You are browsing the archives of 2008 July.

Thelonious Monk was born in North Carolina on October 10, 1917. His family moved to New York in 1922. Early on, Monk received no formal training on the piano. He started out playing by ear, but was later taught lessons and studied at Juliard. When he was 17 he toured the US was an evangelist. [...]

I’m late posting today so I don’t have time to write a bio. There are so many great musicians on this that I wouldn’t know who to write about anyway.
Check out this really fast performance of “Donna Lee”.

Miles Davis was born on May 26, 1926. He grew up in a well-to-do family in East St. Louis. His father was a dentist. The family lived on a ranch and they had horses. (How lucky is that! All I ever wanted as a little girl was a pony.)
He started playing trumpet when he [...]

The Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra was formed in 1966. Both musicians had recently stopped touring and settled in New York. The orchestra was not originally intended to be a permnament thing but their first performance at the Village Vanguard went so well that they became a regular Monday night fixture there.
Thad Jones left the [...]

Oscar Peterson was born in August 15, 1925. He grew up in Montreal where he was trained in classical music, but he always loved jazz. When he was young he used to sneak into the living room and turn on the radio. He’d listen to it very quietly so that he didn’t wake up anyone [...]

Wayne Shorter was born in Newark, New Jersey on August 25, 1933. He was an artistic child who loved to draw. He attended the Newark Arts High School and started playing the saxophone in his teens.
His interest in film and the visual arts has always influenced his music. Shorter has said that he is [...]

Don Byas was born in Muskogee, Oklahoma in 1912. He was trained in classical music. He played the violin and later the clarinet. He played the alto sax through his teens. When he was about twenty he switched to playing the tenor.
Byas lived much of his life in Europe were he gained popularity and [...]

Born in 1904, Coleman Hawkins started out playing the piano and cello. He started playing tenor saxophone at 9 and was playing at school dances when he was 12. That means he was doing gigs in 1916. That’s a long time ago. (Leave it to me to be blown away by the obvious.)
Coleman Hawkins is [...]

Dexter Gordon is considered to be the first be-bop tenor player. Born in Los Angeles in 1923, he started playing the clarinet at 13, the alto sax at 15 and the tenor at 17.
Dexter Gordon would sometimes recite the lyrics of a tune before playing it. In an interview at the end of the [...]

Sonny Rollins was born in Harlem in 1930. Growing up in Harlem, had the fortune of living in the epacenter of black American culture at the time. He was influenced by many musician early on and has said that even as a child he loved to practice the saxophone.
Sonny Rollins has taken several sabbaticals from [...]