Ben Webster › Similar Artists

Lester Young - 100% match to Ben Webster

Lester Willis Young, 27 August 1909, Woodville, Mississippi, USA, d. 15 March 1959, New York City, New York, USA. Born into a musical family, Young was taught several instruments by his father. As a child he played drums in the family’s band, but around 1928 he quit the group and switched to tenor saxophone. His first engagements on this instrument were with Art Bronson Read more

Coleman Hawkins - 88% match to Ben Webster

Coleman Randolph Hawkins, 21 November 1904, St. Joseph, Missouri, USA, d. 19 May 1969, New York City, New York, USA. Coleman Hawkins (aka ‘Bean’ and ‘Hawk’) is a colossus of the tenor saxophone, and hence of jazz. He was the first to use the instrument as a serious means of expression and continued to be open to new developments for 40 years. Starting pia Read more

Johnny Hodges - 75% match to Ben Webster

John Cornelius Hodge, 25 July 1907, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, d. 11 May 1970, New York City, New York, USA. One of the greatest alto saxophonists in jazz, Hodges first tried other instruments before settling upon the one that would best serve his glorious romanticism. Largely self-taught, Hodges played in a number of minor bands in Boston and New York in the early 20s b Read more

Benny Carter - 74% match to Ben Webster

Bennett Lester Carter, 8 August 1907, New York City, New York, USA, d. 12 July 2003, Los Angeles, California, USA. Carter was born and raised in the area of New York known as San Juan Hill, a tough neighbourhood. His working-class parents encouraged their children to take up music and Carter and his two sisters received piano tuition from their mother, Sadie Bennett Carter. Read more

Lionel Hampton - 54% match to Ben Webster

20 April 1908 (some claim 1909 and 1914), Louisville, Kentucky, USA, d. 31 August 2002, New York, USA. After living briefly in Louisville and Birmingham, Alabama, Hampton was taken to Chicago where he lived with his grandparents. They sent him to Holy Rosary Academy at Collins, Wisconsin, where he was taught the rudiments of military band drumming by a Dominican nun. Followi Read more

Don Byas - 53% match to Ben Webster

Carlos Wesley Byas, 21 October 1912, Muskogee, Oklahoma, USA, d. 24 August 1972, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. In his teens, Byas played alto saxophone with the Midwest bands of Bennie Moten, Terrence Holder and Walter Page, but switched to tenor in the early 30s while working on the west coast. He played in Lionel Hampton’s band at the Paradise Club in Los Angeles and, w Read more

Dexter Gordon - 51% match to Ben Webster

27 February 1923, Los Angeles, California, USA, d. 25 April 1990, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. Gordon began his musical career studying clarinet; by his mid-teens he had switched to tenor saxophone, on which instrument he played with Lionel Hampton in 1940. He stayed with Hampton for a little over two years, recording with the band and gaining in stature so that no less Read more

Gerry Mulligan - 49% match to Ben Webster

Gerald Joseph Mulligan, 6 April 1927, New York City, New York, USA, d. 19 January 1996, Darien, Connecticut, USA. Raised in Philadelphia, Mulligan started out on piano before concentrating on arranging. He also took up the saxophone, first the alto and a few years later the baritone. Among the name bands that used his arrangements were those led by Gene Krupa and Claude Thor Read more

Scott Hamilton - 49% match to Ben Webster

12 September 1954, Providence, Rhode Island, USA. As a child, Hamilton began playing clarinet, on which he had a few lessons, and piano. He then briefly played blues harmonica in a rock ‘n’ roll band. He took up tenor saxophone as a young teenager, teaching himself largely by listening to records in his father’s collection. These records were by jazzmen of the Read more

Oscar Peterson - 48% match to Ben Webster

15 August 1925, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, d. 23 December 2007, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. Blessed with an attractive stage personality, this behemoth of mainstream jazz’s fluid technique was influenced by Art Tatum, Errol Garner and, later, George Shearing. After studying trumpet, illness redirected Peterson to the piano. His enthusiasm resulted in endless hours of p Read more

Sonny Stitt - 46% match to Ben Webster

Edward Boatner Stitt, 2 February 1924, Boston, Massachusetts, USA, d. 22 July 1982, Washington, DC, USA. Starting out on alto saxophone, Stitt gained his early experience playing in the big bands led by Tiny Bradshaw and Billy Eckstine. Influenced by Charlie Parker and by the many fine young beboppers he encountered on the Eckstine band, Stitt quickly developed into a formid Read more

Art Pepper - 43% match to Ben Webster

1 September 1925, Gardena, Los Angeles, California, USA, d. 15 June 1982, Panorama City, California, USA. Pepper started out on clarinet at the age of nine, switching to alto saxophone four years later. After appearing in school groups, he first played professionally with Gus Arnheim’s band. During his mid-teens he developed his jazz style sitting in with otherwise all- Read more

Milt Jackson - 39% match to Ben Webster

1 January 1923, Detroit, Michigan, USA, d. 9 October 1999, New York City, New York, USA. Jackson’s first professional engagement, at the age of 16, was in his home town, playing the vibraphone alongside tenor saxophonist Lucky Thompson (one year his junior). Jackson benefited from the 40s loose attitude towards band personnel, spending six years accompanying visiting mu Read more

Paul Desmond - 39% match to Ben Webster

Teddy Wilson - 37% match to Ben Webster

Theodore Shaw Wilson, 24 November 1912, Austin, Texas, USA, d. 31 July 1986, New Britain, Connecticut, USA. Born into a middle-class family, Wilson grew up in Tuskegee where his parents moved to take up teaching posts at the university. He studied violin and piano at Tuskegee and later extended his studies at college in Alabama. In 1929, by now concentrating on piano, he bec Read more