Charlie Haden　

As a member of saxophonist Ornette Coleman’s early bands, bassist Charlie Haden became known as one of free jazz’s founding fathers. Haden has never settled into any of jazz’s many styl ..more

Charles Lloyd　

Saxophonist Charles Lloyd is a forward-thinking musician’s musician whose supreme improvisational talents and interest in cross-pollinating jazz with rock as well as non-Western styles of music dur ..more

Charles Mingus (Charlie Mingus)　

Irascible, demanding, bullying, and probably a genius, Charles Mingus cut himself a uniquely iconoclastic path through jazz in the middle of the 20th century, creating a legacy that became unive ..more

Tina Brooks　

Tina Brooks had a short-lived career during the heyday of hard bop and didn’t record for the last 12 years of his life. Nonetheless, his own records and his sessions with Freddie Hubbard, J ..more

Dave Brubeck　

In the 1950s and ’60s, few American jazz artists were as influential, and fewer still were as popular, as Dave Brubeck. At a time when the cooler sounds of West Coast jazz began to dominate the pub ..more

Dexter Gordon　

Dexter Gordon had such a colorful and eventful life (with three separate comebacks) that his story would make a great Hollywood movie. The top tenor saxophonist to emerge during the bop era and ..more

Anthony Williams　

Donald Byrd　

Donald Byrd was considered one of the finest hard bop trumpeters of the post-Clifford Brown era. He recorded prolifically as both a leader and sideman from the mid-’50s into the mid-’60s, most o ..more

Nicki Parrott　

Celebrated as an instrumentalist and a vocalist, Australian artist Nicki Parrott has earned acclaim as one of the most engaging talents to emerge on the jazz scene in the 21st century. Born in Newc ..more

Miho Hazama / Danish Radio Big Band　

Hank Mobley　

One of the Blue Note label’s definitive hard bop artists, tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley remains somewhat underappreciated for his straightforward, swinging style. Any characterization of Mo ..more

Hampton Hawes　

Hampton Hawes was one of the finest jazz pianists of the 1950s, a fixture on the Los Angeles scene who brought his own interpretations to the dominant Bud Powell style. In the mid- to late ’4 ..more

Herbie Hancock　

Herbie Hancock will always be one of the most revered and controversial figures in jazz -- just as his employer/mentor Miles Davis was when he was alive. Unlike Miles, who pressed ahead relen ..more

Bud Powell　

One of the giants of the jazz piano, Bud Powell changed the way that virtually all post-swing pianists play their instruments. He did away with the left-hand striding that had been conside ..more

Barney Wilen　

Barney Wilen’s mother was French, his father a successful American dentist-turned-inventor. He grew up mostly on the French Riviera; the family left during World War II but returned upon its conclu ..more

Hino Motohiko　

Bill Evans　

With the passage of time, Bill Evans has become an entire school unto himself for pianists and a singular mood unto himself for listeners. There is no more influential jazz-oriented pianist -- only ..more

Bill Evans / Jim Hall　

Bill Frisell　

The defining characteristic of any given jazz musician is frequently his sound. The more control a player has over the nature of that sound, the more likely he is to project a distinctive musical pers ..more

Beegie Adair　

Beegie Adair is a prolific, award-winning jazz pianist and arranger known for her interpretations of jazz and popular standards and show tunes. She has sold over two million recordings globally. He ..more