OK, that probably didn't help much, but in our defense, defining jazz really is hard (just look at the OtherWiki [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jazz#Definitions has to say about that]]!). So maybe we can just stick with the following: At its heart, jazz is about spontaneity. That usually means improvising, the art of playing (to a greater or lesser extent) without a script and being free to play whatever you like, sometimes without even confines of traditional music structure (which is what [[LoveItOrHateIt Free Jazz]] is all about).

* Vince Guaraldi: A famous jazz pianist who is most famous for his scores for the early ''{{Peanuts}}'' animated specials. For instance, his ''ACharlieBrownChristmas'' soundtrack has become a perennial holiday classic and many kids' first introduction to jazz. Despite his fame for the Peanuts score, his style was heavily influenced by Afro-Cuban Jazz and Brazilian music. Before he died, his later Peanuts scores experimented with harpsichord, Hammond organ, hard bop, fusion, and funk.

* LouisArmstrong: A massively influential jazz musician, played the trumpet and cornet, and engaged in a fifty-year career in jazz. He is considered the [[TropeMakers Trope Maker]] or TropeCodifier for many basic elements of jazz, including scat singing but chiefly improvisation: he's [[ThePioneer the first great jazz soloist to have been recorded]]. His later records aren't really jazz but are still highly enjoyable; his recordings from the late 1920s, made when he was already a veteran musician in his own late twenties, are essential listening.
* DukeEllington: ''The'' greatest composer and bandleader in jazz, although he claimed to dislike the J-word and preferred to have his music described as "music". His outstanding compositions notwithstanding, he was perhaps even greater as a bandleader in that he encouraged others (such as Billy Strayhorn) to write classic compositions for his band, and fostered more than one generation of great players (Jimmy Blanton, Ben Webster, Johnny Hodges, Paul Gonsalves). Also a damn fine pianist, and possibly the only jazz musician who could have been equally at ease playing with both Louis Armstrong and John Coltrane, although not on the same date, alas. Miles Davis, his only rival for the post of Greatest Bandleader Ever, said that jazz musicians should get down on their knees every day and thank Duke for what he did for music.

* TheAndrewsSisters : While they were actually a singing trio, they worked with many bands during WWII and were the original BlondeBrunetteRedhead.

* CabCalloway: One of the other {{Trope Codifier}}s of scat singing, like LouisArmstrong. He was one of the first African-American performers to make it big, performing alongside Al Jolson at one point. He was also known for his dance moves, and brought jazz to a wider audience by appearing in BettyBoop cartoons.
* Glenn Miller: One of the most popular band leaders, he led his orchestra as one of the biggest record sellers from 1939 to his (literal) dissappearance in late 1944. His greatest hit was "In The Mood", not counting his work with the Andrews Sisters. Expect on of his pieces in any {{WWII}} setting.
* Billie Holiday - Also known as "Lady Day", she is possibly one of the most famous jazz and blues vocalists of all time. Much emulated, her tragic life is as well known as her talent. She is often depicted in media, and even has a cult classic biopic starring Diana Ross. "Strange Fruit" by Abel Meeropol, her signature song, brought attention to the lynchings of blacks in the Deep South, and was voted by Time Magazine as the greatest song of the 20th century.

* MilesDavis: Jazz trumpet virtuoso started in bebop, went on to pioneer multiple styles of jazz (Modal Jazz, Cool Jazz, and Fusion, among others). His 1959 album ''Kind of Blue'' is the best selling jazz album in history, with 1970's ''Bitches Brew'' not far behind.

* CharlieParker: Saxophonist whose virtuoso approaches to rhythm, harmony, and tempo laid the foundations of Bebop and revolutionized jazz (and music itself!) like few others.

* The Dave Brubeck Quartet: Redefined what could be done with bebop, bringing avant-garde polyrhythm and polyphone to the masses with such oddly-timed instant classics as "Take Five," "Blue Rondo a la Turk" and "Unsquare Dance"; pianist Brubeck was the second jazzman, after LouisArmstrong, to be featured on the cover of ''Time'' magazine (He would have preferred DukeEllington got that honor instead and felt he himself was honored because he was white). 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.

* JoePass: one of the most influential guitarists of bebop.

* HerbieHancock: Wrote three of modern jazz's standards -- "Cantaloupe Island," "Dolphin Dance" and "Watermelon Man." His lineup on the ''Headhunters'' album more or less ''created'' jazz fusion by adding funk influences into the mix. The first artist to have a jazz-hiphop crossover hit with "Rockit", memorable now for its MindScrew of a video.

* JonahDempcy (and his various [[IHaveManyNames pseudonyms]]): similar to the aforementioned St Germain, combines jazz with the various types of electronic music, creating an alternatingly darker and lighter style. A word of warning: hip-hop, dubstep, and house are in his musical vocabulary, and he will use them.

--> --'''LouisArmstrong'''

--> --'''MilesDavis'''

* ArtTatum: An almost completely blind jazz pianist, whose technique is something that, that, ... [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9Cs_zb4q14 Just see for yourself]]. No wonder too, as (so legend goes) he learned to play by repeating the movements on a autopiano... which played pieces for four hands! Playing his material is a truly monumental achievement even to this day.

* DjangoReinhardt: The first non-American jazz innovator, and one of the most influential guitar players of the 20th century. With the Quartet/Quintet of the Hot Club of France, he replicated swing with an all-string ensemble, inventing the sub-genre known as Gypsy Jazz.

* Dominic "Nick" [=LaRocca=]: A highly controversial figure in jazz history, trumpet/cornet player [=LaRocca=] was the leader of the Original Dixieland Jass Band. He's probably the first jazz musician who was ever recorded, and the first to outsell John Phillip Sousa, who had the best-selling artist in America at the beginning of the twentieth century. At the same time, he was notorious for claiming that jazz was exclusively an invention of white musicians and trying to bribe other trumpeters to leave New Orleans so he could be the best in the city.

* Django Reinhardt: The first non-American jazz innovator, and one of the most influential guitar players of the 20th century. With the Quartet/Quintet of the Hot Club of France, he replicated swing with an all-string ensemble, inventing the sub-genre known as Gypsy Jazz.

* Bix Biederbecke: A celebrated trumpeter and cornetist whose playing foreshadowed cool jazz and bebop. He played with a number of groups, recorded prolifically and was said to be Louis Armstrong's only true equal as a horn player before dying at a young age.

--> --'''Thelonius Monk'''

* Dominic "Nic" LaRocca: A highly controversial figure in jazz history, trumpet/cornet player LaRocca was the leader of the Original Dixieland Jass Band. He's probably the first jazz musician who was ever recorded, and the first to outsell John Phillip Sousa, who had the best-selling artist in America at the beginning of the twentieth century. At the same time, he was notorious for claiming that jazz was exclusively an invention of white musicians and trying to bribe other trumpeters to leave New Orleans so he could be the best in the city.

* Thelonious Monk: Best known not for [[BadassBeard his beard]], his odd onstage antics, or his collection of [[CoolHat unusual hats]], but for his idiosyncratic style of playing -- you have to be a really good musician to play that haphazardly and still make it come out ''exactly right''. Also an inventive composer; several ''dozen'' of his songs have become standards.

* "Jelly Roll" Morton: New Orleans-style jazz pianist and the genre's first great composer. Also an inveterate braggart who claimed to have single-handedly invented jazz.

* Sun Ra: His birth certificate states that he was born Herman Blount in the early 20th century Birmingham, Alabama, but Sun Ra would maintain throughout much of his later life that he was in fact a native of a far away planet. As such, his eccentric worldview and lifestyle would often overshadowed his extremely extensive body of music, which ranges from bop, to free jazz, to doo-wop. His worldview, a unique blend of black nationalism, science fiction, and {{magic realism}}, would prove to be extremely influential in both the musical and literary worlds, including {{George Clinton}}'s various Parliament-Funkadelic projects.

OK, OK, that probably didn't help much, but in our defense, defining jazz really is hard (just look at the OtherWiki [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jazz#Definition has to say about that]]!). So maybe we can just stick with the following: At its heart, jazz is about spontaneity. That usually means improvising, the art of playing (to a greater or lesser extent) without a script and being free to play whatever you like, sometimes without even confines of traditional music structure (which is what [[LoveItOrHateIt Free Jazz]] is all about).

* Charles Mingus: The ''angry'' man of jazz, absolutely brilliant and over-opinionated in every place that counted. Known for taking pot shots at other jazz musicians, being an outspoken social activist, inspiring Music/TheWho to trash their instruments on stage, and writing a [[http://www.mingusmingusmingus.com/Mingus/cat_training.html guide for how to toilet-train cats.]]

Notable jazz artists include (note, some of these musicians belong in multiple categories!):