The Belgian multi-instrumentalist, Bobby Jaspar (could play the tenor sax, clarinet, flute, baritone saxophone and bass clarinet) was raised by his aunt when his father, a well known painter of Liege died suddenly. She owed her love of music since childhood and his love for jazz. In Dixieland I used to play clarinet in a group of teenagers in the neighborhood until he joined the group and Pierre Raoul Faisant Robert who saw the future of the emerging bebop jazz. Thus was born the “Bop Shost” who achieved international fame performing in France and Germany coming to play even with Peanust Holland and Don Byas.

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Keith Jarrett (Allentown, 1945), is one of the great talents of jazz that emerged in the last thirty years. Also able to play the piano, guitar, sax, flute, harpsichord and organ, Jarrett said from his childhood by his precocity and his musical qualities.

Just completed his graduation from Berklee University in 1962, joined in 1965 in the “Jazz Messengers “with drummer, Art Blakey, with whom he remained from 1965 to 1966 and subsequently joined the group’s saxophonist, Charles Lloyd with whom he spent from 1966 to 1969. The great musical experience obtained with these two musicians, Read the rest of this entry »

The son of a priest, got his first experience as an artist to sing in the church choir. After earning his master’s degree in psychology, Jarreau worked as a social worker, but decided to move to Los Angeles and try his luck in show business playing small clubs on the West Coast. In the mid sixties he recorded an LP titled “1965″ but remained a stranger, and did not enter the studio for ten years.

In 1975 he was signed to Reprise, owned by Frank Sinatra and his music career takes a leap in quality and popularity fast. His first LP for Reprise is titled “We Got By, earning acclaim for its sophisticated voice when compared with Billy Eckstine and Johnny Mathis. After recording “Glow” in 1976, Read the rest of this entry »

Coming from a family devoted to celebrities, – his father ran a circus orchestra – the trumpeter and bandleader Harry James, had his first professional contact with Ben Pollack’s band in 1935 with whom he recorded an album for the first time in 1936. That same year he joined the orchestra of the most popular swing era, the clarinetist, Benny Goodman with whom he remained until 1939. The popularity he gained from his orchestra remained at the Goodman, allowed him to form his own group which was attended by vocalist, Frank Sinatra and some renowned soloists as drummers Buddy Rich and Louie Bellson.

His orchestra’s repertoire was not limited only to jazz and this allowed him to open his music to call to participate in Hollywood film in over twenty musicals – is famously dubbing Kirk trumpet Douglas in the film by Michael Curtiz, Read the rest of this entry »

Like other singers of his generation, Etta James (Los Angeles, 1938) has achieved a popularity that reaches beyond the black world. As Aretha Franklin and other black voices, Etta James takes his first steps as a singer in the bosom of the Baptist Church, and gospel and soul styles are first-timers.

In the fifties, travels to San Francisco where he joined with Johnny Otis, who becomes the lead singer of his band. He was there until the mid-sixties to consolidate its power in the rhythm and blues hits “Good Rocking Daddy” or the excellent “Something’s Got to Holdd On Me.” Seal “Chess” helped to consolidate with one or another quality as the album recorded in 1961 entitled “At Last”, or recorded in 1968 for the same label, entitled “Tell Mama”. Read the rest of this entry »

Ahmad Jamal (who was named at birth, Frederick Russell Jones) adopted his Muslim name, when twenty-one years, he converted to Islam. Born in a city – Pittsburgh – the cradle of great jazz pianist. From Pittsburgh, they were, Erroll Garner, Mary Lou Williams, Billy Strayhorn, Earl Hines or Marmaros Dodo.

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With somewhat obscure beginnings, the tenor saxophonist Illinois Jacquet (Illinois, 1922) broke with tremendous force in the jazz world in 1942 when he played with the band of vibraphonist, Lionel Hampton, the theme “Flyng Home”. The extraordinary achieved only saxophone that was so spectacular that was the first time in jazz, that a single, would eventually become part of a musical arrangement, both when he was in Hampton’s band, and when acted sideman for other musicians, especially during his collaboration with organist Milt Buckner.

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Texas-born drummer, Ronald Shannon Jackson has had a powerful influence in environments jazz music in his hometown, Fort Worth.

He joined Ornette Coleman in the early years of his “Prime Time” between 1975 and 1979, deploying with the great Ornette, an impressive rhythmic force. Subsequently he was with another exceptional musician within the so-called free jazz, the great Cecil Taylor and the former component of “Prime Time”, James Ulmes.

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Born in Ohio in 1909, trombonist, Quentin Jackson, covering all the developments of this music since 1930 when he started with Zack White, until he played with Charles Mingus in 1962.

In the thirties, worked with several major groups in the history of early jazz, first with the “McKinney’s Cotton Pickers” in 1931 with Don Redman’s orchestra between 1931 and 1940, with Cab Calloway between 1941 and 1948 and finally to the band of Lucky Millinder.

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Born in Detroit in 1932, vibraphonist, Milt Jackson will go down in history of jazz as the “soul mater of one of the most celebrated jazz combos and more as there have been few in the history of this music, “The Modern Jazz Quartet.

Without doubt we are also talking about one of the three great jazz vibraphonist, along with Lionel Hampton and the Redhead, Red Norvo. His first dabble with jazz, gave the hand of the great trumpeter, Dizzy Gillespie big band in en1946. Later in 1946 and 1948 he worked with the great musicians of the bebop era as Charlie Parker or Thelonious Monk. Read the rest of this entry »