Gilberto "Gil" Cuppini (June 6, 1924, Milan - June 16, 1996, Sarzana) was an Italian jazz drummer and bandleader.
Cuppini began playing drums around the end of World War II, and by 1949 was playing in Hazy Osterwald's band; he was a sideman for Armando Trovajoli and Gorni Kramer at the inaugural Paris Jazz Fair. He played with Nunzio Rotondo for most of the 1950s, in addition to working with Gianni Basso and Oscar Valdambrini in a six-piece ensemble. He visited the United States and Belgium in 1958, playing in the latter with Teddy Wilson and Arvell Shaw.
He led his own Concert Jazz Band in the mid-1960s, which performed at La Scala, and worked extensively with Joe Venuti in the 1970s, as well as with pianist Franco D'Andrea and double bassist Giorgio Azzolini.
Steve Lacy, born Steven Norman Lackritz in New York City, was an American jazz saxophonist and composer recognized as one of the important players of soprano saxophone. Coming to prominence in the 1950s as a progressive dixieland musician, Lacy went on to a long and prolific career. He worked extensively in experimental jazz and to a lesser extent in free improvisation, but Lacy's music was typically melodic and tightly-structured. Lacy also became a highly distinctive composer, with compositions often built out of little more than a single questioning phrase, repeated several times.
Gilbert Scott-Heron was an American soul and jazz poet, musician, and author, known primarily for his work as a spoken-word performer in the 1970s and 1980s. His collaborative efforts with musician Brian Jackson featured a musical fusion of jazz, blues, and soul, as well as lyrical content concerning social and political issues of the time, delivered in both rapping and melismatic vocal styles by Scott-Heron. His own term for himself was "bluesologist", which he defined as "a scientist who is concerned with the origin of the blues."
Ian Ernest Gilmore Evans was a Canadian-American jazz pianist, arranger, composer and bandleader. He is widely recognized as one of the greatest orchestrators in jazz, playing an important role in the development of cool jazz, modal jazz, free jazz, and jazz fusion. He is best known for his acclaimed collaborations with Miles Davis.
Howard Lewis Johnson was an American jazz musician, known mainly for his work on tuba and baritone saxophone, although he also played the bass clarinet, trumpet, and other reed instruments.
Birth of the Cool is a compilation album by American jazz musician Miles Davis, released in February or March 1957 on Capitol Records. It compiles eleven tracks recorded by Davis's nonet for the label over the course of three sessions during 1949 and 1950.
Locksley Wellington "Slide" Hampton is an American jazz trombonist, composer and arranger. Described by critics as a master composer, arranger and uniquely gifted trombone player, Hampton's career is among the most distinguished in jazz. As his nickname implies, Hampton's main instrument is slide trombone, but he also occasionally plays tuba and flugelhorn.
Flora Purim is a Brazilian jazz singer known primarily for her work in the jazz fusion style. She became prominent for her part in Return to Forever with Chick Corea and Stanley Clarke. She has recorded and performed with numerous artists, including Dizzy Gillespie, Gil Evans, Opa, Stan Getz, George Duke, Mickey Hart of the Grateful Dead, Santana, Jaco Pastorius, and her husband Airto Moreira.
Michael Clement Irving Gibbs is a Rhodesian-born English jazz composer, conductor, arranger and producer as well as a trombonist and keyboardist.
Barney Jean Wilen was a French tenor and soprano saxophonist and jazz composer.
Ernest Andrew "Ernie" Royal was a jazz trumpeter. His older brother was clarinetist and alto saxophonist Marshal Royal, with whom he appears on the classic Ray Charles big band recording The Genius of Ray Charles (1959).
Lewis Michael Soloff was an American jazz trumpeter, composer and actor.
Miles & Quincy: Live at Montreux is a collaborative live album by American jazz trumpeter Miles Davis and conductor Quincy Jones. It was recorded at the 1991 Montreux Jazz Festival and released by Warner Bros. Records in 1993.
John William Barber, known professionally as Bill Barber or Billy Barber, is considered by many to be the first person to play tuba in modern jazz. He recorded with Miles Davis on the albums Birth of the Cool, Sketches of Spain, and Miles Ahead.
While the French horn is primarily used in classical music pieces, in the mid-20th century it broke into the jazz world. While the instrument remains relatively rare, the role of the French horn in jazz has developed from its beginnings in the 1940s through to the 2010s. Note that the expression "horns" in jazz is often used colloquially to refer to all wind instruments used in jazz
Rolf Osterwald, better known as Hazy Osterwald was a Swiss jazz bandleader, trumpeter, and vibraphonist.
Flavio Ambrosetti was a Swiss jazz vibraphonist, saxophonist, and engineer.
Roberto Nicolosi was an Italian jazz double-bassist and leader born in Genoa.
Glauco Masetti was an Italian jazz reedist.
Oscar Valdambrini was an Italian jazz trumpeter, and flugelhornist According to The New Grove, he "had a central role in the emergence of a modern jazz movement in Italy".
Eraldo Volonté was an Italian jazz saxophonist and bandleader.