1-800-336-4627
Lionel Hampton - 100% match to Wardell Gray
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 
Bud Powell - 80% match to Wardell Gray
Earl Rudolph Powell, 27 September 1924, Harlem, New York City, New York, USA, d. 31 July 1966, New York City, New York, USA. After learning to play the piano in the classical tradition while still a child, Powell began working around New York’s Coney Island, where he played in a band featuring Valaida Snow around 1940. During the next couple of years he became a regular Read more 
Sonny Stitt - 70% match to Wardell Gray
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 
Billy Strayhorn - 68% match to Wardell Gray
29 November 1915, Dayton, Ohio, USA, d. 31 May 1967, New York City, New York, USA. Encouraged to play piano from early childhood, Strayhorn studied classical music. Fellow students included trumpeter Harry Herforth, drummer Mickey Scrima and guitarist Bill Esch. Strayhorn began composing and his ‘Concerto For Piano And Percussion’ was performed by himself and Scrim Read more 
Dexter Gordon - 63% match to Wardell Gray
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 
Wynton Kelly - 62% match to Wardell Gray
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 
Zoot Sims - 59% match to Wardell Gray
John Haley Sims, 29 October 1925, Inglewood, California, USA, d. 23 March 1985, New York City, New York, USA. Sims played clarinet in grade school but took up the tenor saxophone to work with singer Kenny Baker in 1941. He played with Bobby Sherwood from 1942-43, Sonny Durham in 1943 and the Benny Goodman big band in 1944. His recording debut was with Joe Bushkin’s smal Read more 
McCoy Tyner - 58% match to Wardell Gray
Alfred McCoy Tyner, 11 December 1938, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. Beginning in his early teens, Tyner studied piano formally for several years before joining the jazztet led by Benny Golson and Art Farmer in 1959. The following year he joined John Coltrane, with whom he had previously gigged in Philadelphia. He remained with Coltrane until 1965 in what became known as t Read more 
Slam Stewart - 58% match to Wardell Gray
Leroy Stewart, 21 September 1914, Englewood, New Jersey, USA, d. 10 December 1987, Binghamton, New York, USA. He studied bass at Boston Conservatory, having earlier played violin. Almost from the start of his career, Stewart was experimenting with his distinctive style in which he bowed the bass while humming in unison, an octave higher. John Chilton suggests that the concep Read more 
Dizzy Gillespie - 55% match to Wardell Gray
John Birks Gillespie, 21 October 1917, Cheraw, South Carolina, USA, d. 6 January 1993, Englewood, New Jersey, USA. Born into a large family, Gillespie began playing trombone at the age of 12 and a year or so later took up the trumpet. Largely self-taught, he won a musical scholarship but preferred playing music to formal study. In 1935 he quit university and went to live in Read more 
Benny Carter - 51% match to Wardell Gray
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 
Illinois Jacquet - 51% match to Wardell Gray
Jean Baptiste Illinois Jacquet, 31 October 1922, Boussard, Louisiana, USA, d. 22 July 2004, Queens, New York City, New York, USA. Raised in Texas, Jacquet started out on drums, later switching to alto and soprano saxophones. He worked in the popular territory band led by Milt Larkin and after stints with other units ended up on the west coast, where he was invited to join Li Read more 
Bobby Hutcherson - 50% match to Wardell Gray
27 January 1941, Los Angeles, California, USA. After formal tuition on piano, Hutcherson switched to playing jazz vibraphone when he heard records by Milt Jackson. He worked briefly on the west coast then, in 1961, moved to New York, where he established himself as an inventive, forward-thinking musician. He played with many of the outstanding artists of the 60s, among them Read more 
Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis - 49% match to Wardell Gray
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 
Gene Ammons - 48% match to Wardell Gray
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
Artist matches
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
To place an order or for customer service, call toll-free 1-800-336-4627 or outside the United States, call 1-610-649-7565
Open Monday - Friday: 7am-10pm, Saturday: 9am-9pm, Sunday: 10am-8pm (Eastern Time) |
