Zoot Sims (1925 - 1985)

John Haley “Zoot” Sims (October 29, 1925 – March 23, 1985) was an American jazz saxophonist, playing mainly tenor but also alto and later soprano. He first gained attention in the “Four Brothers” sax section of Woody Herman’s big band, after which he went on to a long solo career, often in partnership with fellow […]

George Shearing (1919 - 2011)

In 1947, George Shearing emigrated to the United States, where his harmonically complex style mixing swing, bop and modern classical influences gained popularity. One of his first performances was at the Hickory House. He performed with the Oscar Pettiford Trio and led a jazz quartet with Buddy DeFranco, which led to contractual problems, since Shearing […]

Robert Farnon (1917 - 2005)

Born in Toronto, Robert Farnon was commissioned as a captain in the Canadian Army and became the conductor/arranger of the Canadian Band of the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force sent overseas during World War II, which was the Canadian equivalent of the American Band of the SHAEF led by Major Glenn Miller. He was noted […]

Morton Gould (1913 - 1996)

Morton Gould was born in Richmond Hill, New York. He was recognized early as a child prodigy with abilities in improvisation and composition. His first composition was published at age six. Gould studied at the Institute of Musical Art in New York, his most important teachers were Abby Whiteside and Vincent Jones. During the Depression, Gould, […]

Ivor Slaney (1921 - 1998)

Ivor Ernst Slaney (born 27 May 1921 in West Bromwich, United Kingdom, d. 20 March 1998, Southampton, United Kingdom) was a prolific musical composer and conductor, notable for his work in film, television and radio. Ivor Slaney was educated at the Royal College of Music, and married Mary D Ludlow pianist Dolores Ventura in 1948. His […]

Haydn Wood (1882 - 1959)

Haydn Wood was born in the West Riding of Yorkshire town of Slaithwaite on 25 March 1882. When he was three years old his family moved to the Isle of Man, an island which was often a source of inspiration for the composer. In 1897, at the Royal College of Music, he studied violin with Enrique […]

Angela Morley (1924 - 2009)

Angela Morley was originally a composer of light music, best known for pieces such as the jaunty “Rotten Row” and “A Canadian in Mayfair”, a homage to Robert Farnon’s “Portrait of a Flirt”. Morley is also remembered for writing the theme tune and incidental music for Hancock’s Half Hour, and was the musical director for […]

George Melachrino (1909 - 1965)

George Melachrino (born George Miltiades; 1 May 1909 – 18 June 1965) was a musician, movie composer, and musical director who was English born of Greek and Italian descent. He was an accomplished player of the violin, viola, oboe, clarinet and saxophone. George Melachrino was born in London, England. As a young boy, he had a […]

Sidney Torch (1908 - 1990)

Sidney Torch MBE (5 June 1908 – 16 July 1990) was a British pianist, cinema organist, conductor, orchestral arranger and a composer of light music. Born Sidney Torchinsky of a Ukrainian father and an Estonian mother in London, Torch learned the rudiments of music very quickly from his father, an orchestral trombonist, who used to sit […]

Ron Goodwin (1925 - 2003)

Ron Goodwin is primarily known for his film music and worked on more than 70 scores during his career. He composed his first feature film, Man with a Gun in 1958 and was quickly followed by The Witness and Whirlpool (fr) a year later. Early minor film success followed with several films until 1961 when […]

Si Zentner (1917 - 2000)

Simon Hugh “Si” Zentner (June 13, 1917 in New York City – January 31, 2000 in Las Vegas, Nevada) was an American trombonist and jazz big-band leader. Si Zentner played violin from age four and picked up trombone a few years later. As a teenager, he was awarded the Guggenheim Foundation Philharmonic Scholarship. He attended college […]

David Rose (1910 - 1990)

Recipient of four Emmy awards, David Rose was born in London, to Jewish parents, and raised in Chicago, Illinois. The family name was originally Rosenberg. Rose’s career in music began when he worked with Ted Fio Rito’s band when he was sixteen. Rose also worked as a standby pianist for NBC Radio. It was here, […]

Les Baxter (1922 - 1996)

Les Baxter studied piano at the Detroit Conservatory before moving to Los Angeles for further studies at Pepperdine College. From 1943 on he was playing tenor and baritone saxophone for the Freddie Slack big band. Abandoning a concert career as a pianist, he turned to popular music as a singer. At the age of 23 […]

Mercer Ellington (1919 - 1996)

Mercer Ellington was born in Washington, DC, the son of the composer, pianist, and bandleader Duke Ellington and Edna Thompson. By the age of eighteen he had written his first piece to be recorded by his father (“Pigeons and Peppers”). He attended New College for the Education of Teachers at Columbia University, New York University […]

Al Hibbler (1915 - 2001)

Al Hibbler was born in Tyro, Mississippi, United States, and was blind from birth. Some sources give his birth name as Andrew George Hibbler.[3] At the age of 12 he moved to Little Rock, Arkansas, where he attended Arkansas School for the Blind, joining the school choir. Later he began working as a blues singer […]

Jimmy Blanton (1918 - 1942)

Born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Jimmy Blanton originally learned to play the violin, but took up the bass while at Tennessee State University, performing with the Tennessee State Collegians from 1936 to 1937, and during the vacations with Fate Marable. After leaving university to play full-time in St Louis with the Jeter-Pillars Orchestra (with whom he […]

Harry Carney (1910 - 1974)

Harry Carney was the longest serving player in Duke Ellington’s orchestra. On occasions when Ellington was absent or wished to make a stage entrance after the band had begun playing the first piece of a performance, Carney would serve as the band’s conductor. Ellington and Carney were close friends. The majority of their careers they […]

Otto Hardwick (1904 - 1970)

Otto Hardwick started on string bass at the age of 14, then moved to C melody saxophone and finally settled on alto saxophone. A childhood friend of Duke Ellington’s, Hardwick joined Ellington’s first band in Washington, D. C. in 1919. Hardwick also worked for banjoist Elmer Snowden at Murray’s Casino. In 1923, Ellington, Hardwick, Snowden, trumpeter […]

Sonny Greer (1895 - 1982)

Sonny Greer (December 13, 1895 – March 23, 1982) was an American jazz drummer and vocalist, best known for his work with Duke Ellington. Greer was born in Long Branch, New Jersey, and played with Elmer Snowden’s band and the Howard Theatre’s orchestra in Washington, D.C., before joining Duke Ellington, whom he met in 1919. He […]

Barney Bigard (1906 - 1980)

Barney Bigard was born in New Orleans to a family of Creoles. The son of Alexander and Emanuella Bigard, he had two brothers, Alexander Jr. and Sidney. His uncle, Emile Bigard, was a jazz violinist. He attended local schools and studied music and clarinet with Lorenzo Tio. In the early 1920s he moved to Chicago, where […]

Lawrence Brown (1907 - 1988)

Lawrence Brown (August 3, 1907 – September 5, 1988) was an acclaimed jazz trombonist from California who achieved recognition with the Duke Ellington orchestra. Brown worked throughout his career as a session musician, as well as recording his own solo efforts. Lawrence Brown was born on August 3, 1907, in Lawrence, Kansas. When Brown was about […]

Ray Nance (1913 - 1976)

Ray Nance was the leader of his own band in Chicago from 1932 to 1937. Then, he worked with Earl Hines from 1937 to 1939; and from 1939 to 1940 he worked with Horace Henderson. Ellington hired Nance to replace trumpeter Cootie Williams, who had joined Benny Goodman, in 1940. Nance’s first recorded performance with Ellington […]

Rex Stewart (1907 - 1967)

Rex William Stewart (February 22, 1907 – September 7, 1967) was an American jazz cornetist best remembered for his work with the Duke Ellington orchestra. After stints with Elmer Snowden, Fletcher Henderson, Horace Henderson, McKinney’s Cotton Pickers, and Luis Russell, Stewart joined the Ellington band in 1934, replacing Freddie Jenkins. Ellington arranged many of his pieces […]

Cootie Williams (1911 - 1985)

Born in Mobile, Alabama, United States, Cootie Williams began his professional career with the Young Family band, which included saxophonist Lester Young, when he was 14 years old. According to Williams he acquired his nickname as a boy when his father took him to a band concert. When it was over his father asked him […]

Bubber Miley (1903 - 1932)

Bubber Miley was born in Aiken, South Carolina, United States, into a musical family. At the age of six, he and his family moved to New York City where, as a child, he occasionally sang for money on the streets, and later, at the age of fourteen, studied to play the trombone and cornet. In 1920, […]

Jimmy McHugh (1894 - 1969)

Jimmy McHugh began his career in Boston, where he published about a dozen songs with local publishers. His first success was with the World War I song “Keep the Love-Light Burning in the Window Till the Boys Come Marching Home”, and this also came near the start of a decade-long collaboration with lyricist Jack Caddigan. […]

Johnny Hodges (1907 - 1970)

Johnny Hodges joined Duke Ellington’s orchestra in November 1928. He was one of the prominent Ellington Band members who featured in Benny Goodman’s 1938 Carnegie Hall concert. Goodman described Hodges as “by far the greatest man on alto sax that I ever heard.” Charlie Parker called him “the Lily Pons of his instrument.” Ellington’s practice of […]

Sippie Wallace (1898 - 1986)

Sippie Wallace followed her brothers to Chicago in 1923 and worked her way into the city’s bustling jazz scene. Her reputation led to a recording contract with Okeh Records in 1923. Her first recorded songs, “Shorty George” and “Up the Country Blues”, the former written with her brother George, sold well enough to make her […]

Peetie Wheatstraw (1902 - 1941)

William Bunch (December 21, 1902 – December 21, 1941), known as Peetie Wheatstraw, was an American musician, an influential figure among 1930s blues singers. The only known photograph of him shows him holding a National brand tricone resonator guitar, but he played the piano on most of his recordings. William Bunch was the son of James […]

Bo Carter (1893 - 1964)

Armenter Chatmon (June 30, 1893 – September 21, 1964), known as Bo Carter, was an early American blues musician. He was a member of the Mississippi Sheiks in concerts and on a few of their recordings. He also managed that group, which included his brothers Lonnie Chatmon on fiddle and, occasionally, Sam Chatmon on bass […]