Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American jazz pianist, composer, and leader of his eponymous jazz orchestra from 1923 through the rest of his life. Born and raised in Washington, D.C., Ellington was based in New York City from the mid-1920s and gained a national profile through his orchestra's appearances at the Cotton Club in Harlem. A master at writing miniatures for the three-minute 78 rpm recording format, Ellington wrote or collaborated on more than one thousand compositions; his extensive body of work is the largest recorded personal jazz legacy, and many of his pieces have become standards. He also recorded songs written by his bandsmen, such as Juan Tizol's "Caravan", which brought a Spanish tinge to big band jazz. At the end of the 1930s, Ellington began a nearly thirty-year collaboration with composer-arranger-pianist Billy Strayhorn, whom he called his writing and arranging companion. With Strayhorn, he composed multiple extended compositions, or suites, as well as many short pieces. For a few years at the beginning of Strayhorn's involvement, Ellington's orchestra featured bassist Jimmy Blanton and tenor saxophonist Ben Webster and reached a creative peak. Some years later following a low-profile period, an appearance by Ellington and his orchestra at the Newport Jazz Festival in July 1956 led to a major revival and regular world tours. Ellington recorded for most American record companies of his era, performed in and scored several films, and composed a handful of stage musicals.
James Hubert "Eubie" Blake was an American pianist and composer of ragtime, jazz, and popular music. In 1921, he and his long-time collaborator Noble Sissle wrote Shuffle Along, one of the first Broadway musicals written and directed by African Americans. Blake's compositions included such hits as "Bandana Days", "Charleston Rag", "Love Will Find a Way", "Memories of You" and "I'm Just Wild About Harry". The 1978 Broadway musical Eubie! showcased his works.
Carlos Wesley "Don" Byas was an American jazz tenor saxophonist, associated with swing and bebop. He played with Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Art Blakey, and Dizzy Gillespie, among others, and also led his own band. He lived in Europe for the last 26 years of his life.
James Price Johnson was an American pianist and composer. A pioneer of stride piano, he was one of the most important pianists in the early era of recording, and like Jelly Roll Morton, one of the key figures in the evolution of ragtime into what was eventually called jazz. Johnson was a major influence on Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Art Tatum, and Fats Waller, who was his student.
Bennett Lester Carter was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, trumpeter, composer, arranger, and bandleader. With Johnny Hodges, he was a pioneer on the alto saxophone. From the beginning of his career in the 1920s, he worked as an arranger including written charts for Fletcher Henderson's big band that shaped the swing style. He had an unusually long career that lasted into the 1990s. During the 1980s and 1990s, he was nominated for eight Grammy Awards, which included receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award.
Erroll Louis Garner was an American jazz pianist and composer known for his swing playing and ballads. His instrumental ballad "Misty", his best-known composition, has become a jazz standard. It was first recorded in 1956 with Mitch Miller and his orchestra, and played a prominent part in the motion picture Play Misty for Me.
Benjamin Francis Webster was an American jazz tenor saxophonist.
Svend Asmussen was a Danish jazz violinist, known as "The Fiddling Viking". A Swing style virtuoso, he played and recorded with many of the other jazz musicians, including Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman and Stephane Grappelli. He played publicly until 2010 when he had a blood clot, his career having spanned eight decades.
Wilbur Dorsey "Buck" Clayton was an American jazz trumpeter who was a member of Count Basie's orchestra. His principal influence was Louis Armstrong, first hearing the record "Confessin' That I Love You" as he passed by a shop window.
Adelaide Louise Hall was an American-born UK-based jazz singer and entertainer. Her long career spanned more than 70 years from 1921 until her death and she was a major figure in the Harlem Renaissance. Hall entered the Guinness Book of World Records in 2003 as the world's most enduring recording artist, having released material over eight consecutive decades. She performed with major artists such as Art Tatum, Ethel Waters, Josephine Baker, Louis Armstrong, Lena Horne, Cab Calloway, Fela Sowande, Rudy Vallee and Jools Holland, and recorded as a jazz singer with Duke Ellington and with Fats Waller.
Rosenkranz is the German word for rosary.
Michael Mantler is an Austrian avant-garde jazz trumpeter and composer of contemporary music.
Stanley Frank Dance was a British jazz writer, business manager, record producer, and historian of the Swing era. He was personally close to Duke Ellington over a long period, as well as many other musicians; because of this friendship Dance was in a position to write "official" biographies. Over his career, his priority was advocating for the music of black ensembles performing sophisticated arrangements, based on Swing-era dance music.
The Music Department at the University Library of Southern Denmark in Odense has through donations and acquisitions since 1997 achieved the status of research archive of specialised jazz studies.
Concert by the Sea is a live album by pianist Erroll Garner that was released by Columbia in 1955. It sold over a million dollars' worth of retail copies by 1958, qualifying for gold record status by the definition of that time but has never been acknowledged as such by the RIAA.
The couesnophone, also known as the goofus or queenophone, is a free-reed musical instrument resembling a saxophone harmonicor. Its reeds vibrate when the desired keys are activated and the player blows through a tube. "Best described as a mouth-blown accordion," "it sounded like a cross between a harmonica and an accordion." French manufacturer Couesnon was awarded the patent no. 569294 in 1924 for an instrument that was described as a saxophone jouet. However, the couesnophone is a polyphonic instrument, while the saxophone is monophonic.
Arild Rosenkrantz was a Danish nobleman painter, sculptor, stained glass artist and illustrator.
Uffe Baadh was a Danish jazz musician who emigrated to the United States in 1947 to play drums in the big bands of Harry James, Tommy Dorsey, and Claude Thornhill, recording with Elvis Presley, Henry Mancini, and others. He was the youngest of four siblings: Grethe [Baadh] Freese, Hans Baadh, Marie Baadh. He married Shirley Goldberg on October 1, 1951, in Virginia, USA: two daughters, Valerie and Lise Baadh, born in California in 1952 and 1957.
Theodore Samuel Reig was a self-described "jazz hustler" who worked as a record producer, A&R man, promoter, and artist manager from the 1940s through the 1970s. As a record producer, he captured the work of dozens of legendary jazz innovators. He also influenced rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and Latin music.
Zodiac Suite is a series of 12 pieces of jazz music written by Mary Lou Williams and first performed in 1945. Each song in the suite is inspired by an astrological sign and musicians or performers who were born under it. Williams began writing music for Zodiac Suite in 1942 and finished the composition in 1945.
