Ray Bryant › Similar Artists

Barry Harris - 98% match to Ray Bryant

Benny Green - 93% match to Ray Bryant

Hampton Hawes - 91% match to Ray Bryant

13 November 1928, Los Angeles, California, USA, d. 22 May 1977, Los Angeles, California, USA. Born into a musical family (his mother played piano for the church run by his Presbyterian minister father), Hawes taught himself to play piano by listening to records of 30s jazz piano giants, among them Earl ‘Fatha’ Hines and Fats Waller. He began to play professionally Read more

Horace Parlan - 78% match to Ray Bryant

19 January 1931, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. Parlan played piano from an early age, his first professional work being in R&B bands during the early and mid-50s. In 1957 he joined Charles Mingus in New York, later playing with Lou Donaldson, Booker Ervin, Eddie ‘Lockjaw’ Davis, Johnny Griffin, Rahsaan Roland Kirk and others. In the early 70s he settled in Den Read more

Alan Broadbent - 74% match to Ray Bryant

23 April 1947, Auckland, New Zealand. After studying piano and musical theory in his homeland, in the mid-60s Broadbent moved to the USA to study at the Berklee College Of Music. After studying with Lennie Tristano he began arranging for Woody Herman, his work appearing on the 1973 album, Giant Steps. In the 70s, Broadbent composed music in the classical form while simultane Read more

Marian McPartland - 74% match to Ray Bryant

Margaret Marian Turner, 20 March 1920, Slough, Berkshire, England. Prior to World War II, McPartland played British music halls as a member of a four-piano group led by Billy Mayerl. While touring with ENSA (the British equivalent of America’s USO), she met and married Jimmy McPartland. At the end of the war she went to the USA with her husband, quickly establishing a r Read more

Cedar Walton - 71% match to Ray Bryant

Cedar Anthony Walton, 17 January 1934, Dallas, Texas, USA. After being taught piano by his mother, Walton studied music formally. In the mid-50s his early career was interrupted by military service, but he was fortunate in that this allowed him to meet and play with several emerging jazz musicians, including Don Ellis. After leaving the armed forces, he played in and around Read more

Junior Mance - 66% match to Ray Bryant

Julian Clifford Mance, Jnr., 10 October 1928, Chicago, Illinois, USA. Taught piano by his father, a professional jazz musician, Mance was playing professionally long before he entered his teenage years. In the late 40s, still in his teens, he joined a band led by Gene Ammons and in 1950 worked with Lester Young. After military service, he gained a residency at a Chicago jazz Read more

Kenny Drew - 65% match to Ray Bryant

28 August 1928, New York City, New York, USA, d. 4 August 1993, Copenhagen, Denmark. A child prodigy, Drew studied piano and music, making his first records in 1949 with Howard McGhee. In the 50s, he was much in demand for recording and club sessions by mainstream and modern musicians such as Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young and Charlie Parker. He worked regularly with Buddy De Read more

Hank Jones - 64% match to Ray Bryant

Henry Jones, 31 July 1918, Vicksburg, Mississippi, USA. Eldest of three remarkable brothers in jazz (Thad Jones and Elvin Jones), Hank Jones was raised in Pontiac, Michigan and by the beginning of his teenage years played piano professionally in local bands. In 1944 he went to New York where he joined the Oran ‘ Hot Lips’ Page band. Although Jones had previously b Read more

Red Garland - 63% match to Ray Bryant

William M. Garland, 13 May 1923, Dallas, Texas, USA, d. 23 April 1984, Dallas, Texas, USA. Garland turned to the piano in his late teens, having earlier studied and played reed instruments. Although initially inspired by mainstream artists, he moved into bebop in the late 40s, accompanying Charlie Parker, Fats Navarro and others while still playing regularly with musicians s Read more

Wynton Kelly - 63% match to Ray Bryant

2 December 1931, Jamaica, West Indies, d. 12 April 1971, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Raised in New York, Kelly first played piano professionally with various R&B bands, where his musical associates included Eddie ‘Lockjaw’ Davis. In the early 50s, he played with Dizzy Gillespie, Dinah Washington and Lester Young. He recorded some fine sessions for Blue Note Recor Read more

Mulgrew Miller - 62% match to Ray Bryant

13 August 1955, Greenwood, Mississippi, USA. Miller learnt the piano while a child and studied music at university, at the same time playing in local gospel and R&B groups. After playing with Mercer Ellington’s Orchestra in the late 70s, he joined vocalist Betty Carter before moving on to the quintet of Woody Shaw and Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers (1983-86). He Read more

The Three Sounds - 61% match to Ray Bryant

Led by self-taught pianist Gene Harris (1 September 1933, Benton Harbour, Michigan, USA, d. 16 January 2000, Boise, Idaho, USA), the Three Sounds’ smooth mainstream jazz proved highly popular during a recording career that spanned over 10 years. After Harris left the army he played with several bands on the Midwest circuit, before befriending drummer Bill Dowdy in South Read more

John Hicks - 57% match to Ray Bryant

12 December 1941, Atlanta, Georgia, USA, d. 10 May 2006. Hicks began playing and studying piano while still a very small child, taking piano lessons from his mother. The family lived in Los Angeles, then in St. Louis, and he later attended Lincoln University in Missouri and the Berklee College Of Music. In the early 60s he went to New York where he became a member of Art Bla Read more