Eric Dolphy　

Eric Dolphy was a true original with his own distinctive styles on alto, flute, and bass clarinet. His music fell into the avant-garde category yet he did not discard chordal improvisation ..more

Sarah Vaughan　

Possessor of one of the most wondrous voices of the 20th century, Sarah Vaughan ranked with Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday in the very top echelon of female jazz singers. She often gav ..more

Tommy Flanagan　

Known for his flawless and tasteful playing, Tommy Flanagan received long overdue recognition for his talents in the 1980s. He played clarinet when he was six and switched to piano five years later ..more

Rahsaan Roland Kirk　

Nat King Cole　

For a mild-mannered man whose music was always easy on the ear, Nat King Cole managed to be a figure of considerable controversy during his 30 years as a professional musician. From the late ’40s t ..more

Joe Henderson　

Joe Henderson is proof that jazz can sell without watering down the music; it just takes creative marketing. Although his sound and style were virtually unchanged from the mid-’60s, Joe Hender ..more

Blue Mitchell　

Owner of a direct, lightly swinging, somewhat plain-wrapped tone that fit right in with the Blue Note label’s hard bop ethos of the 1960s, Blue Mitchell tends to be overlooked today perhaps beca ..more

Scott Hamilton　

When Scott Hamilton appeared in the mid-’70s fully formed with an appealing swing style on tenor (mixing Zoot Sims and Ben Webster), he caused a minor sensation -- few other young players dur ..more

Nicholas Payton　

New Orleans-born trumpeter, keyboardist, singer, and composer Nicholas Payton is a dynamic performer, steeped in acoustic jazz and post-bop, whose music often finds him exploring genres beyond the ..more

Larsen-Feiten Band　

Itabashi Fumio　

Akira Jimbo　

Andrew Hill　

Andrew Hill was a great and even groundbreaking composer and pianist, yet the relatively circumscribed scale of his innovations might have originally caused him to get lost in the shuffle of the ’6 ..more

Wynton Kelly　

A superb accompanist loved by Miles Davis and Cannonball Adderley, Wynton Kelly was also a distinctive soloist who decades later would be a strong influence on Benny Green. He grew up in B ..more

Enrico Pieranunzi　

A superior post-bop pianist influenced by Bill Evans and McCoy Tyner but long possessing his own sound, Enrico Pieranunzi is one of the top jazz pianists living in Italy. He began studying pi ..more

Clifford Brown / Max Roach　

KEIKO LEE　

Simon Oslender / Steve Gadd & Will Lee　

Stan Getz / Joao Gilberto