"Harlem 1958," also known as "A Great Day in Harlem," is a black-and-white photograph of 57 jazz musicians who gathered at 17 East 126th Street -- a brownstone here in northeast Harlem between Fifth & Madison.
Freelance photographer Art Kane took the photo on August 12, 1958, and it was then published in the January 1959 issue of Esquire.
“I came up with the idea of getting as many musicians together in one place as we could," Kane later said of the shoot. "It would be sort of a graduation photo or class picture of all the jazz musicians. After I thought about it some more, I decided they should get together in Harlem. After all, that’s where jazz started when it came to New York."
Many of the musicians -- who included Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, Benny Golson and Count Basie -- met up under the N.Y. Central (now Metro-North) Railroad at 125th Street, and the station was soon overrun with jazz musicians before they started to move west along 126th Street.
"One by one, these extraordinary people showed up," Kane remembered. "Next thing you know, I was standing there, watching them all move into that street. The thing is, I couldn't control it, because you had musicians who hadn't seen each other in one solid congregation probably ever before."
Join us to celebrate the historic photo with a Make Music New York stoop jam on Tuesday, June 21, with the musicians of Jazzmobile! Meet up at the historic stoop at 17 East 126th Street from 4:30-5 p.m. for a jam featuring band leader Patience Higgins on sax, with James Zollar on trumpet, Michael Rörby on trombone, Nathan Garrett on bass and Ethan Mann on guitar.
john birks “DIZZY” GILLESPIE (1917-1993)
Easily recognized by his puffed-out cheeks and unusual angular trumpet, Dizzie Gillespie was one of the key figures in the birth of the brash, speedy, lopsided jazz known as "bebop." Nicknamed "Dizzy" because of his comical antics, Gillespie played a trumpet with the bell angled upward at 45 degrees, a quirk which became his signature.
From his playlist:
-- Salt Peanuts
-- Manteca
WILLIAM “COUNT” BASIE (1904-1984)
The title of one of his band’s most famous tunes -- “The Kid from Red Bank” -- is a tip-off that William “Count” Basie was born in Red Bank, N.J. Many associate him with Kansas City, however, since that's where his music really took off. Known for innovations such as the use of two "split" tenor saxophones and the contrapuntal accents of his own piano, Basie got the name "Count" from a radio announcer who compared him to the other jazz royalty of the time, Earl Hines and Duke Ellington. Basie took his orchestra to New York in 1937, and they made the Woodside Hotel in Harlem their base (142nd Street & Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard). In June 2019, the New York Times Magazine listed Basie as among hundreds of artists whose material was reportedly destroyed in the 2008 Universal Music Group fire.
From his playlist:
THELONIOUS MONK (1917-1982)
Thelonious Monk was born in Rocky Mount, N.C., then moved to New York City at the age of 4. He began studying classical piano when he was 11, and by the age of 13, had won the weekly amateur contest at the Apollo Theater so many times that the management banned him from re-entering. In 1941, Monk joined the house band at Minton's Playhouse, where he helped develop the school of jazz known as bebop. Alongside Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, he explored the fast, angular and often improvised styles that would later become synonymous with modern jazz.
From his playlist:
-- Blue Monk
-- Misterioso
CHARLES MINGUS (1922-1979)
Charles Mingus grew up in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles. By the 1940s, he played bass professionally with famous bandleaders Louis Armstrong. In 1951, he settled in New York, where he worked as a sideman, recording and performing with other jazz legends such as Charlie Parker, Bud Powell and Miles Davis. After a few years, he formed an experimental musicians' group called the Jazz Workshop. As a soloist, Mingus was known for his rich and diverse combination of influences, including gospel, New Orleans jazz, Mexican folk music and modern classical. In June 2019, the New York Times Magazine listed Mingus as among hundreds of artists whose material was reportedly destroyed in the 2008 Universal Music Group fire.
From his playlist:
-- Moanin’
LESTER “prez” YOUNG (1909-1959)
Lester Young was a tenor saxophonist and occasional clarinetist who came to fame as a member of Count Basie's orchestra. Born in Mississippi and raised in New Orleans, he left the South at age 18 after refusing to tour in clubs where Jim Crow was in effect. In New York, he became close to Billie Holiday, giving her the name "Lady Day," while she nicknamed him the “Prez.” Known for his creative use of language, Young coined some of the most famous jazz jargon -- including "bread" and “cool.” He played with a relaxed, cool tone and used sophisticated harmonies, using what one critic called "a free-floating style." Young was the first musician from the Harlem 1958 photo to pass away, after which several fellow musicians wrote tribute songs, including Charles Mingus' "Goodbye Porkpie Hat" and Wayne Shorter's "Lester Left Town."
From his playlist:
-- Fine & Mellow (with Billie Holiday)
-- Lester Left Town (by Wayne Shorter of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers)
art blakey (1919-1990)
Art Blakey, also called Abdullah Ibn Buhaina (or "Bu"), was a drummer and bandleader often called the “father of hard bop,” an offshoot of bebop. With a style that featured thunderous press rolls and cross beats, his drum solos often began as quiet tremblings and grew into frenzied explosions. Born in Pittsburgh, Pa., Blakey taught himself to play piano (and later drums), then played in jazz clubs in the evenings while working in the steel mills by day. Starting in his twenties, he began to play with other noted performers including Billy Eckstine and Sarah Vaughn. In 1948, he visited Africa, learned polyrhythmic drumming and was introduced to Islam. In 1954, he founded the Jazz Messengers, a band that over the next 35 years featured an unending supply of talented sidemen, many of whom went on to become band leaders in their own right. Some have counted more than 200 Jazz Messengers alumni, including Benny Golson, Terence Blanchard and Wynton Marsalis. In June 2019, the New York Times Magazine listed Blakey as among hundreds of artists whose material was reportedly destroyed in the 2008 Universal Music Group fire.
From his playlist:
-- Moanin’
-- Bu’s Delight
-- Yama
COLEMAN “Hawk” or “BEAN” HAWKINS (1904-1969)
Coleman Randolph Hawkins, nicknamed "Hawk" and sometimes "Bean," was one of the first jazz artists to become known for playing saxophone. Historically, the trumpet, trombone, clarinet, bass and piano were much more prominent in jazz, with tenor saxes usually played only in short bursts on the beat. However, Hawkins had a keen ear for new styles and changed this, covering both traditional jazz standards and departing into what one critic called "the early tremors of bebop." Born in Missouri and schooled in Kansas, Hawkins settled in New York City in the early 1920s in the days of the Harlem Renaissance, where he played with Mamie Smith's Jazz Hounds and in Fletcher Henderson's Orchestra with Louis Armstrong. For much of the 1930s, he toured in Europe, and in the early 1940s became a leader on some of the earliest known bebop sessions. In June 2019, the New York Times Magazine listed Hawkins as among hundreds of artists whose material was reportedly destroyed in the 2008 Universal Music Group fire.
From his playlist:
-- Body & Soul
-- Juicy Fruit
horace silver (1928-2014)
Horace Silver was a jazz pianist who helped pioneer the hard bop style in the 1950s. Celebrated for his clever compositions and his infectious, bluesy playing, Silver grew up in Connecticut to a mother who enrolled him in classical music lessons and a father who taught him the folk music of his native Cape Verde. He got his first big break when Stan Getz heard him play in a club, then invited him on tour. In 1953, Silver and drummer Art Blakey formed the Jazz Messengers, with an aggressive style that helped define hard bop and whose lineup of trumpet, tenor saxophone, piano, bass and drums became the standard hard-bop instrumentation. In his later years, Silver developed a strong interest in spiritualism and formed his own record label, "Silveto."
From his playlist:
-- Doodlin’
-- Opus De Funk
mary lou williams (1910-1981)
Mary Lou Williams, born Mary Elfrieda Scruggs, was a groundbreaking jazz pianist. The second of 11 children, she was born in Atlanta, grew up in Pittsburgh, and taught herself to play piano at age 3. By age 12, she had played publicly with the likes of Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong, and become known as "The Little Piano Girl." Over the course of her career, she arranged for Ellington and Armstrong, as well as Benny Goodman and Tommy Dorsey, and recorded more than 100 records in 78s, 45s and LPs. Throughout the decades, she became known for her ability to absorb and reflect a diversity of influences, resulting in works such as "Zodiac Suite" in the 1940s, "Mary Lou's Mass" in the 1960s, and "The History of Jazz" in the 1970s. In her later years, she taught at Duke University, where she maintained that jazz could not be boxed in as one musical style, saying: “It’s all spiritual music and healing to the soul.”
From her playlist:
-- Trumpet No End (Blue Skies)
Jimmy Rushing, left, with Duke Ellington at right.
JIMMY RUSHING (1901-1972)
Jimmy Rushing was a blues shouter, balladeer and pianist from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, who was also known as "Mr. Five by Five" ("he's five feet tall and he's five feet wide"). Born into a musical family, Rushing attended college at Wilberforce University, an accomplishment that was unusual among jazz performers at the time. He first sang in front of an audience at age 23, when he was playing piano at a club and the featured singer invited him to do a vocal. "I got out there and broke it up," Rushing recalled. "I was a singer from then on.” With a powerful voice that could range from baritone to tenor, Rushing could project his sound so that it soared over the horn and reed sections in a big-band setting. He is best known as the featured vocalist of Count Basie's Orchestra from 1935 to 1948.
From his playlist:
sahib shihab (1925-1989)
One of the first jazz musicians to convert to Islam, Sahib Shihab was born in Nashville, Tenn., as Edmund Gregory. Known for his work on both the alto and baritone sax, Shihab was one of the earliest boppers to use the flute. He studied at the Boston Conservatory, then fell in with the early bop movement after his religious conversion, recording several now-famous sides with Thelonious Monk and Art Blakey in the 1940s. Following some empty patches where he had to work odd jobs, Shihab played with Dizzy Gillespie, then toured Europe with Quincy Jones' big band, in the 1950s. Becoming disillusioned with racial politics in United States, he ultimately settled in Scandinavia, where he married a Danish woman and raised a family.
From his playlist:
-- Red Cross
-- Sentiments
Marian McPartland, left, with Mary Lou Williams and Thelonious Monk, during the “Harlem 1958” photo shoot.
MARIAN MCPARTLAND (1918-2013)
Marian McPartland (née Turner) was an English-American jazz pianist, composer and writer. Born just outside of London, she demonstrated perfect pitch early, but since her mother would not let her take piano lessons until her teenage years, she was never a strong reader of notated music and would always prefer to learn through listening. In 1944, during World War II, she enrolled in the United Service Organizations (USO), where she met American trumpeter Jimmy McPartland. They married in 1945, then returned to the United States after the war, first to Jimmy's hometown of Chicago and then to Manhattan. First playing with her husband, and then other groups, over the next 50 years Marian would play with greats ranging from Billie Holliday to Duke Ellington, Coleman Hawkins to Dave Brubeck. In 1964, she launched a weekly radio program on WBAI-FM that featured recordings and interviews with guests. From 1978 to 2011, she was the host of "Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz" on National Public Radio. Her encyclopedic knowledge of jazz standards and experiences improvising with so many performers led to a musical style that was described as "flexible and complex, and almost impossible to pigeonhole." In 2010, she was named a member of the Order of the British Empire. In June 2019, the New York Times Magazine listed McPartland as among hundreds of artists whose material was reportedly destroyed in the 2008 Universal Music Group fire.
From her playlist:
-- For Dizzy
-- Manhattan
ROY ELDRIDGE (1911-1989)
David Roy Eldridge, nicknamed "Little Jazz" for his short stature and hot music style, was a trumpet player that some call the historical bridge between Louis Armstrong and Dizzy Gillespie. Born in Pittsburgh, he picked up both the piano and trumpet early, then left home at age 16 to join a traveling show after being expelled from ninth grade. Moving to New York City in 1930, he played in various Harlem bands before leaving for Chicago, where he formed an octet with his older brother, saxophonist Joe Eldridge. In 1941, after receiving offers from white musicians, Eldridge joined Gene Krupa's Orchestra and then later played with Artie Shaw, becoming one of the first black musicians to become a permanent member of a white big band. As the featured soloist in Shaw and Krupa's bands, Eldridge walked a fine line between being famous on stage, but then facing the legacy of Jim Crow after his shows: Krupa, on at least one occasion, spent several hours in jail and paid fines for starting a fistfight with a restaurant manager who refused to let Eldridge eat with other band members. Eldridge's rhythmic power to swing a band was a dynamic trademark of the jazz of the time, and in the 1940s he competed in several "trumpet battles" with Gillespie at Minton's Playhouse. Remembered by his peers for being competitive and scrappy, Eldridge fully admitted to his competitive spirit, saying "I was just trying to outplay anybody, and to outplay them my way."
From his playlist:
GIGI GRYCE (1925-1983)
Gigi Gryce, later Basheer Qusim, was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, composer and educator. Born in Pensacola, Fla., Gryce grew up in a family that placed a strong emphasis on manners, discipline and church music. For most of his childhood, he studied on a clarinet that he and his brother borrowed and shared, but by high school his mother had saved enough to buy him his own instrument and he studied with music teachers via the Federal Music Project. Drafted into the Navy in 1944, he played in the military band and picked up the sound of bebop while on tour. Supported financially by the G.I. Bill, he later studied at the Boston Conservatory, exploring the jazz scenes of Boston and Hartford before moving to New York City, where he met and played with musicians including Art Farmer, Quincy Jones and Lionel Hampton. Always described as having strict morals, he converted to Islam in the 1950s. A vehement advocate of composers' and musicians' rights, he started his own publishing company, Melotone Music. In the 1960s, he left the professional jazz scene and reinvented himself as a public school music teacher: After his death, the school where he taught in Morrisania was renamed P.S. 53 Basheer Qusim/G.G. Gryce School.
From his playlist:
-- Nica’s Tempo
-- Minority
-- Social Call
chubby jackson (1918-2003)
Greig Stewart "Chubby" Jackson was a double-bassist and band leader known as much for his onstage exuberance as his musical chops. Born in New York City to parents who'd worked in vaudeville, Jackson was a ball of fire onstage -- grinning broadly, rarely standing still and shouting encouragement to his fellow musicians. He earned his nickname from his size (and it stuck, even after he lost 100 pounds in 1946). First coming to prominence in the 1940s with Woody Herman's Herd, one of the most popular big bands of the swing era and one of the first to incorporate modern jazz ideas into a big-band format, Jackson later started his several of his own groups. He also had a successful career in television, hosting a local children's show called "Chubby Jackson's Little Rascals," in which he led a big band, played a bass painted with a smiling face, told jokes and introduced "Little Rascals" shorts. In the 1960s and 70s, he occasionally worked with his son, a prominent jazz drummer, and toured with an all-star band led by Lionel Hampton.
From his playlist:
-- Lemon Drop
-- Bass Face
WILLIAM “DICKIE” WELLS (1907-1985)
Dickie (sometimes “Dicky”) Wells was a trombone player who was born in Centerville, Tennessee, and the brother of Henry Wells, also a trombonist. Known for his distinctive vibrato and imaginative use of moans, wheezes and exclamations, Wells moved to New York City in 1926, and in the 1930s and 1940s was a regular in the band of Count Basie, as well as with groups including Fletcher Henderson, Jimmy Rushing and Ray Charles. In the 1950s and 1960s, he played frequently in Europe. In the 1970s, one of his regular haunts was the West End Cafe on Broadway at 116th Street, where he played with The Countsmen, a group of former Basie musicians. One of his trademarks was the “pepper pot” mute that he made himself for his trombone. Wells was the subject of the book “The Night People” in 1991. Note: This Dickie Wells is not to be confused with the Dickie Wells who had a club on 135th Street and is credited with the dish of chicken & waffles!
From his playlist:
ARTHUR STEWART “ART” FARMER (1928-1999)
Arthur Stewart "Art" Farmer was a second-generation bebop musician who first played trumpet and later flugelhorn, and even later, the "flumpet" -- a hybrid instrument that combined projection and warmth, and was made just for him. He was born in Iowa one hour ahead of his twin brother, Addison, who would later become a prominent musician on bass. After their parents divorced and his steelworker father died in a work accident, the brothers' mother and grandparents moved the family to Phoenix, where Farmer joined a dance band that played big-band hits. When they were 16, the brothers moved to Los Angeles, at a time when great musicians were coming out of the city's integrated high schools, and they began to pick up gigs. Farmer moved to New York City in the early 1950s to play with Gigi Gryce and Horace Silver; by the end of the 1950s, he and saxophonist Benny Golson formed the Jazztet, a sextet with a deep repertory of harmonically sophisticated, tightly arranged music that defined the state of the art for mainstream jazz. In June 2019, the New York Times Magazine listed Farmer as among hundreds of artists whose material was reportedly destroyed in the 2008 Universal Music Group fire.
From his playlist:
-- Mox Nix
-- Soulsides
HENRY JAMES “RED” ALLEN (1908-1967)
Trumpet player and showman Henry James “Red” Allen was born in New Orleans, the son of bandleader Henry Allen. As a teenager, played in his father's band. In 1926, Allen left New Orleans to play with the Southern Syncopators on a riverboat that ran the Mississippi River between St. Louis and Cincinnati. After being offered a recording contract, he moved to New York City, where over the years, he played with Fletcher Henderson, Coleman Hawkins, Billie Holliday, Benny Goodman, Luis Russell and Louis Armstrong, among others. Starting in 1954, he led the house band at the Metropole Cafe, a jazz club at 48th Street & Seventh Avenue that was noted in the bebop era as being a venue for traditional jazz musicians. In 1958, Allen recorded on an album called “The Weary Blues” that featured poet Langston Hughes. In June 2019, the New York Times Magazine listed Allen as among hundreds of artists whose material was reportedly destroyed in the 2008 Universal Music Group fire.
From his playlist:
tyree glenn (1912-1974)
Tyree Glenn played the unusual combo of trombone and vibraphone. Born in Texas, Glenn started out working in territory bands, then moved to Washington, D.C., area. Valued for his skills on both instruments, he was known for being a "wah-wah" trombonist and later played in the bands of Cab Calloway (1939-1946), Duke Ellington (1947-1951) and Louis Armstrong (1965-1968). During his time with Ellington, he was heavily featured on the "Liberian Suite," a piece commissioned for the 100th anniversary of Liberia. He was the father of R&B/soul musician Tyree Glenn, Jr.
From his playlist:
-- How Could You Do A Thing Like That To Me? (recorded by Frank Sinatra)
charles ellsworth “pee wee” russell (1906-1969)
Pee Wee Russell earned the nickname "Pee Wee" due to his his slight build: It was said that he “played jazz with every inch of his thin, elongated body." Trained on violin as a child, Russell also tried drums and saxophone before settling on the clarinet on his instrument — and it was on clarinet that he became known for a unique style that included squeaks, rasps, growls and overtones. Born in Missouri, he moved to New York City by the late 1920s, and it was here that he found a home in the bands of Eddie Condon and at Nick's, a popular Greenwich Village club. From the 1940s on, Russell's health was often poor, exacerbated by his drinking ("I lived on brandy milkshakes and scrambled-egg sandwiches," he said). In 1950, he suffered a near-fatal collapse from pancreatitis, after which musicians including Louis Armstrong gave benefit concerts that raised some $4,500 to help with medical expenses. In June 2019, the New York Times Magazine listed Russell as among hundreds of artists whose material was reportedly destroyed in the 2008 Universal Music Group fire.
From his playlist:
-- Tin Tin Deo (with Coleman Hawkins)
william "buster" bailey (1902-1967)
Like many early jazz musicians from Memphis, Tenn., Buster Bailey got his start playing with W.C. Handy's Orchestra when he was just 15 years old. His fast and smooth clarinet style made him a sought-after session musician starting in the mid-1920s, and over the course of his life he played with all the big names of the time, including Louisiana's Joe "King" Oliver, New York's Fletcher Henderson Orchestra, and later the Saints & Sinners and Louis Armstong and his All-Stars. He also recorded music under his own name, as Buster Bailey & His Rhythm Busters or Buster Bailey & His Chocolate Dandies.
From his playlist:
-- Jazz Party
jonathan "papa JO" JONES (1911-1985)
Jonathan "Papa Jo" Jones had an elegant touch, being one of the first drummers to promote the use of brushes on drums and shift the role of timekeeping from the bass drum to the hi-hat cymbal. Born in Chicago and later moving to Alabama, Jones was captivated by vaudeville shows and traveling circuses, and by age 13 had jumped aboard the circuit as a musician and dancer. In the late 1920s, he joined Walter Page's Blue Devils in Oklahoma City, then joined the Count Basie Orchestra in Kansas City in 1934. When Basie relocated to New York City in 1937, Jones came with him, becoming part of the "All-American Rhythm section" along with Basie, guitarist Freddie Green and bassist Walter Page. In addition to his artistry on the drums, Jones was known for his combative temperament -- especially one instance in which he threw a cymbal at a very young Charlie Parker. In his later years, he performed regularly at the West End Club at 116th Street & Broadway.
From his playlist:
-- Caravan
-- Cubano Chant
stuff smith (1909-1967)
Hezekiah Leroy Gordon "Stuff" Smith was one of the few jazz musicians who played violin. Born in Ohio, he studied violin with his father, and was inspired by Louis Armstrong to play jazz. In the 1920s, he played in Texas, then moved to New York City, where he was billed as Stuff Smith & His Onyx Club Boys. (His nickname came from his habit of referring to people whose name he couldn't remember as "Stuff.") Competitive in nature, Smith is credited as being the first violinist to use electric amplification techniques on a violin, just so that he could be heard over the sounds of most jazz band's louder brass instruments. He was one of the writers of the song "It's Wonderful" (1938), as well as "You'se a Viper" (1936), a song about marijuana. He also performed at what is considered the first outdoor jazz festival, the 1938 Carnival of Swing on Randall's Island. He died in Germany, was buried in Denmark, and was inducted into the U.S. National Fiddler Hall of Fame in 2014
From his playlist:
-- If You're a Viper (original title was You'se a Viper)
zutty singleton (1898-1975)
Arthur James "Zutty" Singleton was an influential drummer from the early jazz period who popularized the use of brushes. Born in Bunkie, Louisiana, and raised in New Orleans, he got his nickname when he was just a baby: “Zutty” is the Creole word for “cute.” After getting his start at age 17 at the Rosebud Theater, he went to Europe during World War I to fight, then came home wounded. After the war, he played in several bands in New Orleans and along the Mississippi on riverboats, then moved to St. Louis and Chicago, where he tried to open a club with Louis Armstrong that was unsuccessful. (He also played on several of the Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five sides, including "A Monday Date," where Armstrong says, "Come on Zutty, whip those cymbals!") Around 1930, he moved to New York City to play with Fats Waller, later taking up vaudeville shows during the Great Depression to keep up his income. In the 1940s, he moved to Los Angeles, where he led his own band, played for motion pictures, and was featured on Orson Welles's CBS Radio series, “The Orson Welles Almanac.” He died in New York City in the 1970s after a stroke, leaving behind his wife, Margie, who was the sister of jazz musician Charlie Creath.
From his playlist:
-- Drum Face
OSCAR PETTIFORD (1922-1960)
Oscar Pettiford was a double bassist, cellist and composer. Born on a Native American reservation in Okmulgee, Okla., Pettiford grew up around music, as his father headed the family band, and his mother played the piano and taught music. "O.P.," as he was known, moved to Minneapolis, then in the early 1940s, continued to New York City -- where he was one of the musicians, along with Dizzy Gillespie and Thelonious Monk, who jammed at Harlem's Minton's Playhouse, where the music style developed that we now call bebop. In addition to his work on bass, Pettiford is considered the pioneer of the cello as a solo instrument in jazz music, having first played cello as a practical joke on his band leader, but later, after suffering a broken arm, adopting the cello when he found it impossible to play bass. He died in 1960 in Copenhagen, at the age of 37.
From his playlist:
-- Oscaylpso
-- Tricotism
OSie johnson (1923-1966)
Osie Johnson was a drummer, arranger and singer who was known as the guy every other jazz musician wanted to play with. Born in Washington, D.C., he attended Armstrong High School, which was known for its music program, then made his first important professional appearance in 1941 with a band called The Harlem Dictators. He spent the World War II years playing in the Great Lakes Naval Station band in Chicago, then remained in Chicago after the war, working on the local nightclub scene. In the early 1950s, he toured with the Earl Hines sextet, then returned to New York, where he played with various groupings at all the local hotspots of the time, including the Embers, Basin Street, the Playhouse and Birdland. He was a regular on pretty much every jazz label, including RCA Victor, MetroJazz, Columbia/Colpix, Riverside/Jazzland, Prestige/Swingville, Bethlehem, Impulse!, Mercury, as well as the more obscure Dot, Seeco, Coral and Dawn. In large part, this was because he was dependable: He had no serious bad habits, showed up on time, sight-read extremely well, had excellent timing, and knew both when to play more and when to let others shine. His versatility also stemmed from his open-minded attitude – he genuinely enjoyed playing everything from swing to bebop, with a wide range of players.
From his playlist:
-- Osie's Oasis
miff mole (1898-1961)
Irving Milfred Mole, known professionally as "Miff," was a trombonist and band leader. Born in Roosevelt, Long Island, he studied violin and piano as a child and switched to trombone when he was a teenager. In the 1920s, he become a significant figure of the New York scene: He was a member of the Original Memphis Five, and like many jazz musicians at the time, worked for silent film and radio orchestras. His solo style, which included octave-leaps, shakes, and rapid-fire cadenzas, had a profound effect on jazz trombone playing in his time. Over the years, he played with bands including The Red Heads, The Hottentots, The Charleston Chasers, The Six Hottentots, The Cotton Pickers, Red and Miff's Stompers, and especially Red Nichols and His Five Pennies, and musicians including Pee Wee Russell and Benny Goodman. In his later years, he was in bad health and played sporadically. He died in 1961 and is buried in Greenfield Cemetery in Hempstead.
From his playlist:
MILT HINTON (1910-2000)
Milton John Hinton was an double bassist and also a photographer of note, praised for documenting American jazz during the 20th Century. Born in Mississippi, his family moved to Chicago when he was nine years old, and it was there that learned jazz music. Graduating from Crane Junior College in 1932, he attended Northwestern University for one semester, then dropped out to pursue music full-time. In he music business, his nicknames included "Sporty" from his years in Chicago, "Fump" from his time on the road with Cab Calloway, and "The Judge" from the 1950s and beyond. Regarded as a consummate sideman, Hilton was equally adept at bowing, pizzicato and "slapping," and also an accomplished sight-reader. His recording career lasted more than 60 years, mostly in jazz but also with a variety of other genres as a prolific session musician.
From his playlist:
GERRY MULLIGAN (1927-1996)
Gerry Mulligan was a composer and pianist who played several reed instruments including clarinet and saxophone. Born in Queens of Irish descent, Mulligan grew up as the youngest of four sons. After his mother hired an African-American nanny named Lily Rose, Mulligan began spending time at Rose's house and learned jazz from her player piano and the traveling musicians who stayed in her home. Dropping out of high school to pursue work with a touring band, Mulligan moved to New York City in 1946, joined the arranging staff on Gene Krupa's bebop-tinged band, and composed for several musicians, including Miles Davis on "The Birth Of Cool." In the 1950s, he formed a pianoless quartet with trumpeter Chet Baker that is still regarded as one of the best cool jazz groups; this came to an end in 1953, however, after like many of his peers Mulligan began using heroin, was arrested on narcotics charges and spent six months in prison. Upon his release, Mulligan managed to kick the habit, and went on to compose and play up until his death with musicians including Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus, Billie Holliday, Thelonious Monk, Louis Armstrong and Marian McPartland. In June 2019, the New York Times Magazine listed Mulligan as among hundreds of artists whose material was reportedly destroyed in the 2008 Universal Music Group fire.
From his playlist:
-- Jeru
-- Reunion with Chet Baker
"buck" clayton (1911-1991)
Wilbur Dorsey "Buck" Clayton was a trumpet player famous not only for playing with the likes of Duke Ellington and Count Basie, but also for taking jazz to China. Born in Kansas, he could play piano from the age of six, and learned to play scales on the trumpet starting in his teens. In his twenties, he got jobs in California with the likes of Ellington, and by the 1930s, became a leader of the "Harlem Gentlemen" band in Shanghai that played for groups associated with Chiang Kai-shek. While in China, he adopting the Chinese music scale into the American scale, and worked closely with musician Li Jinhui, who was later a casualty of the Cultural Revolution. Once back in the States, he was a leading member of Basie's "Old Testament" orchestra here in New York until being drafted for war service in 1943. After the war, he had residencies at the Cafe Society and Savoy Ballroom, traveled around the world on various tours, and was considered a chief example of a jazz style called "mainstream" -- i.e., the style of swing era players who fell between the revivalist and modernist camps. In 1969, he had lip surgery, and had to give up playing the trumpet in 1972, though he made brief comeback in 1977 for a State Department-sponsored tour of Africa. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, he taught his skills at Hunter College.
From his playlist:
-- Hucklebuck
-- All of Me
rex stewart (1907-1967)
Rex William Stewart, Jr., was a jazz musician unique for playing the cornet, rather than the trumpet, in big bands as well as small groups throughout his career. Born up in Philadelphia and raised in Washington, D.C., he began playing in New York City groups at the age of 14, including the Fletcher Henderson band, McKinney’s Cotton Pickers and the Duke Ellington band, when he was featured in recordings such as “Across the Track Blues” and “Boy Meets Horn.” Ellington created a new role in his band for Stewart’s unique melodies, full of bent notes and “half-valve” playing (depressing a valve on his cornet halfway) and quirky, mysterious sounds that suggested laughing or sobbing through his horn. In later life, Stewart toured Europe and Australia, then freelanced in upstate New York, and after 1960 lived in southern California, where he was a disc jockey, played music and wrote articles on jazz magazines.
From his playlist:
-- Chatter Jazz
WILBUR WARE (1923-1979)
Wilbur Ware was a double bass player who served as a rhythmic anchor with an unerring sense of swing. He is remembered for being able to shift the rhythmic emphasis by varying his note lengths, leaving empty space between his phrases, and sticking to the lowest register of his instrument. Born in Chicago in 1923, he played banjo, drums and violin before picking up the bass as a teenager. After serving in World War II, Ware hit the Chicago jazz scene in 1946, then moved to New York in 1956 to join Art Blakey’s band. In 1957, he joined with Thelonious Monk and John Coltrane, and participated in Sonny Rollins’ "A Night at the Village Vanguard" concerts. In late 1957, he recorded his only album as a leader, "Chicago Sound," which featured some of his fellow Chicagoans. During the late 1950s, Ware recorded as a sideman for the recording labels Riverside and Blue Note, but his worsening health (probably exacerbated by drug problems) kept him out of action for most of the 1960s. He returned to performing in 1969 and later moved to Philadelphia, where he died in 1979.
-- By Myself
vic dickenson (1904-1984)
Victor (Vic) Dickenson was a trombone player with a sly, dry and witty style who was one of the most individualistic stars of Count Basie's orchestra. Born in Ohio, he first wanted to be a plasterer like his father, but abandoned the idea after falling off a ladder. Having played trombone in high school, he then changed to performing with local bands -- playing with the leading bands of the Midwest, then joining Basie's group in the early 1940s. After World War II, he was heard mostly in Dixieland and swing combos here in New York City, as a member of the World's Greatest Jazz Band at the Roosevelt Grill and at Eddie Condon's Club. He later was a session man, recording as a sideman with Jimmy Rushing, Coleman Hawkins, Pee Wee Russell, Benny Carter, Lester Young and Sidney Bechet. He died in the Bronx at age 78 due to cancer.
-- By Myself
J.C. HEARD (1917-1988)
James Charles (J.C.) Heard was a drummer whose style was a hybrid of swing and bop. Born in Ohio, he grew up in Detroit, Michigan, and as a young child performed as a tap dancer in amateur contests and vaudeville shows. He learned the drums in his early teens, supported by his parents, and was mentored by drummer Jo Jones, who helped him get his first professional job with Teddy Wilson's band in 1939. They played the Golden Gate Ballroom in Harlem and recorded for Columbia Records, then Heard went on to perform in bands led by Benny Carter, Louis Jordan, Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington and Dizzy Gillespie, and played alongside Roy Eldridge and Charlier Parker. After a successful performance in Japan in the early 1950s, he stayed on there to perform and teach for several years, and also met and married his wife Hiroko. In 1981, he started a 13-piece big band in Detroit that played around the state and at festivals, often featuring Dizzy Gillespie and other colleagues. The group performed regularly until his death in 1988.
-- By Myself
taft jordan (1915-1981)
Taft Jordan was a jazz trumpeter who was known for sounding exactly like Louis Armstrong. In fact, his recording of "On the Sunny Side of the Street" was so close to Armstrong's live show that when Armstrong got around to documenting it the following year, some listeners thought he was copying Jordan. Born in Florence, South Carolina, Jordan played early in his career with the Washboard Rhythm Kings before joining Chick Webb's orchestra from 1933-1942, remaining there after Ella Fitzgerald became its frontwoman. For the next four years, he played with Duke Ellington, then with Lucille Dixon at the Savannah Club in New York City. In the 1950s, he toured with Benny Goodman and played with Miles Davis, then led his own band in the early 1960s. He died in New Orleans.
-- Harlem Congo
LAWRENCE BROWN (1907-1988)
Lawrence Brown was a trombone player who rose to fame as a session musician and as part of the Duke Ellington orchestra. Born in Kansas and raised in California, Brown came from a musical background – his father was a preacher, where he often sang as a part of his sermons, and his mother played the organ and piano. Brown discovered the trombone while doing janitorial work at his father’s church, then over time developed great command of the instrument, with what has been described as a "creamy tone.” He joined Ellington in 1932 at the age of 25, playing with him for almost two decades as a balladeer, solosist and section leader, before leaving to join a band led by former Ellington sideman Johnny Hodges. In 1955, he took a position with CBS as a section player, then rejoined Ellington and stayed with him from 1960-1970. In June 2019, the New York Times Magazine listed Brown as among hundreds of artists whose material was reportedly destroyed in the 2008 Universal Music Group fire.
-- Golden Cress
-- The album Slide Trombone
johnny griffin (1928-2008)
John Arnold Griffin III was a tenor saxophonist nicknamed "the Little Giant" for his short stature, forceful playing and fashionable dressing. His career began as a teenager, in the early 1940s, and did not stop until the month of his death at age 80. Born in Chicago, he grew up on the South Side with his mother, who was a singer, and father, who played cornet. Early on, he played with bluesman T-Bone Walker and Lionel Hampton, then during World War II, enlisted in the armed services, was stationed in Hawaii and played in an Army band. After moving to New York City, he became a pioneering figure in hard bop, recording prolifically as a bandleader in addition to stints with Thelonious Monk, Art Blakey and fellow sax player Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis. He was known to quote generously from classical, opera and other musical forms, as well as frequently win "cutting sessions" (a musical battle between two musicians). In the 1960s, he moved to France and then the Netherlands, as a result of factors including tax and marriage problems, as well as what he felt was apathy in the jazz scene in the United States. In 1995, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Music from Berklee College of Music.
-- Tickle Toe
-- Twist City
LAWRENCE “BUD” FREEMAN (1906-1991)
Lawrence "Bud" Freeman was a bandleader and composer, known for playing the tenor saxophone and clarinet. Born in Chicago, he formed a jazz group in high school that included fellow future jazz star Jimmy McPartland. Influenced by New Orleans sounds, they began to formulate their own style, becoming part of the emerging Chicago Style. In 1927, he moved to New York, where he worked as a session musician and band member with musicians including Tommy Dorsey and Benny Goodman, and performed a solo on Eddie Condon's "The Eel," which then became Freeman's nickname (for his long, snake-like improvisations). During World War II, he joined the U.S. Army, and headed an Army band in the Aleutian Islands. Following the war, he returned to New York and led his own groups. In 1960, he wrote the book and lyrics to the Broadway musical "Beg, Borrow or Steal," later recorded by the Dave Brubeck Quartet. In the early 1970s, he moved to England, where he took the nickname the "Anglo Saxophonist." Returning to Chicago in 1980, he continued to work into his eighties.
eugene bertram “gene” krupa (1909-1973)
Gene Krupa was a drummer known for his energetic style and showmanship. He was also a force in defining the standard band drummer's kit, in collaboration with the Slingerland drum and Zildjian cymbal manufacturers, and is considered "the founding father of the modern drumset." Born in Chicago to immigrants from Poland, he was the youngest of nine children and groomed by his parents for priesthood in the Roman Catholic church. However, he chose a different path, joining Thelma Terry and Her Playboys at The Golden Pumpkin nightclub in Chicago at the age of 18. Seven years later, he joined Benny Goodman's band, where in 1937 his tom-tom interludes on the hit "Sing, Sing, Sing" elevated the role of the drummer from an accompanying line to an important solo voice in the band. Over the years, he appeared in films including "Ball of Fire" with Barbara Stanwyck, "The Best Years of Our Lives," "The Glenn Miller Story" and "The Benny Goodman Story." In 1959, the movie biography "The Gene Krupa Story" was released, with Sal Mineo portraying Krupa, and cameos by Anita O'Day and Red Nichols. In his personal life, Krupa married Ethel Maguire twice, Patty Bowler once, and made headlines for being arrested for marijuana possession. He died at his home in Yonkers in 1973 at the age of 64, and is buried close to Chicago.
-- Sing Sing Sing with Benny Goodman
-- Sing, Sing, Sing with Lionel Hampton
-- The Drum Battle with Buddy Rich
hank jones (1918-2010)
Henry "Hank" Jones, Jr., was a pianist who recorded more than 60 albums under his own name, and countless others as a sideman. Critics and musicians described Jones as eloquent, lyrical and impeccable. Born in Mississippi as one of seven children, he was raised in a musical family, and his two younger brothers -- Thad, a trumpeter, and Elvin, a drummer -- also became prominent jazz musicians. The family later moved to Michigan, where he studied piano and began performing by the time he was 13. While playing with territory bands in 1944, he met Luckey Thompson, who invited him to New York City to work with Hot Lips Page. By 1948, he was accompanist for Ella Fitzgerald, and soon after made several historically important recordings with Charlie Parker, Lester Young, Cannonball Adderley and Wes Montgomery, in addition to being "house pianist" on the Savoy label. From 1959-1975, he was staff pianist for CBS studios, which included backing guests such as Frank Sinatra on "The Ed Sullivan Show." He also played piano accompaniment to Marilyn Monroe as she sang "Happy Birthday Mr. President" to John F. Kennedy in 1962. In the 1970s and 1980s, he continued to record prolifically, both solo and as the Great Jazz Trio. He lived in New York City and upstate, and died at a Calvary Hospital Hospice in The Bronx.
-- Happy Birthday, Mr. President with Marilyn Monroe
mAX KAMINSKY (1908-1994)
Max Kaminsky was a trumpeter and bandleader known primarily for playing Dixieland jazz. Born in Massachusetts to a Jewish family, he began his career in Boston in 1924 and was soon working in Chicago and New York for a brief period in 1929 with Red Nichols. In the 1930s, he worked in mainly commercially oriented dance bands, including Eddie Condon and Benny Carter's Chocolate Dandies, Mezz Mezzrow, Tommy Dorsey, Artie Shaw and Bud Freeman. During World War II, he played in a U.S. Navy band in the South Pacific led by Shaw. After the war, he worked as a musician for television programs, and led Jackie Gleason's personal band for several seasons. In 1963, he published his autobiography, My Life in Jazz, which concentrates on his early career. His collection of photographs, reel-to-reel tapes and jazz artifacts is housed at the Hogan Jazz Archives at Tulane University in New Orleans.
-- Eccentric
ernie wilkins (1919-1999)
Ernest Brooks Wilkins, Jr., was a saxophonist and conductor. Born in Saint Louis, Missouri, he first learned piano and violin, then studied music at Wilberforce University before going into the Navy during the war. He caught on with the Earl Hines band in 1948 and worked around the St. Louis area before joining the Count Basie band from 1952-1955. Afterward, he continued to freelance arrangements to the Count, as well as arrange for and perform with the Dizzy Gillespie band that toured the Middle East and South America in 1956. Known as a slippery bop tenor sax player, he was the creator of sharp-edged arrangements for bop and swing big bands, including three of the six movements of the "The Drum Suite" -- reputedly the first time anyone had tried to integrate four drummers into one band. Over the years, he served as musical director for albums by Nat Adderley, Sarah Vaughan, Buddy Rich, Oscar Peterson and Dinah Washington, among others. He ultimately settled in Copenhagen in 1979, where he formed the Almost Big Band.
-- Evil Ways
-- Broadway
-- Kinda Dukish
j.c. (jack clarence) higginbotham (1906-1973)
J.C. Higginbotham was a trombonist known for his strong, raucous sound and wild outbreaks. Born in Atlanta, his family owned a restaurant and was fairly well-to-do. His first instrument was a bugle he picked up for a dollar when he was 13. Sent to Cincinnati to study the tailoring business at the Cincinnati Colored Training School, he stayed there to work as a mechanic at a General Motors plant, and then took to playing at clubs at night. In 1928, he traveled to New York City to join Luis Russell's band at the Club Harlem on Lenox Avenue, and for the next two years, played regularly at the Savoy and Roseland ballrooms, and toured the circuit from New York to Washington, D.C., Baltimore and Philadelphia. In the 1930s and 1940s, he played with premier swing bands including Chick Webb's and Fletcher Henderson's, then afterwards played in his own bands with trumpeter Red Allen. He later dropped off the scene, coming back to tour in northern Europe in the 1960s. He died at Harlem Hospital in 1973.
-- Swing Out
maxine sullivan (1911-1987)
Maxine Sullivan, born Marietta Williams, was a vocalist remembered for being one of the best jazz singers of the 1930s, and a precursor to Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan. Raised in Homestead, Pennsylvania, she began her career singing in her uncle's band, The Red Hot Peppers, where she also played flugelhorn and valve trombone. Discovered in the mid-1930s, she became a featured vocalist at the Onyx Club in New York City, and had one of her biggest hits in 1937, with a swing version of the Scottish folk song "Loch Lomond." In 1940, Sullivan and one of her husbands, John Kirby, were featured on the radio program "Flow Gently Sweet Rhythm," making them the first black jazz stars to have their own weekly radio series. During the 1940s, Sullivan also performed with a range of bands at New York's hottest jazz spots such as the Ruban Bleu, Village Vanguard, Blue Angel, and the Penthouse. Throughout her career, she also appeared as a performer on film, T.V. and stage, including "Going Places" with Louis Armstrong, the CBS Television series "Uptown Jubilee," and in the Broadway play "My Old Friends," for which she was nominated for a Tony. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, she worked as a nurse before resuming her musical career, performing until just before her death. She married four times, twice to musicians, and had two children.
-- Loch Lomond
-- In the film Going Places