Wardell Gray was an American jazz tenor saxophonist.
Kai Chresten Winding was a Danish-born American trombonist and jazz composer. He is known for his collaborations with fellow trombonist J. J. Johnson. His version of "More", the theme from the movie Mondo Cane, reached in 1963 number 8 in the Billboard Hot 100 and remained his only entry here.
Eugene "Jug" Ammons, also known as "The Boss", was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. The son of boogie-woogie pianist Albert Ammons, Gene Ammons is remembered for his accessible music, steeped in soul and R&B.
Annie Ross was a British-American singer and actress, best known as a member of the influential jazz vocal trio Lambert, Hendricks & Ross. She pioneered the vocalese style of jazz singing, with a style described by critic Dave Gelly as "a kind of dreamy watchfulness that is a definition of 1950s hip." In 2010, she was named a Jazz Master by the National Endowment for the Arts.
John Carl Hendricks, known professionally as Jon Hendricks, was an American jazz lyricist and singer. He is one of the originators of vocalese, which adds lyrics to existing instrumental songs and replaces many instruments with vocalists, such as the big-band arrangements of Duke Ellington and Count Basie. He is considered one of the best practitioners of scat singing, which involves vocal jazz soloing. Jazz critic and historian Leonard Feather called him the "Poet Laureate of Jazz", while Time dubbed him the "James Joyce of Jive". Al Jarreau called him "pound-for-pound the best jazz singer on the planet—maybe that's ever been".
King Pleasure was an American jazz vocalist and an early master of vocalese, where a singer sings words to a well-known instrumental solo.
Eddie Jefferson was an American jazz vocalist and lyricist. He is credited as an innovator of vocalese, a musical style in which lyrics are set to an instrumental composition or solo. Jefferson himself claims that his main influence was Leo Watson. Perhaps Jefferson's best-known song is "Moody's Mood for Love" which was recorded in 1952 by King Pleasure and catapulted the contrafact into wide popularity. Jefferson's recordings of Charlie Parker's "Parker's Mood" and Horace Silver's "Filthy McNasty" were also hits.
"Moody's Mood for Love" is a 1952 song by Eddie Jefferson, whose melody is derived from an improvised solo by jazz saxophonist James Moody on a 1949 recording of the 1935 song "I'm in the Mood for Love". The song is structured as a duet, with a man proclaiming his love for a woman, and the woman responding in kind.
James Moody was an American jazz saxophone and flute player and very occasional vocalist, playing predominantly in the bebop and hard bop styles. The annual James Moody Jazz Festival is held in Newark, New Jersey.
Sven Arne Domnérus was a Swedish jazz saxophonist and clarinetist.
Numa Smith "Pee Wee" Moore was an American jazz saxophonist.
Jack Noren was a jazz drummer and vocalist born in America but best known for his work in Sweden.
Harry Arnold Persson was a Swedish jazz saxophonist and bandleader. Arnold led his first big band in 1942, playing the saxophone initially but eventually ceasing to perform to concentrate on arranging. From 1949–1952, he played and arranged for Thore Ehrling's band and worked extensively as a studio musician, particularly writing film scores through much of the 1950s. From 1956 to 1965, Arnold led the Swedish Radio Big Band, which included Arne Domnérus, Bengt Hallberg, and Åke Persson. American trumpeter Benny Bailey played with the band for a time, and Quincy Jones arranged and briefly led the group; they recorded with Ernestine Anderson, Lucky Thompson, Coleman Hawkins, Toots Thielemans, Tony Scott, and Stan Getz. The group disbanded in 1965, after which Arnold continued work as an arranger and led big bands in Europe. He died in February 1971 at the age of 50.
Jeannine "Mimi" Perrin was a French jazz pianist, singer, and translator.
Rowland Charles Wentworth Greenberg was a Norwegian jazz musician (trumpet), seen by many as one of the foremost names in Norwegian jazz in the 1940s and 1950s.
"Twisted" is a 1952 vocalese song with lyrics by Annie Ross, set to a tenor saxophone solo of the same name by Wardell Gray that was recorded in 1949. It has been covered by Bette Midler, Joni Mitchell, and many others.
Bjarne Arnulf Nerem, was a Norwegian jazz musician among the foremost soloists in Norwegian jazz. He was in the tradition of Lester Young, Stan Getz. Nerem achieved international recognition for his performances.
David Burns was an American jazz trumpeter, flugelhornist, arranger, composer, and teacher.
George "Teacho" Wiltshire was a Barbadian-born American R&B pianist, bandleader, arranger, A&R man, and songwriter, who had success in the 1950s and 1960s with musicians including Annie Ross, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the Isley Brothers and the Drifters.
