A Great Nation Deserves Great Art.

NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS

1100 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.

Washington, D.C. 20506-0001

202.682.5400

www.arts.gov

Not for sale––Available for free at www.arts.gov
The National Endowment for the Arts is a public

agency dedicated to supporting excellence in the 

arts, both new and established; bringing the arts 

to all Americans; and providing leadership in arts 

education. Established by Congress in 1965 as an 

independent agency of the federal government, the

Endowment is the nation’s largest annual funder of 

the arts, bringing great art to all 50 states, including

rural areas, inner cities, and military bases.
National Endowment for theArts

America’s Highest Honor in Jazz

January 2008
A Message from the Chairman

With the class of 2008, the National Endowment for the Arts

Jazz Masters initiative has reached a new milestone—100

members of this distinguished group. Nominated by the

public, reviewed by a panel of their peers, these esteemed artists have

been recognized for their enormous achievements in this American-born music and

awarded the country’s highest honor in jazz.

As the growing attendance at the International Association for Jazz Education’s

annual conference attests, there is still strong interest in playing, creating, and enjoying

this music. Every year, new musicians start careers in jazz that could one day lead them

to being named NEA Jazz Masters. 

To assist in this cultivation of one of our country’s greatest artistic inventions, the

NEA Jazz Masters program developed an educational component in 2005: NEA Jazz in

the Schools. Developed in partnership with Jazz at Lincoln Center and with support

from the Verizon Foundation, NEA Jazz in the Schools is an educational resource for

high school teachers, either as a DVD toolkit or an online curriculum. More than six 

million students have benefited from the program so far.

Nothing replaces hearing—and seeing—jazz performed live, however, and the NEA

continues to help organizations presenting jazz concerts across the country. After two

years of bringing NEA Jazz Masters on Tour to all 50 states for performances and

educational activities (sponsored by Verizon), the NEA is now supporting a series of 

presentations at jazz festivals that include performances, educational activities, and/or

speaking engagements by NEA Jazz Masters. As with the first phase of NEA Jazz Masters

on Tour, the program is administered in partnership with regional arts organization 

Arts Midwest.

In keeping with our mission to increase access to the arts, the NEA is supporting

radio, television, and online programming—including Ramsey Lewis’s Legends of Jazz

television program—that highlight our NEA Jazz Masters. At the same time, XM

Satellite Radio is airing on multiple channels, many times a day, nearly a hundred 

Jazz Moments produced by the Arts Endowment and featuring NEA Jazz Masters. 

(A compilation of some of these Jazz Moments is included in this publication on an

audio CD for your enjoyment.)

The National Endowment for the Arts continues to support and expand the NEA 

Jazz Masters initiative because preserving this nation’s jazz legacy—not just for this

generation but for future generations—is important. It may well be argued that jazz is

America’s most respected artistic export, revered around the world. The NEA is proud

to honor these distinguished musicians for their work in the jazz field and for their 

part in contributing to our nation’s cultural heritage. 

Dana Gioia

Chairman

National Endowment for the Arts

Photo by Vance Jacobs
CREDITS

This publication is published by:

National Endowment for the Arts

Office of Communications

Felicia Knight, Director

Don Ball, Publications Manager/Editor

4th Edition: 2008

Designed by Fletcher Design, Washington, DC

Cover Photo: The Heath Brothers (including NEA Jazz

Masters Percy Heath (bass) and Jimmy Heath (sax) and

Albert “Tootie” Heath) perform with NEA Jazz Master Clark

Terry (flugelhorn) at the 2004 NEA Jazz Masters Awards

concert at the International Association for Jazz Education

conference in New York City. Photo by Tom Pich

The following reference texts were used in researching

biographical information of the NEA Jazz Masters:

All Music Guide to Jazz by Vladimir Bogdanov, Chris

Woodstra, and Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Backbeat

Books

American Musicians II by Whitney Balliett, Oxford

University Press

Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz by Leonard Feather

and Ira Gitler, Oxford University Press

Four Jazz Lives by A.B. Spellman, University of

Michigan Press 

Jazz: The Rough Guide by Ian Carr, Digby Fairweather,

and Brian Priestley, Rough Guides

Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD, 4th Edition by Richard

Cook and Brian Morton, Penguin

Talking Jazz: An Oral History by Ben Sidran, Da Capo

Press

Voice/TTY:

(202) 682-5496 

For individuals who are deaf or hard-of-hearing.

Individuals who do not use conventional print may 

contact the Arts Endowment’s Office for AccessAbility to

obtain this publication in an alternate format. Telephone: 

(202) 682-5532

National Endowment for the Arts

1100 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.

Washington, D.C. 20506-0001

(202) 682-5400

Additional copies of this publication can be obtained free

of charge on the NEA Web site: www.arts.gov.

This publication was printed on recycled paper.

NEA Jazz Master Gerald Wilson leads his

orchestra at the 2005 NEA Jazz Masters

Awards concert at the International

Association for Jazz Education conference

in Long Beach, California. 

Photo by Vance Jacobs
Table of Contents

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE PROGRAM..............................................1

PROGRAM OVERVIEW ....................................................................3

2008 NEA JAZZ MASTERS ...........................................................5

NEA JAZZ MASTERS 1982–2007 (Year Fellowship Awarded)

Toshiko Akiyoshi (2007) ...........................................................14

David Baker (2000) ....................................................................15

Danny Barker (1991)..................................................................16

Ray Barretto (2006) ....................................................................17

Count Basie (1983).....................................................................18

Louie Bellson (1994)..................................................................19

Tony Bennett (2006)...................................................................20

Art Blakey (1988).......................................................................21

Bob Brookmeyer (2006).............................................................22

Cleo Brown (1987).....................................................................23

Ray Brown (1995) ......................................................................24

Dave Brubeck (1999) .................................................................25

Kenny Burrell (2005).................................................................26

Donald Byrd (2000)....................................................................27

Benny Carter (1986) ..................................................................28

Betty Carter (1992) ....................................................................29

Ron Carter (1998) ......................................................................30

Kenny Clarke (1983)..................................................................31

Buck Clayton (1991) ..................................................................32

Ornette Coleman (1984) ...........................................................33

Chick Corea (2006).....................................................................34

Miles Davis (1984) ....................................................................35

Buddy DeFranco (2006) ............................................................36

Dorothy Donegan (1992) ...........................................................37

Paquito D’Rivera (2005).............................................................38

Sweets Edison (1992).................................................................39

Roy Eldridge (1982) ..................................................................40

Gil Evans (1985) ........................................................................41

Art Farmer (1999) .....................................................................42

Ella Fitzgerald (1985) ................................................................43

Tommy Flanagan (1996) ...........................................................44

Frank Foster (2002)....................................................................45

Curtis Fuller (2007)....................................................................46

Dizzy Gillespie (1982) ..............................................................47

Benny Golson (1996) .................................................................48

Dexter Gordon (1986) ...............................................................49

Jim Hall (2004) ..........................................................................50

Chico Hamilton (2004) .............................................................51

Lionel Hampton (1988) .............................................................52

Slide Hampton (2005) ..............................................................53

Herbie Hancock (2004) .............................................................54

Barry Harris (1989).....................................................................55

Roy Haynes (1995) ....................................................................56

Jimmy Heath (2003)...................................................................57

Percy Heath (2002).....................................................................58
Joe Henderson (1999) ...............................................................59

Luther Henderson (2004) .........................................................60

Jon Hendricks (1993) ................................................................61

Nat Hentoff (2004) ....................................................................62

Billy Higgins (1997) ..................................................................63

Milt Hinton (1993) ....................................................................64

Shirley Horn (2005) ..................................................................65

Freddie Hubbard (2006)............................................................66

Milt Jackson (1997) ...................................................................67

Ahmad Jamal (1994) .................................................................68

J.J. Johnson (1996) .....................................................................69

Elvin Jones (2003) .....................................................................70

Hank Jones (1989) .....................................................................71

Jo Jones (1985) ...........................................................................72

Andy Kirk (1991) .......................................................................73

John Levy (2006)........................................................................74

John Lewis (2001) .....................................................................75

Ramsey Lewis (2007).................................................................76

Abbey Lincoln (2003) ...............................................................77

Melba Liston (1987)...................................................................78

Jackie McLean (2001) ...............................................................79

Marian McPartland (2000) .......................................................80

Carmen McRae (1994) ...............................................................81

Jay McShann (1987)...................................................................82

James Moody (1998) .................................................................83

Dan Morgenstern (2007)............................................................84

Anita O’Day (1997) ...................................................................85

Max Roach (1984)......................................................................86

Sonny Rollins (1983) ................................................................87

George Russell (1990) ...............................................................88

Jimmy Scott (2007) ....................................................................89

Artie Shaw (2005) .....................................................................90

Wayne Shorter (1998) ...............................................................91

Horace Silver (1995) .................................................................92

Jimmy Smith (2005) ..................................................................93

Sun Ra (1982).............................................................................94

Billy Taylor (1988) ....................................................................95

Cecil Taylor (1990) ....................................................................96

Clark Terry (1991) .....................................................................97

McCoy Tyner (2002) ..................................................................98

Sarah Vaughan (1989) ...............................................................99

George Wein (2005) ................................................................100

Frank Wess (2007)....................................................................101

Randy Weston (2001)...............................................................102

Joe Williams (1993) .................................................................103

Gerald Wilson (1990)...............................................................104

Nancy Wilson (2004) ..............................................................105

Teddy Wilson (1986) ..............................................................106

Phil Woods (2007)....................................................................107

NEA JAZZ MASTERS AWARD CEREMONY ....................................108

NEA JAZZ MASTERS BY YEAR........................................................109

JAZZ MOMENTS WITH NEA JAZZ MASTERS AUDIO CD .................110

2006 NEA Jazz Master Buddy DeFranco.

Photo by Lee Tanner
NEA Jazz Masters 1

NEA Jazz Master Slide Hampton takes a solo at the 2007 NEA Jazz Masters Awards concert in New York City. 

Photo by Tom Pich Amelding of African and European music 

and cultures, jazz was born in America, 

a new musical form that used rhythm,

improvisation, and instruments in unique and

exciting ways. Jazz came to prominence in the early

20th century on the dance floors of major cultural

centers such as Kansas City and New York. With the

advent of sound recording techniques, the increased

availability of affordable gramophones, and the rise 

of radio as popular entertainment, jazz quickly

conquered the country. By the 1930s and 1940s, jazz

had become America’s dance music, selling albums

and performance tickets at dizzying rates and

sweeping millions of fans in foreign countries off 

their feet. 

By the 1950s, however, with the advent of rock

and roll and the tilt in jazz toward bebop rather than

the more popular swing, jazz began a decline in its

popularity. It was still seen as an important and

exciting art form, but by an increasingly smaller

audience. Jazz was still being exported overseas,

though, especially by Voice of America radio

broadcasts and U.S. Department of State goodwill

tours that featured such musicians as Dizzy Gillespie,

Louis Armstrong, and Dave Brubeck. 

By the 1960s, when the National Endowment for

the Arts (NEA) was created by Congress, jazz album

sales were down and jazz performances were

becoming more difficult to find. Large dance

orchestras disbanded for lack of work, and musicians

found themselves in stiff competition for fewer and

fewer gigs. The music, starting with bebop and into

hard bop and free jazz, became more cerebral and less

dance-oriented, focusing on freeing up improvisation

and rhythm. It was moving to a new artistic level, and

if this high quality were to be maintained, it would

need some assistance. 

NEA assistance to the jazz field began in 1969,

with its first grant in jazz awarded to pianist/composer

George Russell (who would later go on to receive an

NEA Jazz Master award in 1990), allowing him to

work on his groundbreaking book, Lydian Chromatic

Concept of Tonal Organization, the first major

academic work in jazz. In a decade, jazz funding went

from $20,000 in 1970 to $1.5 million in 1980 to more

than $2.8 million in 2005, supporting a wide range of

activities, including jazz festivals and concert seasons,

special projects such as Dr. Billy Taylor’s Jazzmobile

in New York and the Thelonious Monk Institute of

Jazz’s Jazz Sports program, educational jazz

A Brief History of the Program
2 NEA Jazz Masters

programming on National Public Radio, artists-inschools programs, and research. 

While the NEA recognized and acted on the need

for public funding for jazz, the pioneers of the field

were rapidly aging, and often dying without the

appropriate recognition of their contribution to this

great American art form. Louis Armstrong and Duke

Ellington, two of the giants of jazz in terms of both

musicianship and composition, both died in the early

1970s without the importance of their contributions

being fully acknowledged and appreciated. 

In an effort to nationally recognize outstanding jazz

musicians for their lifelong achievements and mastery

of jazz, the Arts Endowment in 1982 created the

American Jazz Masters Fellowships—now the NEA

Jazz Masters Fellowships—given to musicians who

have reached an exceptionally high standard of

achievement in this very specialized art form. 

In addition to the recognition, the NEA included a

monetary award of $20,000 for each fellowship. The

rigors of making a living in the jazz field are well

documented. Jazz is an art form to which the free

market has not been kind. Despite their unparalleled

contributions to American art, many jazz greats

worked for years just barely scraping by. The

monetary award often has provided a much needed

infusion of income. 

That such recognition was long overdue is

exemplified by Thelonious Sphere Monk, one of the

great American composers and musicians. Monk was

nominated for an NEA Jazz Master Fellowship in the

first year of the program, but unfortunately passed

away before the announcement was made (the

fellowship is not awarded posthumously). The three

who were chosen certainly lived up to the criteria 

of artistic excellence and significance to the art form:

Roy Eldridge, Dizzy Gillespie, and Sun Ra. The panel

in that first year included stellar jazz musicians

themselves, including some future NEA Jazz Masters:

trumpeter Donald Byrd and saxophonists Frank

Foster, Chico Freeman, Jackie McLean, and Archie

Shepp. In addition, legendary Riverside record

company co-owner and producer Orrin Keepnews

was on the panel. 

From that auspicious beginning, the program has

continued to grow and provide increased awareness of

America’s rich jazz heritage. In 2004, the number of

fellowships awarded increased from three to six (in

2005, the number increased to seven), and a new

award was created for those individuals who helped

to advance the appreciation of jazz. In 2005, the award

was designated the A. B. Spellman NEA Jazz Masters

Award for Jazz Advocacy in honor of A. B. Spellman,

a jazz writer, accomplished poet, innovative arts

administrator, and former NEA Deputy Chairman,

who has dedicated much of his life to bringing the joy

and artistry of jazz to all Americans. Additionally, the

amount of each fellowship was increased to $25,000.

In 2005, Chairman Dana Gioia greatly expanded the

NEA Jazz Masters initiative to include several new

programs in addition to the fellowships. A two-CD

anthology of NEA Jazz Masters’ music was produced 

by Verve Music Group. NEA Jazz Masters on Tour,

sponsored by Verizon, brought jazz musicians to all 

50 states throughout 2005-06 for performances,

community events, and educational programs. A new

arts education component was created in partnership

with Jazz at Lincoln Center and with support from the

Verizon Foundation, NEA Jazz in the Schools. This

educational resource for high school teachers of social

studies, U.S. history, and music includes a five-unit,

Web-based curriculum and DVD toolkit that explores

jazz as an indigenous American art form and as a

means to understand U.S. history (more information

can be found at www.neajazzintheschools.org). New

broadcasting programming was created, such as onehour shows on NEA Jazz Masters featured on the public

radio series Jazz Profiles, hosted by NEA Jazz Master

Nancy Wilson, and Jazz Moments, radio shorts for

broadcast on satellite radio XM. Since 2005, the Arts

Endowment has partnered with Legends of Jazz, a

weekly public television series dedicated to legendary

jazz artists and often highlighting NEA Jazz Masters. 

Each passing year brings increased international

recognition of the NEA Jazz Masters Fellowships 

as the nation’s highest honor for outstanding

musicianship in the field of jazz. The recipients of the

NEA Jazz Masters award cover all aspects of the

music: from boogie-woogie (Cleo Brown) to swing

(Count Basie, Andy Kirk, Jay McShann); from bebop

(Dizzy Gillespie, Kenny Clarke) to Dixieland (Danny

Barker); from free jazz (Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor)

to cool jazz (Miles Davis, Gil Evans, Ahmad Jamal);

and everywhere in between. What ties all these styles

together is a foundation in the blues, a reliance on

group interplay, and unpredictable improvisation.

Throughout the years, and in all the different styles,

these musicians have demonstrated the talent,

creativity, and dedication that make them NEA Jazz

Masters. 

Celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2007, the 

award offers a solid platform for raising worldwide

awareness of America’s rich jazz heritage by not 

only honoring those who have dedicated their lives 

to the music, but also by leading the way in efforts

encouraging the preservation and nourishing of jazz as

an important musical form for generations to come. 
NEA Jazz Masters 3

The National Endowment for the Arts

recognizes the importance of jazz as one of the

great American art forms of the 20th century.

As part of its efforts to honor those distinguished

artists whose excellence, impact, and significant

contribution in jazz have helped keep this important

tradition and art form alive, the Arts Endowment

annually awards NEA Jazz Masters Fellowships, the

highest honor that our nation bestows upon jazz

musicians. Each fellowship award is $25,000.

The NEA Jazz Masters Fellowship is a lifetime

achievement award. The criteria for the fellowships

are musical excellence and significance of the

nominees’ contributions to the art of jazz. The Arts

Endowment honors a wide range of styles with

awards currently given in various categories. There 

is also a special award given to a non-musician, the

A.B. Spellman NEA Jazz Master Award for Jazz

Advocacy, which is awarded to an individual who

has made major contributions to the appreciation,

knowledge, and advancement of jazz. 

Fellowships are awarded to living artists on the

basis of nominations from the general public and the

jazz community. The recipients must be citizens or

permanent residents of the United States. An

individual may submit only one nomination each

year, and nominations are made by submitting a onepage letter detailing the reasons that the nominated

artist should receive an NEA Jazz Masters

Fellowship. Nominations submitted to the Arts

Endowment by the deadline are reviewed by an

advisory panel of jazz experts and at least one

knowledgeable layperson. Panel recommendations

are forwarded to the National Council on the Arts,

which then makes recommendations to the

Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts.

Nominations remain active for five years, being

reviewed annually during this period.

Information on submitting a nomination and on

the NEA Jazz Masters award is available on the NEA

Web site: www.arts.gov.

Program Overview

NEA Jazz Masters Nancy Wilson, John Levy, Ahmad Jamal, and Ramsey Lewis at the luncheon for the 2007 NEA Jazz Masters event in New York City. 

Photo by Tom Pich

Photo by Ray Avery/CTSIMAGES

2008 Fellows

RHYTHM INSTRUMENTALIST

Candido Camero

KEYBOARIST

Andrew Hill

BANDLEADER

Quincy Jones

COMPOSER/ARRANGER

Tom McIntosh

SOLO INSTRUMENTALIST

Joe Wilder

A.B. SPELLMAN NEA JAZZ

MASTERS AWARD FOR 

JAZZ ADVOCACY

Gunther Schuller

NOTES:

Names in bold in biographies denote NEA Jazz Masters awardees.

All recordings listed in Selected Discography are under the artist’s name unless otherwise noted.

Years listed under recordings in Selected Discography denote the years the recordings were made.

2008 NEA Jazz Master

Joe Wilder
6 NEA Jazz Masters

So well known and respected, his first name, alone—

Candido—is all that is necessary for jazz aficionados 

to know who he is. Credited with being the first

percussionist to bring conga drumming to jazz, Candido

Camero is also known for his contributions to the

development of mambo and Afro-Cuban jazz.

Born in Havana, Cuba, in 1921, Camero first began 

making music as a young child, beating rhythms on empty

condensed milk cans in place of bongos. He worked for six

years with the CMQ Radio Orchestra and at the famed

Cabaret Tropicana. 

He came to the United States in 1946 with the dance

team Carmen and Rolando, and very soon after was playing

with Billy Taylor, who wrote in 1954, “I have not heard

anyone who even approaches the wonderful balance

between jazz and Cuban elements that Candido

demonstrates.”

By the early 1950s, Camero was a featured soloist with

the Stan Kenton Orchestra, with whom he toured the U.S.

playing three congas (at a time when other congueros were

playing only one) in addition to a cowbell and guiro (a

fluted gourd played with strokes from a stick). He created

another unique playing style by tuning his congas to specific

pitches so that he could play melodies like a pianist. He

became one of the best known congueros in the country,

appearing on such television shows as the Ed Sullivan Show

and the Jackie Gleason Show.

He has recorded and performed with seemingly

everybody in the jazz field, including such luminaries as

Tony Bennett, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Lionel

Hampton, Slide Hampton, Charles Mingus, Wes

Montgomery, Gerry Mulligan, Charlie Parker, Sonny Rollins,

and Clark Terry, among others. Among

his many awards are the Latin

Jazz USA Lifetime

Achievement Award (2001)

and a special achievement

award from ASCAP as a

“Legend of Jazz” (2005).

The subject of the

2005 documentary,

Candido: Hands of Fire,

Camero (now in his 80s)

continues to perform

throughout the world. 

PERCUSSIONIST

Photo by Yaritza Acosta

Billy Taylor, The Billy Taylor Trio with

Candido, Prestige/OJC, 1954

Candido, Verve, 1956

Brujerias de Candido: Candido’s Latin McGuffa’s

Dust, Tico, 1971

Candido Camero/Carlos Valdes/Giovanni

Hidalgo, Conga Kings, Chesky, 1999

Candido Camero/Graciela Perez,

Inolvidable, Chesky, 2004

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Candido Candido

Camero

Born April 22, 1921 in Havana, Cuba
NEA Jazz Masters 7

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Photo by Lee Tanner

Andrew 

Hill 

Born June 30, 1931 in Chicago, IL

Died April 20, 2007

PIANIST COMPOSER ARRANGER BANDLEADER EDUCATOR

Recognized by Blue Note Records’ founder

Alfred Lyon as his “last, great protégé,”

pianist Andrew Hill spent 40 years

composing, performing, recording, and

mentoring young musicians.

Born in Chicago in 1931, Andrew Hill

began teaching himself to play piano at age

10, and was later introduced to German

composer and music theorist-in-exile Paul

Hindemith. He started performing in 1952

with touring jazz musicians, including Charlie

Parker, Dinah Washington, Coleman Hawkins,

and Miles Davis.

He moved to New York in 1961 and shortly

thereafter was contracted by Alfred Lyons at Blue Note

Records as a leader and a sideman, producing his early

classics for the label, such as Point of Departure and Black

Fire. Hill’s Blue Note sessions with acclaimed musicians

such as Eric Dolphy, Kenny Dorham, John Gilmore, Roy

Haynes, Joe Henderson, and Elvin Jones cemented his

reputation as a musician and composer of some renown. 

Hill served as composer-in-residence at Colgate

University of Hamilton from 1970-72. In California, he

performed in concert and taught classes at public schools

and social service institutions before becoming an associate

professor of music at Portland State University, where he

established the successful Summer Jazz Intensive. He also

performed and taught at Harvard and

Wesleyan universities among others.

He returned to New York City in the

1990s, reestablishing himself as a

pianist, ensemble leader, and

composer. In 2000, Hill released

Dusk, a song cycle loosely based on

Jean Toomer’s 1923 book Cane, with

yet another phenomenal band. The

album brought him to the attention

of and garnered him acclaim from a

larger jazz audience, claiming a place

on best-album-of-the-year lists with

Fortune Magazine, San Diego Union

Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer, JazzTimes,

and Down Beat.

The new attention led to reissues of his classic Blue Note

recordings of the 1960s and new issues of some previously

unreleased recordings from that time period. One of the

most interesting was Passing Ships, a previously unknown

nonet recording that prefaced his big band recording in

2002, A Beautiful Day, by more than 30 years. In 2003, he

received the prestigious Danish award, the JAZZPAR Prize.

After fighting lung cancer for many years, Hill

succumbed to the disease in April 2007. He was notified 

of the NEA Jazz Masters award before his passing, and his

wife accepted the award on his behalf. 

Point of Departure, Blue Note, 1964

Passing Ships, Blue Note, 1969

Live at Montreux, Freedom, 1975

Dusk, Palmetto, 1999

Time Lines, Blue Note, 2005

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BANDLEADER TRUMPETER COMPOSER ARRANGER PRODUCER

Photo by Ray Avery/CTSIMAGES

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Quincy Jones has distinguished himself

in just about every aspect of music,

including as a bandleader, record 

producer, musical composer

and arranger, trumpeter, and record 

label executive. He has worked with

everyone from Dizzy Gillespie, Miles

Davis, and Count Basie to Frank

Sinatra, Aretha Franklin, and Michael

Jackson. 

Born in Chicago in 1933, he learned

the trumpet as a teenager. He moved to New

York City in the early 1950s, finding work as

an arranger and musician with Count Basie,

Tommy Dorsey, and Lionel Hampton. In 1956, Dizzy

Gillespie chose Jones to play in his big band, later having

Jones put together a band and act as musical director on

Gillespie’s U.S. State Department tours of South America

and the Middle East. The experience honed his skills at

leading a jazz orchestra.

Jones moved to Paris, France, in 1957 and put together 

a jazz orchestra that toured throughout Europe and North

America. Though critically acclaimed, the tour did not make

money and Jones disbanded the orchestra. 

He became music director for Mercury Records in 1960,

rising to vice president four years later. Also in 1964, he

composed his first film score with Sidney Lumet’s The

Pawnbroker. After the success of that film, he left Mercury

Records for Los Angeles to pursue what became a highly

successful career as film score composer. To

date he has written scores for more than 35

films, including In Cold Blood, In the Heat

of the Night, and The Italian Job.

In addition to his film scoring, he also

continued to produce and arrange

sessions in the 1960s, notably for Frank

Sinatra on his albums with Count Basie, 

It Might As Well Be Swing in 1964 and

Sinatra at the Sands in 1966. He later

produced Sinatra’s L.A. Is My Lady album 

in 1984. 

Returning to the studio with his own work,

he recorded a series of Grammy Award-winning

albums between 1969 and 1981, including Walking in

Space and You’ve Got It Bad, Girl. Following recovery from

a near-fatal cerebral aneurysm in 1974, he focused on

producing albums, most successfully with Michael Jackson’s

Off the Wall and Thriller, and the “We Are the World”

sessions to raise money for the victims of Ethiopia’s famine

in 1985. In 1991, he coaxed Miles Davis into revisiting his

1950s orchestral collaborations with Gil Evans at the

Montreux Jazz Festival, conducting the orchestra for Davis’

last concert. Jones holds the record for the most Grammy

Award nominations at 79, of which he won 27. 

In the 1980s and 1990s, Jones ventured into filmmaking,

co-producing with Steven Spielberg The Color Purple, and

managing his own record label Qwest Records, along with

continuing to make and produce music. 

This Is How I Feel About Jazz,

Paramount, 1956

Bossa Nova, Mercury, 1962

Walking in Space, A&M, 1969

Miles Davis/Quincy Jones, Live at 

Montreux, Warner Bros., 1991

Quincy Jones/Sammy Nestico

Orchestra, Basie & Beyond,

Warner Bros., 2000

Quincy

Jones

Born March 14, 1933 in Chicago, IL
NEA Jazz Masters 9

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Photo by Tom Pich

COMPOSER ARRANGER TROMBONIST EDUCATOR

Though not well known outside of jazz circles, the

unique voice of composer and arranger Tom (Mac)

McIntosh made him a favorite of Dizzy Gillespie,

James Moody, Milt Jackson, and Tommy Flanagan, among

other jazz giants.

McIntosh was born and raised in Baltimore. After a stint

with the Army, he attended Juilliard and later became an

active participant in the New York jazz scene as a trombone

player and composer. 

He was a member of the famous Jazztet, formed by

Benny Golson and Art Farmer, and was one of the founders

of the New York Jazz Sextet. Many outstanding

New York-based instrumentalists of the

1950s and ‘60s migrated in and out of the

band, including Thad Jones, Art Farmer,

James Moody, Tommy Flanagan,

Roland Hanna, and Richard Davis.

McIntosh and Moody have a 

long history of friendship and

collaboration that dates to the 1950s

when McIntosh played and wrote 

for Moody’s bands and provided

arrangements for some of Moody’s

1960s recordings. 

He also wrote and arranged for Milt Jackson, including

his And the Hip String Quartet album, and was a favorite 

of Dizzy Gillespie, who featured three of his songs on his

Something Old, Something New recording. McIntosh was 

an original member of the Thad Jones - Mel Lewis Orchestra,

to which he contributed songs and arrangements. He was

also much admired by Tommy Flanagan, who often noted

that McIntosh was his favorite composer, recording several

of his songs. 

When jazz’s popularity waned towards the end on the

1960s, McIntosh went to Hollywood as a film composer for

two Gordon Parks’ films, The Learning Tree and Shaft.

He remained in California for the next 20 years as a

music director for films and TV. Finally tiring of

Hollywood, McIntosh returned to the East

Coast in the 1990s, teaching at various

conservatories, including as music director of

the Thelonious Monk Institute at the New

England Conservatory of Music. He also

continued to write music. In 2004, he

released his first recording under his own

name (at the age of 77), with a second

volume of his works forthcoming. 

James Moody, Hey! It’s James

Moody, Argo/Lone Hill Jazz, 1956-59

The Jazztet, At Birdhouse, Argo, 1961

Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra, The Complete

Solid State Recordings, Mosaic, 1966-70

Milt Jackson, And the Hip String Quartet,

Verve, 1968

With Malice Toward None: The Music

of Tom McIntosh, IPO Recordings,

2003

Tom 

McIntosh 

Born February 6, 1927 in Baltimore, MD

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10 NEA Jazz Masters

J

oe Wilder has played with a virtual Who’s Who of jazz—

Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Cab Calloway, Benny

Carter, Dizzy Gillespie, Benny Goodman, Lionel 

Hampton, Billie Holiday, Lena Horne, Quincy Jones,

John Lewis, Charles Mingus, George Russell, and Dinah

Washington are just a few of the giants with whom he has

played.

Wilder was born in 1922 into a musical family led by his

father Curtis, a bassist and bandleader in Philadelphia.

Wilder’s first performances took place on the radio program

Parisian Tailor’s Colored Kiddies of the Air. He and the other

young musicians were backed up by such illustrious bands

as Duke Ellington’s and Louis Armstrong’s that were also

then playing at the Lincoln Theater. Wilder studied at the

Mastbaum School of Music in Philadelphia but turned to

jazz when he felt that there was little future for an AfricanAmerican classical musician. Wilder joined his first touring

big band, Les Hite’s band, in 1941.

Wilder was one of the first thousand African Americans

to serve in the Marines during World War II. He worked first

in Special Weapons and eventually became assistant

bandmaster at the headquarters’ band. Following the war

during the 1940s and early ‘50s, he played in the orchestras

of Jimmie Lunceford, Herbie Fields, Sam Donahue, Lucky

Millinder, Noble Sissle, Dizzy Gillespie, and Count Basie,

while also playing in the pit orchestras for Broadway 

musicals.

Wilder returned to

school in the 1960s,

earning a bachelor’s

degree at the

Manhattan School

of Music where he

was also principal

trumpet with the

school’s symphony

orchestra under

conductor Jonel Perlea.

At that time, he

performed on several

occasions with the New York

Philharmonic under Andre Kostolanitz and Pierre Boulez.

From 1957 to 1974, Wilder did studio work for ABC-TV

while building his reputation as a soloist with his albums

for Savoy and Columbia. He was also a regular sideman

with such musicians as Gil Evans, Benny Goodman, and

Hank Jones, even accompanying Goodman on his tour of

Russia. He became a favorite with vocalists and played for

Harry Belafonte, Tony Bennett, Eileen Farrell, Billie Holiday,

Lena Horne, Johnny Mathis, and many others.

He is the only surviving member of the Count Basie 

All-Star Orchestra that appeared in the classic 1959 film 

The Sound of Jazz.

TRUMPETER

Joe

Wilder

Born February 22, 1922 in Colwyn, PA

Photo by Tom Pich

Softly with Feeling, Savoy, 1956

Jazz from “Peter Gun”, Columbia, 1959

Benny Carter, A Gentleman and His Music,

Concord, 1985

No Greater Love, Evening Star, 1993

Among Friends, Evening Star, 2002

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Photo by Tom Pich

AUTHOR COMPOSER ARRANGER CONDUCTOR

EDUCATOR FRENCH HORN PLAYER

Recognized as a renaissance man of music, Gunther

Schuller is a leader in both the classical and jazz

traditions, contributing significant musical

compositions and writings to expand jazz’s horizons.

Schuller was born in 1925 in New York City. At age 17,

he joined the Cincinnati Symphony as principal horn. Two

years later, he joined the orchestra of the Metropolitan Opera

while also becoming actively involved in the New York

bebop scene, performing and recording with such jazz greats

as Ornette Coleman, Miles Davis, Eric Dolphy, Dizzy

Gillespie, John Lewis, and Charles Mingus. 

When he was 25, Schuller took a teaching position at the

Manhattan School of Music, beginning a long and

distinguished teaching career that includes his tenure as codirector, along with David Baker, of the Smithsonian

Jazz Masterworks Orchestra and professor of

composition of music at Yale. From 1967 to

1977, he was also president of the New

England Conservatory of Music where

early in his tenure he established a jazz

department offering both undergraduate

and graduate degree programs. He was

artistic director of Tanglewood Berkshire

Music Center from 1970 to 1985.

Schuller is a proponent of what he

called the Third Stream—an effort to fuse

the two primary streams of music, jazz

and classical, into a new hybrid—of which John Lewis was

one of the main practitioners. Schuller also was an early

admirer of Charles Mingus’ music—so much so that when a

19-movement score was discovered of an unproduced

Mingus work, Epitaph, Schuller was asked to conduct the

orchestra for the premiere at Lincoln Center in 1989

(produced with NEA support). 

In 1975, he started recording and publishing businesses

that focused on, among other genres, the compositions of

Duke Ellington. He sold the two publishing companies in

2000 to G. Schirmer, Inc., but still retains the record

company GM Recordings. Schuller also served as editor-inchief of the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Editions. 

Schuller’s jazz writings include Early Jazz: Its Roots and

Musical Development (1968), considered one of the

seminal books on the history of jazz, and The

Swing Era (1989), the second volume of a

planned three-volume history of jazz. 

Schuller has written more than 180

compositions in a wide range of styles and

has won many awards for his work,

including the 1994 Pulitzer Prize in

music for Of Reminiscences and

Reflections. Schuller also is a recipient of

a MacArthur Foundation “Genius”

Award (1991).

Gunther 

Schuller

Born November 22, 1925 in New York, NY

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Early Jazz: Its Roots and Musical

Development, Oxford University Press, 1968

The Swing Era: The Development of Jazz, 

1930-45, Oxford University Press, 1989

Musings: The Musical Worlds of Gunther

Schuller, Oxford University Press, 1989

NEA Jazz Masters

Dizzy Gillespie (left),

Benny Carter (seated),

and Paquito D'Rivera

(partially obscured by

Gillespie) at the

Smithsonian Institute

P

in 1990. hoto by Michael Wilderman 1982–2007

NOTES:

Names in bold in biographies denote NEA Jazz Masters awardees.

All recordings listed in Selected Discography are under the artist’s name unless otherwise noted.

Years listed under recordings in Selected Discography denote the years the recordings were made.

Since 2004, NEA Jazz Masters have been awarded by categories, which are listed next to years for these Fellows. 
14 NEA Jazz Masters

Over the course of a six-decade career, pianist,

bandleader, and composer-arranger Toshiko Akiyoshi

has made a unique and vital contribution to the art of

big band jazz. Born in Manchuria, where she began playing

the piano at age six, Akiyoshi moved back to Japan with her

parents at the end of World War II. Her family, enduring the

hardships of the period, could not provide her with an

instrument, and so, just to touch a piano, she took her first

job as a musician, playing in a dance-hall band. 

She was not exposed to real jazz until a Japanese record

collector introduced her to the work of Teddy Wilson, whose

music immediately impressed her. In 1952, pianist Oscar

Peterson discovered Akiyoshi while he was on a Jazz at the

Philharmonic tour of Japan and recommended that producer

Norman Granz record her. Thanks to

this opening, she came to the

United States in 1956 to study

at the Berklee School of

Music in Boston. She

moved to New York in

1959, playing at

Birdland, the Village

Gate, the Five Spot, and

the Half Note; but

despite a brief attempt in

the 1960s to showcase her

talents as a composer and

arranger for large ensembles,

she did not have the

opportunity to form a big band until she moved to Los

Angeles in 1972 with her husband, saxophonist/flutist Lew

Tabackin. The following year, the couple formed the Toshiko

Akiyoshi Jazz Orchestra featuring Lew Tabackin. In 1976,

the band placed first in the Down Beat Critics’ Poll, and

Akiyoshi’s album Long Yellow Road was named best jazz

album of the year by Stereo Review. In the 1970s, Akiyoshi

began exploring Japanese themes in her compositions and

arrangements, mixing them with the strong jazz base in her

music. 

In 1982, the couple returned to New York, where

Akiyoshi re-formed her band with New York musicians. The

band enjoyed a critically successful debut at Carnegie Hall

as part of the 1983 Kool Jazz Festival. Akiyoshi has recorded

22 albums to date with the orchestra. Her recording Four

Seasons of the Morita Village was awarded the 1996 Swing

Journal Silver Award, and her big band albums have

received 14 Grammy Award nominations. Akiyoshi is the

first woman ever to place first in the Best Arranger and

Composer category in the Down Beat Readers’ Poll. 

In 1995, the Toshiko Akiyoshi Jazz Orchestra was

invited to play in China, and in 1996 Akiyoshi completed

her autobiography Life With Jazz, which is now in its fifth

printing in Japanese and will soon be translated into Korean.

Among the many honors she has received are the

Shijahosho (1999, from the Emperor of Japan); the Japan

Foundation Award, Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with

Rosetta (2004, from the Emperor of Japan); and the Asahi

Award (2005, from the Asahi Shimbun newspaper). 

BANDLEADER PIANIST COMPOSER ARRANGER

Toshiko

Akiyoshi

Born December 12, 1929 in Dairen, Manchuria

Photo by Lee Tanner

Long Yellow Road, RCA, 1974-75

Farewell, Ascent, 1980

Carnegie Hall Concert, Columbia, 1991

Four Seasons of Morita Village, BMG, 1996

Hiroshima: Rising from the Abyss,

True Life, 2001

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NEA Jazz Masters 15

Atrue jazz renaissance man, David Baker has 

been active in the jazz community as musician,

composer, educator, conductor, and author. Of all

the NEA Jazz Masters, he is one of the most active as

a college and university educator.

Baker’s music career began on the

trombone in the early 1950s as he worked

with local groups, as well as Lionel

Hampton, while working on his

doctorate at Indiana University. He

lived in California in 1956-57, playing

in the bands of Stan Kenton and

Maynard Ferguson, and returned to

Indiana in 1958, leading his own big

band for two years. He then attended the

School of Jazz in Lenox, Massachusetts, in

1959-60, joining a stellar class of musicians

that included members of the Ornette Coleman

Quartet. Shortly thereafter he worked with the

George Russell band, playing on some of his influential

early albums. In Russell’s band, Baker’s trombone playing

displayed exceptional technique, utilizing avant-garde

effects to accent the songs. 

An accident to his jaw eventually forced Baker to 

abandon his promising career as a trombonist. He switched

to the cello in 1962, concentrating on composition. As a

composer he has contributed a broad range of works, from

small ensemble to orchestral, often straddling the fence

between jazz and chamber music. He has also worked on

purely chamber and orchestral works. By the early 1970s,

he had returned to the trombone––playing on Bill

Evans’ 1972 album Living Time, with George

Russell arranging––while continuing to play

the cello as well. Although a strong player

on both instruments, he is most renowned

for his compositions. 

Baker became a distinguished

professor of music at Indiana University

and chairman of the Jazz Department in

1966. He has published in numerous

scholarly journals and has written several

musical treatises as well as having

authored more than 70 books on jazz and

African American music. Since 1991, Baker

has been the artistic and musical director of the

acclaimed Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra.

He has received numerous awards and citations,

including being nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 1973 for

his composition Levels, a concerto for bass, jazz band, 

woodwinds, and strings. He has served as a member of the 

NEA’s National Council on the Arts, was founding president

of the National Jazz Service Organization, and is former

president of the International Association for Jazz

Education.

George Russell, Stratusphunk, 

Original Jazz Classics, 1960

George Russell, Ezz-thetics,

Original Jazz Classics, 1961

George Russell, The Stratus Seekers, 

Original Jazz Classics, 1961

Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra,

Big Band Treasures Live, Smithsonian

Recordings, 1996

Steppin’ Out, Liscio, 1998

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Photo by Ray Avery/CTSIMAGES

TROMBONIST CELLIST COMPOSER ARRANGER EDUCATOR

David

Baker

Born December 21, 1931 in Indianapolis, IN
16 NEA Jazz Masters

Upholder of the New Orleans tradition of jazz and

blues, this master guitar and banjo player was as

well known for his humor and storytelling as for his

playing. Many of the younger New Orleans musicians also

credit him with providing invaluable information,

instruction, and mentoring. 

He started his musical training on the clarinet, instructed

by the great Barney Bigard, and moved on to the drums,

taught by his uncle, Paul Barbarin. These instances of

musical mentoring and instruction available in New Orleans

would inspire him to carry on the tradition of mentoring

younger musicians. He later took up the ukulele and the

banjo, and began finding work with jazz and blues artists

such as the Boozan Kings and Little Brother Montgomery.

In 1930 he moved to New York, where he met his wife,

vocalist Blue Lu Barker, with whom he frequently recorded.

He also wrote many of the songs she performed, such as

“Don’t You Feel My Leg.” By then he had switched from

banjo to guitar and found work with Sidney Bechet, James P.

Johnson, Albert Nicholas, Fess Williams, and Henry “Red”

Allen. He spent the rest of the 1930s working with the big

bands of Lucky Millinder, Benny Carter, and Cab Calloway,

with whom he stayed for seven years. 

In the late 1940s he traveled as a freelance musician,

making recordings in Los Angeles and New Orleans. In

1947, Barker appeared on the This Is Jazz radio series, and

began playing banjo again. He returned to New York in

1949, working with trombonists Wilbur De Paris and Conrad

Janis, and accompanied his wife on gigs. In the early 1960s,

he led his own band at Jimmy Ryan’s on 52nd Street, then

returned to the Crescent City in 1965. Barker continued

playing up to the end of his life, even appearing on the Dirty

Dozen Brass Band’s 1993 recording, Jelly. A number of his

compositions have been widely interpreted, such as “Save

the Bones for Henry Jones.”

Just as important as his performing career were his

educational activities. When he returned home to New

Orleans in 1965, he worked for 10 years as an assistant

curator for the New Orleans Jazz Museum, helping to

continue interest in the culture and

tradition of the music. He also

mentored young musicians

through his leadership of

the Fairview Baptist

Church Brass Band.

Barker was a writer as

well, co-authoring with

Jack Buerkle a study on

New Orleans music,

Bourbon Street Black, and

writing his memoirs, A

Life in Jazz.

GUITARIST BANJOIST VOCALIST COMPOSER EDUCATOR

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Barker

Born January 13, 1909 in New Orleans, LA

Died March 13, 1994

Photo by Lee Tanner

Blue Lu Barker, 1938-39, 

Classics, 1938-39

Blue Lu Barker, 1946-49, 

Classics, 1946-49

Save the Bones, Orleans, 1988

Blue Lu Barker, Live at New Orleans

Jazz Festival, Orleans, 1989

Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Jelly,

Columbia, 1993
Photo by Lee Tanner

NEA Jazz Masters 17

The most widely recorded conguero in jazz, Ray

Barretto grew up listening to the music of Puerto Rico

and the swing bands of Duke Ellington, Count Basie,

and Benny Goodman. Barretto credited Dizzy Gillespie’s

recording of “Manteca,” featuring conguero Chano Pozo,

with his decision to become a professional musician.

He first sat in on jam sessions at the Orlando, a GI jazz

club in Munich. In 1949, after military service, he returned

to Harlem and taught himself to play the drums, getting 

his first regular job with Eddie Bonnemere’s Latin Jazz

Combo. Barretto then played for four years with Cuban

bandleader/pianist José Curbelo. In 1957, he replaced

Mongo Santamaria in Tito Puente’s band, with which he

recorded his first album, Dance Mania. After four years

with Puente, he was one of the most sought-after

percussionists in New York, attending jam sessions with

artists including Max Roach and Art Blakey and recording

with Sonny Stitt, Lou Donaldson, Red Garland, Gene

Ammons, Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis, Cannonball Adderley,

Freddie Hubbard, Cal Tjader, and Dizzy Gillespie. Barretto

was so much in demand that in 1960, he was a house

musician for the Prestige, Blue Note, and Riverside record

labels.

Barretto’s first job as a bandleader came in 1961, when

Riverside producer Orrin Keepnews asked him to form a

charanga for a recording,

Pachanga With Barretto. His

next album, Charanga

Moderna, featured “El

Watusi,” which became

the first Latin number to

penetrate Billboard’s Top20 chart. In 1963, “El

Watusi” went gold. In

1975 and 1976, Barretto

earned back-to-back

Grammy nominations for

his albums Barretto (with the

prize-winning hit “Guarere”) and

Barretto Live...Tomorrow. His 1979

album for Fania, Rican/Struction, considered a

classic of salsa, was named Best Album (1980) by Latin N.Y.

magazine, and Barretto was named Conga Player of the Year.

He won a Grammy Award in 1990 for the song “Ritmo en el

Corazon” with Celia Cruz. 

Ray Barretto was inducted into the International Latin

Music Hall of Fame in 1999. He was voted Jazz Percussionist

of 2004 by the Jazz Journalists Association and won the

Down Beat critics poll for percussion in 2005. His recording

Time Was, Time Is was nominated for a 2005 Grammy Award.

Charanga Moderna, Tico, 1962

Hard Hands, Fania, 1968

Rican/Struction, Fania, 1979 

Ancestral Messages, Concord Picante, 1992

Homage to Art Blakey and the Jazz

Messengers, Sunnyside, 2002

PERCUSSIONIST BANDLEADER

Ray

Barretto

Born April 29, 1929 in Brooklyn, NY

Died February 17, 2006

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18 NEA Jazz Masters

Though a pianist and occasional organist, Count

Basie’s fame stems mainly from his history as one of

the great bandleaders. Basie’s arrangements made

good use of soloists, allowing musicians such as Lester

Young, Buck Clayton, Sweets Edison, and Frank Foster to

create some of their best work. Although his strength was

as a bandleader, Basie’s sparse piano style often delighted

audiences with its swinging simplicity.

Basie’s first teacher was his mother, who taught him

piano. Later, the informal organ lessons from his 

mentor Fats Waller helped him find work in a theater

accompanying silent films. In 1927, Basie found himself in

Kansas City, playing with two of the most famous bands in

the city: Walter Page’s Blue Devils and the Bennie Moten

band. In 1935, Basie started his own Kansas City band,

engaging the core of the Moten band. They performed

nightly radio broadcasts, which caught the attention of

music producer John Hammond. In 1936, Hammond

brought the Basie band to New York, where it opened at the

Roseland Ballroom. By the next year, the band was a fixture

on 52nd Street, in residence at the Famous Door. 

During this time the key to Basie’s band was what

became known as the “All-American Rhythm Section:”

Freddie Green on guitar, Walter Page on bass, and Jo Jones

on drums. The horns were also quite potent, including

Lester Young, Earl Warren, and Herschel Evans on

saxophones; Buck Clayton and Sweets Edison on trumpets;

and Benny Morton and Dicky Wells on trombones. With a

swinging rhythm section and top-notch soloists in the horn

section, Basie’s band became

one of the most popular

between 1937-49, scoring

such swing hits as “One

O’Clock Jump” and

“Jumpin’ at the Woodside.”

Lester Young’s tenor

saxophone playing during this

period, in particular on such

recordings as “Lester Leaps In”

and “Taxi War Dance,” influenced jazz

musicians for years to come. In addition,

Basie’s use of great singers such as Helen Humes and 

Jimmy Rushing enhanced his band’s sound and popularity. 

Economics forced Basie to pare down to a septet in

1950. By 1952 he had returned to his big band sound,

organizing what became euphemistically known as 

his “New Testament” band, which began a residency at

Birdland in New York. The new band retained the same

high standards of musicianship as the earlier version, 

with such standouts as Frank Foster, Frank Wess, Eddie

“Lockjaw” Smith, Thad Jones, and Joe Williams. Foster’s

composition “Shiny Stockings” and Williams’ rendition of

“Every Day” brought Basie a couple of much-needed hits in

the mid-1950s. In addition to achieving success with his

own singers, he also enjoyed acclaim for records backing

such stars as Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Jr., and Tony

Bennett. Basie continued to perform and record until his

death in 1984.

William “Count” 

Basie

Born August 21, 1904 in Red Bank, NJ

Died April 26, 1984 

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The Original American Decca

Recordings, MCA, 1937-39

April in Paris, Verve, 1956

The Complete Atomic Basie,

Roulette, 1957

Count Basie and the Kansas City 7,

Impulse!, 1962

The Basie Big Band,

Pablo, 1975

PIANIST ORGANIST COMPOSER ARRANGER BANDLEADER

Photo by Lee Tanner
NEA Jazz Masters 19

Referred to by Duke Ellington as “not only the world’s

greatest drummer...[but also] the world’s greatest

musician,” Louie Bellson has expressed himself on

drums since age three. At 15, he pioneered the double bass

drum set-up, and two years later he triumphed over 40,000

drummers to win the Gene Krupa drumming contest.

Bellson has performed on more than 200

albums as one of the most sought-after big

band drummers, working with such greats

as Duke Ellington (who recorded many of

Bellson’s compositions), Count Basie,

Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, Harry

James, Woody Herman, Oscar Peterson,

Dizzy Gillespie, Louie Armstrong, and

Lionel Hampton. He toured with

Norman Granz’s all-star Jazz at the

Philharmonic, and worked with many

vocalists, including Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah

Vaughan, Tony Bennett, Joe Williams, and

his late wife, Pearl Bailey, for whom he served

as musical director. He also appeared in several

films in the 1940s, including The Power Girl, The Gang’s

All Here, and A Song is Born.

A prolific composer, Bellson has more than 1,000 

compositions and arrangements to his name, embracing jazz,

swing, orchestral suites, symphonic works, and ballets. 

As an author, he has published more than a dozen books on

drums and percussion, and is a six-time Grammy Award

nominee. In 1998, he was hailed—along with Roy Haynes,

Elvin Jones, and Max Roach—as one of four “Living Legends

of Music” when he received the American Drummers

Achievement Award from the Zildjian Company.

Bellson also is a highly sought-after 

educator, giving music and drum workshops and

clinics, teaching not only his dynamic

drumming technique but also the jazz 

heritage. He has been awarded four 

honorary doctoral degrees from Northern

Illinois University, Denison University,

Augustana College, and DePaul University. 

In 2003, a historical landmark

was dedicated at his birthplace in Rock

Falls, Illinois, inaugurating an annual

three-day celebration there in his honor.

Continuing to compose and record, his 2005

recording, The Sacred Music of Louie Bellson,

showcases his prowess for blending orchestral

music, choir, and big band. In 2007, Bellson was

one of 36 musicians receiving the Living Jazz Legend

Award from the Kennedy Center and one of three honored

as ASCAP Jazz Living Legends by the American Society of

Composers, Authors and Publishers. He continues to

perform with his big band after more than 65 years onstage,

still thrilling audiences worldwide. 

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Born July 6, 1924 in Rock Falls, IL

DRUMMER COMPOSER ARRANGER BANDLEADER EDUCATOR

Live in Stereo at the Flamingo Hotel, Vol. 1, 

Jazz Hour, 1959

Dynamite!,Concord, 1979

East Side Suite, Musicmasters, 1987

Live from New York, Telarc, 1993

The Sacred Music of Louie Bellson,

Percussion Power, 2005

Photo by Lee Tanner
20 NEA Jazz Masters

Called “the best singer in the business” by Frank

Sinatra, Tony Bennett was born as Anthony Dominick

Benedetto in 1926 in the Astoria section of Queens,

New York. By age 10, he had attracted such notice that he

was tapped to sing at the opening ceremony for the

Triborough Bridge. He attended the High School of

Industrial Arts, worked as a singing waiter, and then

performed with military bands during

his Army service in World War II.

After the war, he continued his

vocal studies formally at the

American Theatre Wing

school and informally in the

52nd Street jazz clubs. His

break came in 1949, when

Bob Hope saw him working

in a Greenwich Village club

with Pearl Bailey, invited

him to join his show at the

Paramount, and changed his

stage name to Tony Bennett.

Bennett’s recording career began

in 1950, when he signed with the

Columbia label, with the number one hit “Because of You,”

followed by his cover of Hank Williams’ “Cold, Cold Heart.”

With a string of hits to his credit, Bennett was able to exert

greater artistic influence over his recordings, allowing him

to express his interest in jazz, notably The Beat of My Heart,

on which he was accompanied primarily with jazz

percussionists, and his work with Count Basie, In Person

with Count Basie and His Orchestra.

In 1962, Bennett recorded “I Left My Heart in San

Francisco,” the song that would become his signature, and

for which he won Grammy Awards for Record of the Year

and Best Solo Male Vocal Performance. Over the next years,

while putting out singles and albums that were consistently

among the most popular in the country, he continued to

infuse his singing with the spontaneity of jazz and to record

and tour with bands composed almost exclusively of jazz

musicians.

In the 1970s, Bennett formed his own record company

and made albums including two duet recording with pianist

Bill Evans. His 1992 release, Perfectly Frank, a tribute to

Frank Sinatra, and 1993 Steppin’ Out, a tribute to Fred

Astaire, went gold and won him back-to-back Grammy

Awards. Bennett received Grammy’s highest award, Album

of the Year, in 1994 for his live recording, MTV Unplugged,

and was honored with their Lifetime Achievement Award in

2001. He continues to perform to sold-out audiences

throughout the world, appearing with his stellar jazz quartet.

VOCALIST

Photo by Ray Avery/CTSIMAGES

The Beat of My Heart, Columbia, 1957

In Person with Count Basie and His

Orchestra, Columbia, 1958

The Tony Bennett Bill Evans Album,

Columbia, 1975

On Holiday: A Tribute to Billie Holiday,

Columbia, 1996

Playin’ with my Friends: Bennett Sings

the Blues, Columbia, 2001

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Bennett

Born August 3, 1926 in Queens, NY

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NEA Jazz Masters 21

Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers not only supplied 

consistently exciting and innovative music for nearly

40 years, but also provided the experience and

mentoring for young musicians to learn their trade. Though

self-taught, Blakey was already leading his own dance band

by age 14. Blakey’s first noted sideman job came in 1942

with Mary Lou Williams, whom he joined for a club

engagement at Kelly’s Stables in New York. The following

year he joined the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra, where he

stayed until joining Billy Eckstine’s modern jazz big band in

1944. A subsequent trip to Africa, ostensibly to immerse

himself in Islam, revealed to him that jazz was truly an

American music, which he preached from the bandstand

thereafter. He adopted the Muslim name of Abdullah Ibn

Buhaina, but continued to record under Art Blakey. 

In the early 1950s, he worked with such greats as Miles

Davis, Charlie Parker, Horace Silver, and Clifford Brown.

The latter two became members of the Jazz Messengers,

which was originally a cooperative unit. Brown, then

Silver, left to form their own bands and Blakey became the

leader of the Jazz Messengers. The Messengers went on 

to play in a style that critics called hard bop, a logical 

progression on the bebop style that was more hard-driving

and blues-oriented. The Messengers made a concerted

effort at rekindling the black audience for jazz that had

begun to erode when the ballroom era of jazz declined.

Blakey powered his bands with a distinctive, take-noprisoners style of drumming that recalled the thunderous

and communicative drum traditions of Africa. Though 

his drumming became among the most easily recognized

sounds in jazz, Blakey always played for the band, 

prodding on his immensely talented colleagues’ solos.

From the first Jazz Messengers band he formed, Blakey

has welcomed generations of exceptional young musicians

who have evolved into prominent bandleaders and

contributors themselves. That list, reading like a Who’s

Who of jazz, includes Donald Byrd, Curtis Fuller, Johnny

Griffin, Lee Morgan, Benny Golson, Wayne Shorter, Freddie

Hubbard, Keith Jarrett, Woody Shaw, Joanne Brackeen,

Bobby Watson, James Williams, and three of the Marsalis

brothers (Wynton, Branford, and Delfeayo). His mentoring

of these musicians, helping them to hone their skills and

preparing them to lead their own

bands, has helped keep the

jazz tradition alive and

thriving. For the

remainder of his career,

Blakey continued to

take the Jazz

Messengers message

across the globe. 

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A Night at Birdland, Vols. 1-2,

Blue Note, 1954

Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers 

with Thelonious Monk, Atlantic, 1957

Moanin’, Blue Note, 1958

Buhaina’s Delight,

Blue Note, 1961

Keystone 3, Concord, 1982

DRUMMER BANDLEADER

Photo by Lee Tanner

Art 

Blakey 

Born October 11, 1919 in Pittsburgh, PA

Died October 16, 1990
22 NEA Jazz Masters

An innovative composer and gifted arranger for both

small and large ensembles, as well as an outstanding

performer on valve trombone and piano, Bob

Brookmeyer has been making music for more than 50 years.

A professional performer with dance bands since the age of

14, he studied composition for three years at the Kansas City

Conservatory of Music, where he won the Carl Busch Prize

for Choral Composition. In the early 1950s, he traveled to

New York as a pianist with Tex Benecke and Mel Lewis and

stayed on to freelance with artists including Pee Wee

Russell, Ben Webster, and Coleman Hawkins.

After a period with Claude Thornhill, Brookmeyer

joined Stan Getz in late 1952, an association that took him

to California, where Gerry Mulligan asked him to join his

quartet. Brookmeyer gained renown as a member of that

group (1954-57) and as a member of the experimental

Jimmy Giuffre 3 (1957-58), comprising Giuffre’s

reeds, Jim Hall’s guitar, and Brookmeyer’s

valve trombone. His long association with

Mulligan included work with the Concert

Jazz Band, which Brookmeyer helped to

form and maintain, and for which he

wrote arrangements.

In 1961, Brookmeyer and Clark Terry

formed their legendary quintet, which

lasted until 1968. Brookmeyer was also

busy during this time as lead trombonist

and arranger-composer for The Thad JonesMel Lewis Orchestra, formed in 1965. After a

decade spent in California as a studio musician, Brookmeyer

returned to New York in 1978 to play with Stan Getz and

Jim Hall, form his own quartet, and then in 1979 rejoined

the Mel Lewis Orchestra, becoming its musical director after

the departure of Thad Jones.

From 1981 to 1991, Brookmeyer was busy as a composer

and performer in Europe, working in both classical and jazz

idioms. He began teaching at the Manhattan School of

Music in 1985 and directed the BMI Composers Workshop

from 1989 to 1991. He has served as musical director of the

Schlewsig-Holstein Musik Festival Big Band/New Art

Orchestra, the Stanley Knowles Distinguished Visiting

Professor at Brandon University in Manitoba, and director of

the New England Conservatory’s Jazz Composers’ Workshop

Orchestra. A composer whose work has been widely

published, studied, and performed, Brookmeyer

has received grants in composition from the

National Endowment for the Arts and

nominations from NARAS for composing

and performing, and he was

commissioned by the 12 Cellists of the

Berlin Philharmonic to write a piece for

an EMI disc featuring trumpet player

Till Broenner. A new concert-length

piece for the New Art Orchestra, Spirit

Music, was released in 2007 only on

artistshare.com.

Gerry Mulligan Quartet, At 

Storyville, Pacific Jazz, 1956

The Blues Hot and Cold, Verve, 1960

Back Again, Sonet, 1978

Paris Suite, Challenge, 1993

Get Well Soon, Challenge, 2002

TROMBONIST PIANIST

COMPOSER ARRANGER EDUCATOR

Photo by Lee Tanner

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Bob

Brookmeyer

Born December 19, 1929 in Kansas City, MO
NEA Jazz Masters 23

Cleo Brown bears the distinction of being the first

woman instrumentalist honored with the NEA Jazz

Masters Fellowship. Her family moved to Chicago in

1919 and four years later, at age 14, she started working

professionally with a vaudeville show. Her brother

Everett, who worked with “Pine Top” Smith,

taught her the boogie woogie piano style that

became her trademark. 

Brown performed in the Chicago area

during the late 1920s. In 1935, she

replaced Fats Waller on his New York

radio series on WABC, and soon began

recording. Her version of “Pine Top’s

Boogie Woogie” was influential on

pianists that came after her, and she 

is credited with being an early influence

on Dave Brubeck, who played during the 

intermissions of her shows, and Marian

McPartland, among others. Through the

1950s she worked frequently at that city’s Three

Deuces club, establishing a reputation as a two-fisted,

driving pianist. Brown began to gain international renown

for her work, and she continued to perform regularly in New

York, Hollywood, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and San

Francisco until 1953, making records for Capitol Records

and performing with the Decca All-Stars, among others. 

Brown then dropped out of the music business

completely and took up full-time nursing. After

retiring from nursing in 1973, she returned to

music, spending her latter years as a church

musician in her Seventh Day Adventist

Church in Denver, Colorado. In 1987,

Marian McPartland sought out Brown as

a guest on her long-running radio series,

Piano Jazz. A recording of the program

was released as Living in the Afterglow,

Brown’s last recording. Although all the

numbers are gospel songs (many are

originals by Brown), they are played in the

same rollicking style as her 1930s recordings. 

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PIANIST VOCALIST

Various Artists, Boogie Woogie Stomp,

ASV/Living Era, 1930s-40s

The Legendary Cleo Brown, President, 1930s

Here Comes Cleo, Hep, 1935-36

1935-1951, Classics, 1935-51

Living in the Afterglow,

Audiophile, 1987

Photo courtesy of Ray Avery Photo Archives/CTSIMAGES

Cleo 

Brown

Born December 8, 1909 in Meridian, MS

Died April 15, 1995
24 NEA Jazz Masters

Ray Brown’s dexterity and rich sound on the bass

made him one of the most popular and prolific

musicians in jazz for over 50 years. The Penguin

Guide to Jazz on CD notes that Brown is the most cited

musician in the first edition of the guide, both for his own

small ensemble work and as a sideman, testifying to his

productivity. 

Brown studied the piano from age eight and began

playing the bass at 17, performing his first professional job

at a Pittsburgh club in 1943. His first significant tour was

with bandleader Snookum Russell in 1944, whereupon he

moved to New York the following year. By 1946 he was

working in Dizzy Gillespie’s band, and in 1948 he formed a

trio with Hank Jones and Charlie Smith. In 1948, he

married Ella Fitzgerald and became

musical director on her own

tours and her Jazz at the

Philharmonic tours until

their breakup in 1952. In

1951, he began a stint

with the Oscar Peterson

Trio that lasted until

1966. It was in

Peterson’s group that

Brown’s prowess on the

bass began getting attention, anchoring the trio’s sound in

both the piano-guitar and piano-drums configurations.

In the mid-1960s, Brown co-led a quintet with vibist

Milt Jackson, with whom he had worked in the 1940s 

as part of Dizzy Gillespie’s rhythm section and later as a

member of the Milt Jackson Quartet, the precursor to the

Modern Jazz Quartet. In the late 1970s to early 1980s,

Brown formed his first full-time trio, which was to become

his favored touring and performance unit over the next 

couple of decades, and utilized a variety of up-and-coming

musicians in his bands, including pianists Gene Harris,

Monty Alexander, Benny Green, and Geoff Keezer and

drummers Jeff Hamilton, Lewis Nash, Gregory Hutchinson,

and Kariem Riggins.

Brown was also been involved in jazz education,

including authoring the Ray Brown Bass Book 1, an

instructional volume. He served as mentor to numerous

young musicians, including those who have passed through

his groups and special guests he invited to play on a series

of 1990s recordings for the Telarc label titled Some of My

Best Friends are.... These have included pianists, 

saxophonists, trumpeters, and vocalists. Some of the great

younger bassists, such as John Clayton and Christian

McBride, count him as a major influence on their sound.

Ray

Brown

Born October 13, 1926 in Pittsburgh, PA

Died July 2, 2002

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Oscar Peterson, The Ultimate 

Oscar Peterson, Verve, 1956-64

Much in Common, Verve, 1962-65

Summer Wind: Live at the Loa, Concord, 1988

Some of My Best Friends Are....

The Sax Players, Telarc, 1995

Ray Brown with John Clayton and

Christian McBride, Super Bass 2,

Telarc, 2001

BASSIST EDUCATOR

Photo by Lee Tanner
NEA Jazz Masters 25

Dave Brubeck, declared a “Living Legend” by the

Library of Congress, continues to be one of the most

active and popular jazz musicians in the world today.

His experiments with odd time signatures, improvised

counterpoint, and a distinctive harmonic approach are the

hallmarks of his unique musical style.

Born into a musically inclined family—his two older

brothers were professional musicians—he began taking piano

lessons from his mother, a classical pianist, at age four. After

graduating from College of the Pacific in 1942, he enlisted in

the Army, and while serving in Europe led an integrated G.I.

jazz band. 

At the end of World War II, he studied composition at

Mills College with French classical composer Darius

Milhaud, who encouraged him to introduce jazz elements

into his classical compositions. This experimentation of

mixed genres led to the formation of the Dave Brubeck Octet

that included Paul Desmond, Bill Smith, and Cal Tjader. In

1949, Brubeck formed an award-winning trio with Cal

Tjader and Ron Crotty, and in 1951 expanded the band to

include Desmond. Brubeck became the first jazz artist to

make the cover of Time magazine, in 1954, and in 1958

performed in Europe and the Middle East for the U.S. State

Department, leading to the introduction of music from other

cultures into his repertoire. In 1959, the Dave Brubeck

Quartet recorded an experiment in time signatures, Time

Out. The album sold more than a million copies, and

Brubeck’s “Blue Rondo a la Turk,” based on a Turkish folk

rhythm, and Desmond’s “Take Five” appeared on jukeboxes

throughout the world. 

Throughout his career,

Brubeck has continued to

experiment with integrating

jazz and classical music. In

1959, he premiered and

recorded his brother’s

Dialogues for Jazz Combo

and Orchestra with the

New York Philharmonic

under Leonard Bernstein. In

1960, he composed Points on

Jazz for the American Ballet

Theatre, and in later decades

composed for and performed with the

Murray Louis Dance Co. His musical theater piece, The Real

Ambassadors starring Louis Armstrong and Carmen McRae,

was also written and recorded in 1960 and performed to

great acclaim at the 1962 Monterey Jazz Festival. The classic

Dave Brubeck Quartet with Paul Desmond, Eugene Wright,

and Joe Morello was dissolved in December 1967 and

Brubeck’s first of many oratorios, The Light in the

Wilderness, was premiered in 1968. 

In the early 1970s, Brubeck performed with three of his

musical sons. He later led a quartet that featured former

Octet member Bill Smith. His current group is with Bobby

Militello, sax and flute; Randy Jones, drums; and Michael

Moore, bass. He has received many honors in the U.S. and

abroad for his contribution to jazz, including the National

Medal of Arts, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and

the Austrian Medal of the Arts.

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Dave

Brubeck

Born December 6, 1920 in Concord, CA

PIANIST COMPOSER

Jazz at Oberlin,

Original Jazz Classics, 1953

Time Out, Columbia, 1959

The Real Ambassadors,

Columbia/Legacy, 1961

Classical Brubeck,

Telarc, 2002

Private Brubeck Remembers,

Telarc, 2004

Photo by Tom Pich
26 NEA Jazz Masters

Kenny Burrell pioneered the guitar-led trio with bass

and drums in the late 1950s. Known for his

harmonic creativity, lush tones, and lyricism on the

guitar, he is also a prolific and highly regarded composer.

Born in Detroit in 1931, he found musical colleagues at an

early age among Paul Chambers, Tommy Flanagan, Frank

Foster, Yusef Lateef, and the brothers Thad, Hank, and Elvin

Jones. While still a student at Wayne State University, he

made his first major recording in 1951 with Dizzy

Gillespie, John Coltrane, Percy Heath, and

Milt Jackson.

After graduation, he toured for six

months with the Oscar Peterson Trio

and then moved to New York, where

he performed in Broadway pit bands,

on pop and R&B studio sessions

(with Lena Horne, Tony Bennett, and

James Brown), in jazz venues, and on

jazz recordings. He went on to work

and/or record with such artists as Nat

King Cole, Billie Holiday, Stan Getz,

Gene Ammons, Kenny Dorham, Benny

Goodman, Coleman Hawkins, and Jimmy

Smith. As a leader, he has recorded more than

90 albums and is a featured guitarist on more than 200

jazz recordings, including ones with Art Blakey, Herbie

Hancock, and Quincy Jones.

Kenny Burrell’s compositions have been recorded by

artists including Ray Brown, June Christy, Grover

Washington, Jr., Frank Wess, and Stevie Ray Vaughan. 

His extended composition for the Boys Choir of Harlem 

was premiered at New York’s Lincoln Center, and his “Dear

Ella,” performed by Dee Dee Bridgewater, won a 1998

Grammy Award.

In addition to performing and recording, he is a

professor of music and ethnomusicology at the

University of California at Los Angeles. A

recognized authority on the music of Duke

Ellington, he developed the first regular college

course ever taught in the United States on

Ellington in 1978. In 1997, he was

appointed Director of the Jazz Studies

Program at UCLA, where he has enlisted

such faculty members as George Bohanon,

Billy Childs, Billy Higgins, Harold Land,

Bobby Rodriguez, and Gerald Wilson.

Kenny Burrell is the author of two books,

Jazz Guitar and Jazz Guitar Solos. In 2004, he

received a Jazz Educator of the Year Award from

Down Beat. He is a founder of the Jazz Heritage

Foundation and the Friends of Jazz at UCLA and is

recognized as an international ambassador for jazz and its

promotion as an art form.

Kenny Burrell & John Coltrane, 

Prestige/OJC, 1958

Midnight Blue, Blue Note, 1963

Guitar Forms, Verve, 1964

Kenny Burrell & the Boys Choir of 

Harlem, Love is the Answer,

Concord Jazz, 1997

75th Birthday Bash Live!, Blue

Note, 2006 

GUITARIST COMPOSER EDUCATOR

Kenny 

Burrell

Born July 31, 1931 in Detroit, MI

Photo by Lee Tanner

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Photo by Lee Tanner

Donald

Byrd

Born December 9, 1932 in Detroit, MI

TRUMPETER FLUGELHORNIST EDUCATOR

Apioneer jazz educator on AfricanAmerican college and university

campuses, as well as general colleges

and universities, Donald Byrd has also been

a leading improviser on trumpet. Raised in

the home of a Methodist minister and

musician, he learned music in the then

highly regarded music education system in

the Detroit high schools. Byrd went on to

earn degrees from Wayne State University

and the Manhattan School of Music,

eventually earning a doctorate from the

University of Colorado School of Education. He

studied music with the famed teacher Nadia

Boulanger in Paris in 1963. 

Byrd played in the Air Force band during 1951-52, then

relocated to New York. Some of his earliest gigs in New

York were with the George Wallington group at 

Cafe Bohemia. He joined Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers 

in December 1955. Following his Messengers experience,

he worked in a variety of bands with Max Roach, John

Coltrane, Red Garland, and Gigi Gryce, refining his playing

skills. In 1958 he co-led a band with fellow Detroiter

Pepper Adams, which continued for the next three years.

In the early 1960s, he became a

bandleader of his own touring quintet.

During 1965-66 he was a house arranger

for the Norwegian Radio Orchestra. It

was also at this time that he became

more active as an educator, teaching at

New York’s Music & Art High School.

He held clinics for the National Stage

Band Camps, giving private lessons

and instruction. Among the college

and university teaching appointments

that followed were Rutgers University,

Hampton University, Howard University,

North Carolina Central University, North Texas

State, and Delaware State University. He also earned

a law degree between teaching appointments.

At Howard University, where he was chairman of the

Black Music Department, he brought together a group of

talented students to form Donald Byrd & the Blackbyrds, a

pop-jazz band that had a hit record for Blue Note, and

continued to record—sans Byrd—for the Fantasy label. 

His recorded innovations also included the use of vocal

chorus, which resulted in his popular recording of “Cristo

Redemptor,” as well as his engagements of gospel texts.

First Flight, Denmark, 1955

Early Byrd, Blue Note, 1960-72

Electric Byrd, Blue Note, 1970

Black Byrd, Blue Note, 1974

A City Called Heaven, Landmark, 1991
28 NEA Jazz Masters

Benny Carter made memorable impressions as a great

bandleader and improviser with a highly influential

style. Largely self-taught, Carter’s first instrument

was the trumpet, although the alto saxophone eventually

became his principle instrument. Some of his earliest 

professional jobs were with bands led by cornetist June

Clark and pianist Earl Hines, where his unusual ability to

play both trumpet and saxophone was highly regarded. 

In 1930-31 he spent a year with the Fletcher Henderson

Orchestra, then for a short time he succeeded Don Redman

as musical director of McKinney’s Cotton Pickers. During

the early 1930s, he also made his first recordings with the

Chocolate Dandies, which included Coleman Hawkins. 

In 1932, Carter formed his own big band. At various

times the band included such significant players

as Ben Webster, Chu Berry, Teddy Wilson,

Dicky Wells, Bill Coleman, and Sid Catlett.

In 1934, Carter dissolved his band and

migrated to Europe the next year, where he

served as a staff arranger for the BBC

Orchestra in London until 1938. His

work in Europe took on an ambassadorial

tint, playing as a freelance soloist with

musicians in England and France and

leading a multiethnic band in Scandinavia in 1937.

Growing restless, Carter returned to the U.S. in 1938 and

assembled a new big band, which became house band at the

Savoy Ballroom through 1940. In 1942, with another new

band in tow, he settled in Los Angeles, his longtime home

base. With lucrative film studios calling, Carter began

scoring films and television. He became one of the first

African Americans to be employed in the field, easing the

way for other black composers. His first film work was in

1943 on Stormy Weather.

Starting in 1946, with his composing and arranging

skills in constant demand, Carter disbanded his orchestra

and became largely a freelance player. He participated in

tours with Jazz at the Philharmonic and wrote

arrangements for major singers such as Ray

Charles, Ella Fitzgerald, Peggy Lee, Sarah

Vaughan, and Louis Armstrong. Many of

his subsequent recordings, such as the

widely hailed Further Definitions, were

evidence of the depth of his composing

and arranging mastery. He received the

National Medal of Arts in 2000.

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Benny

Carter

Born August 8, 1907 in New York, NY

Died July 12, 2003

SAXOPHONIST TRUMPETER ARRANGER COMPOSER BANDLEADER

All of Me,

Bluebird, 1934-59

Jazz Giant,

Original Jazz Classics, 1957-58

Further Definitions,

Impulse!, 1961-66

In the Mood for Swing,

MusicMasters, 1987

Harlem Renaissance,

MusicMasters, 1992

Photo by Lee Tanner
NEA Jazz Masters 29

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VOCALIST BANDLEADER EDUCATOR

Photo by Lee Tanner

Betty

Carter 

Born May 16, 1930 in Flint, MI

Died September 26, 1998

Betty Carter developed a legendary reputation, along

with Art Blakey, as one of the great mentors for

young jazz musicians. Equally legendary was her

singing prowess, creating a distinctive style of improvisation

that could transcend any song. 

Carter studied piano at the Detroit Conservatory, a skill

that served her well later in her career in writing original

songs. Growing up in Detroit, she was exposed to

numerous jazz greats who passed through town, even

getting a golden opportunity as a teenager to sit in with

Charlie Parker. Carter’s big break came in 1948, when she

was asked to join the Lionel Hampton band. Developing

her vocal improvisations during the three years with 

the band led to her singular singing style. Hampton,

impressed with her saxophone-like improvisatory vocals,

dubbed her “Betty Bebop.” After leaving Hampton’s band,

she worked variously with such greats as Miles Davis, Ray

Charles, and Sonny Rollins before creating her own band.

Although she recorded for major record labels early in

her career, Carter became increasingly frustrated with record

company dealings and disparities and formed her own label

Bet-Car in 1971, one of the first jazz artists to do so. Selling

her own recordings through various distributors, she was

able to sustain her performing career. Carter was

uncomfortable with studio recordings, but live recordings,

like The Audience with Betty Carter, demonstrate her

remarkably inventive singing and her ability to drive the

band.

Carter’s bands served a dual purpose: for her to create her

own great music and to help the young musicians develop

their craft. Many of the musicians who passed through 

her groups went on to lead their

own groups, such as Geri

Allen, Stephen Scott, Don

Braden, and Christian

McBride. She also

developed a mentoring

program called Betty

Carter’s Jazz Ahead

through links with

organizations like 

the International

Association for Jazz

Education, 651 Arts, and

the Kennedy Center. The

program was a one-to-two

week teaching seminar where

nationally selected promising young jazz musicians learned

from Carter and other seasoned musicians, culminating in a

final concert of instructors and students together. Jazz Ahead

was one of Carter’s proudest achievements, and she worked

with the program up until her death.

I Can’t Help It,

Impulse!, 1958-60

At the Village Vanguard,

Verve, 1970

The Audience with Betty Carter,

Verve, 1979

Look What I Got,

Verve, 1988

Feed the Fire,

Verve, 1993
30 NEA Jazz Masters

Ron Carter’s dexterity and harmonic sophistication

have few rivals in the history of bass in jazz. In

addition to the bass, he has also employed both the

cello and the piccolo bass (a downsized bass pitched

somewhere between cello and contrabass), one of the first

musicians to use those instruments in jazz settings.

His pursuit of music began with the cello, at age 10.

One of the many students aspiring to be musicians in the

Detroit public schools, he switched to the bass at Cass Tech

High School. He studied at the Eastman

School of Music in Rochester, New

York, and eventually made his

way to New York City, where

he earned his master’s degree

in Music from the Manhattan

School of Music in 1961.

He began freelancing,

playing with a host of jazz

greats, such as Chico

Hamilton, Randy Weston,

Bobby Timmons, Thelonious

Monk, and Art Farmer. He cut

three substantial albums with

the great saxophonist Eric Dolphy,

two under Dolphy’s name and one

under Carter’s. Carter’s Where? and Dolphy’s

Out There were groundbreaking in that Carter played cello

against George Duvivier’s bass, creating a rich lower texture

against which Dolphy could contrast his horn playing.

In 1963, he joined Miles Davis in what would become

the trumpeter’s second great quintet that included Wayne

Shorter, Tony Williams, and Herbie Hancock. Davis even

recorded some of Carter’s compositions—notably “R.J.,”

“Mood,” and “Eighty-One”—and the rhythm section of 

Carter, Williams, and Hancock powered the horn section 

to greater heights. He remained with Davis from 1963-68,

whereupon he grew tired of the rigors of the road, preferring

to freelance, lead his own groups, and teach. Among the

cooperative bands he performed with during the remainder

of the 1960s were the New York Jazz Sextet and the New

York Bass Choir. Throughout the 1970s, he was a recording

studio bassist in high demand, though he never stopped

gigging with a variety of artists and bands, including several

touring all-star units such as the CTI All-Stars, V.S.O.P.

(ostensibly a reunion of the Davis band minus the leader),

and the Milestone Jazzstars, which included Sonny Rollins

on tenor saxophone, McCoy Tyner on piano, and Al Foster

on drums.

His freelance work has continued throughout his career,

including chamber and orchestral work, film and television

soundtracks, and even some hip hop recordings. Carter

continues to record with young musicians such as Stephen

Scott and Lewis Nash, and his college and university teaching

career has also been quite active. He is Distinguished

Professor of Music, Emeritus of the City College of New York,

and has received honorary doctorate degrees from The

Berklee School of Music, the Manhattan School of Music, and

the New England Conservatory in Boston. He has also written

several book on bass, including Building A Jazz Bass Line.

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BASSIST CELLIST COMPOSER EDUCATOR

Miles Davis, E.S.P.,

Columbia, 1965

Live at Village West,

Concord, 1982

Eight Plus,

Dreyfus, 1990

Brandenburg Concerto,

Blue Note, 1995

The Golden Striker,

Blue Note, 2002

Photo by Lee Tanner

Ron

Carter

Born May 4, 1937 in Ferndale, MI
NEA Jazz Masters 31

Photo by Herman Leonard Photography LLC/CTSIMAGES

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Kenny 

Clarke 

Born January 2, 1914 in Pittsburgh, PA

Died January 26, 1985 

DRUMMER BANDLEADER

Kenny Clarke, known among musicians as “Klook” for

one of his characteristic drum licks, is truly a jazz

pioneer. He was a leader in the rhythmic advances

that signaled the beginning of the modern jazz era, his drum

style becoming the sound of bebop and influencing

drummers such as Art Blakey and Max Roach.

Clarke studied music broadly growing up, including

piano, trombone, drums, vibraphone, and theory while in

high school. Such versatility of knowledge would later serve

him well as a bandleader. Clarke moved to New York in late

1935, where he first began developing his unique approach

to the drums, one with a wider rhythmic palette than that of

the swing band drummers. Instead of marking the count

with the top cymbal, Clarke used counter-rhythms to accent

the beat, what became known as “dropping of bombs.” 

He found a kindred spirit in Dizzy Gillespie when they

hooked up in Teddy Hill’s band in 1939. A key opportunity

to further expand his drum language came in late 1940

when he landed a gig in the house band (with Thelonious

Monk on piano, and Nick Fenton on bass) at Minton’s

Playhouse. It was this trio that welcomed such fellow 

travelers as guitarist Charlie Christian, Gillespie, and a host

of others to its nightly jam sessions. These sessions became

the primary laboratory for their brand of jazz, which came 

to be called bebop.

A stint in the Army from 1943-46 introduced him to

pianist John Lewis. After their discharge he and Lewis

joined Gillespie’s bebop big band, which gave Clarke his

first taste of Paris during a European tour, a place that

eventually became his home

for nearly 30 years. After

returning to New York, he

joined the Milt Jackson

Quartet, which

metamorphosed into

the Modern Jazz

Quartet in 1952.

Though he and Lewis

remained friends,

Clarke chafed at what

he felt was the too-staid

atmosphere of the MJQ.

In 1956, he migrated to

Paris, working with Jacques

Helian’s band and backing up

visiting U.S. jazz artists. 

During the years 1960-73, he co-led the major Europebased jazz big band with Belgian pianist Francy Boland, the

Clarke-Boland Big Band. The band featured the best of

Europe’s jazz soloists, including a number of exceptional

U.S. expatriate musicians living in Europe. Among these

were saxophonists Johnny Griffin and Sahib Shihab, and

trumpeter Idrees Sulieman. After the disbanding of his 

big band, he found numerous opportunities both on the

bandstand and teaching in the classroom, remaining quite

active as a freelancer, often working with visiting U.S. 

jazz musicians, until his death in 1985.

Modern Jazz Quartet, 

The Artistry of the Modern Jazz Quartet,

Prestige, 1952-55

Bohemia After Dark, Savoy, 1955

Discoveries, Savoy, 1955

Kenny Clarke Meets the Detroit Jazzmen,

Savoy, 1956

Clarke-Boland Big Band,

RTE, 1968
32 NEA Jazz Masters

Avalued member of a variety of classic big bands,

Buck Clayton was versatile enough to thrive as a

bandleader, session man, and trumpet soloist.

Clayton first studied piano with his father beginning at age

six, taking up the trumpet at age 17. He played in his

church’s orchestra until 1932 when he moved to California,

taking various band jobs. In 1934, Clayton assembled his

own band and took it to China for two years.

He joined Count Basie’s band in Kansas City in 1936 at

the height of its popularity, playing his first

prominent solo on “Fiesta in Blue.” He wrote

several arrangements for Basie, including

“Taps Miller” and “Red Bank Boogie,”

before joining the Army in 1943.

Following his discharge, he performed

around New York through the end of

the decade. Jazz at the Philharmonic

tours took him overseas, and he made

record sessions with artists like Jimmy

Rushing and wrote charts for Duke

Ellington and Harry James. In the early

1950s, he partnered with pianist Joe

Bushkin in the first of the influential Embers

quartets. Other artists he worked with include Benny

Goodman, Teddy Wilson, Eddie Condon, Sidney Bechet,

and Humphrey Littleton. His ability to improvise in a

variety of styles made him much in demand for sessions,

especially with vocalists such as Billie Holiday.

Physical issues with his embouchure—how the mouth

forms against the mouthpiece of the instrument—caused

him to relinquish the trumpet from 1972 until late in the

decade, when he was able to resume playing. While he was

unable to perform, Clayton wrote arrangements for

various bands. That skill was fully exercised

when he put together his own big band in the

mid-1980s, playing almost exclusively his

own compositions and arrangements. He

also became an educator, teaching at

Hunter College in the 1980s. He

continued to freelance for the remainder

of his career, being called upon as an

honored soloist, and spent much of his

last two decades teaching, lecturing, 

and arranging.

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Wilbur “Buck” 

Clayton

Born November 12, 1911 in Parsons, KS

Died December 8, 1991

TRUMPETER COMPOSER ARRANGER BANDLEADER EDUCATOR

The Classic Swing of Buck Clayton,

Original Jazz Classics, 1946

Buck Special, Vogue, 1949-53

Jam Sessions from the Vaults,

Columbia, 1953-56

Buck and Buddy,

Original Jazz Classics, 1960

A Swingin’ Dream, Stash, 1988

Photo by Lee Tanner
NEA Jazz Masters 33

Ornette

Coleman 

Born March 9, 1930 in Ft. Worth, TX

SAXOPHONIST TRUMPETER VIOLINIST COMPOSER

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Photo by Lee Tanner

Ornette Coleman is one of the true jazz innovators,

whose sound is instantly recognizable and

unquestionably unique. Coleman’s work has ranged

from dissonance and atonality to liberal use of electronic

accompaniment in his ensembles, as well as the engagement

of various ethnic influences and elements from around the

globe. While experimenting with time and tone, his strong

blues root is always evident.

For the most part, Coleman has been self-taught,

beginning on the alto saxophone at age 14. Coleman’s

earliest performing experiences were mostly with local

rhythm & blues bands. Coleman eventually settled in Los

Angeles in 1952. His search for a different sound and

approach, a means of escaping traditional chord patterns 

and progressions, led some critics to suggest that he did 

not know how to play his instrument. However, he was

studying harmony and theory zealously from books 

while supporting himself as an elevator operator. His

performances in clubs and jam sessions were often met with

derision if not outright rejection and anger from his fellow

musicians and critics. Coleman soldiered on, honing his

sound with like-minded musicians, including trumpeter Don

Cherry, drummer Billy Higgins, and bassist Charlie Haden.

The year 1959 was an important one for Coleman and

his band mates: he signed a recording contract with Atlantic

Records, recording the first album to really present his new

sound, Tomorrow Is The Question!; his quartet was invited

to participate in what became a historic session at the Lenox

School of Jazz in Massachusetts, being championed by John

Lewis and Gunther Schuller; and the band began an

extended engagement at the Five Spot Cafe in New York.

Meanwhile, Ornette Coleman was

developing an approach to his

music that he was to dub

“harmolodics.”

Coleman’s albums for

Atlantic were quite

controversial at the time.

Perhaps the most

controversial of this series

of albums was Free Jazz,

recorded with a double

quartet as essentially one

continuous collective

improvisation, which influenced

avant-garde recordings in the 1960s and

1970s. After that recording, Coleman 

took time off from playing and recording to study trumpet

and violin. 

Since that time Coleman has expanded his

compositional outlook. His writing includes works for wind 

ensembles, strings, and symphony orchestra (notably his

symphony Skies of America, recorded with the London

Philharmonic). Coleman’s ongoing experiments have taken

him to Northern Africa to work with the Master Musicians

of Joujouka, and in recent years he has performed with 

an electric ensemble he calls Prime Time. He is a recipient

of Guggenheim Fellowships for composition, a MacArthur

grant, and the prestigious Gish Prize in 2004. In 2007, he

received the Pulitzer Prize in Music for his recording Sound

Grammar and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

The Shape of Jazz to Come,

Atlantic, 1959-60

Free Jazz, Atlantic, 1960

At the Golden Circle, Stockholm,

Vol. 1-2, Blue Note, 1965

In All Languages,

Verve/Harmolodic, 1987

Sound Grammar, Sound 

Grammar, 2005
34 NEA Jazz Masters

Agroundbreaking artist both as a

keyboardist (piano, electric

piano, synthesizer) and as a

composer-arranger, Chick Corea has

moved fluidly among jazz, fusion,

and classical music throughout 

a four-decade career, winning

national and international honors

including 12 Grammy Awards.

He ranks with Herbie Hancock

and Keith Jarrett as one of the

leading piano stylists to emerge after

Bill Evans and McCoy Tyner, and he

has composed such notable jazz

standards as “Spain,” “La Fiesta,” and

“Windows.”

Corea began playing piano and drums at an early age

and enjoyed a childhood home filled with the music of Bud

Powell, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and Lester Young, as

well as Mozart and Beethoven. From 1962 to 1966 he

gained experience playing with the bands of Mongo

Santamaria and Willie Bobo, Blue Mitchell, Herbie Mann,

and Stan Getz. He made his recording debut as a leader

with Tones For Joan’s Bones (1966) and in 1968 recorded

the classic trio album Now He Sings, Now He Sobs with

Miroslav Vitous and Roy Haynes. Following a short period

with Sarah Vaughan, Corea then joined Miles Davis’ group,

gradually replacing Herbie Hancock. Davis persuaded

Corea to play electric piano on the influential

albums Filles de Kilimanjaro, In a Silent Way,

Bitches Brew, and Miles Davis at the Fillmore.

In 1971, Corea formed the ensemble Return

to Forever with Stanley Clarke on bass, Flora

Purim on vocals, her husband Airto Moreira

on drums, and Joe Farrell on reeds. Within a

year, the samba-flavored group had become an

innovative, high-energy electric fusion band,

incorporating the firepower of drummer Lenny

White and guitarist Al DiMeola. Spearheaded by

Corea’s distinctive style on Moog synthesizer,

Return to Forever led the mid-1970s fusion movement

with albums such as Where Have I Known You Before,

Romantic Warrior, and the Grammy Award-winning No

Mystery. In 1985, Corea formed a new fusion group, The

Elektric Band, and a few years later he formed The Akoustic

Band. In 1992, he established his own record label, Stretch

Records.

On the occasion of his 60th birthday in 2001, Corea put

together an unprecedented musical gathering at the Blue

Note Jazz Club in New York City. The three-week event

resulted in a double CD, Rendezvous in New York, and a

two-hour film of the same name. He continues to create

projects in multifaceted settings for listeners around 

the world.

KEYBOARDIST COMPOSER ARRANGER

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Chick

Corea

Born June 12, 1941 in Chelsea, MA

Photo by Lee Tanner

Now He Sings, Now He Sobs,

Blue Note, 1968

Return to Forever, ECM, 1972

Live in Montreux, Stretch, 1981

Rendezvous in New York, 

Stretch, 2001

Ultimate Adventure, Stretch, 2005

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Miles Davis is arguably the most influential jazz

musician in the post-World War II period, being at

the forefront of changes in the music for more than

40 years. Born into a middle-class family, Davis started on

the trumpet at age 13. His first professional music job came

when he joined the Eddie Randall band in St. Louis from

1941-43. In the fall of 1944 Davis took a scholarship to

attend the Juilliard School, a convenient passport to New

York. It didn’t take him long to immerse himself in the New

York scene and he began working 52nd Street gigs alongside

Charlie Parker in 1945. Soon, Davis found work with

Coleman Hawkins and the big bands of Billy Eckstine and

Benny Carter.

During the late 1940s, a number of musical

contemporaries began to meet and jam regularly at the 

small apartment of arranger-pianist Gil Evans. Among 

them were saxophonists Gerry Mulligan and Lee

Konitz, and pianist John Lewis. Out of this

group of musicians, Davis formed the nonet

to record his first major musical

statement, Birth of the Cool. In

addition to the standard piano, bass

and drums rhythm section, Davis’

nonet horn section used French horn

and tuba along with trombone, alto

and baritone saxophones, lending

the band a unique harmonic sound.

In 1955, Davis assembled his first

important band with John Coltrane,

Red Garland, Paul Chambers, and

Philly Joe Jones, adding Julian “Cannonball” Adderley in

1958. By this time Davis, influenced by George Russell’s

theories, had begun playing in modes rather than standard

chord changes, which led to his most famous album (and

the all-time biggest selling jazz album), Kind of Blue, in

1959. Davis also continued an important musical

partnership with Gil Evans, recording four releases in five

years: Miles Ahead, Porgy and Bess, Sketches of Spain, and

Quiet Nights.

In 1964, Davis assembled a new band of younger

musicians, which became known as his second great

quintet. This included Herbie Hancock, Tony Williams,

Ron Carter, and Wayne Shorter. By this time, the Miles

Davis Quintet was recording mostly originals, with all the

band members contributing memorable tunes. Davis’ horn

playing also changed, increasing the spacing of notes to 

create more suspense in the music.

In 1968, Davis again changed direction, leading the

way for electric jazz with the release of In a Silent

Way. By the 1969 release of Bitches Brew, the

transformation was complete as he deepened

the electronic elements and rock rhythms of

his music. By the mid-1970s, following the

debilitating effects of a 1972 auto accident,

Davis went into semi-retirement. He returned

to the scene in 1980 and resumed touring in

1981, with even newer fans in his wake.

From then to 1991, Davis remained vital and

popular despite some criticism that he had

softened his electric approach.

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TRUMPETER FLUGELHORNIST COMPOSER BANDLEADER

Birth of the Cool,

Capitol, 1949-50

Kind of Blue,

Columbia, 1959

The Complete Live at the Plugged Nickel,

Columbia, 1965

Bitches Brew, Columbia, 1969

Amandla,

Warner Brothers, 1989

Photo by Lee Tanner

Miles

Davis

Born May 25, 1926 in Alton, IL 

Died September 28, 1991
36 NEA Jazz Masters

Abrilliant improviser and prodigious 

technician who has bridged the swing

and bebop eras, Buddy DeFranco

was born in Camden, New Jersey, and

raised in South Philadelphia, and began

playing the clarinet at age nine. At 14,

he won a national Tommy Dorsey

Swing Contest and appeared on the

Saturday Night Swing Club with Gene

Krupa. Johnny “Scat” Davis soon

tapped him for his big band, inaugurating

DeFranco’s road career in 1939. DeFranco

subsequently played in the bands of Gene

Krupa (1941) and Charlie Barnet (1942-43) and

in 1944 became a featured soloist with Tommy

Dorsey. Meanwhile, the modern jazz revolution was in

progress, led by Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. Excited

by the improvisatory freedom of their music, DeFranco

became the first jazz clarinetist to make his mark in the new

idiom of bebop.

In 1950, DeFranco joined the famous Count Basie Septet.

He toured Europe with Billie Holiday in 1954, led a quartet

for three years with Art Blakey, Kenny Drew, and Eugene

Wright, and then joined with Tommy Gumina in a quartet

that explored polytonal music, further solidifying his

reputation as a “musician’s musician.” His other notable

concert and recording appearances have included dates with

Art Tatum, Nat King Cole, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie,

Stan Getz, Lenny Tristano, Billy Eckstine, Barney

Kessel, Herb Ellis, Ray Brown, Mel Torme,

Louie Bellson, Oscar Peterson, and the John

Pizzarelli Trio, as well as several

Metronome All-Star sessions. He was a

featured artist in numerous Jazz at the

Philharmonic tours of Europe, Australia,

and East Asia. In 1966, he became the

leader of the Glenn Miller Orchestra, a

post he maintained until 1974.

Since the mid-1970s, DeFranco has

combined a busy teaching career with

extensive touring and recording. His

numerous television performances have

included appearances on The Tonight Show with

both Steve Allen and Johnny Carson. He was a featured

soloist on Stars of Jazz; had his own program on public

television, The DeFranco Jazz Forum; and with his longtime musical colleague, vibraphonist Terry Gibbs, shared the

spotlight on a segment of the PBS series Club Date.

DeFranco has played at concerts and festivals throughout

the United States, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, South

Africa, Brazil, and Argentina. To date, he has recorded more

than 160 albums, has won the Down Beat All Stars award 20

times, and the Metronome poll 12 times. The University of

Montana, Missoula, now hosts The Buddy DeFranco Jazz

Festival each April.

Mr. Clarinet, Norgran, 1953

Cooking the Blues, Verve, 1955

Blues Bag, Affinity, 1964

Hark, Pablo/OJC, 1985

Cookin' the Books, Arbors Jazz, 2003

CLARINETIST EDUCATOR

Buddy

DeFranco

Born February 17, 1923 in Camden, NJ

Photo by Lee Tanner

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PIANIST VOCALIST EDUCATOR

Dorothy

Donegan

Born April 6, 1924 in Chicago, IL

Died May 19, 1998

Photo by Ray Avery/CTSIMAGES Blessed with an enormous orchestral capacity at the

keyboard, Dorothy Donegan was fluent in several

styles of jazz as well as with European classical

music. Underrated by some due to her proclivity towards

showy flamboyance and her penchant for entertaining an

audience, she was nonetheless an exceptional pianist with a

rich harmonic sense.

Given her virtuosity, it’s no wonder her earliest influence

and one of her champions was the peerless master of the

piano, Art Tatum. Encouraged by her mother to be a

professional musician, Donegan was playing piano for a

dollar a night at Chicago’s South Side bars when she was

only 14. She subsequently attended the Chicago

Conservatory, Chicago Music College, and the University of

Southern California, where she studied classical piano.

In 1943, Donegan gave a concert at the Orchestra

Hall in Chicago, the first African-American performer

to do so. This created publicity that led to some

work in film (Sensations of 1945) and theater (Star

Time). Her playing career was largely centered

around nightclub engagements, as Donegan was

more comfortable in a live setting than a studio. 

In the 1950s, she developed her flamboyant performance

style, which at times tended to obscure her extraordinary

piano playing, deep sense of swing, and wide-ranging 

repertoire. She would often spice her performances with

uncanny impressions of other pianists and singers, skills

that enhanced her abilities as an entertainer.

She spent the bulk of her career performing in trios 

with bass and drums. Her appearance at the Sheraton

Centre Hotel in 1980 broke all previous attendance records.

In the early 1990s, her show-stopping appearances on 

Hank O’Neal’s Floating Jazz cruises brought her talents to

the attention of another generation of jazz fans. She also 

lectured at several colleges and universities, including

Harvard, Northeastern, and the Manhattan

School of Music, and received an

honorary doctoral degree from

Roosevelt University in 1994.

Donegan performed at the White

House in 1993 and gave her last

major performance at the Fujitsu

Concord Jazz Festival in 1997.

Dorothy Romps: A Piano Retrospective,

Rosetta, 1953-79

Makin’ Whoopee, Black & Blue, 1979

Live in Copenhagen 1980,

Storyville, 1980

Live at the 1990 Floating Jazz Festival,

Chiaroscuro, 1990

Live at the Floating Jazz Festival

1992, Chiaroscuro, 1992
38 NEA Jazz Masters

SAXOPHONIST CLARINETIST FLUTIST COMPOSER

Photo by Michael Wilderman

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Paquito 

D’Rivera 

Born June 4, 1948 in Havana, Cuba

The winner of several Grammy Awards, Paquito

D’Rivera is celebrated both for his artistry in Latin

jazz and his achievements as a classical composer.

Born in Havana, Cuba, he performed at age 10 with the

National Theater Orchestra, studied at the Havana

Conservatory of Music and, at 17, became a featured soloist

with the Cuban National Symphony. 

D’Rivera co-founded the Orquesta Cubana de Música

Moderna and served as the band’s conductor for two years.

In 1973, he was co-director of Irakere, a highly popular

ensemble whose explosive mixture of jazz, rock, classical,

and traditional Cuban music had never before been heard.

The band toured extensively and in 1979 was awarded

the Grammy Award for Best Latin Jazz Ensemble.

In 1981, while on tour in Spain, D’Rivera

sought asylum in the United States embassy.

Since then he has toured the world with

his ensembles—the Paquito D’Rivera

Big Band, the Paquito D’Rivera Quintet,

and the Chamber Jazz Ensemble.

His numerous recordings include

more than 30 solo albums. In 1988, he

was a founding member of the United

Nation Orchestra, a 15-piece ensemble

organized by Dizzy Gillespie to showcase

the fusion of Latin and Caribbean influences with jazz. In

1991, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from

Carnegie Hall for his contributions to Latin music. That

same year, as part of the band Dizzy Gillespie and the

United Nation Orchestra, he along with James Moody, Slide

Hampton, Airto Moreira, Flora Purim, Arturo Sandoval,

Steve Turre, and others were featured on the Grammy

Award-winning recording, Live at the Royal Festival Hall.

He has appeared at, or written commissions for, Jazz 

at Lincoln Center, the Library of Congress, the National

Symphony Orchestra, Brooklyn Philharmonic, London

Philharmonic, Costa Rican National Symphony Orchestra,

Simón Bolivar Symphonic Orchestra, and Montreal’s

Gerald Danovich Saxophone Quartet. He serves as

artistic director of jazz programming at the New

Jersey Chamber Music Society and is artistic

director of the Festival Internacional de Jazz

en el Tambo (Punta del Este, Uruguay). 

He has become the consummate

multinational ambassador, creating and

promoting a cross-culture of music that

moves effortlessly among jazz, Latin, and

classical. D’Rivera received the National

Medal of Arts in 2005. 

Blowin’, Columbia, 1981

Dizzy Gillespie and the United Nation 

Orchestra, Live at the Royal Festival Hall,

Enja, 1989

Portraits of Cuba, Chesky, 1996

Brazilian Dreams, MCG Jazz, 2001

Big Band Time, Pimienta, 2003

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NEA Jazz Masters 39

Known in the jazz world as “Sweets,” for both his

disposition and his playing ability, Edison was a

consummate big band section trumpeter and skilled

soloist whose ability to enhance a piece without

overpowering it was renowned.

A self-taught musician, his earliest gig came

in high school with the Earl Hood band.

From 1933-1935, he played in the JeterPillars Orchestra, a prominent territory

band of the time. After moving to New

York in 1937, he spent six months with

Lucky Millinder’s band, until joining

Count Basie later that year. It was with

Basie that he truly began to distinguish

himself, not only as a strong member of

the trumpet section, but also as a

distinctive soloist. His warm sound, using

repeated notes that he would bend and

ripple, was a welcome contrast to the usual

high-note, piercing solos of most trumpet players.

Edison stayed with the band from 1938 until Basie

disbanded in 1950.

Rarely a bandleader under his own name, he spent the

bulk of his career working with singers and with big bands

on the road and in the recording studio. Edison’s work with

Billie Holiday and the Nelson Riddle Orchestra backing

Frank Sinatra during the 1950s is some of his finest,

accenting the vocals and setting up the mood of the songs.

His echoing trumpet on Sinatra’s Songs for Swingin’ Lovers,

for example, helped set the pace of the songs, playing off

Sinatra’s phrasing of the lyrics. Edison provided

some of the bright moments in Holiday’s output

in the 1950s on albums such as Songs for

Distingue Lovers. His tasteful playing

created a great demand from singers for

his services, and besides Sinatra and

Holiday, Edison played behind Ella

Fitzgerald, Josephine Baker, Sarah

Vaughan, and Nat “King” Cole. Edison

was also a welcome addition to the big

bands he worked with, including Buddy

Rich, Louie Bellson, and Quincy Jones.

Although leaving the Basie band as a

full-time member in 1950, he rejoined the

band on many subsequent occasions for the rest

of his career. He worked as musical director for

such artists as Redd Foxx and Joe Williams, and

collaborated with other soloists, such as Eddie “Lockjaw”

Davis and Oscar Peterson. Valued for his superb sense of

dynamics, he carved out a beautiful trumpet style noted for

its simplicity and good taste. He also found a home in film

and television soundtrack work.

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Harry “Sweets” 

Edison 

Born October 10, 1915 in Columbus, OH

Died July 27, 1999

TRUMPETER

Frank Sinatra, Songs for Swingin’ Lovers,

Capitol, 1955-56

Jawbreakers,

Original Jazz Classics, 1962

Edison’s Lights,

Original Jazz Classics, 1976

Swing Summit, Candid, 1990

Live at the Iridium,

Telarc, 1997

Photo by Lee Tanner
40 NEA Jazz Masters

Also known as “Little Jazz,” Roy Eldridge was a fiery,

energetic trumpeter, the bridge between the towering

trumpet stylists Louis Armstrong and Dizzy

Gillespie. Some of the great rhythmic drive of Eldridge’s

later trumpet exploits could be traced to his beginnings on

the drums, which he began playing at age six.

Eldridge’s older brother Joe, who played alto

saxophone, was his first teacher.

In 1930, Eldridge moved to New York,

heading straight to Harlem where he

gained work with a number of dance

bands before joining the Teddy Hill

band. By 1935, Eldridge and

saxophonist Chu Berry (who would

later join the Count Basie Orchestra)

were Hill’s principal soloists, and after

gigs they would go around town on

cutting contests, challenging musicians to

see who could play the best; with his

lightning speed and awesome range, Eldridge

rarely lost. After Hill’s band, Eldridge became the

lead trumpeter in the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra,

where his upper register abilities were highlighted. It didn’t

take long for Eldridge to exert himself as a bandleader,

forming his own octet in 1936 in Chicago, a band that

included his brother Joe. 

By the end of the 1930s, after freelancing with a wide

array of bands, Eldridge gained notice as one of the swing

bands’ most potent soloists. In 1941, he joined drummer

Gene Krupa’s band. Not only did he provide trumpet

fireworks for Krupa’s outfit, he also sang, recording a

memorable duet with the band’s female singer, Anita O’Day,

on the tune “Let Me Off Uptown” in 1941. Later, after

Krupa’s band disbanded in 1943 and a period of

freelancing, he toured with the Artie Shaw

band in 1944. Then Eldridge led his own

bands, usually small swing groups.

In 1948, Norman Granz recruited

Eldridge for his Jazz at the Philharmonic,

an ideal situation since Eldridge was

one of the ultimate jam session

trumpeters. He toured briefly with

Benny Goodman and took up residence

in Paris in 1950, where he made some of

his most successful recordings. He

returned to New York in 1951 and

continued freelancing with small bands,

including work with Coleman Hawkins, Benny

Carter, Ella Fitzgerald, and Johnny Hodges. He made

notable albums for Verve Records alongside Hawkins and

continued freelancing and leading a house band at Jimmy

Ryan’s club in New York. A stroke in 1980 stopped him

from playing the trumpet, but Eldridge continued to make

music as a singer and pianist until his death in 1989.

TRUMPETER PIANIST VOCALIST

Roy

Eldridge

Born January 30, 1911 in Pittsburgh, PA

Died February 26, 1989 

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After You’ve Gone,

GRP/Decca, 1936-46

Little Jazz: The Best of the Verve Years,

Verve, 1951-60

Roy and Diz, Verve, 1954

Just You Just Me,

Stash, 1959

Montreux ‘77,

Original Jazz Classics, 1977

Photo by Lee Tanner
NEA Jazz Masters 41

As an arranger, Gil Evans has few peers in jazz

history. His style is instantly recognizable, often

using unusual brass colorations for jazz, such as

combinations of tuba and French horn. Arranging

started early for Evans, leading his own band

when he was 16 and taking piano gigs at

local hotels. In junior college, he and Ned

Briggs joined forces to lead a 10-piece

band modeled after the popular Casa

Loma Band. The band was the house

band at the Rendezvous Ballroom in

Balboa Beach, California, where they

remained for two years, up until 1937. 

In 1937, singer Skinny Ennis took over

leadership of the band, retaining Evans as

pianist and arranger as they moved to

Hollywood, where they were regularly featured

on the Bob Hope radio show. In 1941, Claude

Thornhill, who had been associated with the Hope

show, hired Evans as an arranger for his first orchestra,

which lasted for seven years. Evans was influenced by

Thornhill’s unusual voicings, particularly for brass and

woodwinds.

Evans settled permanently in New York in 1947 and his

unusual arrangements for Thornhill began to attract the

attention of some of the nascent beboppers of the time,

including Miles Davis, John Lewis, and Gerry Mulligan. 

It was around this time that Evans’ apartment became a

meeting ground for these and other musicians seeking fresh

approaches. These musical and conversational exchanges

led to the recording of Miles Davis’ Birth of the Cool session

for Capitol Records. That album was marked by its

cooler, less bustling tempos than was characteristic

of bebop, the modern jazz of the day. Several

Evans arrangements stood out, especially

“Moondreams” and “Boplicity.”

Evans spent much of the 1950s as a

freelance arranger, until 1957 when he

began working with Davis on the first of

their four collaborations, Miles Ahead,

featuring Davis on flugelhorn as the

only soloist, an unusual arrangement in

jazz at the time. Over the next few years,

Evans and Davis worked together on

Porgy and Bess, Sketches of Spain, and

Quiet Nights.

In the 1960s, Evans began making his own

recordings, displaying his unusual voicings and 

distinctive settings for some of the best soloists of the time,

such as Steve Lacy, Wayne Shorter, and Eric Dolphy. In the

1970s, Evans began exploring the music of Jimi Hendrix and

taking on some of the accoutrements usually associated with

rock music, including guitars, synthesizers, and electric

bass. In the 1980s, his shifting cast of exceptional soloists

included Billy Harper, George Adams, Howard Johnson,

John Scofield, and David Sanborn, and Evans would have

occasional weekly shows at New York clubs such as the

Village Vanguard and Sweet Basil.

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PIANIST COMPOSER ARRANGER BANDLEADER

Miles Davis, Sketches of Spain,

Columbia, 1959-60

Out of the Cool,

Impulse!, 1960

The Individualism of Gil Evans,

Verve, 1963-64

Svengali, Atlantic, 1973

Gil Evans Orchestra Plays the Music

of Jimi Hendrix, Bluebird,

1974-75

Photo by Ray Avery/CTSIMAGES

Gil 

Evans(

Born May 13, 1912 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Died March 20, 1988 
42 NEA Jazz Masters

One of the more lyrical of the post-bop musicians, Art

Farmer helped to popularize the flugelhorn in jazz.

He switched to a hybrid instrument known as the

flumpet later in his career, an instrument that combined the

power of the trumpet with the warmth of the flugelhorn. 

He and his late twin brother, bassist Addison Farmer,

were raised in Phoenix, Arizona. Farmer took up the piano,

violin, and tuba before settling on the trumpet at 14. He

later moved to Los Angeles and worked with Horace

Henderson, and Floyd Ray, eventually traveling east to New

York with the Johnny Otis Revue in 1947. In New York, he

studied with Maurice Grupp and freelanced in the clubs. 

In 1948 he returned to the West Coast and found work with

Benny Carter, Gerald Wilson, Roy Porter, Jay McShann, and

Wardell Gray through 1952. He toured with Lionel

Hampton in 1952-53, moving once again to New

York after the tour.

Between 1954-56, he intermittently 

co-led a band with Gigi Gryce, then joined

Horace Silver from 1956-58, and Gerry

Mulligan from 1958-59, with whom he

appeared in two films: I Want to Live

and The Subterraneans. Farmer’s

performances with the various groups

earned him a reputation for being able to

play in any style. 

Greater fame came in the flourishing of

the Jazztet, the legendary sextet that he co-led

with saxophonist Benny Golson from 1959 to 1962 and then

again in 1982 for several years. The Jazztet’s tightly arranged

music defined mainstream jazz for several years. Farmer

switched to the flugelhorn in the early 1960s, finding a

rounder, mellower sound with the instrument, and co-led a

band with guitarist Jim Hall until 1964. He worked in

Europe from 1965-66, and when he returned stateside he

again co-led a band, this time with Jimmy Heath. In 1968

he moved to Vienna, joined the Austrian Radio Orchestra,

and worked with such European outfits as the ClarkeBoland Big Band, and Peter Herbolzheimer. 

In the 1980s, Farmer formed a new quintet featuring

Clifford Jordan, which performed regularly in New York 

and toured Japan. At the same time, Farmer continued to

perform in Europe with his European band that

included pianist Fritz Pauer. In 1991, he began

using the flumpet especially designed for him

by David Monette. In 1994, he was the

recipient of the prestigious “Austrian

Gold Medal of Merit” and, also, a Life

Time Achievement Concert was held 

at Jazz at Lincoln Center in his honor.

In 1998 and 1999, he toured with 

his quintet in celebration of the

Academy Award-nominated film A

Great Day in Harlem.

TRUMPETER FLUGELHORNIST FLUMPETER

Art

Farmer

Born August 21, 1928 in Council Bluffs, IA

Died October 4, 1999

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When Farmer Met Gryce,

Original Jazz Classics, 1954-55

Meet the Jazztet, MCA/Chess, 1960

Live at the Half Note,

Atlantic, 1963

Blame It on My Youth,

Contemporary, 1988

Silk Road, Arabesque, 1996

Photo by Lee Tanner
NEA Jazz Masters 43

I

t is quite apropos that Ella Fitzgerald was the first vocalist

recipient of the NEA Jazz Masters Fellowship, as she is

considered by most people to be the quintessential jazz

singer. The purity of her range and intonation, along with

her peerless sense of pitch, made her a signature singer. In

addition, her scat singing, using the technique of a master

instrumental improviser, was her hallmark. These

characteristics make her an enduring purveyor

not only of jazz and the art of improvising,

but also of the classic American songbook.

Fitzgerald was raised in Yonkers, New

York, and her first artistic proclivities

were as a dancer, even though she sang

with her school glee club. At 17, she

entered the famous amateur show

competition at the Apollo Theatre, which

led to her being hired as a singer for

Chick Webb’s orchestra. She soon became

a popular attraction at the Savoy, and

Fitzgerald recorded her first song, “Love and

Kisses,” with Webb in June 1935. Three years of

steady work later, she had her first major hit with her 

rendition of “A-Tisket, A-Tasket.” That lightweight 

ditty remained a popular request throughout Fitzgerald’s

ensuing decades.

When Chick Webb died in 1939, Fitzgerald assumed

leadership of the band for the next two years, beginning her

solo career. In 1946 she began an enduring relationship

with producer Norman Granz, becoming part of his Jazz at

the Philharmonic concert tours. At the time her regular trio

leader was bassist Ray Brown, to whom she was married

from 1947 to 1953. By 1955, Granz had become her

manager and had begun recording Fitzgerald for his Verve

label. This affiliation led to her recording with

numerous greats, including Louis Armstrong,

Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and Oscar

Peterson. Among the landmark recordings

she made with Granz were her historic

songbook treatments of the music of

Ellington, Cole Porter, Jerome Kern,

Irving Berlin, Richard Rodgers & Lorenz

Hart, Harold Arlen, Johnny Mercer, and

Ira and George Gershwin.

Fitzgerald’s superb intonation and

crystal clear voice was also blessed with

a rhythmic flexibility to effortlessly swing.

Though she came up in the swing era,

Fitzgerald also could hang with the best of 

the beboppers. Her ability to scat with the most

skilled instrumentalists served her well on such

notable voice-as-instrument hits as “Lady Be Good,” “Flying

Home,” and “How High The Moon.” Each became enduring

parts of her repertoire. She forged memorable partnerships

with her piano accompanists, most notably Tommy

Flanagan and Paul Smith.

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Ella

Fitzgerald

Born April 25, 1917 in Newport News, VA

Died June 15, 1996 

VOCALIST

75th Birthday Celebration,

GRP, 1938-55

The Complete Ella Fitzgerald 

& Louis Armstrong on Verve, Verve, 1956-57

Sings the Duke Ellington Songbook,

Verve, 1956-57

The Complete Ella in Berlin, Verve, 1960-61

Montreux ’77,

Original Jazz Classics, 1977

Photo by Lee Tanner
44 NEA Jazz Masters

Tommy Flanagan was noted as both a stimulating

accompanist and a superb small ensemble leader,

playing with some of the biggest names in jazz. A

product of a noteworthy arts education system in the Detroit

public schools, he began his musical pursuits on clarinet at

six years old, switching to the piano at age 11. At 15, he

made his professional debut. Thereafter he performed with

fellow Detroiters Milt Jackson, Rudy Rutherford, Billy

Mitchell, Kenny Burrell, and Thad and Elvin Jones as 

part of the fertile Detroit jazz scene in the 1950s. 

Flanagan moved to New York in 1956, securing his first

job as a replacement for Bud Powell at Birdland. Powell,

along with Art Tatum and Nat “King” Cole,

was a major influence on Flanagan’s

playing. Throughout the 1950s, he

worked with many of the biggest

names in jazz, including J.J.

Johnson, Miles Davis, Harry

“Sweets” Edison, Sonny

Rollins, Coleman Hawkins,

Jim Hall, and Tony Bennett,

playing on some of the landmark recordings of that decade.

One of his most significant recordings was with John

Coltrane on the wildly influential recording, Giant Steps.

His playing on the complex title track, using space between

the notes to contrast Coltrane’s rapid-fire attack, was

especially inspired. 

He also met and began performing with Ella Fitzgerald,

an association that lasted until the end of the 1970s, his trio

touring exclusively with her from 1968-78. After leaving

Ella Fitzgerald in 1978, some of his best, most compelling

work was in the trio format, with George Mraz on bass and

Elvin Jones or Lewis Nash on drums. Influenced by the

playing and arrangements of Duke Ellington and Thelonious

Monk, Flanagan’s lyrical playing and harmonic

sophistication placed him in the top echelon of jazz

pianists. He was an especially tasteful interpreter of

Billy Strayhorn, Thad Jones, and Tadd Dameron’s

music. Flanagan was a multiple jazz poll winner,

and in 1992 was recipient of the prestigious

Danish JAZZPAR prize.

PIANIST

Tommy

Flanagan

Born March 16, 1930 in Detroit, MI

Died November 16, 2001

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Thelonica,

Enja, 1982

Beyond the Bluebird,

Timeless, 1990

Giant Steps, Enja, 1992

Let’s Play the Music of Thad Jones,

Enja, 1993

Lady Be Good.... For Ella,

Verve, 1994

Photo by Lee Tanner
NEA Jazz Masters 45

Although best known for his work in the Count Basie

Orchestra (and as the composer of the Count Basie

hit, “Shiny Stockings”), Frank Foster’s saxophone

playing owes more to the bebop of Charlie Parker and

Sonny Stitt than the swing of Basie. 

Foster began playing clarinet at 11 years old before

taking up the alto saxophone and eventually the tenor. By

the time he was a senior in high school, he was leading and

writing the arrangements for a 12-piece band. Foster

studied at Wilberforce University in Ohio before heading to

Detroit in 1949 with trumpeter Snooky Young for six weeks,

becoming captivated by its burgeoning music scene. Drafted

into the Army, Foster left Detroit and headed off to basic

training near San Francisco, where he would jam in the

evenings at Jimbo’s Bop City. 

After being discharged in 1953, two life-changing events

happened to Foster: he sat in with Charlie Parker at

Birdland and he was asked to join Count Basie’s band,

where he stayed until 1964. Foster’s fiery solos contrasted

nicely with Frank Wess’ ballad work, providing Basie with

an interesting contrast. Foster, already an accomplished

composer by this time, learned from Basie how to simplify

arrangements to make the music swing. He soon was

providing compositions and arrangements for the band

(“Blues Backstage,” “Down for the Count,” the entire Easin’

It album just to name a few), with his most popular number

being “Shiny Stockings.” He also was an extremely

successful freelance writer, creating a large body of work for

jazz, including works contributed to albums by singers

Sarah Vaughan and Frank Sinatra, and a commissioned

work for the 1980 Winter Olympics, Lake Placid Suite,

written for jazz orchestra. 

In the 1970s, Foster played with contemporary

musicians such as Elvin Jones, George Coleman, and Joe

Farrell and began expanding his compositions. He led his

own band, the Loud Minority,

until 1986 when he assumed

leadership of the Count

Basie Orchestra from

Thad Jones. While

playing the favorites,

Foster also began

introducing original

material into the

playlist. Foster

resigned as the musical

director of the orchestra

in 1995 and began

recording albums again. In

addition to performing, Foster

has also served as a musical

consultant in the New York City public schools and taught

at Queens College and the State University of New York 

at Buffalo.

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Foster

Born September 23, 1928 in Cincinnati, OH

SAXOPHONIST COMPOSER ARRANGER BANDLEADER EDUCATOR

Count Basie, Verve Jazz Masters,

Verve, 1954-65

No Count, Savoy, 1956

Fearless,

Original Jazz Classics, 1965

Shiny Stockings, Denon, 1977-78

Leo Rising,

Arabesque, 1996

Photo by Ray Avery/CTSIMAGES
46 NEA Jazz Masters

Aremarkably fluent trombonist, whose

impeccable sense of time and

ambitious solos made him a

mainstay of the hard-bop scene, Curtis

Fuller was born in Detroit, where he spent

10 years of his childhood in an

orphanage. His interest in jazz was

piqued when a nun at the orphanage took

him to see Illinois Jacquet’s band, which

featured J.J. Johnson on trombone. He

soon took up the instrument. A stint in an

Army band (where he played with

Cannonball Adderley) helped him mature into

a professional with virtuoso skills. After working

in Detroit with Kenny Burrell and Yusef Lateef, he

moved to New York, where he made his recording debut as

a leader on Transition in 1955. He also became a strong

presence on the Blue Note label, working with Clifford

Jordan, John Coltrane (on the classic Blue Train), and his

own The Opener (with Hank Mobley). Always in demand—

he also played on late-1950s sessions for Prestige, United

Artists, and Savoy—Fuller is the only trombonist to have

recorded with Coltrane, Bud Powell, and Jimmy Smith. 

In 1959, he became a founding member of The Jazztet

with Benny Golson and Art Farmer, then joined Art

Blakey’s Jazz Messengers in 1961. For the next four

years, working in a front line with Wayne Shorter and

Freddie Hubbard, Fuller helped make this

edition of the Messengers one of the defining

bands of the hard-bop era. In 1968, Fuller

toured Europe with Dizzy Gillespie’s

big band. During the 1970s, he

experimented for a time playing hard

bop arrangements in a band featuring

electronic instruments, heading a group

with guitarist Bill Washer and bassist

Stanley Clarke. He concluded that phase

with the 1973 album Crankin’. 

Fuller toured with the Count Basie

Band from 1975 to 1977; co-led the quintet

Giant Bones with Kai Winding in 1979 and

1980; and played with Art Blakey, Cedar Walton,

and Benny Golson in the late 1970s and early ’80s. During

the 1980s, Fuller toured Europe regularly with the Timeless

All-Stars and performed and recorded with a reconvened

Jazztet. 

In more recent years, Fuller has become known 

nationally and internationally as a master clinician in jazz

studies programs, having worked with students and young

professionals at institutions including Skidmore, Harvard,

Stanford, the University of Pittsburgh, Duke, the New

England Conservatory of Music, and the John F. Kennedy

Center for the Performing Arts. He holds an honorary 

doctorate from Berklee College of Music.

Blues-ette, Savoy, 1956

Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, Ugetsu,

Riverside/OJC, 1963

Crankin’, MRL, 1973

The Jazztet, Real Time, Contemporary, 1986

Keep It Simple, Savant, 2003

TROMBONIST EDUCATOR

Curtis 

Fuller

Born December 15, 1934 in Detroit, MI

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Photo by Lee Tanner
NEA Jazz Masters 47

Dizzy Gillespie’s effect on jazz cannot be overstated:

his trumpet playing influenced every player who

came after him, his compositions have become part

of the jazz canon, and his bands have included some of 

the most significant names in the business. He was also,

along with Charlie Parker, one of the major leaders of the

bebop movement. 

Gillespie’s father was an amateur bandleader who,

although dead by the time Gillespie was ten, had given his

son some of his earliest grounding in music. Gillespie began

playing trumpet at 14 after briefly trying the trombone, and

his first formal musical training came at the Laurinburg

Institute in North Carolina.

Gillespie’s earliest professional jobs were with the

Frankie Fairfax band, where he reportedly picked up the

nickname Dizzy related to his outlandish antics. His earliest

influence was Roy Eldridge, who he later

replaced in Teddy Hill’s band.

From 1939-41, Gillespie was one

of the principal soloists in Cab

Calloway’s band, until he

was dismissed for a

notorious bandstand

prank. It was while with

Calloway that he met the

Cuban trumpeter Mario

Bauza, from whom he

gained a great interest in

Afro-Cuban rhythms. At this

time he also befriended Charlie

Parker, with whom he would begin to develop some of the

ideas behind bebop while sitting in at Minton’s Playhouse 

in Harlem.

From 1941-43, Gillespie freelanced with a number of big

bands, including that of Earl “Fatha” Hines. Hines’ band

contained several musicians Gillespie would interact with in the

development of bebop, such as singer Billy Eckstine, who formed

his own band featuring Gillespie on trumpet in 1944.

1945 was a crucial year for both bebop and Gillespie. He

recorded with Parker many of his small ensemble hits, such

as “Salt Peanuts,” and formed his own bebop big band.

Despite economic woes, he was eventually able to keep this

band together for four years. His trumpet playing was at a

peak, with rapid-fire attacks of notes and an amazing

harmonic range. A number of future greats performed with

Gillespie’s big band, including saxophonists Gene Ammons,

Yusef Lateef, Paul Gonsalves, Jimmy Heath, James Moody,

and John Coltrane. The rhythm section of John Lewis, Milt

Jackson, Kenny Clarke, and Ray Brown became the original 

Modern Jazz Quartet.

He took various bands on State Department tours 

around the world starting in 1956, the first time the U.S.

government provided economic aid and recognition to jazz.

Those excursions not only kept Gillespie working, they also

stimulated his musical interests as he began incorporating

different ethnic elements into his music, such as the AfroCuban rhythms he weaved into his big band arrangements.

Never losing his thirst for collaboration, Gillespie worked

with a variety of jazz stars as well as leading his own small

groups on into the 1980s. 

TRUMPETER COMPOSER BANDLEADER

John Birks “Dizzy” 

Gillespie

Born October 21, 1917 in Cheraw, SC 

Died January 6, 1993 

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The Complete RCA Victor Recordings

1937-1949, Bluebird, 1937-49

Dizzy’s Diamonds, Verve, 1954-64

Birk’s Works: Verve Big Band Sessions,

Verve, 1956-57

Gillespiana/Carnegie Hall Concert,

Verve, 1960-61

Max + Dizzy, Paris 1989,

A&M, 1989

Photo by Michael Wilderman
48 NEA Jazz Masters

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Benny Golson is as renowned for his distinctive 

compositions and arrangements as for his innovative

tenor saxophone playing. Major cornerstones of his

career have included not only notable additions to the jazz

canon, but also included his work in film and television 

studios, and in education.

Golson began on the piano at age nine, moving to the

saxophone at age 14. He earned a degree from Howard

University, then joined Bull Moose Jackson’s band

in 1951. Arranging and composing became a

serious pursuit for him at the early

encouragement of composer-arranger

Tadd Dameron, whom he met 

in Jackson’s band. Other early band

affiliations included Lionel

Hampton, Johnny Hodges, and Earl

Bostic. He toured with the Dizzy

Gillespie big band from 1956-58,

then joined Art Blakey’s Jazz

Messengers. His robust playing

added extra kick to the band, and his

solo on Bobby Timmons’ song

“Moanin’” is a classic. With the

Messengers, Golson’s writing skills blossomed

as he contributed pieces for the band that have

forever entered the jazz canon, including “Along Came Betty,”

“Blues March,” “I Remember Clifford” (written upon the

death of his friend Clifford Brown), “Killer Joe” (which later

became a hit for Quincy Jones), and “Are You Real?”

After leaving the Messengers, he and Art Farmer formed

the hard bop quintet known as the Jazztet. The original

incarnation of the Jazztet lasted from 1959-62. In 1963, he

moved to California and began to concentrate on composing

and arranging. He scored music for European and American

television and films, and essentially discontinued touring

until 1982, when he and Farmer revived the Jazztet briefly.

Thereafter he played more frequently, working in all-star

aggregations, and completing commissioned assignments,

such as an original orchestral work for the 100th

anniversary of the Juilliard School of Music in 2005.

His soundtrack credits include M*A*S*H, Mission

Impossible, Mod Squad, and Ironside.

In 1987, Golson participated in a U.S. State

Department tour of Southeast Asia, New

Zealand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Burma, and

Singapore. As a tribute to Art Blakey, Golson

organized the “Jazz Messengers—A Legacy to

Art Blakey” tour of the U.S., Europe, and 

Japan from 1998 to 2000. 

As an educator he has lectured, given clinics,

and performed extended residencies at New York

University, Stanford University, University of

Pittsburgh, Cuyahoga Community College, Rutgers

University, William Paterson College, and Berklee College 

of Music. Among his awards is a 1994 Guggenheim

Fellowship. Currently, he is working on two books: a major

college textbook and his autobiography.

SAXOPHONIST COMPOSER ARRANGER EDUCATOR

Benny Golson’s New York Scene,

Original Jazz Classics, 1957

Up Jumped Benny, Arkadia Jazz, 1986

Tenor Legacy, Arkadia Jazz, 1996

One Day, Forever, Arkadia, 1996-2000

Terminal 1, Concord Jazz, 2004

Photo by Lee Tanner

Benny

Golson

Born January 25, 1929 in Philadelphia, PA
NEA Jazz Masters 49

Dexter Gordon was one of the leading

bebop tenor saxophonists, with his

near-vibratoless sound and

prodigious ability to improvise. He

was a strong influence on the tenor

saxophonists who came after bebop,

especially Sonny Rollins and John

Coltrane.

Gordon took up the clarinet at age

13, switching to the saxophone at 15.

His first formal teacher was Lloyd

Reese, who had other notable students,

including Charles Mingus and Buddy

Collette, with whom Gordon interacted in

Reese’s student band. Gordon left school in 1940

and joined a local band before taking a position with the

Lionel Hampton band from 1940-43, cutting his first

recordings with the band in 1942. Back home in Los

Angeles, Gordon played with Lee Young (brother of Lester)

and Jesse Price, and made a subsequent record with Nat

“King” Cole at the piano.

Gordon began to garner attention when he moved to

New York in 1944 to join the Billy Eckstine Orchestra. He

recorded with Eckstine and made his own recordings for the

Savoy label. Through the remainder of the 1940s, he played

and recorded with the major figures in bebop, such as

Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and Tadd Dameron.

Between 1947 and 1952, he locked horns with fellow tenor

saxophonist Wardell Gray for a series of classic twotenor duels, including their classic recording of

“The Chase.” Continuing to freelance

throughout the 1950s, he began touring

Europe as a soloist in the early 1960s to

acclaim, eventually settling in Copenhagen 

in 1962.

Gordon continued to play in Europe as

a soloist, making a series of recordings for

the Danish label Steeplechase. He added

the soprano sax to his arsenal in the early

1970s. During a trip back to the States in

1976, he took a gig at the Village Vanguard and

the response to his playing was overwhelming. 

He found willing partners in several musicians of a

younger generation, including trumpeter Woody Shaw. The

response prompted him to return permanently to the U.S.,

where he made a series of well-received records for the

Columbia label. Included was a notable return to his twotenor battle days, this time with fellow expatriate Johnny

Griffin.

The culmination of the decade-long renewal of interest

in Gordon was his starring role in the film ‘Round Midnight,

which garnered an Oscar nomination. Thereafter, until

felled by ill health, he continued to tour with his own

potent quartets and returned to his former record label, Blue

Note, for a brief time following his film success.

SAXOPHONIST

Dexter

Gordon

Born February 27, 1923 in Los Angeles, CA

Died April 25, 1990

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Dexter Gordon on Dial:

The Complete Sessions, Spotlite, 1947

Doin’ Alright, Blue Note, 1961

Go!, Blue Note, 1962

Something Different, Steeplechase, 1975

Great Encounters, Columbia, 1978

Photo by Lee Tanner
50 NEA Jazz Masters

J

azz guitarist Jim Hall’s technique has been called subtle,

his sound mellow, and his compositions understated;

yet his recording and playing history is anything but 

modest. He has recorded with artists ranging from

Bill Evans to Itzhak Perlman and performed

alongside most of the jazz greats of the 20th

century. The first of the modern jazz

guitarists to receive an NEA Jazz Masters

award, his prowess on the instrument

puts him in the company of Charlie

Christian, Wes Montgomery, and Django

Reinhardt. 

After graduating from the Cleveland

Institute of Music, Hall became an

original member of the Chico Hamilton

Quintet in 1955 and of the Jimmy Giuffre 3

the following year—both small but

musically vital ensembles of the era. Hall

continued to hone his craft on Ella Fitzgerald’s

South American tour in 1960, a fruitful time in which

his exposure to bossa nova greatly influenced his

subsequent work. From there, he joined Sonny Rollins’

quartet from 1961-62, and appears on The Bridge, Rollins’

first recording in three years after a self-imposed retirement.

The interplay between Rollins’ fiery solos and Hall’s classic

guitar runs make this one of jazz’s most essential recordings. 

Hall then co-led a quartet with Art Farmer, recorded a

series of duets with noted saxophonist Paul Desmond, and

performed as a session musician on numerous recordings.

His extensive ensemble experience has produced a control

of rhythm and harmony so that Hall’s playing, while

grounded in scholarly technique and science,

sounds both rich and free. 

He eventually formed his own trio in

1965, which still performs and records

today. Well-studied in classical

composition, Hall has produced many

original pieces for various jazz orchestral

ensembles. His composition for jazz

quartet, “Quartet Plus Four,” earned 

him the JAZZPAR Prize in Denmark. His

influence on jazz guitarists, including

such disparate ones as Bill Frisell and 

Pat Metheny, is immense. Hall continues to

explore new avenues of music, even appearing

on saxophonist Greg Osby’s 2000 recording,

Invisible Hand, with legendary pianist Andrew Hill. He

also has worked in smaller settings as well, often in duets

with jazz greats such as pianists Bill Evans and Red

Mitchell, and bassists Ron Carter and Charlie Haden. In

addition to numerous Grammy nominations, Hall has been

awarded the New York Jazz Critics Circle Award for Best

Jazz Composer/Arranger. 

Jimmy Giuffre 3, Trav’lin’ Light,

Atlantic, 1958

Sonny Rollins, The Bridge, RCA, 1962

Ron Carter and Jim Hall, 

Live at Village West, Concord, 1982 

Something Special, Music Masters, 1993

Grand Slam: Live at the Regattabar,

Cambridge, Massachusetts,

Telarc, 2000

GUITARIST COMPOSER 

Jim

Hall

Born December 4, 1930 in Buffalo, NY

Photo by Lee Tanner

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NEA Jazz Masters 51

Chico Hamilton is almost as well known for his band

leadership and ability to discover talented newcomers

as for his subtle, creative drumming. As a teenager

growing up in Los Angeles, Hamilton started playing

regularly for the first time with a band that included

classmates Charles Mingus, Dexter Gordon, and

Illinois Jacquet. He made his recording debut

with Slim Gaillard, and studied drumming

with jazz great Jo Jones during his military

service from 1942-46. 

After working briefly with Jimmy

Mundy, Count Basie, and Lester Young,

Hamilton joined Lena Horne’s band in

1948, staying with her on and off for

six years, including a tour of Europe.

During this time, he also became an

original member of the legendary Gerry

Mulligan Quartet, which included

Mulligan, Chet Baker, and Bob Whitlock.

Successfully recording with them for three years

(1952-55) on the Pacific Jazz label, Hamilton got his

first shot as bandleader. 

In 1955, he formed the Chico Hamilton Quintet, utilizing

an unusual combination of instruments: cello, flute, guitar,

bass, and drums. One of the important West Coast bands,

the Hamilton group made their film debut in the movie The

Sweet Smell of Success, as well as highlighting Jazz on a

Summer’s Day, the film about the 1958 Newport Jazz

Festival. His second great band started in 1962 with Albert

Stinson on bass, Gabor Szabo on guitar, Charles Lloyd on

tenor sax and flute, and George Bohanon on trombone,

bringing a fresh, new sound to jazz once again. Over the

years, Hamilton’s bands have had various personnel, but the

quality of the musicianship has remained high. Some of the

players who Hamilton nurtured in his bands include Jim

Hall, Eric Dolphy, Ron Carter, Arthur Blythe, Larry

Coryell, and John Abercrombie. 

During the 1960s, Hamilton formed a

company to score feature films and

commercials for television and radio. In

1987, Hamilton was on the originating

faculty at Parsons New School of Jazz in

New York. During the same year, he

formed a new quartet called Euphoria,

and began touring in Europe. The quartet

met with great popularity, and in 1992,

their album Arroyo placed in the Jazz

Album of the Year category in the Down 

Beat Reader’s Poll. In 1995, a documentary of

Hamilton’s extraordinary life and career, Dancing

to a Different Drummer, directed by Julian Benedikt, was

presented twice on the French-German Arts Network,

ARTE. In June 1999, Hamilton received a Beacons of Jazz

award from the Mannes College of Music at the New School

University in New York City, where he is presently teaching.

Never one to rest on his laurels, Hamilton released four 

new albums in 2006 in celebration of his 85th birthday. In

2007, he was a member of the NEA’s National Council 

on the Arts.

PERCUSSIONIST BANDLEADER COMPOSER EDUCATOR

Foreststorn “Chico”

Hamilton

Born September 21, 1921 in Los Angeles, CA

Photo by Lee Tanner

Complete Pacific Jazz Recordings of the

Chico Hamilton Quintet, Mosaic, 1955-59

Man From Two Worlds, Impulse!, 1962

Dancing to a Different Drummer,

Soul Note, 1993

Foreststorn, Koch, 2000-01

Believe, Joyous Shout!, 2000-05

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Featuring outstanding sideman and soloists, as well as

his own swinging vibe playing, Lionel Hampton’s

bands during the 1940s and 1950s were among the

most popular and most exciting in jazz. Hampton was

raised in the Midwest, primarily in Kenosha, Wisconsin,

where he received his first musical training. His career

began behind the drums, taking his first music job in a

newsboys band sponsored by the Chicago Defender.

In 1928, Hampton moved west to California, landing

first in the Paul Howard Orchestra, later working with

bandleaders Eddie Barefield and Les Hite. In 1929 he took

up the vibraphone with the Hite band, which at the time

was led by Louis Armstrong, becoming a pioneering figure

in the use of vibes in a jazz band.

Hampton made his recorded debut on an Armstrong

version of “Memories of You” in 1930. By 1934, Hampton

had become leader of his own band, performing at

Sebastian’s Cotton Club in Los Angeles. Benny Goodman

saw Hampton perform at one of his gigs and recruited him

to augment his trio, with Teddy Wilson and Gene Krupa, for

a 1936 recording date. Hampton remained in Goodman’s

band through 1940, occasionally replacing Krupa on the

drums. Hampton became well known with the Goodman

band, and started his own big band, achieving his biggest

recorded hit with “Flying Home” in May 1942, driven by

Illinois Jacquet’s unforgettable tenor saxophone solo.

Hampton’s popular big band boasted such potent

musicians as Dexter Gordon, Clifford Brown, Fats Navarro,

Johnny Griffin, Charles Mingus, 

Art Farmer, Clark Terry, Cat

Anderson, Wes Montgomery,

and singers Dinah

Washington, Joe Williams,

Betty Carter, and Aretha

Franklin. He toured the

globe and continued to

nurture young talent,

often providing some 

of the earliest band

experiences to musicians

who went on to become

leaders in their own right. 

His band became the longest

established orchestra in jazz history.

Lionel Hampton received numerous awards of merit,

including several honorary doctoral degrees, the National

Medal of Arts, and the Kennedy Center Honors. His diligent

work with the jazz festival at the University of Idaho in

Moscow led to it being renamed the Lionel Hampton Jazz

Festival in 1985. The university’s music department shortly

followed suit and became the Lionel Hampton School of

Music. Winner of numerous polls, Lionel Hampton had

been an honored soloist into the 1990s, performing in

numerous festivals as part of all-star assemblages. In 

2001, he donated his vibraphone to the Smithsonian

Institution.

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VIBIST DRUMMER PIANIST VOCALIST BANDLEADER

The Complete Lionel Hampton,

Bluebird, 1937-39

Hamp: The Legendary Decca Recordings,

Decca, 1942-63

Hamp and Getz, Verve, 1956

Reunion at Newport, 

Bluebird, 1967

Made in Japan, Timeless, 1982

Photo by Jann Perrson/CTSIMAGES

Lionel

Hampton

Born April 20, 1908 in Louisville, KY

Died September 30, 2002
NEA Jazz Masters 53

Slide Hampton’s distinguished career spans decades in

the evolution of jazz. At the age of 12 he was already

touring the Midwest with the Indianapolis-based

Hampton Band, led by his father and comprising other

members of his musical family. By 1952, at the age of 20,

he was performing at Carnegie Hall with the Lionel

Hampton Band. He then joined Maynard Ferguson’s band,

playing trombone and providing exciting charts on such

popular tunes as “The Fugue,” “Three Little Foxes,” and

“Slide’s Derangement.”

As his reputation grew, he soon began working with

bands led by Art Blakey, Dizzy Gillespie, Barry Harris,

Thad Jones, Mel Lewis, and Max Roach, again contributing

both original compositions and arrangements. In 1962, he

formed the Slide Hampton Octet, which included stellar

horn players Booker Little, Freddie Hubbard, and George

Coleman. The band toured the U.S. and Europe and

recorded on several labels.

From 1964 to 1967, he served as music director for

various orchestras and artists. Then, following a 1968 tour

with Woody Herman, he elected to stay in Europe,

performing with other expatriates such as Benny Bailey,

Kenny Clarke, Kenny Drew, Art Farmer, and Dexter

Gordon. Upon returning to the U.S. in 1977, he began a

series of master classes at Harvard, the University of

Massachusetts at Amherst, De Paul University in Chicago,

and Indiana University. During this period he formed the

illustrious World of Trombones: an ensemble of nine

trombones and a rhythm section.

In 1989, with Paquito D’Rivera, he was musical director

of Dizzy’s Diamond Jubilee, a year-long series of celebrations

honoring Dizzy Gillespie’s 75th birthday. Slide Hampton’s

countless collaborations with the most prominent musicians

of jazz were acknowledged by the 1998 Grammy Award for

Best Jazz Arrangement with a Vocalist. Most

recently, he has served as musical

advisor to the Carnegie Hall Jazz

Band. A charismatic figure,

master arranger, and

formidable trombonist, Slide

Hampton holds a place of

distinction in the jazz

tradition.

Slide Hampton and His Horn of Plenty,

Strand, 1959

World of Trombones, 1201 Music, 1979

Roots, Criss Cross, 1985

Dedicated to Diz, Telarc, 1993

Spirit of the Horn, MCG Jazz, 2003

TROMBONIST ARRANGER COMPOSER EDUCATOR

Slide

Hampton

Born April 21, 1932 in Jeannette, PA

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Herbie Hancock’s talent as a pianist was evident

when, at age 11, he performed Mozart’s D Major

Piano Concerto with the Chicago Symphony

Orchestra. He began playing jazz in high school, initially

influenced by Oscar Peterson and Bill Evans. Also at this

time, a passion for electronic science also began to develop,

so Hancock studied both electrical engineering and music

composition at Grinnell College in Iowa. His love of

electronics led Hancock to be a pioneer in the use of electric

piano, clavinet, and synthesizer in jazz. 

In 1961, trumpeter Donald Byrd asked the young pianist

to join his group in New York, leading to Blue Note offering

him a recording contract. His first album as leader, Takin’

Off, which included the hit single, “Watermelon Man,”

demonstrated a gift for composition and improvisation.

His talent impressed Miles Davis enough to ask

Hancock to join his band in 1963. In the five

years he worked with Davis, who became a

mentor as well as an employer, Hancock

established his standing as one of the

greatest pianists of all time. Along with

Ron Carter (bass) and Tony Williams

(drums), Hancock altered the role of 

the rhythm section in jazz to include

expanded solos and spontaneous

changes in mood and tempo. He also

composed a number of pieces for the

band as well as for his outstanding solo recordings with Blue

Note. It was toward the end of his tenure with Davis that he

began to use electric piano. 

After leaving the band in 1968, Hancock continued to

explore the use of electronic instruments in his music. 

In 1973, he formed a quartet whose first recording, Head

Hunters, launched him into jazz stardom and became a 

best-selling jazz album. In the late 1970s, Hancock revived

the old Miles Davis band (Freddie Hubbard stood in for

Davis) under the name V.S.O.P. and they toured extensively. 

Throughout his career, he has demonstrated stunning

artistic versatility, and in 1983, “Rockit,” a single that

resulted from a collaborative effort with the rock band

Material, became a hit on MTV. Hancock then switched

gears completely, partnering with Gambian kora virtuoso

Foday Musa Suso that culminated in two albums,

Village Life and Jazz Africa. He also has written

scores for several films, including Blow-Up in

1966, Death Wish in 1974, and ‘Round

Midnight, for which he won an Academy

Award in 1987. Hancock has won ten

Grammy Awards in the past two decades,

and continues to work as a producer and

in both the electric and acoustic spheres

of jazz.

The Complete Blue Note Sixties

Sessions, Blue Note, 1962-69

Head Hunters, Columbia, 1973

V.S.O.P., Columbia, 1977

Village Life, Columbia, 1985

Directions in Music, Verve, 2001

Photo by Lee Tanner

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Herbie

Hancock

Born April 12, 1940 in Chicago, IL

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Barry Harris is part of an exceptional crew of Detroitbred jazz musicians, including Tommy Flanagan andDonald Byrd, who rose through the extraordinary arts

education program in the public school system during the

1930s and 1940s. Harris’ earliest musical mentor was

a church piano-playing mother who exposed

him to piano lessons at age four. He became

seriously immersed in jazz in the mid1940s and fell under the spell of

Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker, and

Bud Powell. As a professional, he

would become a key translator of

Monk’s music.

Detroit was blessed with a highenergy jazz scene during the 1940s, and

Harris was house pianist at one of the

hottest spots, the Blue Bird Lounge. At

the Blue Bird and later at the Rouge, he

backed such traveling soloists as Miles Davis,

Wardell Gray, Max Roach, Sonny Stitt, Lee

Konitz, and Lester Young. Displaying an early interest

in passing the torch through education, Harris began

teaching his bebop theories as early as 1956, tutoring young

talent such as Joe Henderson. It is a tradition he has carried

on throughout his life.

At the urging of Julian “Cannonball” Adderley, Harris

left Detroit in 1960 and moved to New York. In addition to

Adderley, Harris found work in the 1960s and 1970s with

fellow Detroiter Yusef Lateef, Charles McPherson, and

Coleman Hawkins. In addition to sideman work, Harris 

led various trios and duos at piano bars and restaurants

around New York. He also began to get work as an

arranger and composer, showing a particular

adeptness for his treatment of strings. 

A consummate freelancer, he found work 

in a variety of diverse settings and

continues to play, inaugurating the

Lincoln Center’s Penthouse piano series

in 1997.

By the early 1980s, Harris’ acumen 

as a teacher and mentor to developing

pianists had become legendary. He was

able to expand these interests when he

opened the Jazz Cultural Center in 1982 on

Eighth Avenue in Manhattan. The Center

served as workshop, educational facility, and

performance space for Harris and his affiliated artists, but

unfortunately only lasted until 1987. Harris soldiered on,

though, continuing to teach and mentor young musicians.

He also continues to present and produce annual

multimedia concert spectaculars at places like Symphony

Space and the Manhattan Center in New York.

PIANIST COMPOSER ARRANGER EDUCATOR

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Chasin’ The Bird,

Original Jazz Classics, 1962

Barry Harris Plays Tadd Dameron, 

Classics, 1975

For The Moment, 

Uptown, 1984

Live at Maybeck Recital Hall, 

Vol. 1 & 2, Concord, 1990

Live in New York,

Reservoir, 2002

Photo by Tom Pich

Barry

Harris

Born December 15, 1929 in Detroit, MI
56 NEA Jazz Masters

Seemingly ageless, Roy Haynes has played the drums

from the bebop days of the 1940s to the present day

with the same restless energy. Haynes has remained

fresh in his outlook and in his thirst for collaborating with

younger artists and those who play in challenging

styles, as is shown in his work with such

disparate artists as Roland Kirk, Danilo Pérez,

and Pat Metheny. He also has been a

favorite sideman for any number of artists

because of his crisply distinctive

drumming style. Thelonious Monk once

described Haynes’ drumming as “an

eight ball right in the side pocket.”

Haynes became interested in music

through his father, a church organist. In

his earliest professional playing years in

the mid-1940s, he worked in Boston with

pianist Sabby Lewis, Frankie Newton, and

Pete Brown. In 1945, he joined the Luis

Russell band, remaining until 1947, whereupon

he joined Lester Young’s band. In the late 1940s to

mid-1950s, he worked with such greats as Miles Davis,

Charlie Parker, Bud Powell, and Kai Winding. He later

played in Monk’s band at the Five Spot Cafe before forming

his own band in 1958.

Some of his most noted work in the early 1960s 

came when he subbed for Elvin Jones in the John Coltrane

Quartet, both on gigs and on records. His drumming style

was a marked change for Coltrane from Elvin Jones’

approach—lighter, less aggressive than Jones—and it gave

the quartet a different sound. Among his other affiliations

during the late 1950s to early 1960s were with George

Shearing, Kenny Burrell, Lennie Tristano, and Stan Getz. 

In addition, his style of drumming was an ideal

accompaniment to singers, accenting the vocals without

overpowering them, and he worked with Sarah

Vaughan, and Lambert, Hendricks & Ross. 

He later joined vibist Gary Burton, who

had been a member of Getz’s band. After

Burton’s band, which was one of the

precursors of the jazz-rock movement,

Haynes formed the Hip Ensemble,

featuring such musicians as George

Adams, and Hannibal Marvin Peterson.

The band had a decidedly contemporary

flavor, often employing various guitarists.

He also has enjoyed an occasional playing

relationship with Chick Corea, dating back to

their Stan Getz days. He joined Corea’s Trio

Music band in 1981. Haynes received the

prestigious Danish award, the JAZZPAR Prize, in 1994.

While periodically leading his own bands, he has also

worked with artists such as Billy Taylor, Hank Jones, and

Ted Curson, and as an innovative drummer in a variety of

settings. His bands have included some of the more

exceptional young musicians on the scene, ranging from his

Hip Ensemble to his various quartets. He continues to

influence the next generation of drummers with his 

distinctive sound.

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Roy

Haynes

Born March 13, 1925 in Roxbury, MA

DRUMMER

We Three,

Original Jazz Classics, 1958

Out of the Afternoon, 

Impulse!, 1962

Te Vou!, Dreyfus, 1995

The Roy Haynes Trio, 

Verve, 2000

Fountain of Youth, 

Dreyfus Jazz, 2002

Photo by Vance Jacobs
NEA Jazz Masters 57

The second of the illustrious Heath Brothers to receive

an NEA Jazz Master Fellowship (bassist Percy

received the award in 2002), Jimmy was the first

Heath to choose music as a career path. Starting on alto

saxophone (and acquiring the nickname “Little Bird” due to

the influence Charlie “Yardbird” Parker had on his style),

one of his first professional jobs came in 1945-46 in the

Midwest territory band led by Nat Towles, out of Omaha,

Nebraska. Returning to Philadelphia, he briefly led his own

big band with a saxophone section that included John

Coltrane and Benny Golson—also products of the city’s jazz

scene. Gigs followed with Howard McGhee in 1948 and

with Dizzy Gillespie’s big band from 1949-50. 

In the early 1950s, Heath switched to tenor sax and

briefly occupied Coltrane’s place in

Miles Davis’ band in 1959. In the

1960s, he began his own

recordings as a leader, and

frequently teamed up

with Milt Jackson and

Art Farmer. By that

time he had honed his

talent as a composer

and arranger, creating

such widely performed

compositions as “Gingerbread Boy” and “C.T.A.” By

combining his versatile style of performing and his

outstanding writing and arranging abilities, he has set a high

standard of accomplishment in the jazz field. He has made

more than 100 recordings and composed more than 100

original works. 

As an educator, Heath has taught at Jazzmobile,

Housatonic Community College, City College of New York,

and Queens College, where he retired from full-time

teaching in 1998. He holds honorary degrees from

Sojourner-Douglass College and the Juilliard School, and has

a chair endowed in his name at Queens College. Currently, 

he is serving on the board of the Thelonious Monk 

Institute of Jazz.

Since the mid-1970s, Jimmy had been teaming up with

brothers Percy and Albert “Tootie” as the Heath Brothers, a

band which also at times included contributions from

Jimmy’s son, the noted percussionist, composer, and

rhythm-and-blues producer, Mtume. In addition, he has 

performed with other jazz greats, such as Slide Hampton

and Wynton Marsalis, and indulged in his continuing

interest in the dynamics of arranging for big band. 

He remains active as an educator, saxophonist,

and composer. 

Really Big!, Riverside/OJC, 1960

On the Trail, Riverside/OJC, 1964

Little Man, Big Band, Verve, 1992

Heath Brothers, Jazz Family, Concord, 1998

Turn Up the Heath, Planet 

Arts, 2006

SAXOPHONIST FLUTIST COMPOSER ARRANGER EDUCATOR

Jimmy

Heath

Born October 25, 1926 in Philadelphia, PA

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58 NEA Jazz Masters

Percy Heath was the backbone of the popular jazz

group Modern Jazz Quartet, and a superb bassist so

sought after that he appeared on more than 200 jazz

albums. Heath was a member of one of the great families of

jazz (along with the Joneses and Marsalises), with brothers

Jimmy (on saxophone) and Albert “Tootie” (on drums) also

being stellar jazz musicians. 

Heath started on the violin in his school orchestra but

began to seriously study music at the Granoff School of

Music in Philadelphia after his service in the Air Force. In

1947, he joined his brother Jimmy in Howard McGhee’s

band, ending up in New York where he performed regularly

with jazz greats such as Miles Davis, J.J. Johnson, Sonny

Rollins, Fats Navarro, and Charlie Parker. Heath joined

Dizzy Gillespie’s sextet from 1950-52, where he met the

other members of the soon-to-be Modern Jazz Quartet (MJQ):

John Lewis, Milt Jackson, and Kenny Clarke. Heath stayed

with MJQ from its beginning in 1952 for more than 40 years,

off and on. Lewis’ arrangements brought the bass into

greater prominence, prompting Heath to greater heights with

his performances. During his time with MJQ, Heath

performed on film soundtracks and with symphony

orchestras and string quartets, always exhibiting style and

poise in every setting. 

During the break from the

MJQ in 1975-82, Heath

worked with Sarah

Vaughan and began

performing with the

Heath Brothers band,

which included Jimmy

and Tootie. His talents

on bass were much in

demand as the house

bass player for both

Prestige and Blue Note

record labels, providing a

confident, straight-ahead style

of playing reminiscent of the great 

Ray Brown.

Heath received many honors in his career, such as the

Maria Fischer Award, France’s Cross of Officer of Arts and

Letters, and an honorary doctoral degree from Berklee

College in Boston, Massachusetts. In addition, Heath

performed at the White House for Presidents Nixon 

and Clinton. 

Modern Jazz Quartet, 

The Artistry of the Modern Jazz Quartet,

Prestige, 1952-55

Jimmy Heath, Really Big!, 

Original Jazz Classics, 1960

Heath Brothers, Marchin’ On!, Strata East, 1976

Heath Brothers, Brotherly Love, 

Antilles, 1991

Modern Jazz Quartet,

Celebration, Atlantic, 1992

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Heath

Born April 30, 1923 in Wilmington, NC

Died April 28, 2005

BASSIST

Photo by Lee Tanner
NEA Jazz Masters 59

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One of the more distinctive tenor saxophone voices to

have emerged during the 1960s, Joe Henderson’s rich

tone and strong sense of rhythm influenced scores of

tenor saxophonists who followed him. In concert, his

aggressive playing was often tempered by a melodic touch

on ballads. 

Growing up in Lima, Ohio, he first played the drums,

switching to tenor saxophone at age 13. After high school

he studied at Kentucky State College, then Wayne State in

Detroit from 1956-60, as well as under the private tutelage of

pianist Barry Harris. One of his first jazz jobs was alongside

saxophonist Sonny Stitt, then he led his own band around

Detroit in 1960. He entered the Army band that year,

remaining until 1962.

After leaving the Army, Henderson eventually moved to

New York, where he worked with organist Jack McDuff, then

co-led a band with Kenny Dorham during 1962-63. His first

recording as a leader in 1963, Page One, was one of the most

popular releases for the Blue Note label, and led to one of

his richest recording periods both as a leader and sideman.

He played with Horace Silver in 1964-66, and Andrew Hill

in 1965, both Blue Note artists. His work on Lee Morgan’s

album The Sidewinder, especially on the hit title track,

contains some of his best solos of the period. During the

late 1960s, he was part of the cooperative band, the Jazz

Communicators, with Freddie Hubbard and Louis Hayes.

At the end of the decade he spent over a year with the

Herbie Hancock Sextet (1969-70), and joined the pop band

Blood, Sweat & Tears for a short time in 1971. Thereafter 

he worked mainly as a leader and freelance saxophonist.

His bands employed a number of outstanding musicians

and, following his Blue Note years, he made a series of

rewarding discs for the Milestone label. 

In the 1990s, Henderson experienced a resurgence in

popularity with a series of well-received albums on the

Verve label. His recordings of

the music of Billy

Strayhorn, Miles Davis,

and Antonio Carlos

Jobim in inventive

arrangements were

inspired, and he

showed a skill 

for big band

arrangement with

his 1996 release. 

SAXOPHONIST

Page One, Blue Note, 1963

Four!, Verve, 1968

The State of the Tenor, Vol. 1 & 2,

Blue Note, 1985

Lush Life: The Music of Billy Strayhorn,

Verve, 1991

Big Band, Verve, 1992-96

Photo by Lee Tanner

Joe

Henderson

Born April 24, 1937 in Lima, OH

Died June 30, 2001
60 NEA Jazz Masters

When he was four, Luther Henderson moved to

Harlem with his family and became neighbors

with Duke Ellington. Ellington would become a

major influence on Henderson’s life, beginning in the late

1940s and early 1950s when he adapted and orchestrated

some of Ellington’s larger works, such as “Harlem—A Tone

Parallel” and “Three Black Kings,” for performance in a

concerto grosso format by his orchestra and another

symphony orchestra. Henderson’s classical training at the

Juilliard School and music study at New York University

led Ellington to dub Henderson “his classical arm.” His

talents included composing, arranging, conducting, and

performing, and he was hired by Ellington in 1946 to

orchestrate his Broadway musical, Beggar’s Holiday.

Henderson worked on more than 50 Broadway

productions in various capacities. For Ain’t Misbehavin’, he

was the original pianist as well as orchestrator, arranger, and

musical supervisor. For Lena Horne: The Lady and Her

Music, he was the musical consultant and arranged several

selections. He orchestrated such musicals as the Tony

Award-winning Raisin, Play On!, and Jelly’s Last Jam. As a 

dance arranger, Henderson’s credits included Flower Drum

Song, Do Re Mi, Funny Girl, and No, No Nanette. His skill

in bringing a jazz sensibility to musical theater was much in

demand. For Jelly’s Last Jam, he rearranged Jelly Roll

Morton’s jazz compositions and musical fragments into a hit

musical; Ain’t Misbehavin’ used the music of jazz great Fats

Waller as a base. 

Henderson’s talents extended to the arena of television,

where he held positions as musical director, orchestrator,

arranger, and pianist for the Columbia Pictures television

special Ain’t Misbehavin’ for which he received an Emmy 

nomination. Albums to his credit included several with the

Canadian Brass Quintet and Eileen Farrell’s I Got a Right to

Sing the Blues, which was re-released in 1992. For

Columbia Records, the Luther Henderson Orchestra

recorded six albums. In addition, Henderson contributed to

various albums recorded by the Duke Ellington Orchestra,

the Andre Kostelanetz Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic,

Mandy Patinkin, Polly Bergen, Anita Ellis, and others.

Henderson’s composition “Ten Good Years,” with lyricist

Martin Charnin, was recorded by

Nancy Wilson on her Coconut

Grove album. 

Henderson died of

cancer after he had been

named an NEA Jazz

Master, but before he

was able to receive the

award at the ceremony. 

ARRANGER MUSICAL DIRECTOR PIANIST

Photo by Sara Krulwich/The New York Times/Redux

Sarah Vaughan, No Count Sarah,

Mercury, 1958

Eileen Farrell, I Got a Right to Sing the Blues, Columbia, 1960

Original Cast Recording, Ain’t Misbehavin’,

RCA, 1978

American Composers Orchestra, Four Symphonic

Works by Duke Ellington, Music Masters, 1989

Canadian Brass Quintet, Red Hot 

Jazz: The Dixieland Album,

Philips, 1993

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Luther

Henderson

Born March 14, 1919 in Kansas City, MO

Died July 29, 2003

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J

on Hendricks helped create the singing style known as

vocalese, or crafting songs and lyrics out of the note

sequence of famous jazz instrumental solos, as a member 

of the great jazz vocal ensemble Lambert, Hendricks &

Ross. A gifted lyricist, he has added words to classics by

Count Basie, Horace Silver, Miles Davis, and Art Blakey,

brilliantly mirroring the instrumental effects.

He grew up largely in Toledo, Ohio, one of 17 children.

His singing career began at age eight, singing at parties and

dinners. Later he sang on a radio show on which he was

occasionally accompanied by another Toledoan, the great

pianist Art Tatum. Returning home from service in the

Army, he studied at the University of Toledo and taught

himself to play drums. In 1952, he relocated to New York

and found his initial work as a songwriter, working for such

artists as Louis Jordan and King Pleasure. One of his

earliest recordings came on a version of the Woody Herman

band feature, “Four Brothers.”

His collaboration with vocalist Dave Lambert began in

1957 when he re-recorded “Four Brothers,” which led to

their association with singer Annie Ross on a collection of

Count Basie songs. Sing a Song of Basie, using innovative

multitracked arrangement of vocals, became a hit when

released in 1958 and gave birth to Lambert, Hendricks &

Ross as a full-time act. They subsequently toured with the

Basie band and were a top-selling act for nearly four years,

until Ross left the band. Lambert and Hendricks continue

for a while with new singer Yolande Bavan, eventually

breaking up in 1964. Hendricks found work as a soloist,

then moved to England in 1968. In the early 1970s he put

together another trio, this time with

wife Judith and daughter

Michelle, an arrangement he

has occasionally revisited

over the years.

Evolution of the

Blues, an extended

stage work Hendricks

had first performed

with Lambert and Ross

at the Monterey Jazz

Festival in 1960, went on

a five-year run at the

Broadway Theatre in San

Francisco in the 1970s.

Thereafter he took a variety of

university teaching positions in California, and continued to

work with Judith, Michelle, and youngest daughter Aria,

with occasional male singers such as Bobby McFerrin,

Kevin Burke, and Miles Griffith. He has written for and

played with the Manhattan Transfer, a jazz vocal group

heavily influenced by Hendricks. More recently he was one

of three singers in Wynton Marsalis’ Pulitzer Prize-winning

oratorio, Blood on the Fields. He has written lyrics to a

number of jazz standards, including “Four,” “Hi Fly,”

“Along Came Betty,” “Desifinado,” and “No More Blues.”

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Lambert, Hendricks & Ross, 

Sing a Song of Basie, Verve, 1957

Lambert, Hendricks & Ross, 

Everybody’s Boppin’, Columbia, 1959-61

Love, Muse, 1981-82

Freddie Freeloader,

Denon, 1989-90

Wynton Marsalis, Blood on the

Fields, Columbia, 1994

Photo by Tom Pich

VOCALIST LYRICIST EDUCATOR

Jon

Hendricks

Born September 16, 1921 Newark, OH
62 NEA Jazz Masters

One of the major voices in jazz literature, Nat Hentoff

has written about and championed jazz for more

than half a century, produced recording sessions for

some of the biggest names in jazz, and written liner notes for

scores more. Through his work, he has helped to advance

the appreciation and knowledge of jazz. It is fitting that he 

is the first to receive the NEA Jazz Masters Fellowship for

Jazz Advocacy.

Hentoff began his education at Northeastern University

in Boston, his hometown, and went on to pursue graduate

studies at Harvard University. As a graduate student, he

hosted a local radio show and became immersed in the

Boston jazz scene. In 1953, after completing a Fulbright

Fellowship at the Sorbonne in Paris, he spent four years as

an associate editor at Down Beat magazine, where he laid

the foundation for a truly remarkable career as a jazz

journalist. Hentoff was co-editor of Jazz Review from 1958 to

1961, and worked for the Candid label as A&R director from

1960 to 1961, producing recording sessions by jazz icons

such as Charles Mingus, Cecil Taylor, and Abbey Lincoln.

His books on music include Jazz Country (1965), Jazz:

New Perspectives on the History of Jazz by Twelve of the

World’s Foremost Jazz Critics and Scholars (with Albert J.

McCarthy, 1974), Boston Boy: Growing Up with Jazz and

Other Rebellious Passions (1986), Listen to the Stories: Nat

Hentoff on Jazz and Country Music (1995), and American

Music Is (2004). His work has appeared in such venerable

publications as The New York Times, The New Republic,

Jazz Times, and The New Yorker, where he was a staff writer

for more than 25 years. In addition to his status as a

renowned jazz historian and critic, Hentoff also is an expert

on First Amendment rights, criminal justice, and education

and has written a number of books on these topics. 

In 1980, he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship 

in education as well as a Silver Gavel Award from the

American Bar Association for his coverage of the law 

and criminal justice. Five years later, he was awarded 

an honorary degree from Northeastern University. The 

multidisciplinary body of work that Hentoff has produced

represents an articulation of the interconnectedness of the

ideals of constitutional rights and jazz music and is without

a doubt a major contribution to 

the dialogue surrounding 

the uniquely American jazz 

tradition. Currently, Hentoff

writes about music for the

Wall Street Journal and

has a weekly column 

in The Village Voice

and in the United

Media syndicate, which

distributes the column to

250 papers nationwide.

Photo by Tom Pich Jazz Country, Harper Collins, 1965

The Jazz Life, Harper Collins 1975

Jazz Is, Random House, 1976

Boston Boy: Growing Up With Jazz and Other

Rebellious Passions, Random House, 1986

The Nat Hentoff Reader,

DaCapo Press, 2001

CRITIC JOURNALIST PRODUCER

Nat

Hentoff

Born June 10, 1925 in Boston, MA

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

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HIP FO

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A

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NEA Jazz Masters 63

Known among musicians and fans as “Smiling Billy,”

Billy Higgins was first introduced to the broader jazz

public when he came to the East Coast with the

Ornette Coleman Quartet in 1959 for their extended

engagement at the Five Spot Cafe. Although he does not

have many records under his own name, Higgins was

often in great demand as a sideman, providing

sensitive accompaniment in a variety of

settings.

Higgins started on the drums at age 12.

By the time he was 19, he was working in

rhythm and blues bands, including Amos

Milburn and Bo Diddley. Other early

affiliations included singers Brook

Benton, Jimmy Witherspoon, and Sister

Rosetta Tharpe. He also began working

with jazz artists, such as Dexter Gordon,

Don Cherry, James Clay, and Walter

Benton. He joined the Red Mitchell band in

1957, but soon left to join Ornette Coleman’s

new band, with whom he worked steadily in 1958

and 1959. In the early 1960s, he worked with

Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, and Sonny Rollins.

By then he had become one of the most in-demand freelance

drummers on the scene, particularly on many Blue Note

sessions.

His drumming was an important addition to many

recordings, such as Andrew Hill’s Point of Departure,

Herbie Hancock’s Takin’ Off, and Lee Morgan’s The

Sidewinder, the last two being especially popular

jazz albums. He would intermittently work

with Coleman again in the 1960s and 1970s

as well. Outside of Coleman, a frequent

musical collaborator was Cedar Walton,

an association that began in 1966 and

continued into the 1990s, often in the

Walton’s Eastern Rebellion bands. In

the 1990s his career was halted by

kidney disease, leading to a subsequent

kidney transplant. After resuming

playing, he remained much in demand for

record dates. During 1999-2001, he worked

frequently with Charles Lloyd when not

leading his own bands, recording some of his

most inventive drumming while playing against

Lloyd’s saxophone.

DRUMMER 

Ornette Coleman, 

Change of the Century,

Atlantic, 1959

Soweto, Red, 1979

Mr. Billy Higgins, Evidence, 1984

3/

4 For Peace, Red, 1993

Charles Lloyd, Hyperion with Higgins, 

ECM, 2001

Photo by Lee Tanner

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Billy

Higgins

Born October 11, 1936 in Los Angeles, CA

Died May 3, 2001
64 NEA Jazz Masters

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Milt Hinton’s career spanned the gamut of jazz

generations, working from the early swing days of

the 1930s with Cab Calloway through the end of

the millennium with the new guard of jazz, such as

Branford Marsalis and Christian McBride. His ability to

make a contribution in any setting allowed for his vast array

of work. As a soloist, Hinton, nicknamed “The Judge,” was

adept at the early bass tradition of slapping the strings. 

In addition to his love of music, Hinton was a perceptive

and widely exhibited photographer. Much of the history 

of jazz can be found in his photographs, which were

published in several magazines and in two extraordinary

coffee-table books. 

Like many African-American families in the early part of

the 20th century, his family migrated north from Mississippi

to Chicago, where he was raised. His mother was a church

musician, playing organ and piano, and directing the choir.

She bought him a violin for his 13th birthday, which he

studied for four years from 1923-27. Later he picked up the

bass horn and tuba while studying music at Wendell

Phillips High School in Chicago. In 1928, he found his

voice when he switched to string bass. One of his earliest

professional affiliations was with violinist Eddie South,

with whom he played intermittently between 1931-36.

Other early affiliations included Zutty Singleton, Erskine

Tate, Art Tatum, and Jabbo Smith.

Hinton’s early career experience was centered around

the Cab Calloway Orchestra, with which he worked from

1936-51. After leaving

Calloway, he worked with

the big bands of Joe

Bushkin, Jackie Gleason,

Phil Moore, and Count

Basie. He played with

Louis Armstrong between

1952-55, then became a staff

musician for CBS, one of the

first African-American

musicians welcomed into the TV

studios. From 1956 on, Hinton was

a much in-demand studio musician,

adept at different styles of playing, from the pop of Paul

Anka to the jazz of Teddy Wilson. He also was in-demand

in live settings, performing with Jimmy McPartland, Benny

Goodman, Ben Webster, Sammy Davis, Jr., Judy Garland,

and Harry Belafonte, among others. In the 1960s, he became

a staff musician at ABC, working on the Dick Cavett Show.

In the last decades of his life, Hinton continued to play and

record, inspiring new generations of jazz musicians and

fans.

He received numerous honorary doctoral degrees and

taught jazz at several colleges and universities, including

Hunter College, Baruch College, Skidmore College, and

Interlochen Music Camp. 

BASSIST EDUCATOR

Various Artists, 

The Modern Art of Jazz, Biograph, 1956

The Judge at his Best,

Chiaroscuro, 1973-95

Back to Bass-ics, Progressive, 1984

Branford Marsalis, Trio Jeepy, 

Columbia, 1988

Laughing at Life, 

Columbia, 1995

Photo by Lee Tanner

Milt

Hinton

Born June 23, 1910 in Vicksburg, MS

Died December 19, 2000
NEA Jazz Masters 65

Shirley Horn began leading her own group in the mid1950s, and in 1960 recorded her first album, Embers

and Ashes, which established her reputation as an

exceptional and sensitive jazz vocalist. Born in 1934 in

Washington, DC, she studied classical piano as a teenager at

Howard University’s Junior School of Music.

Under the influence of artists such as Oscar Peterson

and Ahmad Jamal, she then began a career as a jazz pianist

and soon after discovered the great expressive power of her

voice. When Miles Davis heard Embers and Ashes, he

brought her to New York, where she began opening for him

at the Village Vanguard. Soon she was performing in major

venues throughout the United States and recording with

Quincy Jones for the Mercury label.

For some years she spent much of her time in

Europe, then took a ten-year hiatus to raise her

family in Washington. She continued to

appear in and around the DC area, and in the

1980s she returned to the recording studio.

The overwhelming critical success of her

1981 appearance at Holland’s North Sea

Jazz Festival reintroduced her to old fans,

won her new followers, and revitalized her career, allowing

her to take to the road with her trio and record more

albums.

Her association with the Verve label, which began in

1987, gave a new showcase to her inimitable style and

cemented her reputation as a world-class jazz artist. Six of

her more than 20 albums have been nominated for Grammy

Awards, and she has collaborated with jazz artists including

Hank Jones, Kenny Burrell, Wynton Marsalis, Roy

Hargrove, Buck Hill, Branford Marsalis, and Toots

Thielemans.

In 1990, she collaborated with Miles Davis on her

critically acclaimed album You Won’t Forget Me. Her 1992

recording Here’s to Life was that year’s topselling jazz album and earned a Grammy

Award for arranger Johnny Mandel. In

1998, Horn paid tribute to her mentor

with the brilliant recording I

Remember Miles, winning the

Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal

Performance.

VOCALIST PIANIST

Shirley

Horn

Born May 1, 1934 in Washington, DC

Died October 20, 2005

Photo by Ray Avery /CTSIMAGES

Embers and Ashes, Stereo-Craft, 1960

Violets for Your Furs, Steeple Chase, 1981

You Won’t Forget Me, Verve, 1990

I Remember Miles, Verve, 1998

May the Music Never End, Verve, 2003

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66 NEA Jazz Masters

One of the greatest trumpet virtuosos ever to play in

the jazz idiom, and arguably one of the most

influential, Freddie Hubbard played mellophone and

then trumpet in his school band and studied at the Jordan

Conservatory with the principal trumpeter of the

Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. As a teenager, he

worked with Wes and Monk Montgomery and eventually

founded his own band, the Jazz Contemporaries, with

bassist Larry Ridley and saxophonist James Spaulding.

After moving to New York in 1958, he quickly astonished

fans and critics alike with his depth and maturity, playing

with veteran artists Philly Joe Jones, Sonny Rollins, Slide

Hampton, J.J. Johnson, Eric Dolphy, and Quincy Jones,

with whom he toured Europe. In June 1960, on the

recommendation of Miles Davis, he recorded his first solo

album, Open Sesame, for Blue Note records, just weeks after

his 22nd birthday. Within the next 10 months, he recorded

two more albums, Goin’ Up and Hub Cap, and then in

August 1961 made what many consider to be his

masterpiece, Ready for Freddie, which was also his first

Blue Note collaboration with Wayne Shorter. That same

year, Hubbard joined Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers,

replacing Lee Morgan. By now, he had indisputably

developed his own sound and had won Down Beat “New

Star” award on trumpet.

Hubbard remained with the Jazz Messengers until 1964,

when he left to form his own small group, which over the

next years featured Kenny Barron and Louis Hayes.

Throughout the 1960s, Hubbard also played in bands led by

other legends, including Max Roach, and was a significant

presence on the Blue Note recordings of Herbie Hancock,

Wayne Shorter and Hank Mobley. Hubbard was also featured

on four classic, groundbreaking 1960s sessions: Ornette

Coleman’s Free Jazz, Oliver Nelson’s Blues and the Abstract

Truth, Eric Dolphy’s Out to Lunch, and John Coltrane’s

Ascension.

In the 1970s, Hubbard achieved his greatest popular 

success with a series of crossover albums on Atlantic and

CTI Records, including the Grammy Award-winning First

Light. He returned to acoustic hard bop in 1977 when he

toured with the V.S.O.P. quintet, which teamed him with 

the members of Miles Davis’ 1960s

ensemble: Wayne Shorter, Herbie

Hancock, Ron Carter, and

Tony Williams. In the 1980s,

Hubbard again led his own

groups, often in the

company of Joe

Henderson, and he

collaborated with fellow

trumpet legend Woody

Shaw on a series of

albums for the Blue Note

and Timeless labels.

Photo by Lee Tanner

S

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TRUMPETER

Freddie

Hubbard

Born April 7, 1938 in Indianapolis, IN

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Ready for Freddie, Blue Note, 1961

Hub-Tones, Blue Note, 1962

Straight Life, Columbia, 1970

Live, CLP, 1983

New Colors, Hip Bop Essence, 2000
NEA Jazz Masters 67

Characterized by a slower vibrato than his

predecessors, Milt Jackson’s ability to swing and to

create vocal-like inflections made his an instantly

recognizable sound on the vibes. Another jazz musician

whose earliest experience was in the church, he sang

gospel duets with his brother and played the

guitar. At age 11, he began playing the piano,

moving to the xylophone and the vibes in

his early teens. After studying music at

Michigan State University, his musical

career actually began with a touring

gospel ensemble in the early 1940s.

Upon hearing him in Detroit, Dizzy

Gillespie arranged for Jackson, known

by the nickname “Bags,” to come to New

York in 1945 to join his band. After

leaving Gillespie’s pioneering bebop big

band in 1948, he went on to play with

Howard McGhee, Thelonious Monk, Tadd

Dameron, and Charlie Parker, applying the bebop

sound to the vibes.

He replaced Terry Gibbs in the Woody Herman band

during 1949-50, returning to the Gillespie band from 1950-

52. Thereafter he formed his own quartet, featuring John

Lewis, Ray Brown, and Kenny Clarke. The Milt Jackson

Quartet then became the Modern Jazz Quartet, with Percy

Heath replacing Brown, and Connie Kay eventually

replacing Clarke. The MJQ would become an enduring jazz

institution for more than 40 years, with Jackson’s bluesdrenched solos being a crucial ingredient in their

sound. When the MJQ wasn’t touring, Jackson

occasionally led bands featuring Jimmy

Heath and Ray Brown and worked on

recording sessions that included Julian

“Cannonball” Adderley and Ray Charles. 

He left the MJQ in 1974, leading his

own groups or playing with all-star

aggregations until 1981, when the MJQ

reunited for a concert in Japan.

Following that concert, the quartet made

annual tours from 1982 through the early

1990s. For most of the remainder of his

career he worked with his own groups,

which often included such musicians as Mickey

Roker, Bob Cranshaw, and Mike LeDonne.

The winner of numerous jazz polls, Jackson’s vibeplaying dominated the field for much of his career, leading

to his induction into the Percussion Hall of Fame and Down

Beat Hall of Fame, among other honors.

Milt

Jackson

Born January 1, 1923 in Detroit, MI

Died October 9, 1999

VIBIST PIANIST BANDLEADER

Modern Jazz Quartet, MJQ, 

Original Jazz Classics, 1954-56

Plenty, Plenty Soul, Atlantic, 1957

Bags Meets Trane, Atlantic, 1959

Milt Jackson + Count Basie + The Big Band, 

Vol. 1 & 2, Original Jazz Classics, 1978

Sa Va Bella, 

Warner Brothers, 1996

Photo by Lee Tanner

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68 NEA Jazz Masters

One of the subtlest virtuosos of jazz piano,

Ahmad Jamal’s uncanny use of space in his

playing and leadership of his small

ensembles have been hallmarks of his influential

career. Among those he has influenced is most

notably Miles Davis. Davis made numerous and

prominent mentions of Jamal’s influence on the

trumpeter, particular in his use of space,

allowing the music to “breathe,” and his choice

of compositions. Several tunes that were in

Jamal’s playlist, such as the standard “Autumn

Leaves” and Jamal’s own “New Rhumba,” began

appearing in the playlist of Davis’ 1950s bands.

Additionally, Jamal’s textured rhythms on piano influenced

Davis’ piano players as well, from Wynton Kelly in the

1950s to Herbie Hancock in the 1960s.

His piano studies began at age three, and by age 11, he

was making his professional debut with a sound strongly

influenced by Art Tatum and Erroll Garner. Following 

graduation from Pittsburgh’s Westinghouse High School, he

joined the George Hudson band in 1947. In 1949, he joined

swing violinist Joe Kennedy’s group Four Strings as pianist.

This led to formation of his trio

Three Strings in 1950-52, which

debuted at Chicago’s Blue Note

club, and later became the

Ahmad Jamal Trio. His 1958

album At the Pershing became 

a surprising smash hit,

highlighted by his interpretation

of “Poinciana.” With the

popularity of the album and the

advocacy of Davis, Jamal’s trio was

one of the most popular jazz acts in

the late 1950s and early 1960s.

For the most part, Jamal has worked in

piano-bass-drums trios, using the intricate relationship of 

the band to explore his sound, directing the trio through

seemingly abrupt time and tempo shifts. His piano virtuosity

has also been welcomed by a number of orchestras and his

abilities as a composer are considerable. His approach has

been described as being chamber-jazz-like, and he has

experimented with strings and electric instruments in his

compositions.

PIANIST COMPOSER

Ahmad

Jamal

Born July 2, 1930 in Pittsburgh, PA

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At the Pershing/But Not for Me, 

Chess, 1958

Free Flight, Impulse!, 1971

Rossiter Road, Atlantic, 1986

Big Byrd: The Essence, Part 2, 

Verve, 1994-95

After Fajr,

Birdology/Dreyfus Jazz, 2004

Photo by Michael Wilderman
NEA Jazz Masters 69

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Photo by Lee Tanner

TROMBONIST COMPOSER ARRANGER

James Louis “J.J.” James Louis “J.J.”

Johnson 

Born January 22, 1924 in Indianapolis, IN

Died February 4, 2001

Often referred to as the “Charlie Parker of the

trombone” due to his uncanny musical dexterity and

fluency, J.J. Johnson dominated his instrument for

more than 40 years, and was known as a potent composer

and arranger. He was a perennial jazz magazine poll

winner for his peerless trombone playing.

Between ages nine and 11, he studied piano with his

family’s church organist, picking up the trombone at age 14.

His first professional experience came with the bands of

Clarence Love and Snookum Russell. It was in the Russell

band that he met jazz trumpeter Fats Navarro, an early

influence on the young trombonist. After leaving Russell,

he spent three years with Benny Carter’s band, then gigged

with Count Basie in 1945-46. He worked briefly with Dizzy

Gillespie, and Woody Herman, then toured the Far East with

Oscar Pettiford. The difficulty of making a living in the jazz

field affected Johnson; from 1952-54 he occupied a day job

as a blueprint reader. Then came one of his most significant

early bands, a two-trombone group he co-led with Kai

Winding—the Jay and Kai Quintet—from 1954-56; after a

period of freelancing and bandleading, he re-joined Winding

in 1958. The group was instrumental in demonstrating the

power and possibilities of the trombone in modern jazz.

In the late 1950s, he began to gain recognition as a

composer. Two of his extended

works, “El Camino Real,” and

“Sketch for Trombone and

Orchestra,” were

commissioned by the

Monterey Jazz Festival. A

commission from Dizzy

Gillespie resulted in

“Perceptions,” a largescale work for orchestra

that was recorded for Verve

Records. In addition to his

work as a composer, he

performed with groups led by

Miles Davis, Clark Terry, and

Sonny Stitt, then moved to California in

1970. There he immersed himself in lucrative television

and film scoring. His scores can be heard on such television

programs as Mayberry RFD, That Girl, Mod Squad, Six

Million Dollar Man, and Starsky and Hutch.

In 1987, he returned to his hometown Indianapolis 

and began playing, touring, and recording again. His

awards include an honorary doctoral degree from Indiana

University and the Indiana Governor’s Arts Award in 1989. 

The Eminent Jay Jay Johnson, 

Vol. 1 & 2, Blue Note, 1953-55

Stan Getz & J.J. Johnson at the Opera House,

Verve, 1957

The Great Kai and J.J., 

Impulse!, 1960

Live at the Village Vanguard, 

EmArcy, 1988

Tangence, Verve, 1994
70 NEA Jazz Masters

The propulsive style of drummer Elvin Jones powered

the John Coltrane Quartet during his six-year stint

with the group and influenced countless

percussionists that followed him over the past 40 years. As

with fellow 2003 NEA Jazz Master Jimmy Heath, and a

number of other jazz greats, Elvin Jones was the product

of a musical family. His brothers include pianist

Hank Jones and cornetist Thad Jones. The

youngest of 10 siblings, Jones began learning

the drums during his middle school years,

studying the styles of Chick Webb, Jo

Jones, Buddy Rich, and the beboppers

that followed them, including Kenny

Clarke, Max Roach, and Art Blakey.

After serving in the Army from 1946-

49, he returned to Detroit, immersing

himself in the fertile jazz scene there in the

early 1950s, before heading to New York in

1955. After playing with Harry “Sweets”

Edison, J.J. Johnson, and Sonny Rollins at his

famous Village Vanguard session, he joined the

John Coltrane Quartet in 1960. His dynamic drumming

pushed Coltrane’s improvisations to new heights, and

provided innovative accompaniment to the rest of the

rhythm section: pianist McCoy Tyner and bassists Jimmy

Garrison and Reggie Workman. 

In 1965, Jones left the Coltrane group and formed his

own band, a trio with Jimmy Garrison and reed player Joe

Farrell, beginning a series of recordings for the Blue

Note label. Since that time, Jones’ trios and his

latter day bands, known as the Jazz Machine,

have welcomed numerous adventurous

players. These have ranged from Steve

Grossman, Sonny Fortune, and Roland

Prince to such younger players as

Delfeayo Marsalis, Nicholas Payton,

David Sanchez, and John Coltrane’s 

son Ravi. 

Jones frequently performed free for

schools and other institutions, and 

at jazz clinics. Aside from music, he made

his acting debut as Job Caine in the 1970

film Zachariah. He toured extensively with

his group Jazz Machine and made later recordings

with Cecil Taylor, Dewey Redman, Dave Holland, and

Bill Frisell. 

DRUMMER COMPOSER

Elvin

Jones

Born September 9, 1927 in Pontiac, MI

Died May 18, 2004

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John Coltrane, The Complete Africa/Brass

Sessions, Impulse!, 1961

Poly-Currents, Blue Note, 1969

David Murray, Special Quartet, Columbia, 1990

It Don’t Mean A Thing, Enja, 1993

Bill Frisell, With Dave Holland and Elvin

Jones, Nonesuch, 2001

Photo by Lee Tanner
NEA Jazz Masters 71

PIANIST

Hank

Jones

Born July 31, 1918 in Vicksburg, MS

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Photo by Michael Wilderman

Hank Jones, a member of the famous jazz family that

includes brothers cornetist Thad and drummer

Elvin, has served as a pianist in a vast array of

settings, always lending a distinctive, swinging sensibility to

the sessions. Although born in Mississippi, Jones grew up

in Pontiac, Michigan, listening to such performers as Earl

Hines, Fats Waller, and Art Tatum. A performer by the time

he was 13, Jones played with territory bands that toured

Michigan and Ohio. In one such band he met saxophonist

Lucky Thompson, who got him a job in the Hot Lips Page

band in 1944, prompting Jones’ move to New York.

Once in New York, Jones became exposed to bebop,

embracing the style in his playing and even recording with

Charlie Parker. Meanwhile, he took jobs with such

bandleaders as John Kirby, Coleman Hawkins, Andy

Kirk, Billy Eckstine, and Howard McGhee. He

toured with Norman Granz’s Jazz at the

Philharmonic from 1947-51. As a result, he

became Ella Fitzgerald’s pianist, touring

with her from 1948-53. These

experiences served to broaden his

musical palette and sophistication. 

A consummate freelancer, Jones

found work with artists such as Benny

Goodman, Artie Shaw, Milt Jackson,

and Julian “Cannonball” Adderley. The

versatility Jones acquired through such affiliations served

him well when he joined the staff of CBS as a studio

musician, remaining for 17 years. Although his studio work

found him working on productions like the Ed Sullivan

Show, Jones continued his touring and recording

experiences in a variety of settings. His broad range and

ability to fit in different settings also landed him in

Broadway stage bands, where he served as pianist and

conductor for such shows as Ain’t Misbehavin’.

Jones was the first regular pianist in brother Thad’s 

co-led orchestra with Mel Lewis, beginning in 1966.

Throughout the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, Jones continued to

be much in demand for record dates and tours. Among his

affiliations was the Great Jazz Trio, a cooperative unit with

Ron Carter and Tony Williams, who were later

supplanted by Buster Williams and Ben Riley.

Jones has also experienced his share of piano

duos, with the likes of Tommy Flanagan—

with whom he became acquainted when

both were developing around the Detroit

area—George Shearing, and John Lewis.

As a leader and valued sideman, Hank

Jones can be found on thousands 

of recordings.

The Jazz Trio of Hank Jones, 

Savoy, 1955

Lazy Afternoon, 

Concord Jazz, 1989

Upon Reflection, Verve, 1993

Charlie Haden/Hank Jones, Steal Away, 

Verve, 1994

For My Father, Justin Time, 2004
72 NEA Jazz Masters

J

o Jones’ uncanny way around the drums, ability to truly

swing a band without ever overpowering it, and slick,

smiling sense of showmanship made him one of the 

most influential of the early swing band drummers. Jones

made an art form of the use of brushes on the drum kit, with

accents timely and thoroughly appropriate for whatever

band with which he played. Jo Jones is credited

with the transfer of the essential pulse of jazz

music from the bass drum to the hi-hat

cymbal, influencing such modern

drummers as Max Roach. His technique

was to leave the hi-hat cymbals just

slightly apart, which produced a sound

different from the relative staccato

approach of his predecessors. Never one

to engage in extended solos, his delight

was in driving a band with his

incomparable swing.

Jones grew up in Alabama, touring with

various shows and carnivals as a tap dancer

and instrumentalist while still in his teens. His

first major jazz job came when he joined the territory

band known as Walter Page’s Blue Devils in Oklahoma City

in the late 1920s. Jones stayed in the Midwest for quite

some time, working with trumpeter Lloyd Hunter and

moving to Kansas City in 1933. 

In 1934 came the affiliation with which his artistry is

forever identified, drumming with the Count Basie band,

with whom he worked on and off for over 15 years. Jones’

drumming was the final ingredient to what became known

as the “All-American Rhythm Section.” Besides Jones, this

included guitarist Freddie Green, bassist Walter Page,

and Basie on piano. They provided the irresistible

pulse that drove the Count Basie band of the

day to be called the swinging-est band in the

land. Jones served two years in the Army

from 1944-46, then returned to the Basie

band, where he remained a full-time

member until 1948. 

Thereafter, though frequently 

reuniting with Basie on special

occasions, Jones became a freelance

drummer. He played on tours with Jazz

at the Philharmonic, and recorded with

many of the jazz greats, including Billie

Holiday, Duke Ellington, Johnny Hodges,

Teddy Wilson, Lester Young, Art Tatum, and

Benny Goodman. Jones was constantly in demand for

a variety of all-star swing sessions and made numerous

recordings as a highly valued sideman.

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Jonathan “Jo”

Jones

Born July 10, 1911 in Chicago, IL

Died September 3, 1985

DRUMMER

Count Basie, The Original American

Decca Recordings, MCA, 1937-39

The Essential Jo Jones,

Vanguard, 1955

Jo Jones Trio, Fresh Sounds, 1959

Jo Jones Sextet, Fresh Sounds, 1960

The Main Man, 

Original Jazz Classics, 1976

Photo by Herman Leonard Photography LLC/CSTIMAGES
NEA Jazz Masters 73

SAXOPHONIST BANDLEADER

Photo courtesy of Ray Avery Photo Archives/CTSIMAGES

Andy

Kirk

Born May 28, 1898 in Newport, KY

Died December 11, 1992

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Andy Kirk, though virtually unknown nowadays

outside of jazz circles, led one of the hottest swing

bands in the country during the 1930s, rivaling

Basie’s. His band, the Clouds of Joy, also introduced some

of the biggest names in jazz, most notably Mary Lou

Williams. 

Kirk grew up in Denver, Colorado, where he came under

the musical tutelage of Paul Whiteman’s father, Wilberforce

Whiteman. His first job, as bass saxophonist and tuba

player, came with the George Morrison Orchestra in 1918.

In 1925 he relocated to Dallas and joined Terence Holder’s

Dark Clouds of Joy, a band he eventually took over in 1929,

changing the name to the Clouds of Joy (sometimes being

known as the Twelve Clouds of Joy, depending on the

number of musicians in the band). 

He moved the band to Kansas City, where they made

their first recordings in 1929-30, including Mary Lou

Williams’ “Froggy Bottom,” which has been covered

countless times since. Kirk’s band was highly popular,

becoming—along with the Count Basie band, the Benny

Moten Orchestra, and Jay McShann’s band—one of the

purveyors of the Kansas City swing sound. Particularly 

popular was their recording of “Until the Real Thing Comes

Along” in 1936. 

Although the leader of the band, Kirk usually was not a

soloist, utilizing the talent in his band for the spotlight

instead. His genius lay in realizing how best to make use of

his band members’ skills. Realizing the awesome writing

and arranging aptitude of Mary Lou Williams, for example,

he made her the chief composer and arranger for the Clouds

of Joy from 1929-42. Other notable band members who Kirk

highlighted as soloists included Shorty Baker, Don Byas,

Kenny Kersey, Howard McGhee, Fats Navarro, and Dick

Wilson. The band continued to tour and record until

disbanding in 1948. 

Kirk led another band in

California in the early 1950s,

then went into other

professions. In the 1970s

he led pickup bands on

occasion, though he

spent the remainder of

his life working for his

Jehovah’s Witness

church.

1929-1931, 

Classics, 1929-31

1936-1937, 

Classics, 1936-37

1937-1938, 

Classics, 1937-38

Kansas City Bounce, 

Black and Blue, 1939-40

1940-1942, 

Classics, 1940-42
74 NEA Jazz Masters

Renowned as a leading representative of jazz

musicians, and as the first African American to work

in the music industry as a personal manager, John

Levy was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1912. His

mother was a midwife and nurse, and his father was an

engine stoker on the railroad. When Levy was six, his

family moved to Chicago, where a well-meaning

schoolteacher would encourage him to find a steady job at

the post office. He did work there for a while, but he also

began gigging around town as a jazz bassist.

In 1944, Levy left Chicago with the Stuff Smith Trio to

play an extended engagement at the Onyx club on New York

City’s 52nd Street. Over the next years, he was to play with

many jazz notables, including Ben Webster, Buddy Rich,

Errol Garner, Milt Jackson, and Billy

Taylor, as well as with Billie

Holiday at her comeback

performance at Carnegie Hall

in 1948.

In 1949, George

Shearing heard Levy play

at Birdland with Buddy Rich’s big band and hired him for

his own group, which featured Buddy DeFranco. As Levy

toured the country playing with the original George Shearing

Quintet, he gradually took on the role of road manager.

Finally, in 1951, Levy put aside performing to become the

group’s full-time manager, making music-industry history

and establishing the career he would follow for the next

half-century.

Levy’s client roster over the years has included Nat and

Cannonball Adderley, Betty Carter, Roberta Flack, Herbie

Hancock, Shirley Horn, Freddie Hubbard, Ahmad Jamal,

Ramsey Lewis, Abbey Lincoln, Herbie Mann, Wes

Montgomery, Carol Sloane, Joe Williams, and Nancy Wilson,

as well as Arsenio Hall (the only comedian he has managed

among some 100 entertainers). In recognition of his

achievements, Levy has received awards such as a certificate

of appreciation from Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley

(1991), induction into the International Jazz Hall of Fame

(1997), and the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Los

Angeles Jazz Society (2002). John Levy continues to be

active today in representing his clients.

Stuff Smith, The 1943 Trio, 

Progressive, 1943

Billie Holiday, The Complete Decca 

Recordings, GRP, 1944-50

Erroll Garner, Penthouse Serenade, Savoy, 1945

Billy Taylor, 1945-49, Classics, 1945-49

George Shearing, Complete Savoy 

Trio and Quintet Sessions,

Jazz Factory, 1945-50

MANAGER BASSIST 

Photo by Leroy Hamilton

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John

Levy

Born April 11, 1912 in New Orleans, LA

A.B. SPELLM

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NEA Jazz Masters 75

J

ohn Lewis’ artistry flowered during his historic tenure 

as musical director of the longest continuing small

ensemble in the annals of jazz, the Modern Jazz Quartet, 

with whom he was able to realize his unique vision of

fusing blues, bebop, and classical music into an artful, 

elegant balance. 

Raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Lewis’ mother was

a primary musical influence. After high school, Lewis

joined the Army in 1942, where he met drummer Kenny

Clarke and trumpeter/bandleader Dizzy Gillespie. 

In 1946, Lewis and Clarke joined the rhythm section of

Gillespie’s pioneer big band, which included vibraphonist

Milt Jackson and bassist Ray Brown. The Gillespie 

band provided a convenient canvas for Lewis to write

compositions and craft arrangements, utilizing the talents of

some of the finest young musicians in jazz. Lewis’ first

extended composition for Gillespie was his 1947 “Toccata

for Trumpet,” which premiered at Carnegie Hall. Other

early contributions to the Gillespie book included Lewis’

arrangements of the tunes “Two Bass Hit” and “Emanon.” 

Coinciding with his work with the Gillespie band, Lewis

continued his music studies at the Manhattan School of

Music, eventually earning his master’s degree in 1953. Lewis

also worked with other jazz greats in between tours with

Gillespie’s band, including serving as pianist and arranger for

the Miles Davis recording, Birth of the Cool, in 1950.

In 1951, the Gillespie band rhythm section of 1946—

Lewis, Clarke, Jackson, and Brown—reunited in the

recording studio as the Milt Jackson Quartet, later becoming

the Modern Jazz Quartet. By the time those recordings were

issued, Percy Heath had replaced

Brown. In 1954, the Modern Jazz

Quartet began touring and

Connie Kay replaced Clarke

on drums the following year.

Lewis would use his time

in the more than 40 years

with MJQ to hone his

composing and arranging

skills, experimenting with

form and sound, while

collaborating with guests

ranging in diversity from Sonny

Rollins to the Beaux Arts String

Quartet to singer Diahann Carroll to

full orchestras. Perhaps his most widely

interpreted composition is “Django,” which he wrote in

honor of the legendary Gypsy guitarist Django Reinhardt.

Throughout his career, Lewis had written for a vast

number of musical configurations in a dizzying array of

styles, from solo piano to symphonies, ballets to film and

television scores. Lewis was part of the first wave of what

composer Gunther Schuller dubbed the Third Stream—an

effort at forging a third stream through the fusing of the two

primary streams: jazz and European classical music. 

As an educator, he served as director of faculty at the

Lenox School of Jazz, where he first championed Ornette

Coleman; on the trustee board of the Manhattan School of

Music; and in faculty positions at Harvard University and

City College of New York. 

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PIANIST COMPOSER ARRANGER EDUCATOR 

Modern Jazz Quartet, Django, 

Original Jazz Classics, 1953-55

Grand Encounter, Blue Note, 1956

The Wonderful World of Jazz, Atlantic, 1960

Kansas City Breaks, DRG, 1982

Private Concert, EmArcy, 1990

Photo by Ray Avery /CTSIMAGES

John 

Lewis

Born May 3, 1920 in La Grange, IL

Died March 29, 2001
76 NEA Jazz Masters

With a style that springs from his early gospel

experience, his classical training, and a deep love

of jazz, pianist and composer Ramsey Lewis has

built a decades-long career as one of America’s most popular

performers. Born in Chicago, where he continues to make

his home, he began taking piano lessons at the age of four

and credits his teacher Dorothy Mendelsohn with

awakening him to the communicative power of

music. He recalls her telling him to “‘Listen

with your inner ear,’ and ‘Make the piano

sing.’ These concepts were revelations!” 

During these early years, though, Lewis

had no experience with jazz, except for

the records his father would play at home

from artists such as Duke Ellington, Art

Tatum, and Meade “Lux” Lewis. He was

already 15, and an accomplished gospel

pianist, when a fellow church musician,

Wallace Burton, asked him to join his band

and helped Lewis learn the fundamentals of

jazz. With his very first trio album, Ramsey Lewis

and the Gentlemen of Swing, Lewis captivated a

large and diverse jazz audience. By 1965, he was one of the

nation’s most successful jazz pianists, topping the charts

with “The ‘In’ Crowd,” “Hang On Sloopy,” and “Wade in

the Water.” Since then, he has won three Grammy Awards

and the Recording Academy Governor’s Award (2000), and

earned seven gold records and three honorary doctorates. 

Expanding his career through teaching, programming,

and work in radio and television, he also has become an

ambassador for jazz. Lewis has served as Art Tatum

Professor in Jazz Studies at Roosevelt University; as artistic

director of the “Jazz at Ravinia” series of the Ravinia

Festival; and as host of a weekday morning drive-time radio

show on Chicago’s WNUA-FM, for which he has

been awarded R&R’s 1999 and 2000 Personality

of the Year Award. He hosts the syndicated

Legends of Jazz with Ramsey Lewis, a twohour radio program that airs throughout

the United States, and is the coproducer (with PBS television station

WTTW-Chicago) and host of a

television series of the same name,

which features emerging and

established jazz musicians. 

Active in community affairs,

especially on behalf of youth, Lewis

helped organize the Ravinia Festival’s Jazz

Mentor Program. In recognition of his

activities, he was featured as the “Person of the

Week” on ABC Nightly News in February 1995 and has

received the prestigious Lincoln Academy of Illinois

Laureate Award in Springfield, Illinois, in April 1997. He

currently tours and performs with his own trio, featuring

Larry Gray on bass and Leon Joyce on drums.

The In Crowd, Chess, 1965

Dancing in the Streets, Cadet, 1968

Ramsey Lewis/Billy Taylor, We Meet Again,

Columbia, 1988-89

Appassionata, Narada, 1999

With One Voice, Narada, 2005

PIANIST COMPOSER EDUCATOR BROADCASTER

Ramsey

Lewis

Born May 27, 1935 in Chicago, IL

Photo by Michael Wilderman

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NEA Jazz Masters 77

VOCALIST COMPOSER 

Abbey 

Lincoln

Born August 6, 1930 in Chicago, IL

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Photo by Lee Tanner Strongly influenced by jazz icons Billie Holiday and

Louis Armstrong, both of whom she met early in 

her career, Abbey Lincoln’s distinctive vocal style,

thought-provoking writing, and spirited personality have

secured her a place among the jazz luminaries.

Born in Chicago and raised in rural Michigan, Lincoln

began performing while still in high school. In 1951, she

moved to the West Coast, working under various names

(Gaby Lee, Anna Marie, Gaby Wooldridge) before settling on

Abbey Lincoln. She recorded her first album with jazz great

Benny Carter in 1956 and appeared in the 1957 film, The

Girl Can’t Help It. Lincoln then recorded a series of albums

for the Riverside label with drummer Max Roach, who had

introduced her to the label’s owner. 

Lincoln’s collaborations with Roach (to whom she was

married from 1962-70) lasted more than a decade, and

included the seminal recording, Freedom Now Suite in

1960. This was the beginning of a more social and political

activist approach to her music. Over the years, she has

worked with some of the biggest names in jazz, including

Sonny Rollins, Eric Dolphy, Coleman Hawkins, Miles Davis,

Jackie McLean, Clark Terry, and Stan Getz. 

In addition to her music, Lincoln also pursued acting,

appearing in the films Nothing But A Man and For Love of

Ivy and on television series, such as Mission: Impossible

and the Flip Wilson Show. She also taught drama at the

California State University. She did not record any albums

as a leader from 1962-72, but made a grand return to jazz

with her 1973 recording, People In Me, her first album of all

original material. 

Lincoln returned to her influences in 1987, recording

two albums in tribute to Billie Holiday,

and then a series of recordings

for Verve throughout the

1990s that showcased her

writing prowess. Her

emotionally honest,

mature style 

is still revered, and

Lincoln continues to

perform and tour with

a new trio. 

Max Roach, We Insist! Freedom 

Now Suite, Candid, 1960

Straight Ahead, Candid, 1961

Abbey Sings Billie, Vol. 1 & 2, Enja, 1987

The World Is Falling Down, Verve, 1990

It’s Me, Verve, 2003
78 NEA Jazz Masters

Although a formidable trombone player, Melba Liston

was primarily known for her arrangements,

especially working with Randy Weston, and

compositions. Growing up mostly in Los Angeles, some of

her first work came during the 1940s with two West Coast

masters: bandleader Gerald Wilson and tenor saxophonist

Dexter Gordon. In Gordon’s small combos, she

began to blossom as a trombone soloist, and

Gordon wrote a song as a tribute to her,

“Mischievous Lady.” Despite her obvious

talent as a soloist, Liston became an indemand big band section player, which

likely fueled her later work as an

arranger. During the 1940s, Liston also

worked with the Count Basie band and

with Billie Holiday. 

Following a brief hiatus from music,

she joined Dizzy Gillespie’s bebop big

band in 1950, and again for two of

Gillespie’s State Department tours in 1956

and 1957, which included her arrangements of

“Annie’s Dance” and “Stella by Starlight” in

performances. She started her own all-woman quintet in

1958, working in New York and Bermuda, before joining

Quincy Jones’ band in 1959 to play the musical Free and

Easy. She stayed in Jones’ touring band as one of two

woman members until 1961. 

In the 1950s, Liston began a partnership that she would

return to on and off for more than 40 years. From the 

seminal 1959 recording Little Niles through 1998’s Khepera,

Liston was the arranger on many of Randy Weston’s albums.

Her arrangements, with a powerful base of brass and

percussion and expressive solo performances, helped shape

and embellish Weston’s compositions. 

Other affiliations during the 1960s included

co-leading a band with trumpeter Clark Terry,

and writing for the Duke Ellington orchestra,

singers Tony Bennett and Eddie Fisher,

and the Buffalo Symphony Orchestra.

During the 1970s, she worked with youth

orchestras in Los Angeles, continuing to

write for Basie, Ellington, and singer

Abbey Lincoln. Liston also became a

staff arranger for the Motown label. Later

that decade she took up residence in

Jamaica, where she taught at the University

of the West Indies and was director of

Popular Music Studies at the Jamaica Institute

of Music.

Slowed by a stroke in 1985, which effectively ended

her playing career, she was able to resume work as a

composer and arranger in the 1990s through the aid of

computer technology. Liston’s career helped pave the way

for women in jazz in roles other than as vocalists. 

TROMBONIST ARRANGER COMPOSER EDUCATOR

Melba 

Liston

Born January 13, 1926 Kansas City, MO

Died April 23, 1999

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Dizzy Gillespie, Dizzy In South 

America, Vol. 1 & 2, CAP, 1956

And Her 'Bones, Fresh Sounds 

Records, 1956-58

Quincy Jones, Q Live in Paris,

Warner Brothers, 1960

Randy Weston, Tanjah, Verve, 1973

Randy Weston/Melba Liston, 

Volcano Blues, Verve, 1993

Photo by Lee Tanner
NEA Jazz Masters 79

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SAXOPHONIST COMPOSER EDUCATOR

Photo by Lee Tanner

Known in the jazz community as “Jackie Mac,” Jackie

McLean was a stalwart, enduring force in jazz since

the early 1950s, and a distinguished educator since

1968. Long the possessor of one of the most recognizable

alto saxophone sounds and styles, he explored the cutting

edge of jazz creativity.

McLean grew up in a musical family, his father being a

guitarist for bandleader Tiny Bradshaw and his stepfather

owning a record store. By age 15, he chose the alto

saxophone as his instrument. Jackie’s earliest studies came

through the tutelage of Foots Thomas, Cecil Scott, Joe

Napoleon, and Andy Brown in his native New York.

Another of his informal teachers was piano master Bud

Powell. McLean’s most significant early band affiliation

came during the years 1948-49, when he joined a Harlem

neighborhood band led by tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins

and including pianist Kenny Drew. McLean’s stints with

the Miles Davis band, between 1949-53, yielded his first

recording sessions as a sideman and marked the beginning

of what became known as hard bop, an advanced

progression on bebop.

During McLean’s busiest period as a sideman in the

1950s, he worked with pianist George Wallington, drummer

Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, and bassist Charles Mingus.

McLean’s first recording as a leader came in 1955, when he

cut a quintet date for the Ad Lib label. His intense playing

has fit in well with both hard bop and the avant-garde, two

schools of jazz in which McLean has experimented.

Throughout the 1960s, McLean continued to work with

his own bands and occasional all-star aggregations, but also

became more interested in social

issues. In 1959-60 he acted in

the off-Broadway play The

Connection, a cautionary tale

dealing with jazz and the

perils of drug abuse, which

evolved into a 1961 film.

In 1967 he took his music

into prisons, working as 

a music instructor and 

counselor. Then in 1968, he

moved to Hartford, Connecticut

to take a teaching position at

Hartt College of Music of the

University of Hartford. It was in Hartford

that McLean and his wife Dollie founded the Artists

Collective, a widely hailed combination community

center/fine arts school, primarily aimed at troubled youth.

The Artists Collective opened a beautiful new building in

1999 following years of residence in a former schoolhouse

in one of Hartford’s most disadvantaged neighborhoods.

At the University of Hartford, McLean established 

the school’s African American Music Department and 

subsequent Jazz Studies degree program, which was

renamed The Jackie McLean Institute of Jazz on November

17, 2000. The program has instructed a number of

exceptional young jazz musicians, including saxophonist

Antoine Roney, drummer Eric MacPherson, trombonist

Steve Davis, and pianist Alan Palmer.

4, 5 and 6, 

Original Jazz Classics, 1956

New Soil, Blue Note, 1959

Let Freedom Ring, Blue Note, 1962

The Jackie Mac Attack Live, 

Verve, 1991

Nature Boy, 

Blue Note, 2000

Jackie 

McLean

Born May 17, 1931 in New York, NY

Died March 31, 2006
80 NEA Jazz Masters

PIANIST BROADCASTER

Best known as the host of the weekly national radio

program Piano Jazz, Marian McPartland has helped to

popularize jazz with her intricate knowledge and

prowess on the piano. She has made the program one of the

most popular in the history of public radio.

Born to a musical mother who played classical piano,

she studied at the famed Guildhall School of Music

in London. Her first professional activity was as

part of a touring vaudeville act featuring four

pianists. During World War II, she

entertained the troops and while playing

in Belgium met her late husband,

cornetist Jimmy McPartland, whom she

married in 1945. They relocated to the

U.S. in 1946, whereupon she performed

in his band in Chicago. She formed 

her first active trio in 1950 for an

engagement at the Embers in New York.

Two years later, she began what would be

an eight-year residency at the Hickory House

in New York with her trio.

In 1963, she worked with the Benny Goodman

Sextet, and in 1965 she began her radio career, at WBAI in

New York. In 1970 she started her own record company,

Halcyon Records, one of the first jazz women to do so. In

1979 she began her weekly program Piano Jazz, the longest

running syndicated National Public Radio program. An

intimate program involving just her and a guest—usually a

pianist—the program has won numerous awards, including

the Peabody Award. Many of the programs have 

been subsequently released on compact disc. 

As part of the segments, McPartland would

interview the guest, drawing out colorful

anecdotes and stories about their careers.

The shows also included performances 

of McPartland and the guest together.

Taken as a whole, the series presents a

formidable history of jazz. 

Her playing career has also included

piano tours with such greats as Earl

Hines, Teddy Wilson, Ellis Larkins, and

Benny Carter. She has performed with

symphony orchestras and at many of the

major jazz festivals, and has received 

numerous awards, including a Down Beat

Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997.

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Jazz at the Hickory House, 

Jasmine, 1954

Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz with Guest

Dave Brubeck, Jazz Alliance, 1984

Plays the Benny Carter Songbook,

Concord, 1990

Just Friends, Concord, 1998

85 Candles—Live in New York,

Concord, 2003 

Marian

McPartland

Born March 20, 1918 in Slough, England

Photo by Melissa Goh
NEA Jazz Masters 81

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Carmen

McRae

Born April 8, 1920 in New York, NY

Died November 10, 1994

VOCALIST PIANIST

Tender and warm with a ballad, Carmen McRae was

one of the great singers of jazz, finding the depth of

feeling in the lyrics of the songs she interpreted. 

An accomplished pianist who in her early career

accompanied herself, she occasionally returned to the piano

later in her career.

McRae learned piano through private lessons and was

discovered by Irene Wilson Kitchings, a musician and

former wife of pianist Teddy Wilson. McRae sang with the

Benny Carter, Count Basie, and Mercer Ellington big bands

during the 1940s and made her recorded debut as Carmen

Clarke while the wife of drummer Kenny Clarke. During

the bebop revolution at Minton’s Playhouse, McRae was an

intermission pianist, which is likely where

she first heard Thelonious Monk’s

music, which influenced her piano

playing and musical sense. In the

early 1950s, she worked with the

Mat Mathews Quintet. She

signed her first significant

recording contract with Decca

in 1954.

Working as a soloist, she gained wide recognition and

was often seen in the pantheon of jazz singers that included

Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan, whom she idolized and

later paid homage on a recording. Her greatest idol was

Billie Holiday, whom she feted on record and in

performances on many occasions. Although she admired

these singers, she never resorted to sheer mimicry and

developed her own original style. 

She recorded notably alongside Louis Armstrong on

Dave Brubeck’s extended work The Real Ambassadors, a

social commentary written with his wife Iola. She made

several film and television appearances, and performed as

an actress in the landmark television series Roots. In the

late 1980s, she returned to her first love, recording a full

album of Monk’s music with lyrics by Jon Hendricks,

Abbey Lincoln, Mike Ferro, Sally Swisher, and Bernie

Hanighen. The album became one of her signature

recordings. Here to Stay, MCA/GRP, 1955-59

Carmen McRae Sings 

Great American Songwriters,

MCA/GRP, 1955-59

Sings Lover Man & Other Billie Holiday 

Classics, Columbia, 1961

Carmen Sings Monk, Novus, 1988

Sarah—Dedicated to You,

Novus, 1990

Photo by Lee Tanner
82 NEA Jazz Masters

For better or worse, Jay McShann was tied to the legend

of Charlie Parker. Parker’s first real professional 

work was with McShann’s Kansas City band, and

McShann was credited with helping Parker to hone his 

talents. Arguably more important, McShann—along with

Andy Kirk’s Clouds of Joy, the Bennie Moten Orchestra, 

and the great Count Basie bands—shaped and developed

the Kansas City swing sound that was so popular in the

1930s and 1940s. 

Known in jazz circles as “Hootie,” McShann is for the

most part a self-taught artist, though he did attend Tuskegee

Institute. He developed a piano style that drew heavily on

blues and boogie woogie. McShann’s earliest professional

job came with tenor saxophonist Don Byas in 1931.

Following his days at Tuskegee, McShann

played in bands in Oklahoma and Arkansas

prior to joining a trio with bassist Oliver

Todd and drummer Elmer Hopkins in

late 1936 in Kansas City.

In subsequent months, he worked

with alto saxophonist Buster Smith

and trumpeter Dee Stewart before forming a sextet in 1937.

In late 1939, McShann put together his first big band. His

recording career commenced in 1941 with the Decca label,

records that often featured blues singer Walter Brown.

McShann’s first New York appearance, at the Savoy

Ballroom, came in February 1942. His band during the

height of his popularity included such notables as Parker,

bassist Gene Ramey, drummer Gus Johnson, and

saxophonists Paul Quinichette and Jimmy Forrest, all of

whom McShann used brilliantly as soloists. Following

service in the Army, McShann reformed his band, which

played New York spots and traveled west to California.

Towards the end of the 1940s, McShann’s small band

fronted blues singer Jimmy Witherspoon. 

In the early 1950s, McShann moved his home base

back to Kansas City, where he continues to reside.

In the 1970s and 1980s, McShann experienced a

bit of a renaissance, with increased recording

and performing opportunities, often with

Kansas City violinist Claude “Fiddler”

Williams.

PIANIST VOCALIST BANDLEADER

Jay

McShann

Born January 12, 1916 in Muskogee, OK

Died December 7, 2006

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Blues from Kansas City,

MCA, 1941-43

1944-46, Classics, 1944-46

Vine Street Boogie, Black Lion, 1974

A Tribute to Charlie Parker,

Music Masters, 1989

Hootie!,

Chiaroscuro, 1997

Photo by Lee Tanner
NEA Jazz Masters 83

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James

Moody

Born March 26, 1925 in Savannah, GA

SAXOPHONIST FLUTIST VOCALIST EDUCATOR

Photo by Vance Jacobs One of the surviving champions of Dizzy Gillespie’s

music, James Moody is an accomplished musician

on the tenor and alto saxophones, as well as the

flute, despite being born partially deaf. In addition to his

instrumental prowess, Moody is an engaging entertainer,

captivating audiences with his personal charm and wit.

Although born in Savannah, he was raised in

Newark, New Jersey. His interest in jazz was

sparked by a trumpet-playing father who

gigged in the Tiny Bradshaw band, and he

took up the alto sax, a gift from his uncle,

at the age of 16. His first musical training

came in the Air Force, and after leaving

the service in 1946 he joined the Dizzy

Gillespie big band, staying until 1948.

Gillespie became his musical mentor. In

1949, he moved to Paris for three years,

often playing with visiting American

musicians, including the Tadd DameronMiles Davis band.

In Sweden he recorded his famous

improvisation on “I’m in the Mood For Love” in 1949,

playing on an alto saxophone instead of his usual tenor. His

solo was later set to lyrics by Eddie Jefferson and recorded

by King Pleasure, known as “Moody’s Mood for Love,”

becoming a surprise hit in 1952. Throughout the rest of his

career, Moody would be more known for the vocal version

of the song based on his solo than for the instrumental

version itself, and obliged requests for the song by singing

his famous solo. 

Through the 1950s and 1960s, he led his own bands, and

worked alongside other saxophonists, notably Gene Ammons

and Sonny Stitt, with whom he co-led a three-tenor sax band.

In 1963 he returned to the Dizzy Gillespie small group,

where he largely remained until 1971. In 1975, 

he moved to Las Vegas and worked numerous

hotel and casino shows with singers and

comics, picking up the clarinet along the

way. In 1979, he left Las Vegas and

moved back to New York to lead his

own quintet.

Then in 1989 he moved to San

Diego, working as a consummate soloist

and member of all-star touring units. In

the 1990s, he teamed up again with his

lifelong friend Dizzy Gillespie to tour

Europe and the United States as a member

of the United Nations Orchestra. He continues

to tour worldwide and experiment with his

music, sometimes including synthesizers and strings

on his recordings. He is sought-after on college and university

campuses for master classes, workshops, and lectures, and

has received honorary doctoral degrees from the Florida

Memorial College and the Berklee College of Music. In 1997,

he played an acting role in the Clint Eastwood film Midnight

in the Garden of Good and Evil.

James Moody and His Swedish

Crowns, Dragon, 1949

Last Train from Overbrook,

GRP/Chess, 1954-55

Moody's Party, Telarc, 1995

Moody Plays Mancini,

Warner Brothers, 1997

Homage, 

Savoy Jazz, 2003
84 NEA Jazz Masters

Director of the Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers

University since 1976, Dan Morgenstern is a jazz 

historian and archivist, author, editor, and educator

who has been active in the jazz field since 1958. The

Institute of Jazz Studies is the largest collection of jazzrelated materials anywhere. 

Born in Germany and reared in Austria and Denmark,

Morgenstern came to the United States in 1947. He was

chief editor of Down Beat from 1967 to 1973, and served as

New York editor from 1964; prior to that time he edited the

periodicals Metronome and Jazz. Morgenstern is co-editor

of the Annual Review Of Jazz Studies and the monograph

series Studies In Jazz, published jointly by the IJS and

Scarecrow Press, and author of Jazz People. He has been

jazz critic for the New York Post, record reviewer for the

Chicago Sun Times, and New York correspondent and

columnist for England’s Jazz Journal and Japan’s Swing

Journal. He has contributed to reference works including

the New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, Dictionary of American

Music, African-American Almanac, and Encyclopedia

Britannica Book of the Year; and to such anthologies as

Reading Jazz, Setting The Tempo, The Louis Armstrong

Companion, The Duke Ellington Reader, The Miles Davis

Companion, and The Lester Young Reader. 

Morgenstern has taught jazz history at the Peabody

Institute at Johns Hopkins University, Brooklyn College

(where he was also a visiting professor at the Institute for

Studies in American Music), New York University, and the

Schweitzer Institute of Music in

Idaho. He served on the

faculties of the Institutes in

Jazz Criticism, jointly

sponsored by the

Smithsonian Institution

and the Music Critics

Association, and is on the

faculty of the Masters

Program in Jazz History

and Research at Rutgers

University. 

Morgenstern is a former vice

president and trustee of the

National Academy of Recording Arts

and Sciences (NARAS); was a co-founder of the Jazz

Institute of Chicago; served on the boards of the New York

Jazz Museum and the American Jazz Orchestra; and is a

director of the Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation and

the Mary Lou Williams Foundation. He has been a member

of Denmark’s International JAZZPAR Prize Committee since

its inception in 1989. 

A prolific annotator of record albums, Morgenstern has

won six Grammy Awards for Best Album Notes (1973, 1974,

1976, 1981, 1991, and 1995). He received ASCAP’s Deems

Taylor Award for Jazz People in 1977 and in 2005 for Living

with Jazz.

JAZZ HISTORIAN ARCHIVIST

AUTHOR EDITOR EDUCATOR 

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Photo by Tom Pich

Jazz People, H.N. Abrams, 1976 (reprinted 

by Da Capo Press, 1993)

Louis Armstrong: A Cultural Legacy (with 

Donald Bogle, Richard A. Long, and Marc H.

Miller), University of Washington Press, 1994

Living with Jazz: A Reader, ed. 

Sheldon Meyer, Pantheon, 2004

A.B. SPELLM

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Dan

Morgenstern

Born October 24, 1929 in Munich, Germany
NEA Jazz Masters 85

Anita O’Day’s unique sound and swinging rhythmic

sense put her in the upper echelon of jazz singers,

as skillful with ballads as with scatting and liberal

interpretations of standard songs. Her career spanned the

late swing and bebop eras, inspiring many singers who

followed her, such as June Christy, Chris Connor,

and Helen Merrill. She began her

performing career as a ballroom dance

contest winner in the 1930s, which is

when she adopted the stage name

O’Day. At 19, she began singing

professionally in clubs around

Chicago. 

In 1941 she joined Gene

Krupa’s big band, recording a

memorable duet with Roy Eldridge

on “Let Me Off Uptown,” one of the

first interracial vocal duets on record.

She also may have been the first

feminist big band singer, refusing to

appear in the standard gown and gloves,

instead opting for band jacket and short skirt. She

stayed with the Krupa band until 1943. In 1944 she joined

Stan Kenton’s band. She then re-joined Krupa in 1945,

remaining there until 1946, when she began a solo career.

In the mid-1950s she made a few notable albums for the

Verve label, demonstrating the power of her vocals. 

In 1958 her appearance at the Newport Jazz Festival,

replete with characteristic big hat, caused a sensation.

She provided one of the highlights of the

subsequent film of the festival, Jazz on a

Summer’s Day. From that point on she worked

mainly on the club circuit with her own

groups.

Always a hit in Japan, she made her first

tour there in 1964, returning on several

occasions. Frustrated with record label

indifference to her artistry, she developed her

own record labels. In the 1980s and 1990s,

she continued to work the club and jazz festival

circuits, including a concert at Carnegie Hall in

1985 to celebrate her 50 years in jazz and notable

performances at the Vine Street Bar & Grill in Los

Angeles in 1992.

VOCALIST

Anita

O’Day 

Born October 18, 1919 in Chicago, IL

Died November 23, 2006

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The Complete Recordings, 1949-50,

Baldwin Street Music, 1949-50

Swings Cole Porter with Billy May, 

Verve, 1952-59

Anita Sings the Winners,

Verve, 1956-62

Anita Sings the Most, Verve, 1957

Rules of the Road, Pablo, 1993

Photo by Ray Avery /CTSIMAGES
86 NEA Jazz Masters

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DRUMMER COMPOSER BANDLEADER

Photo by Michael Wilderman

Max Roach was one of the two leading drummers of

the bebop era (along with Kenny Clarke) and was

one of the leading musicians, composers, and

bandleaders in jazz since the 1940s. His often biting

political commentary and strong intellect, not to mention

his rhythmic innovations, kept him at the vanguard of jazz

for more than 50 years.

Roach grew up in a household where gospel music was

quite prominent. His mother was a gospel singer and he

began drumming in a gospel ensemble at age 10. Roach’s

formal study of music took him to the Manhattan School of

Music. In 1942, he became house drummer at Monroe’s

Uptown House, enabling him to play and interact with some

of the giants of the bebop era, such as Charlie Parker, Dizzy

Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, and Bud Powell. Roach would

later record with Parker, Gillespie, Powell, and bassist

Charles Mingus at the historic Massey Hall concert in 1953.

Throughout the 1940s, Roach continued to branch out in

his playing, drumming with Benny Carter, Stan Getz, Allen

Eager, and Miles Davis. In 1952, he and Mingus

collaborated to create their own record label, Debut Records. 

In 1954, Roach began a short-lived but crucial band with

incendiary trumpeter Clifford Brown. This historic band,

which ended abruptly with Brown’s tragic death in 1956,

also included saxophonists Harold Land and Sonny Rollins.

In the late 1950s, Roach began adding political

commentary to his recordings, starting with Deeds Not

Words, but coming into sharper focus with We Insist!

Freedom Now Suite in 1960, on which he collaborated with

singer-lyricist Oscar Brown, Jr.

From then on he became an

eloquent spokesman in the

area of racial and political

justice.

Roach continued to

experiment with his

sound, eschewing the use

of the piano or other

chording instruments in

his bands for the most part

from the late 1960s on. His

thirst for experimentation led to

collaborations with seemingly

disparate artists, including duets with saxophonist 

Anthony Braxton and pianist Cecil Taylor, as well as

partnerships with pianist Abdullah Ibrahim and

saxophonist Archie Shepp.

As a drum soloist he had few peers in terms of

innovations, stemming from his deeply personal sound and

approach. His proclivities in the area of multiethnic

percussion flowered with his intermittent percussion

ensemble M’Boom, founded in 1970. A broad-based

percussionist who was a pioneer in establishing a fixed

pulse on the ride cymbal instead of the bass drum, Roach

also collaborated with voice, string, and brass ensembles,

lectured on college campuses extensively, and composed

music for dance, theater, film, and television. 

Clifford Brown and Max Roach, 

At Basin Steet, EmArcy, 1956

We Insist! Freedom Now Suite,

Candid, 1960

M'Boom, Columbia, 1979

To The Max, Rhino, 1990-91

Explorations to the Mth Degree,

Slam, 1994

Max 

Roach 

Born January 10, 1924 in New Land, NC

Died August 16, 2007
NEA Jazz Masters 87

With more than 50 years in jazz, Sonny Rollins’

towering achievements on the tenor saxophone are

many, and he continues to be one of the most

exciting and fiery players in concert. Inspired by the

example of his brother’s pursuit of music, Rollins began

piano lessons at age nine. At 14 he picked up the alto

saxophone, and switched to the tenor two years later. Soon

he was playing dances in a band of youngsters in his New

York community, which included Jackie McLean, Kenny

Drew, and Art Taylor. Rollins’ first recording was made

alongside the bop singer Babs Gonzales in 1949. Later that

year he played at sessions with J. J. Johnson and Bud

Powell, recording his song “Audubon” with Johnson.

In the 1950s, Rollins began by serving as a sideman on

sessions with Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, Art Farmer,

and the Modern Jazz Quartet. In late 1955, while living in

Chicago, he began one of his most fruitful band affiliations

when he stood in for Harold Land in the superb Clifford

Brown-Max Roach Quintet at the Bee Hive club. He

remained a regular member until Brown’s tragic June 1956

death from an auto accident. 

Rollins continued to record, mainly for Prestige, where

his output was some of the finest music recorded in the

mid-1950s on any label. Among his recorded highlights

during this period were Tenor Madness, which included an

encounter with John Coltrane; Saxophone Colossus, a

sparkling album that introduced his most noted

composition, “St. Thomas,” which honored his parents’

Virgin Islands roots; and Way Out West, which took

seemingly mundane songs like “I’m an Old Cowhand” and

spun them out with extraordinary improvisations. 

By 1959, Rollins had grown impatient with the vagaries of

the jazz scene and took a hiatus. He would often practice his

horn deep into the night on the upper reaches of the

Williamsburg Bridge, which crosses the East River from

Manhattan to Brooklyn. In 1961 he returned to the scene,

refreshed and playing better than ever. He made a series of

recordings for the RCA label with musicians such as Jim Hall,

Don Cherry, Billy Higgins, and Herbie Hancock, and also

began his long-term employment of bassist Bob Cranshaw. 

In London in 1966, he composed and recorded a

soundtrack album for the film Alfie for the Impulse! label,

which brought him some popularity beyond jazz audiences.

By 1968 Rollins again required a break

from the scene, returning in 1971.

He has been playing and growing

ever since, continuing his long

affiliation with the Fantasy

family of labels (including

Prestige and Milestone) and

working almost exclusively

on concert stages. Sonny

Rollins’ recordings have

continued to reflect his

interest in Caribbean

rhythms, particularly the

calypso. 

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Saxophone Colossus,

Original Jazz Classics, 1956

A Night at the Village Vanguard,

Blue Note, 1957

The Complete RCA Victor Recordings,

RCA Victor, 1962–64

Silver City, Milestone, 1972-95

Without A Song: The 9/11 Concert,

Milestone, 2001

Theodore Walter“Sonny” Photo by Lee Tanner

SAXOPHONIST COMPOSER

Theodore Walter“Sonny” 

Rollins

Born September 7, 1930 in New York, NY
88 NEA Jazz Masters

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COMPOSER ARRANGER THEORETICIAN PIANIST DRUMMER 

Photo by Lee Tanner

George Russell is first and foremost a composer rather

than an instrumentalist, and is one of the most

important jazz theorists of the latter half of the 20th

century. He first expressed himself musically on the drums

in the drum and bugle corps. After high school, Russell

attended Wilberforce University, where he found gigs

playing drums at local clubs. Russell’s study of composing

and arranging increased while he was bedridden with a case

of tuberculosis at 19. It was during this time that he began

formulating his unprecedented musical theorems.

While his first arrangements were for the A.B Townsend

Orchestra, a Cincinnati dance band, Russell’s initial major

band affiliation was as a drummer with Benny Carter. Later

he found work arranging with the Earl Hines band. His first

major score was “Cubano Be, Cubano Bop,” an Afro-Cuban

piece written for the Dizzy Gillespie big band. Russell

followed that with charts for Lee Konitz (“Ezz-thetic” and

“Odjenar”) and Buddy DeFranco (“A Bird in Igor’s Yard”).

He continued his advanced composition study with Stefan

Wolpe. His theory, The Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal

Organization, was eventually published in book form in the

mid-1950s. Russell’s concept involves a composition

system based on using the Lydian scale, rather than the

major scale, as the basis for analysis and composition. 

Music theoreticians hailed this as a breakthrough, being

perhaps the first major contribution by a jazz musician to

the field of musical theory. Russell’s continued refinement

and study of this concept eventually led him to academia

when he taught at the Lenox School of Jazz during 1958-59.

In the meantime, his theories on modes influenced Miles

Davis and Bill Evans (who studied with Russell), leading to

the creation of Davis’ masterpiece, Kind of Blue. In the early

1960s, Russell led several small groups, which included

musicians such as Eric Dolphy and David Baker, and made

some significant recordings before moving to Scandinavia.

There he continued to refine his theories and work with

Scandinavian musicians, among them Jan Garbarek and

Terje Rypdal, before returning to the U.S. in 1969. That year

he took a teaching position at New England Conservatory of

Music at the invitation of then president Gunther Schuller.

In the late 1970s, Russell formed big bands to play his

music, creating his Living Time Orchestra in 1978. The

Orchestra makes frequent tours of Europe, including

residencies at the Perugia Jazz Festival. 

In addition to teaching and lecturing at other 

conservatories and universities, Russell

has been the recipient of numerous

awards, honors, and grants,

including an NEA

Composition fellowship, a

MacArthur award, two

Guggenheim fellowships,

and election to the Royal

Swedish Academy.

Russell published the

revised and expanded

edition of his Lydian

Chromatic Concept in 2001.

Jazz Workshop, RCA Victor, 1956

New York, NY, Impulse!, 1958

Ezz-Thetics, Original Jazz Classics, 1961

The African Game, Blue Note, 1983

The 80th Birthday Concert,

Concept, 2003

George

Russell

Born June 23, 1923 in Cincinnati, OH
NEA Jazz Masters 89

For more than five decades,

vocalist Jimmy Scott has

numbered the jazz world’s

best singers among his select

group of fans. No less an

authority than Billie Holiday

named Scott—and only Scott—

as a vocalist she admired.

Although he was, for a period,

“perhaps the most unjustly

ignored American singer of the

20th century” (according to Joseph

Hooper in a New York Times Magazine

profile), Scott today is once more finding a

dedicated international audience for his emotionally

penetrating art. 

Born in 1925 in Cleveland, Ohio, where he still lives,

James Victor Scott got his first big break in 1949, when

Lionel Hampton hired him and billed him as “Little Jimmy

Scott.” As featured vocalist with the Hampton big band,

Scott achieved fame in 1950 with the ballad “Everybody’s

Somebody’s Fool.” His success continued throughout the

next decade, notably with his hit recording in 1955 of the

old Bing Crosby favorite “When Did You Leave Heaven?,” 

a song that he made his own. 

Scott subsequently spent long periods away from the

microphone, working for a time as a hotel shipping

clerk and as a caretaker for his ailing father. He

returned to the stage in 1985 and began recording

again in 1990, and his career took off again two

years later when Seymour Stein heard him

perform at songwriter Doc Pomus’s funeral and

signed him to the Warner Brothers Sire label.

Since that time, Scott recorded two albums for

Sire, one for Warner Bros., and one for Artists

Only! before joining Milestone Records in 2000.

He sang new interpretations of “Everybody’s

Somebody’s Fool” and “When Did You Leave

Heaven?” on the Milestone CD Over the Rainbow,

released in 2001, on which he returned the compliment

Billie Holiday had paid him by performing his own

distinctive version of one of her signature songs, 

“Strange Fruit.” 

Scott’s new fans have rediscovered his original hit

recordings of the 1950s on such collections as three-CD box

set The Savoy Years and More released in 1999, which

included his 1952 recordings for Roost Records and his

1955-72 recordings for Savoy, and his resurgence in the

public eye included appearances on Lou Reed’s 1992

recording Magic and Loss and in an episode of David

Lynch’s 1990s television series Twin Peaks. He continues to

record and perform frequently. 

Photo by Michael Wilderman

The Savoy Years and More, Savoy, 1952-72

Falling in Love is Wonderful, Rhino, 1962

All the Way, Sire, 1992

Holding Back the Years, Artists Only, 1998

Over the Rainbow, Milestone, 2000

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VOCALIST

Jimmy

Scott

Born July 17, 1925 in Cleveland, OH

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90 NEA Jazz Masters

I

mmensely popular and

startlingly innovative, Artie

Shaw rose to prominence in

the 1930s as a swing band

leader, master clarinetist, and

boundary-crossing artist, who

infused jazz with the influences

of modern European composers.

Born in 1910, he left his

native New Haven, Connecticut,

at age 15 to tour as a jazz musician.

Though based in Cleveland, where he

wrote his first arrangements for bandleader

Austin Wylie, he later made important road trips with Irving

Aaronson’s band. The band took him to Chicago, where he

played in jam sessions and first heard recordings by

Stravinsky and Debussy. Next, in 1929, the Aaronson band

brought him to New York, where he played in Harlem jam

sessions and came under the influence of Willie “The Lion”

Smith. He decided to stay on and at age 21 became one of

New York’s most successful reed players for radio and

recording sessions.

He made his breakthrough in his first appearance as a

bandleader at a 1936 swing concert at Broadway’s Imperial

Theater. To fill a spot between headliners, he performed his

chamber composition “Interlude in B Flat,” scored for string

quartet, three rhythm instruments, and clarinet, which

created a sensation. He then added two trumpets,

trombone, saxophone, and a singer, signed a

recording contract, and led his first orchestra into

New York’s Lexington Hotel. During 1938, with a

more conventional swing band line-up (which

briefly included Billie Holiday as vocalist), he

recorded Cole Porter’s “Begin the Beguine,”

which propelled him to the forefront of big band

leaders.

After the United States entered World War II,

Artie Shaw enlisted in the Navy and was soon leading

a service band throughout the Pacific war zone. Upon

returning stateside, he organized a new band in 1944, with

which he toured and made recordings that included the

classic “Little Jazz,” featuring Roy Eldridge on trumpet. Over

the next 10 years, Artie Shaw worked in Hollywood, toured

extensively (including appearances at Carnegie Hall and a

performance of Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto with Leonard

Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic), and continued

to record, both with his big bands and with a small group

named Gramercy Five.

Although he retired from music in 1954, Artie Shaw

continued to enjoy popularity through his recordings and

also through a big band fronted by Dick Johnson bearing

Artie Shaw’s name. The library of the University of Arizona

holds his collection of scores.

Photo courtesy of Ray Avery Photo Archives/CTSIMAGES

Self Portrait, Bluebird/RCA, 1936-54

Begin the Beguine, Bluebird/RCA, 1938-41

The Complete Gramercy Five Sessions,

Bluebird/RCA, 1940-45

Artie Shaw at the Hollywood Palladium, 

HEP, 1941

The Last Recordings: Rare and

Unreleased, Music Masters,

1954

CLARINETIST BANDLEADER COMPOSER ARRANGER

Artie

Shaw

Born May 23, 1910 in New York, NY

Died December 30, 2004

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NEA Jazz Masters 91

Equally renowned for his compositions as for his

saxophone playing, Wayne Shorter has contributed

many songs to the jazz canon while participating in

some of the major changes in jazz music over the last 40

years, and has received nine Grammy Awards for his

recordings. 

Shorter’s musical pursuits started on the clarinet, at age

16, evolving to the tenor saxophone soon thereafter. Shorter

majored in music education at New York University from

1956-58, working for a short while with Horace Silver in

1956. After serving in the Army, he joined Maynard

Ferguson’s band for a couple of months in 1959, followed by

one of his most fruitful jobs: playing with Art Blakey’s Jazz

Messengers. He remained in the Messengers until 1964,

establishing himself as both composer and saxophonist, and

began making his own records, first for Vee Jay, then for the

Blue Note label. His three releases for Blue Note in 1964,

Night Dreamer, Juju, and Speak No Evil, are considered the

quintessential Blue Note sound: sophisticated structures and

rhythms, strong melodies, exceptional playing. 

He left Blakey in 1964 to assume another productive

affiliation with the Miles Davis Quintet, where he remained

until 1970. While with Davis, he further solidified his

position as one of the most intriguing composers of his time,

contributing tunes such as “Nefertiti,” “Fall,” “ESP,”

“Paraphernalia,” and “Sanctuary.” He also developed his

sound, a mixture of technique and emotion, able to find the

appropriate mood in his playing to fit the song. During the

latter stages of his Davis tenure, he took up the soprano

saxophone, which thereafter often became his principle

horn.

In 1971 he and pianist Joe Zawinul, who also had been

part of Davis’ recording sessions in the late-1960s to early1970s, formed one of the pioneering jazz fusion bands,

Weather Report. The band stayed together for 15 years

through several different permutations, engaging electronics

and numerous ethnic influences and furthering Shorter’s

reputation as a composer. The band scored a major hit,

“Birdland,” in 1977 on their bestselling record, Heavy

Weather.

After the breakup of Weather Report he made occasional

recordings and tours, continuing to mine the influences he

felt from other musical cultures and continuing to write

intriguing music. He is a major influence

on the generations of musicians who

have entered the scene since the

1970s. In 2001, he began

touring and releasing

recordings with a new

quartet comprising Danilo

Pérez on piano, John

Patitucci on bass, and Brian

Blade on drums. Shorter,

who originally studied as a

visual artist, continues to

pursue the visual arts as well

as music. 

SAXOPHONIST COMPOSER

Wayne 

Shorter

Born August 25, 1933 in Newark, NJ

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Speak No Evil, Blue Note, 1964

Miles Davis, Miles Smiles, Columbia, 1966

Weather Report, Live in Tokyo,

Columbia, 1972

Herbie Hancock/Wayne Shorter, 1+1,

Verve, 1997

Alegría, Verve, 2003

Photo by Michael Wilderman
92 NEA Jazz Masters

Horace Silver was the heart of the hard

bop era, helping to form the

influential Jazz Messengers and

composing many blues and gospelflavored songs that have become part of

the jazz canon, including “Lonely

Woman,” “Song For My Father,” “Señor

Blues,” “The Preacher,” “Nica’s Dream,”

and “Peace.” His piano playing is

heavily rhythmic, driving his musical

colleagues to greater heights in their solos.

Silver was exposed to music at an early

age, hearing Cape Verde Islands folk music from

his father. Silver later used the island rhythms and

flavor to great effect on his 1960s albums Song For My

Father and Cape Verdean Blues. He took up the saxophone

and piano in high school, and was influenced early on by

the blues of Memphis Slim, various boogie woogie piano

players, and the bebop pianists Bud Powell and Thelonious

Monk. After a 1950 stint backing guest soloist Stan Getz on

a gig in Hartford, Connecticut, Silver was enlisted by Getz to

join him on tour for the next year. Getz recorded three of

Silver’s earliest compositions, “Split Kick,” “Potter’s Luck,”

and “Penny.”

In 1951, he moved to New York and quickly found work

with Coleman Hawkins, Bill Harris, Oscar

Pettiford, Lester Young, and Art Blakey.

In 1952, as a result of a Lou Donaldson

record session, he began what became a

28-year relationship with the Blue Note

label. Between 1953-55 he played in a

band called the Jazz Messengers, co-led

by Blakey. The band was at the

forefront of the hard bop movement

that followed bebop. By 1956, Silver

formed his own band and Blakey

maintained the Jazz Messengers name as

his own. Both Silver’s band and the Jazz

Messengers turned out to be proving grounds for a

number of exceptional, aspiring musicians. Among

those who passed through his band were Art Farmer,

Donald Byrd, Joe Henderson, Blue Mitchell, Charles

Tolliver, Stanley Turrentine, Woody Shaw, and Randy and

Michael Brecker. Silver’s terse, funky playing has

influenced pianists as disparate as Herbie Hancock and

Cecil Taylor. For several years in the 1980s, he recorded on

his own Silveto label, writing lyrics to his compositions

with a decidedly metaphysical bent. In the 1990s, he

returned to the hard bop sound he helped create. 

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Horace 

Silver

Born September 2, 1928 in Norwalk, CT

PIANIST COMPOSER

Horace Silver and the Jazz Messengers,

Blue Note, 1954

Blowin’ the Blues Away, Blue Note, 1959

Song For My Father, Blue Note, 1964

Cape Verdean Blues, Blue Note, 1965

The Hardbop Grandpop, GRP, 1996

Photo by Lee Tanner
NEA Jazz Masters 93

J

immy Smith personified the jazz organ revolution. He

raised the organ—specifically the legendary Hammond

B3, over which he reigned during the 1950s and 1960s—

from a novelty instrument in jazz to primary status.

Having first learned piano from his parents in his native

Norristown, Pennsylvania, he was playing stride piano by

14 and performing with his father by the early 1940s. He

joined the Navy at age 15 and after discharge attended the

Hamilton School of Music (1948) and Ornstein’s School of

Music (1949-50), where he studied bass and piano. He then

switched to the Hammond organ, woodshedding in a

warehouse for a year.

Inspired by the great horn players of the

day—Don Byas, Arnett Cobb, Coleman

Hawkins—as well as by pianists Art Tatum,

Erroll Garner, and Bud Powell, he cut the

tremolo off and began playing horn lines

with his right hand. He also created a new

organ registration to simulate Garner’s 

sound, establishing the standard for jazz

organists who would follow.

Jimmy Smith’s burgeoning reputation

soon took him to New York, where he

debuted at Café Bohemia. His fame grew with his

influential Blue Note recordings (1956-63), including

brilliant collaborations with Kenny Burrell, Lou Donaldson,

Jackie McLean, Wes Montgomery, Lee Morgan, Ike Quebec,

and Stanley Turrentine. His appearances at Birdland and

the 1957 Newport Jazz Festival solidified his international

prominence as the first jazz organ star.

He toured extensively through the 1960s and 1970s and

continued to release hit albums, this time on Verve (1963-

72), including several big band recordings with such stellar

arrangers as Oliver Nelson and Lalo Schifrin. His

reputation in the 1990s was enhanced by the

sampling of his Verve work by rap group the

Beastie Boys on the song “Root Down.” 

He recorded for the Blue Note and

Milestone labels in the late 1980s

through the 1990s, and in 2001

released his first new recording after a

five-year layoff: Dot Com Blues, which

featured guest appearances by Dr.

John, Taj Mahal, Etta James, Keb’ Mo’,

and B.B. King. 

A New Sound, A New Star: Jimmy Smith at

the Organ, Vols. 1-2, Blue Note, 1956

The Sermon!, Blue Note, 1958

Root Down, Verve, 1972

Fourmost, Milestone, 1990

Dot Com Blues, Verve, 2000

ORGANIST

Jimmy

Smith

Born December 8, 1928 in Norristown, PA

Died February 8, 2005

Photo by Lee Tanner

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KEYBOARDIST COMPOSER ARRANGER BANDLEADER

Sun

Ra 

Born May 22, 1914 in Birmingham, AL

Died May 30, 1993 

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Photo by Michael Wilderman

Sun Ra was one of the most unusual musicians in the

history of jazz, moving from Fletcher Henderson swing

to free jazz with ease, sometimes in the same song.

Portraying himself as a product of outer space, he “traveled

the spaceways” with a colorful troupe of musicians, using a

multitude of percussion and unusual instrumentation, from

tree drum to celeste.

Sun Ra, who enjoyed cloaking his origins and

development in mystery, is known to have studied piano

early on with Lula Randolph in Washington, DC. His first

noted professional job was during 1946-47 as pianist with

the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra at the Club DeLisa on the

South Side of Chicago. In addition to playing

piano in the band he also served as

one of the staff arrangers. Finding

his calling as an arranger, he put

together a band to play his

compositions. In the 1950s,

he began issuing recordings

of his unusual music on his

Saturn label, becoming one

of the first jazz musicians to

record and sell his own

albums. 

Sun Ra’s band became a

central part of the early avantgarde jazz movement in Chicago,

being one of the first jazz bands to

employ electronic instruments (as early

as 1956), including electric piano, clavioline, celeste, and

synthesizers. In 1960, he moved his band to New York,

where he established a communal home for his musicians,

known as The Sun Palace. In March 1966, the band began

one of its most significant residencies, playing every

Monday night at Slug’s nightclub on New York’s Lower 

East Side. 

By the 1970s, the Sun Ra Arkestra and its various

permutations began touring Europe extensively. His band

had by then expanded to include singers, dancers, martial

arts practitioners, film, and colorful homemade costumes,

becoming a true multimedia attraction. Their performances

would often stretch on for hours, including hypnotic,

chanting processionals through the audience. Sun Ra’s

global following had become significant, though his

recordings had become sporadic. His arrangements of his

songs, however, were among the best in jazz. He made

excellent use of his soloists, especially the great tenor

saxophonist John Gilmore, alto saxophonist Marshall Allen,

and baritone saxophonist Pat Patrick, all of whom were with

the Arkestra on and off for decades. 

An outsider who linked the African-American

experience with ancient Egyptian mythology and outer

space, Sun Ra was years ahead of all other avant-garde

musicians in his experimentation with sound and

instruments, a pioneer in group improvisations and the use

of electric instruments in jazz. Since Sun Ra’s death, the

Arkestra has continued to perform under the direction 

of Allen. 

The Singles, Evidence, 1954-82

Jazz in Silhouette, Evidence, 1958

The Heliocentric Worlds of Sun Ra, 

Vol. 1 & 2, ESP, 1965

Space is the Place, Evidence, 1972

Purple Night, A&M, 1989
NEA Jazz Masters 95

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Billy

Taylor

Born July 24, 1921 in Greenville, NC

PIANIST COMPOSER EDUCATOR BROADCASTER

Photo byTom Pich

Although well respected for his tasteful, non-intrusive

accompaniment as a sideman, Billy Taylor is known

for his championing of jazz music, especially

through his various broadcasting and educational ventures. 

After growing up in Washington, DC and studying music

at Virginia State College, where he earned a degree in Music

in 1942, Taylor moved to New York. He spent the 1940s 

frequently playing the clubs on New York’s famed 52nd

Street, performing with greats such as Charlie Parker, Dizzy

Gillespie, Ben Webster, Stuff Smith, Machito, Slam Stewart,

and Don Redman. His adroit abilities enabled him to freely

cross over from swing to the then-burgeoning modern jazz

called bebop.

In the 1950s, he served as the ideal sideman, finding

work with Roy Eldridge, Oscar Pettiford, and Lee Konitz

while employed as house pianist at Birdland in 1951.

Beginning in 1952 he became a bandleader, 

primarily heading trios with bass and drums. 

Taylor started in radio with a program

in the 1960s on WLIB in New York. From

1969-72 he was house bandleader for the

David Frost television show, and in the

1970s also served as host-director of

the NPR syndicated Jazz Alive radio

series. Since 1981, Taylor has profiled

some of the biggest names in jazz as 

an interviewer and reporter for CBS

television’s Sunday Morning program.

As a jazz educator, Taylor’s experience has been vast,

starting with authoring a series of beginning piano primers.

He was a founder of New York’s successful Jazzmobile

community performance and school-without-walls,

beginning in 1965. He earned his doctorate in Music at the

University of Massachusetts in 1975, with a dissertation on

The History and Development of Jazz Piano: A New

Perspective for Educators. Taylor has subsequently taught at

Yale, Manhattan School of Music, Howard University,

University of California, Fredonia State University, and C.W.

Post College. His experience at the University of

Massachusetts led to a lead faculty position at the

university’s annual summer intensive, Jazz in July.

As a composer he has written a number of

commissioned works, his most well known composition

being “I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free.” In

the 1990s, Billy Taylor became artistic director of the

Jazz at the Kennedy Center program in his

adopted hometown, Washington, DC, from

which emanated his syndicated NPR radio

series, Billy Taylor’s Jazz at the Kennedy

Center. He has also served on the NEA’s

National Council on the Arts. Taylor

worked with the National Endowment for

the Arts as chairman of the advisory group

for a research project that studied the

financial condition and needs of jazz artists

in four cities: New York, Detroit, New

Orleans, and San Francisco.

Cross-Section, 

Original Jazz Classics, 1953-54

My Fair Lady Loves Jazz, Impulse!, 1965

White Nights and Jazz in Leningrad,

Taylor-Made Music, 1988

It’s a Matter of Pride, GRP, 1993

Live at the IAJE, New York,

Soundpost, 2001
96 NEA Jazz Masters

Cecil Taylor is one of the most uncompromisingly

gifted pianists in jazz history, utilizing a nearly

overwhelming orchestral facility on the piano. While

his work has elicited controversy almost from the start,

Taylor’s artistic vision has never swayed.

At his mother’s urging he began piano studies at age

five. He later studied percussion, which undoubtedly

influenced his highly percussive keyboard style. At age 23

he studied at the New England Conservatory, concentrating

on piano and music theory. He immersed himself in 20thcentury classical composers, including Stravinsky, and

found sustenance for his jazz proclivities in the work 

of Lennie Tristano and Dave Brubeck. Later Duke

Ellington, Thelonious Monk, and Horace

Silver began to influence his playing. By

1956 he was working as a professional,

taking a prolonged engagement at New

York’s Five Spot Cafe, recording his first

album, Jazz Advance, and making his

Newport Jazz Festival debut.

Playing in the manner he did—an

aggressive style of almost assaulting the

piano, sometimes breaking keys and

strings—presented challenges in terms of

finding steady work. Taylor struggled to

find gigs for most of the 1950s and 1960s,

despite being recognized by Down Beat magazine

in its “New Star” poll category. He eventually found work

overseas, touring Scandinavian countries during the winter

of 1962-63 with his trio, including Jimmy Lyons on alto 

saxophone, and Sunny Murray on drums. His approach

had evolved to incorporate clusters and a dense rhythmic

sensibility, coupled with sheer physicality that often found

him addressing the keyboard with open palms, elbows, and 

forearms. His solo piano recordings are some of the most

challenging and rewarding to listen to in all of jazz.

Controversy has continued to follow him throughout 

his career. Fortunately, his work as a pianist and composer

gained much-needed momentum in the 1970s and

beyond, as touring and recording opportunities

increased, largely overseas, though finding

regular work for his uncompromising style of

music still remains a struggle. Throughout

his career, he has worked with many

important, like-minded musicians,

including Archie Shepp, Albert Ayler,

Steve Lacy, Sam Rivers, Max Roach, the

Art Ensemble of Chicago, and a host of

European and Scandinavian musicians.

His influence on the avant-garde,

especially of the 1960s and 1970s, in 

terms of performance and composition is

enormous. 

PIANIST COMPOSER

Jazz Advance, Blue Note, 1956

3 Phasis, New World, 1978

For Olim, Soul Note, 1986

Alms/Tiegarten, FMP, 1988

The Willisau Concert, Intakt, 2000

Photo by Michael Wilderman

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Taylor 

Born March 15, 1929 in New York, NY
NEA Jazz Masters 97

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Clark

Terry

Born December 14, 1920 in St. Louis, MO

TRUMPETER FLUGELHORNIST VOCALIST EDUCATOR

Photo by Lee Tanner Clark Terry is the consummate freelance musician, 

able to add a distinctive element to whatever band 

or jam session of which he is a part. His exuberant,

swinging horn playing was an important contribution to two

of the greatest big bands in jazz, Count Basie’s and

Duke Ellington’s. In addition, his use of the

flugelhorn as an alternative to trumpet

influenced Art Farmer and Miles Davis,

among others. 

In high school, Terry took up the

valve trombone, later playing the bugle

with the Tom Powell Drum and Bugle

Corps. Upon his discharge in 1945, he

found work with Lionel Hampton’s

band. He rounded out the 1940s playing

with bands led by Charlie Barnet, Eddie

“Cleanhead” Vinson, Charlie Ventura, and

George Hudson. From 1948-51, Terry was a

member of Basie’s big band and octet. 

Terry’s reputation grew with Ellington’s band,

with whom he worked from 1951-59, often featured as a

soloist on trumpet and flugelhorn. He also led his own

recording dates during this time. After working with

Quincy Jones in 1959-60, he found steady work as a

freelance studio artist, eventually becoming a staff musician

at NBC. As a member of the Tonight Show orchestra—one

of the first African-American musicians employed in a

television house band—he came to prominence through his

popular “Mumbles” persona, his unique way of mumbling a

scat vocal solo. He worked and recorded with artists such

as J.J. Johnson, Oscar Peterson, and Ella Fitzgerald,

then co-led a quintet with Bob Brookmeyer.

Thereafter he led his own small and large

bands, including his Big Bad Band,

beginning in 1972. He also became part

of Norman Granz’s traveling all-stars,

Jazz at the Philharmonic. 

As a jazz educator he was one of the

earliest active practitioners to take time

off from the road to enter the classroom,

conducting numerous clinics and jazz

camps. This work culminated in his own

music school at Teikyo Westmar University

in Le Mars, Iowa. A distinctive stylist on his

horns, he is also a consummate entertainer,

often alternating trumpet and flugelhorn in a solo

duel with himself in concerts. He continues to play in both

the U.S. and Europe, recording and performing in a wide

variety of settings, such as the One-on-One recording of

duets with 14 different pianists.

Duke with a Difference,

Original Jazz Classics, 1957

In Orbit, Original Jazz Classics, 1958

Mellow Moods, Prestige, 1961-62

The Clark Terry Spacemen, Chiaroscuro, 1976

One-on-One, Chesky Jazz, 2000
98 NEA Jazz Masters

McCoy Tyner’s powerful, propulsive style of piano

playing was an integral part of the John Coltrane

Quartet in the early 1960s and influenced

countless musicians that followed him. His rich chord

clusters continue to be copied by many young jazz pianists.

Growing up in Philadelphia, Tyner’s neighbors were

jazz musicians Richie and Bud Powell, who were

very influential to his piano playing. Studying

music at the West Philadelphia Music

School and later at the Granoff School of

Music, Tyner began playing gigs in his

teens, and first met Coltrane while

performing at a local club called the

Red Rooster at age 17. His first

important professional gig was with the

Benny Golson – Art Farmer band

Jazztet in 1959, with whom he made his 

recording debut. 

Soon he began working with Coltrane, a

relationship that produced some of the most

influential music in jazz. From 1960-65, Tyner

played a major role in the success of the Coltrane

quartet (which included Elvin Jones on drums and 

Jimmy Garrison on bass), using rich-textured harmonies 

as rhythmic devices against Coltrane’s “sheets of sound”

saxophone playing. 

After leaving the quartet, Tyner demonstrated his

tremendous melodic and rhythmic flair for composition on

such albums as The Real McCoy, which featured “Passion

Dance,” “Contemplation,” and “Blues on the Corner,” and

Sahara, which featured “Ebony Queen” and the title track.

Tyner has continued to experiment with his sound,

pushing rhythms and tonalities to the limit, his

fluttering right hand creating a cascade of notes.

In particular, he has explored the trio form,

recording with a series of different bassists

and drummers, such as Ron Carter, Art

Davis, Stanley Clarke, Elvin Jones, Tony

Williams, and Al Foster. In the 1980s, he

recorded with a singer for the first time,

Phylis Hyman. 

In the 1990s, he led a big band in new

arrangements of previously recorded songs,

used Latin American rhythms and forms,

and revealed the romantic side of his playing

with a surprising album of Burt Bacharach

songs. While experimenting with his sound,

Tyner has eschewed the use of electric pianos, preferring

the warm sound of an acoustic piano, and earned five

Grammy Awards for his recordings. A dynamic performer

in live settings, Tyner has continued to tour steadily with

his excellent, longtime trio: Avery Sharpe on bass and

Aaron Scott on drums. 

PIANIST COMPOSER

McCoy 

Tyner

Born December 11, 1938 in Philadelphia, PA

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John Coltrane, My Favorite Things,

Atlantic, 1960

The Real McCoy, Blue Note, 1967

Sahara, Original Jazz Classics, 1972

Remembering John, Enja, 1991

Illuminations, Telarc, 2003

Photo by Lee Tanner
NEA Jazz Masters 99

VOCALIST PIANIST

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Sarah

Vaughan

Born March 27, 1924 in Newark, NJ

Died April 3, 1990

Photo by Paul Hoeffler/CTSIMAGES

The power, range, and flexibility of her voice made

Sarah Vaughan, known as “Sassy” or “The Divine

One,” one of the great singers in jazz. With her rich,

controlled tone and vibrato, she could create astounding

performances on jazz standards, often adding bop-oriented

phrasing. Along with Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald,

Vaughan helped popularize the art of jazz singing,

influencing generations of vocalists following her. 

Vaughan began singing at the Mt. Zion Baptist Church in

her native Newark, and started extensive piano lessons at

age seven. Winner of the amateur contest at the Apollo

Theatre, Vaughan was hired by Earl Hines for his big band

as a second pianist and singer on the recommendation of

Billy Eckstine in 1943. She joined Eckstine’s band in

1944-45, and made the first recording under her own

name in December 1944.

After leaving Eckstine, Sarah worked briefly in the

John Kirby band, and thereafter was primarily a vocal

soloist. Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie often sang

her praises, assisting her in gaining recognition,

particularly in musicians’ circles. They worked with her

on a May 25, 1945 session as well, which was highlighted

by her vocal version of Gillespie’s “A Night in Tunisia,”

called “Interlude” on the album. Her first husband,

trumpeter-bandleader George Treadwell, helped re-make her

“look” and she began to work and record more regularly,

starting in 1949 with Columbia Records. In the 1960s,

Vaughan made records with bandleaders such as Count

Basie, Benny Carter, Frank Foster, and Quincy Jones on the

Mercury and Roulette labels among others. It was during

this time that her level of international recognition began to

grow as she toured widely, generally accompanied by a trio,

and on occasion doing orchestra dates. 

These large ensemble dates

ranged from the Boston Pops to

the Cleveland Orchestra as her

voice became recognized as

one of the most beautiful

and versatile in all of jazz,

blessed with a range that

literally went from

baritone to soprano. In

the 1970s and 1980s, her

voice darkened, providing a

deeper and all the more

alluring tone.

1944-46, Classics, 1944-46

In Hi-Fi, Columbia/Legacy, 1949-53

The Complete Sarah Vaughan 

on Mercury, Vol. 1, Mercury, 1954-56

Sarah Vaughan with Clifford Brown,

Verve, 1955

The Duke Ellington Songbook, 

Vol. 1, Pablo, 1979
100 NEA Jazz Masters

J

azz impresario George Wein is renowned for his work in

organizing and booking music festivals, and in particular

for creating the Newport Jazz Festival, 

an event that in the words of the late

jazz critic Leonard Feather started the 

“festival era.”

A professional pianist from his

early teens, George Wein went on

to lead his own band in and

around his native Boston,

frequently accompanying visiting

jazz musicians. In 1950, he

opened his own club in Boston,

formed the Storyville record label,

and launched his career as a jazz

entrepreneur. In 1954, he was invited

to organize the first Newport Jazz

Festival. He subsequently played an important role in

establishing numerous other international festivals,

including the annual Grande Parade du Jazz in Nice, located

in the south of France. In 1969, George Wein established

Festival Productions, Inc., which has offices in six

cities and produces hundreds of musical events

internationally, each year. 

Still active in producing his festivals at age

80, George Wein serves on the executive board

of Jazz at Lincoln Center, and is an Honorary

Trustee of Carnegie Hall. In addition to 

carrying on this work, he is an author, whose

autobiography Myself Among Others was

recognized by the Jazz Journalists Association 

as 2004’s best book about jazz, and continues to

perform as a pianist with his group, the Newport

All-Stars.

Wein, Women & Song, Atlantic, 1955

George Wein & the Newport All-Stars,

Impulse!, 1962

George Wein’s Newport All-Stars, 

Atlantic, 1969

European Tour, Concord Jazz, 1987

Swing That Music, Columbia, 1993

George

Wein

Born October 3, 1925 in Boston, MA

Photo by Lee Tanner

PRODUCER PIANIST

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NEA Jazz Masters 101

Amulti-instrumentalist whose inspired solos have

kept big-band jazz fresh and vital into the present,

Frank Wess is revered as a smoothly swinging tenor

saxophone player in the Lester Young tradition, as an expert

alto saxophonist, and as one of the most influential,

instantly recognizable flutists in jazz history. Born in Kansas

City, Missouri, Wess first studied classical music and played

with the Kansas All-State High School Orchestra. After

moving to Washington, DC, as a teenager, in 1935, he began

to play jazz in lunchtime jam sessions with fellow students,

including Billy Taylor. An early touring career was

interrupted by military service—he played in a 17-piece

band during World War II—and then was resumed when

Wess came out of the Army and

joined an outstanding lineup

in the Billy Eckstine

Orchestra. It was at this

time that he took up the

flute, studying at the

Modern School of

Music in Washington. 

All this time, Count

Basie had been calling.

Wess finally joined his

big band in 1953, helping it to evolve during its so-called

“New Testament” phase and remaining with it until 1964.

Wess’s flute playing, set off by Neal Hefti’s arrangements,

contributed strongly to the Basie Orchestra’s new sound,

while his tenor saxophone playing served as a counterpoint

to the more fiery sound of Frank Foster. 

Wess has played since the 1960s in countless settings:

with Clark Terry’s big band, the New York Quartet with

Roland Hanna, Dameronia (1981-85), and Toshiko

Akiyoshi’s Jazz Orchestra. During this period, he also

bridged the worlds of jazz and popular show business. Wess

performed as a staff musician for ABC Television, both for

the Dick Cavett Show and for the David Frost Show (with

the Billy Taylor Orchestra). In Broadway pit bands, he

played for shows such as Golden Boy (starring Sammy

Davis), Irene (with Debbie Reynolds), and Sugar Babies

(with Mickey Rooney). For ten years, he played first-chair

tenor saxophonist in the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band. 

He has also led his own big bands on world tours, and

has played recently in the Dizzy Gillespie Alumni Big Band.

Widely recorded on many labels, both as a leader and a

sideman, Wess is a perennial favorite in Down Beat polls

and a now-legendary presence on the jazz scene.

Count Basie, Verve Jazz Masters, 

Verve, 1954-65

I Hear Ya Talkin’, Savoy, 1959

Flute Juice, Progressive, 1981

Going Wess, Town Crier, 1993

Without A Doubt, Koch, 2000

FLUTIST SAXOPHONIST COMPOSER

Frank

Wess

Born January 4, 1922 in Kansas City, MO

Photo by Michael Wilderman

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Randy Weston has spent most of his career

combining the rich music of the African

continent with the African-American

tradition of jazz, mixing rhythms and melodies

into a hybrid musical stew. 

Weston received his earliest training from

private teachers in a household that nurtured

his budding musicianship. Growing up in

Brooklyn, Weston was influenced by such

peers as saxophonist Cecil Payne and

trumpeter Ray Copeland as well as the steady

influx of great jazz musicians who frequented

Brooklyn clubs and jam sessions on a regular basis.

Such musicians as Thelonious Monk and Duke

Ellington would have a lasting influence on Weston’s

music, both in terms of his piano playing and composition.

After a 1945 stint in the Army, Weston began playing

piano with such rhythm and blues bands as Bull Moose

Jackson and Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson. At the Music Inn

educational retreat in Lenox, Massachusetts, in 1954, he

took work as a cook during the summer, while playing the

piano at night. The head of Riverside Records heard him

and signed Weston to do a record of Cole Porter standards. 

Weston’s recording sessions frequently included

contributions from his Brooklyn neighborhood buddies

Copeland, Payne, and bassist Ahmed Abdul-Malik. It was

at this early juncture that he also began his long and fruitful

musical partnership with trombonist-arranger Melba Liston

(a listing of some of the albums on which they collaborated

can be found in the Liston Selected

Discography), a relationship that

would continue until her death in

1999, forming some of Weston’s

best recordings. 

Weston’s interest in the

African continent was sparked at

an early age, and he lectured and

performed in Africa in the early

1960s. He toured 14 African

countries with his ensemble in 1967

on a State Department tour,

eventually settling in Rabat, Morocco.

He later moved to Tangier, opening the

African Rhythms Club in 1969. It was in

Morocco that Weston first forged unique collaborations with

Berber and Gnawan musicians, infusing his jazz with

African music and rhythms. 

Since returning to the U.S. in 1972, he has lived in

Brooklyn, traveling extensively overseas with bands that

generally include trombonist Benny Powell and longtime

musical director, saxophonist Talib Kibwe (aka T.K. Blue).

In recent years, a number of Weston’s U.S. concert

appearances have been true events, including 1998 and

1999 Brooklyn and Kennedy Center collaborations with the

Master Musicians of Gnawa, and a triumphant 1998

recreation of his masterwork suite “Uhuru Africa” in

Brooklyn. Many of Weston’s compositions, such as “Hi Fly”

and “Berkshire Blues,” have become jazz standards.

PIANIST COMPOSER

Randy

Weston

Born April 6, 1926 in Brooklyn, NY

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Uhuru Africa/Highlife,

Roulette, 1960-63

Blues to Africa, Arista/Freedom, 1974

Portraits of Monk, Verve, 1989

The Spirit of Our Ancestors,

Verve, 1991

Spirit! The Power of Music,

Sunnyside, 2000

Photo by Lee Tanner
NEA Jazz Masters 103

J

oe Williams’ versatile baritone voice made him one of 

the signature male vocalists in jazz annals, responsible

for some of the Count Basie band’s main hits in the 

1950s.

Though born in Georgia, Williams was raised in that

great haven of the blues, Chicago, Illinois. His first

professional job came with clarinetist Jimmie

Noone in 1937. In the 1940s, in addition to

singing in Chicago area groups, he worked

with the big bands of Coleman Hawkins,

Lionel Hampton, and Andy Kirk. Later

he sang with two of Cafe Society’s

renowned pianists, Albert Ammons and

Pete Johnson. From 1950-53, he worked

mostly with the Red Saunders band.

What came after would be a job he 

would cherish and return to frequently

throughout his career: fronting the Count

Basie band. Often referred to jokingly as

“Count Basie’s #1 son,” he stepped right into 

the band upon the departure of Jimmy Rushing.

Williams was the perfect replacement in that he did not just

duplicate Rushing’s vocal style, but offered a new range of

opportunities for Basie to use. Williams’ sound was

smoother, strong on ballads and blues, while Rushing was a

more aggressive singer, best on the up-tempo numbers.

Williams’ hits with the Basie band included “Alright,

Okay, You Win,” “The Comeback,” and what would

become one of his most requested tunes, “Every

Day.” Starting in the 1960s, he was a vocal

soloist, fronting trios led by such pianists

as Norman Simmons and Junior Mance.

Simmons would later become his longest

tenured musical director-pianist. He

also toured with fellow Basie alumnus

Harry “Sweets” Edison. He continued

to expand his range, becoming a

superior crooner and exhibiting a real

depth of feeling on ballads. 

Among his many awards and citations

were a number of jazz poll commendations

and honors. Late in life, he had a recurring 

role on the Cosby Show television program as the

star’s father-in-law.

Every Day—The Best 

of the Verve Years, Verve, 1955-90

Count Basie, Count Basie Swings/

Joe Williams Sings, Verve, 1955-56

Count Basie, Count on the Coast, 

Vol. 1 & 2, Phontastic, 1958

Me and the Blues, RCA, 1963

Here’s to Life, Telarc, 1993

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VOCALIST

Photo by Lee Tanner

Joe

Williams 

Born December 12, 1918 in Cordele, GA

Died March 29, 1999
104 NEA Jazz Masters

Gerald Wilson’s use of multiple harmonies is a

hallmark of his big bands, earning him a reputation as

a leading composer and arranger. His band was one

of the greats in jazz, leaning heavily on the blues but

integrating other styles. His arrangements influenced 

many musicians that came after him, including multiinstrumentalist Eric Dolphy, who dedicated the song 

“G.W.” to Wilson on his 1960 release Outward Bound.

Wilson started out on the piano, learning from his

mother, then taking formal lessons and classes in high

school in Memphis, Tennessee. The family moved to Detroit

in 1934, enabling him to study in the noted music program

at Cass Tech High School. As a professional 

trumpeter, his first jobs were with the Plantation

Club Orchestra. He took Sy Oliver’s place 

in the Jimmie Lunceford band in 1939,

remaining in the seat until 1942, when 

he moved to Los Angeles. 

In California, he gained work in the

bands of Benny Carter, Les Hite, and

Phil Moore. When the Navy sent him to

its Great Lakes Naval Training Station in

Chicago, he found work in Willie Smith’s

band. He put together his own band in late 1944, which

included Melba Liston, and replaced the Duke Ellington

band at the Apollo Theatre when they hit New York.

Wilson’s work as a composer-arranger enabled him to 

work for the Count Basie and Dizzy Gillespie bands. 

Wilson then accompanied Billie Holiday on her tour of 

the South in 1949. 

In the early 1960s, he again led his own big bands. 

His series of Pacific Jazz recordings established his unique

harmonic voice, and Mexican culture—especially the

bullfight tradition—influenced his work. His appearance at

the 1963 Monterey Jazz Festival increased his popularity. 

He has contributed his skill as an arranger and

composer to artists ranging from Duke Ellington,

Stan Kenton, and Ella Fitzgerald to the Los

Angeles Philharmonic to his guitarist-son

Anthony. Additionally he has been a

radio broadcaster at KBCA and a frequent

jazz educator. Among his more noted

commissions was one for the 40th

anniversary of the Monterey Jazz 

Festival in 1998.

TRUMPETER COMPOSER ARRANGER BANDLEADER 

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1945-46, Classics, 1945-46

The Complete Pacific Jazz Recordings,

Mosaic, 1961-69

Love You Madly, Discovery, 1982

Theme For Monterey, Mama, 1998

New York, New Sound,

Mack Avenue, 2003

Photo by Vance Jacobs

Gerald

Wilson

Born September 4, 1918 in Shelby, MS 
NEA Jazz Masters 105

Nancy Wilson first found her voice singing

in church choirs, but found her love

of jazz in her father’s record

collection. It included albums by Little

Jimmy Scott, Nat “King” Cole, Billy

Eckstine, Dinah Washington, and Ruth

Brown; this generation of vocalists had

a profound influence on Wilson’s

singing style. She began performing on

the Columbus, Ohio, club circuit while

still in high school, and in 1956 she

became a member of Rusty Bryant’s

Carolyn Club Band. 

She also sat in with various performers,

such as Julian “Cannonball” Adderley, who

suggested that she come to New York. When Wilson took

his advice, her distinctive voice enchanted a representative

from Capitol Records and she was signed in 1959. In the

years that followed, Wilson recorded 37 original albums for

the label. Her first hit, “Guess Who I Saw Today,” came in

1961. One year later, a collaborative album with Adderley

solidified her standing in the jazz community and provided

the foundation for her growing fame and career. During her

years with Capitol, she was second in sales only to the

Beatles, surpassing Frank Sinatra, the Beach Boys,

and even Nat King Cole.

Wilson also has worked in television,

where in 1968 she won an Emmy Award

for her NBC series, The Nancy Wilson

Show. She has performed on The Andy

Williams Show and The Carol Burnett

Show and has appeared in series such 

as Hawaii Five-O, The Cosby Show,

Moesha, and The Parkers.

Although she often has crossed over to

pop and rhythm-and-blues recordings, she

still is best known for her jazz performances.

In the 1980s, she returned to jazz with a series

of performances with such jazz greats as Art

Farmer, Benny Golson, and Hank Jones. And to start 

the new century, Wilson teamed with pianist Ramsey 

Lewis for a pair of highly regarded recordings.

She has been the recipient of numerous awards and

accolades, including honorary degrees from Berklee School

of Music and Central State University in Ohio. Wilson can

be heard on National Public Radio as the host of Jazz

Profiles, a weekly documentary series.

Nancy Wilson and Cannonball

Adderley, Capitol, 1962

Yesterday’s Love Songs—Today’s Blues,

Capitol, 1963

But Beautiful, Blue Note, 1969

Ramsey Lewis & Nancy Wilson, 

Meant To Be, Narada, 2002

R.S.V.P. (Rare Songs, Very Personal),

MCG Jazz, 2004

VOCALIST BROADCASTER

Nancy

Wilson

Born February 20, 1937 in Chillicothe, OH

Photo by Tom Pich

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VO

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LIS

T
106 NEA Jazz Masters

Teddy Wilson was one of the swing era’s finest pianists,

a follower of Earl Hines’ distinctive “trumpet-style”

piano playing. Wilson forged his own unique

approach from Hines’ influence, as well as from the styles of

Art Tatum and Fats Waller. He was a truly orchestral pianist

who engaged the complete range of his instrument, 

and he did it all in a slightly restrained, wholly dignified

manner at the keyboard.

Raised in Tuskegee, Alabama, Wilson studied piano at

nearby Talladega College for a short time. Among his first

professional experiences were Chicago stints in the bands of

Jimmie Noone and Louis Armstrong. In 1933, he moved to

New York to join Benny Carter’s band known as the

Chocolate Dandies, and made records with the Willie

Bryant band during 1934-35. In 1936, he became a

member of Benny Goodman’s regular trio, which

included drummer Gene Krupa, and remained

until 1939, participating on a number of

Goodman’s small group recordings. Wilson

was the first African-American musician to

work with Goodman, one of the first to

integrate a jazz band. Wilson later appeared

as himself in the cinematic treatment of The

Benny Goodman Story.

During his time with Goodman, Wilson made some of

his first recordings as a leader. These records featured such

greats as Lester Young, Billie Holiday, Lena Horne, and Ella

Fitzgerald. Wilson’s arrangements with Holiday in

particular constitutes some of the singer’s finest work,

mostly due to Wilson’s ability to find the right sound to

complement Holiday’s voice and singing style. 

Following his Goodman days, he led his own big band

for a short time, but most of his work came with his own

small groups, particularly a sextet that played regularly at

the famous Cafe Society in New York. In 1946, he was a

staff musician at CBS Radio, and also conducted his own

music school. During the early 1950s, he taught at the

Juilliard School, one of the first jazz musicians

to do so. Wilson’s relationship with

Goodman was his most noted, and was

an ongoing factor in his work. He was

part of Goodman’s storied Soviet tour

in 1962, and continued to work

occasional festival gigs with the

enigmatic clarinetist.

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PIANIST ARRANGER EDUCATOR

1934-35, Classics, 1934-35

Benny Goodman, The Complete Small 

Group Recordings, RCA, 1935-39

Masters of Jazz, Vol. 11, Storyville, 1968-80

With Billie in Mind, Chiaroscuro, 1972

Runnin’ Wild, Black Lion, 1973

Photo by Rolf Ambor/CTSIMAGES

Teddy

Wilson

Born November 24, 1912 in Austin, TX

Died July 31, 1986
NEA Jazz Masters 107

Born in Springfield, Massachusetts, Philip

Wells Woods has devoted himself to

the alto saxophone since the age of

12. As a teenager, he briefly took private

lessons in improvisation from Lennie

Tristano and also studied for a summer

at the Manhattan School of Music. In

1948, he enrolled in the Juilliard

School, where he remained through

1952, majoring in clarinet

performance. While at Juilliard, he

played for a brief period in Charlie

Barnet’s dance band. Subsequently, he

worked with leaders including George

Wallington (replacing Jackie McLean), Kenny

Dorham, and Friedrich Gulda and then, joining with

one of his musical idols, traveled to the Near East and South

America with Dizzy Gillespie. 

By now established as one of the most brilliant alto 

saxophonists in jazz, Woods went on to perform in Buddy

Rich’s quintet and toured Europe with Quincy Jones (1959-

60) and the U.S.S.R. with Benny Goodman (1962). From

1964 to 1967, Woods took a summer break from the

bandstand, teaching at the Ramblerny performing arts camp

in New Hope, Pennsylvania. Meanwhile, still much in

demand, he performed in New York in 1967 both as the

leader of his own quartet (featuring Hal Galper, Richard

Davis, and Dottie Dodgion) and as a member of Clark

Terry’s big band. 

In 1968, Woods moved to France and

formed the European Rhythm Machine quartet,

with George Gruntz on keyboards, Henri Texier

on bass, and Daniel Humair on drums. His

talent as a composer blossomed during this

period, when he wrote music for Danish

and Belgian radio and composed a ballet

for French television. After disbanding the

quartet in 1972, Woods returned to the

United States, settled in Delaware Water

Gap, Pennsylvania, and formed a jazz group

with Mike Melillo, Steve Gilmore, and Bill

Goodwin. With this ensemble, he staked his

claim to being the finest alto saxophonist in

mainstream jazz, a reputation confirmed by his

performances on Images (1975, with Michel Legrand),

Live from the Showboat (1976), and Billy Joel’s 1977 hit

recording, “Just the Way You Are,” all of which received

Grammy Awards. 

In 1975, he received an NEA Music grant that he used to

compose the work “The Sun Suite,” one of more than 200

songs Woods has composed. He has recorded several

albums with new arrangements of famous composers—such

as Antonio Carlos Jobim, Tadd Dameron, Quincy Jones, and

Henry Mancini—and in 2006 released a well-received

album of standards, American Songbook. He remains active

internationally as a bandleader, composer-arranger, and

soloist.

Rights of Swing, Candid, 1960

Live at the Montreux Jazz Festival,

MGM/Verve, 1969

I Remember, Gryphon, 1978

Encontro, Philology, 2000

Plays Woods, Philology, 2004

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Photo by Michael Wilderman

COMPOSER ARRANGER SAXOPHONIST BANDLEADER EDUCATOR

C

O

M

P

O

S

E

R

/A

R

RA

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G

E

R

Phil

Woods

Born November 2, 1931 in Springfield, MA
108 NEA Jazz Masters

NEA Jazz Masters 

Award Ceremony

Each year since 1991, NEA Jazz Masters events have been held during the

International Association for Jazz Education (IAJE) annual conference. Events

include a luncheon for all attending NEA Jazz Masters (and a group photo),

portraits of the new class of honorees, and a special concert and awards

ceremony. Below are a few candid moments from the last five years.

Hank Jones, Barry Harris, Billy Taylor 

Photo by Tom Pich

David Baker,

Freddie Hubbard,

James Moody 

Photo by Tom Pich

Ornette Coleman

Photo by Katja von Schuttenbach

Frank Wess, Gerald Wilson, Jon Hendricks 

Photo by Tom Pich

Jimmy Smith, Kenny

Burrell, Slide Hampton,

Paquito D'Rivera

Photo by Vance Jacobs

Chico Hamilton,

Roy Haynes

Photo by Vance Jacobs

Chick Corea,

Roy Haynes,

Ron Carter

Photo by Tom Pich

Benny Golson,

Jimmy Heath,

Percy Heath 

Photo by Tom Pich
NEA Jazz Masters 109

1982ROY

ELDRIDGE*

DIZZY

GILLESPIE*

SUNRA*

1983COUNT

BASIE*

KENNY

CLARKE*

SONNY

ROLLINS

1984ORNETTE

COLEMAN

MILESDAVIS*

MAX

ROACH*

1985GIL

EVANS*

ELLA

FITZGERALD*

J

OJONES*

1986BENNY

CARTER*

DEXTER

GORDON*

TEDDY

WILSON*

1987CLEO

BROWN*

MELBA

LISTON*

JAY

MCSHANN*

1988ART

BLAKEY*

LIONEL

HAMPTON*

BILLY

TAYLOR

1989BARRY

HARRIS

HANKJONES

SARAHVAUGHAN*

1990GEORGE

RUSSELL

CECILTAYLOR

GERALDWILSON

1991DANNY

BARKER*

BUCK

CLAYTON*

ANDY

KIRK*

CLARK

TERRY

1992BETTY

CARTER*

DOROTHY

DONEGAN*

SWEETSEDISON*

1993JON

HENDRICKS

MILTHINTON*

JOE

WILLIAMS*

1994LOUIE

BELLSON

AHMADJAMAL

CARMENMCRAE*

1995RAY

BROWN*

ROY

HAYNES

HORACESILVER

1996TOMMY

FLANAGAN*

BENNY

GOLSON

J.J. JOHNSON*

1997BILLY

HIGGINS*

MILT

JACKSON*

ANITA O’DAY

*

1998RON

CARTER

JAMESMOODY

WAYNESHORTER

1999DAVE

BRUBECK

ARTFARMER*

JOE

HENDERSON*

2000DAVID

BAKER

DONALDBYRD

MARIANMCPARTLAND

2001JOHN

LEWIS*

JACKIE

MCLEAN*

RANDY

WESTON

2002FRANK

FOSTER

PERCYHEATH*

M

CCOYTYNER

2003JIMMY

HEATH

ELVINJONES*

ABBEYLINCOLN

2004JIM

HALL

CHICOHAMILTON

HERBIEHANCOCK

LUTHERHENDERSON*

NAT

HENTOFF

NANCYWILSON

2005KENNY

BURRELL

PAQUITO D’RIVERA SLIDE HAMPTON SHIRLEY HORN* JIMMY SMITH* ARTIE SHAW* GEORGE WEIN

2006RAY

BARRETTO*

TONY

BENNETT

BOBBROOKMEYER

CHICKCOREA

BUDDYDEFRANCO

FREDDIEHUBBARD

JOHNLEVY

2007TOSHIKO

AKIYOSHI

CURTISFULLER

RAMSEYLEWIS

DANMORGENSTERN

JIMMYSCOTT

FRANKWESS

PHILWOODS

2008CANDIDO

CAMERO

ANDREWHILL*

QUINCY

JONES

TOMMCINTOSH

GUNTHERSCHULLER

JOEWILDER

1982–2008 * DECEASED
Jazz Moments with

NEA Jazz Masters

Audio CD 

With an eye—or ear—towards giving the

public more information about great jazz

artists, the NEA is producing a series of

Jazz Moments, which are being aired by XM

Satellite Radio on 12 of its channels, including Real

Jazz, CNN, Take 5, Oprah and Friends, and Fox

News. Jazz Moments run in random rotation

throughout the day on each of the channels.

The 60-to-90-second segments are short

interviews with legendary and contemporary artists

about their own work and that of other artists. They

include musical samples, historical information,

and first-person anecdotes designed to give

listeners added insight into NEA Jazz Masters and

their art. From the nearly 100 segments that were

created, more than 40 were gathered on 19 NEA

Jazz Masters to include on the accompanying audio

CD, produced by Molly Murphy exclusively for the

NEA. The CD, more than an hour long, travels the

entire history of jazz, from Dan Morgenstern

reminiscing about seeing Fats Waller play to Jimmy

Heath describing the music of his friend John

Coltrane to Phil Woods talking about how he

composes his current works. 

Delfeayo Marsalis, of the prestigious New

Orleans Marsalises, narrates the segments. Marsalis

was classically trained at the Eastern Music

Festival, Tanglewood Institute, and Berklee College

of Music, but has focused primarily on production,

having produced more than 75 major-label

recordings—several of which have received

Grammy Awards and nominations—including

works by Harry Connick, Jr., Marcus Roberts, Spike

Lee, and Ellis, Branford, and Wynton Marsalis. As a

trombonist, Mr. Marsalis has toured internationally

with legendary jazz artists Art Blakey, Abdullah

Ibrahim, Elvin Jones, Slide Hampton, and Max

Roach, as well as touring and recording with his

own modern jazz ensemble. 

110 NEA Jazz Masters

Track Artist

1. Toshiko Akiyoshi (2007 NEA Jazz Master)

...the influence of Teddy Wilson 

...forming a big band

2. Ron Carter (1998 NEA Jazz Master)

...Herbie Hancock’s improvisational genius

...guitar-bass duets with Jim Hall

3. Buddy DeFranco (2006 NEA Jazz Master)

...the challenge of the clarinet

...the hit “Opus One”

...playing bebop

4. Curtis Fuller (2007 NEA Jazz Master)

...his life-changing experience 

...Art Blakey’s influence

...John Coltrane’s “Moment's Notice”

5. Jim Hall (2004 NEA Jazz Master)

...spiritual awakening 

...technique versus ideas

...his first meeting with Sonny Rollins

6. Chico Hamilton (2004 NEA Jazz Master)

...his first gig with Duke Ellington 

...dedication to the music

7. Slide Hampton (2005 NEA Jazz Master)

...on improvisation

...the role of life experience

8. Herbie Hancock (2004 NEA Jazz Master)

...becoming interested in jazz

...the popularity of “Watermelon Man”

...on Miles Davis 

9. Jimmy Heath (2003 NEA Jazz Master)

...music and personality and John Coltrane

...on big bands

...touring with Dizzy Gillespie

10. Nat Hentoff (2004 NEA Jazz Master)

...on Jim Hall

11. Shirley Horn (2005 NEA Jazz Master)

...on Miles Davis

...the influence of Erroll Garner

12. Ramsey Lewis (2007 NEA Jazz Master)

...his most influential teacher

...making “The ‘In’ Crowd”

...on improvisation

13. Abbey Lincoln (2003 NEA Jazz Master)

...writing “Let Up”

14. Marian McPartland (2000 NEA Jazz Master)

...getting advice from Ellington and Monk

15. Dan Morgenstern (2007 NEA Jazz Master)

...remembering Fats Waller

...on Billie Holiday 

...on Louis Armstrong

16. Jimmy Scott (2007 NEA Jazz Master)

...what makes a great vocalist

17. Artie Shaw (2005 NEA Jazz Master)

...hitting top C 

18. Frank Wess (2007 NEA Jazz Master)

...his mother’s influence

...Count Basie's leadership

...the Basie “family”

19. Phil Woods (2007 NEA Jazz Master)

...eating pie with Charlie Parker

...being kidnapped by Dizzy Gillespie

...on composing Jazz

Moments

Tracks
The National Endowment for the Arts is a public

agency dedicated to supporting excellence in the 

arts, both new and established; bringing the arts 

to all Americans; and providing leadership in arts 

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the arts, bringing great art to all 50 states, including

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