News & Updates — jazz

Happy birthday to Buddy Bolden, one of the creators of the amazing artform known as "jazz". A New Orleans-born cornetist, King Bolden's band was very popular in the city at the turn of the twentieth century. They say he used to improvise against the established rhythm in the marching bands, effectively inventing the jazz solo.  He synthesized ragtime, blues, gospel and marching bands, relegating the strings to the rhythm and bringing the horns to the front. A major influence on King Oliver, Jelly Roll Morton and Louis Armstrong, it is fair to call him one of the most important figures...

Happy birthday to the underrated bop pianist Walter Davis Jr. Lifelong close friends with Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gillespie and Bud Powell, he was a session pianist of great soulful taste. From Richmond VA, he played as a teenager with Babs Gonzales and got a big gig at the Apollo with Charlie Parker in '49, quitting high school to go on the road with him. He moved to NYC in '50 and made his first recordings with the Max Roach group. He toured South America & the Middle East with Gillespie in '56, and would play with Diz off and on...

Happy birthday to that great hard bop pianist Horace Silver! He was of Cape Verdean heritage but grew up in Connecticut. He studied classical music as well as taking in the music of Cabo Verde that his father taught him. As a teenager he gigged on both piano and tenor sax. After playing with Stan Getz in Hartford in '50 he went on tour with him. He moved to NYC in '51 and started playing with Lester Young, Coleman Hawkins and Lou Donaldson. In '52 he began working for Blue Note Records, as a session pianist and as a recording...

A self-taught tenor saxophonist (and activist) from Chicago, Clifford Jordan was underrated and not a flashy type but he enjoyed a long career in jazz, traveling all over the world and lending his hand to various non-profits. While still in Chicago he played R&B, as well as bop with Max Roach and Sonny Stitt. In '57 he moved to NYC, and cut his first of three albums for Blue Note, the classic Blowing In From Chicago, co-led with Sun Ra's tenor man John Gilmore and featuring members of the Jazz Messengers. In the late '50s he worked in groups led...

One of the greats, bop trumpeter & arranger (and singer!) Kenny Dorham may be best known for his composition "Blue Bossa" but check your collection and you will find his name on dozens and dozens of classic sides. His playing is exquisite and clear-toned with perfectly placed notes, and he had great taste in sidemen! Born McKinley Dorham, he grew up in Austin TX. He joined the Dizzy Gillespie band in '45, as well as a stint in that Billy Eckstine group that yielded many future bop stars. He also played in the '40s with Mercer Ellington, Kenny Clarke and...