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1. Charlie Parker. Famously called Yardbird or Bird, Charlie Parker was an American jazz saxophonist who significantly contributed to the genre’s growth in the music scene. Parker was born in Kansas City, Kansas, in 1920. He started singing jazz at 12, together with other jazz bands. In 1939, he moved to New York to pursue music.
- 15 Of The Most Famous Jazz Musicians Of The 1950s
The late 1940s through the 1960s are considered the golden...
- 15 Of The Most Famous Jazz Musicians Of The 1950s
- Georgia May
- Whiplash (2014) Directed by Damien Chazelle. Starring Miles Teller, J. K. Simmons, Melissa Benoist. Drama, Music, Thriller (1h 46m) 8.5 on IMDb — 94% on RT.
- La La Land (2016) Directed by Damien Chazelle. Starring Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, Rosemarie DeWitt. Comedy, Drama, Music (2h 8m) 8.0 on IMDb — 91% on RT. When Seb Wilder (played by Ryan Gosling) tells Mia (played by Emma Stone) about his love for jazz, she immediately laughs at him.
- Soul (2020) Directed by Pete Docter and Kemp Powers. Starring Jamie Foxx, Tina Fey, Graham Norton. Animation, Adventure, Comedy (1h 40m) 8.0 on IMDb — 95% on RT.
- Mo' Better Blues (1990) Directed by Spike Lee. Starring Denzel Washington, Spike Lee, Wesley Snipes. Drama, Music, Romance (2h 10m) 6.7 on IMDb — 71% on RT.
- Louis Armstrong
- Charlie Parker
- Miles Davis
- John Coltrane
- Duke Ellington
- Wynton Marsalis
- Ella Fitzgerald
- Dave Brubeck
- Dizzy Gillespie
- Thelonious Monk
Louis Armstrong, nicknamed Satchmo, was born in New Orleans, the birthplace of jazz music, in 1901. Raised by his grandmother in a poor neighborhood, he grew up in poverty. Armstrong was a talented vocalist and trumpet player who helped popularize jazz in America. He got his first trumpet — technically a cornet — at age seven and learned from Joe O...
Charlie Parker, nicknamed Bird and Yardbird, was an American jazz saxophonist who created bebop. Known for his clean tone and impeccable technique on the alto saxophone, Parker played the intricate harmonies and fast solos of bebop. Born in Kansas City in 1920, he started playing saxophone around age 11. After touring with various bands, he moved t...
Miles Davis is an iconic figure in the history of jazz, and he is one of those names that people know even when unfamiliar with jazz music. Born in Illinois in 1926, Davis moved to New York City to study at Juilliard but left in 1944 to join Charlie Parker’s group. Four years later, he left to write his music and record solo albums like Birth of th...
John Coltrane, like Miles Davis, helped establish modal harmonies in jazz music. He led many recording sessions that are now classic in the jazz recording literature. The most famous composition by Coltrane would have to be “Giant Steps,” a remarkable song of complex harmony. Aside from “Giant Steps,” he is also well known for his album A Love Supr...
Duke Ellington, born Edward Ellington in Washington D.C. in 1899, was a renowned jazz composer and pianist and was an equally gifted bandleader. In terms of jazz, Ellington’s home was New York City, where he connected with many of the top jazz musicians of the time. By the 1930s, he was famous for leading big bands and jazz orchestras. In his over ...
In the trumpet world, Wynton Marsalisis a famous name. He is most well-known for his jazz music, although he has also put out high-level classical albums. Three of Marsalis’s 1980s albums — Think of One, Hot House Flowers, and Black Codes (From the Underground)— won him each Best Jazz Instrumental Solo Grammys. He also received more Grammys for his...
The First Lady of Song, Ella Fitzgerald, was a legendary female jazz singer whom people also deservedly call the Queen of Jazz. Her singing was so unique and smooth that she often sounded like an instrument when doing scat improvisations. Fitzgerald toured with an orchestra for many years before starting her solo career in 1942. She was well known ...
Jazz pianist Dave Brubeck was another one of those musicians who became known for pushing the boundaries of jazz by using uncommon rhythms and harmony. He was both a composer and a jazz piano player who became famous for hits such as “In Your Own Sweet Way,” “Take Five,” and “Unsquare Dance.” Brubeck led his group, the Dave Brubeck Quartet. The gro...
Dizzy Gillespie, whose legal first name was John, was a famous American trumpet player who made influential contributions to the development of jazz music as a genre. Born in 1917 in South Carolina, Gillespie is probably most well-known for his iconic look of big cheeks puffing out as he played his trumpet. Besides trumpet playing, Gillespie was al...
North Carolinian Thelonious Monkwas a composer and jazz pianist famous for his unique piano style with dissonant harmonies and surprising melodies. Before this though, as a teenager, he worked as a church organist before diving into jazz in the 1940s at Manhattan clubs. Monk recorded nearly as much music as Duke Ellington, but he was also notable f...
In the early 1940s in jazz, bebop emerged, led by Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk and others. It helped to shift jazz from danceable popular music towards a more challenging "musician's music."
- Miles Davis. Hailing from Alton, Illinois, Miles Davis elevated the trumpet to the forefront of American culture, and his contributions to the genre are undeniable.
- Ella Fitzgerald. Known as the First Lady of Song, Ella Fitzgerald was born and raised in Newport News, Virginia. She’s regarded as one of the most famous American female vocalists of all time and a tremendous influence on the vocalists who followed her.
- Charlie Parker. Originating from Kansas City, Charlie “Bird” Parker is a legendary jazz saxophonist whose influence within jazz far eclipsed his short time on earth.
- John Coltrane. While John Coltrane began playing music in his younger teens in Hamlet, North Carolina, it wasn’t until his 17th birthday that he received his first saxophone.
The visual personalities of legendary jazz musicians—the elegant Duke Ellington, the spellbinding Billie Holiday, the insouciant Benny Goodman, the ebullient Dizzy Gillespie—collectively constitute nothing less than the cultural DNA of urbane American modernity.
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Mar 12, 2019 · Early in the 1940s, young musicians such as Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, steeped in the sounds of swing, began experimenting with melodic and harmonic dissonance as well as rhythmic alterations, such as the beginning and ending improvised phrases in uncommon places in the measure.
