Illinois Jacquet › Similar Artists

Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis - 97% match to Illinois Jacquet

2 March 1922, New York City, New York, USA, d. 3 November 1986, Culver City, California, USA. Davis began to make his mark on the jazz scene in his home town when he worked at Clark Monroe’s Uptown House in the late 30s. Despite this establishment’s close ties with the emergence of bebop a few years later, Davis’ tenor saxophone playing was rooted in swing and Read more

Buck Clayton - 73% match to Illinois Jacquet

Wilbur Dorsey Clayton, 12 November 1911, Parsons, Kansas, USA, d. 8 December 1991, New York City, New York, USA. By his late teens Clayton was already an accomplished trumpeter, having worked locally in Kansas and briefly in California. He returned to the west coast, playing in several Los Angeles-based bands including that led by Charlie Echols. He also formed his own unit, Read more

Johnny Hodges - 72% match to Illinois Jacquet

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 - 69% match to Illinois Jacquet

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

Don Byas - 55% match to Illinois Jacquet

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

Serge Chaloff - 51% match to Illinois Jacquet

24 November 1923, Boston, Massachusetts, USA, d. 16 July 1957, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. Coming from a musical family, Chaloff studied formally on piano and clarinet but, entranced by the playing of Harry Carney, he taught himself to play baritone saxophone. In the early 40s he worked with a number of swing era big bands; however, his interest in the musical developments o Read more

Phil Woods - 49% match to Illinois Jacquet

2 November 1931, Springfield, Massachusetts, USA. Woods began playing alto saxophone as a child, studied later at the Juilliard School of Music in New York and by his early 20s had already made a significant mark on jazz. Playing hard bop and acknowledging Charlie ‘Bird’ Parker but never slavishly so, Woods became a vital force in jazz in the late 50s. He led his o Read more

Gene Ammons - 47% match to Illinois Jacquet

Eugene Ammons, 14 April 1925, Chicago, Illinois, USA, d. 6 August 1974, Chicago, Illinois, USA. Ammons chose to make the tenor saxophone his instrument in preference to the piano played by his father, the famous boogie-woogie exponent Albert Ammons. Gene left school at the age of 18 and within two years was a member of Billy Eckstine’s bebop-orientated big band. Despite Read more

Teddy Wilson - 46% match to Illinois Jacquet

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

Roy Eldridge - 45% match to Illinois Jacquet

David Roy Eldridge, 30 January 1911, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, d. 26 February 1989, Valley Stream, New York, USA. One of the chief figures in the established lineage of jazz trumpet playing, Eldridge paid his dues with territory bands in the Midwest, such as those of Speed Webb and Horace Henderson, before moving to New York in 1930. He then played with a number of ban Read more

Coleman Hawkins - 44% match to Illinois Jacquet

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

Paul Gonsalves - 44% match to Illinois Jacquet

12 July 1920, Boston, Massachusetts, USA, d. 15 May 1974, London, England. Gonsalves’ first professional engagement in Boston was on tenor saxophone with the Sabby Lewis band, in which he played both before and after his military service during World War II. On leaving Lewis he played with Count Basie from 1946-49, was briefly with Dizzy Gillespie, and then joined Duke Read more

Flip Phillips - 43% match to Illinois Jacquet

Joseph Edward Fillipelli, 26 March 1915, Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA, d. 17 August 2001, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA. Phillips initially played clarinet, working with trumpeter Frankie Newton, before switching to tenor saxophone in the late 20s. After playing in small groups in the New York area, Joe ‘Flip’ Phillips joined Woody Herman’s First Her Read more

Sonny Stitt - 43% match to Illinois Jacquet

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

Johnny Griffin - 37% match to Illinois Jacquet