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
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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
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Allan Warren Haig, 22 July 1924, Newark, New Jersey, USA, d. 16 November 1982, New York City, New York, USA. One of the first bop pianists, and for a time among the very best of them, Haig spent the second half of the 40s in excellent musical company. Active in the clubs of New York, he played with Charlie Bird Parker and Dizzy Gillespie and proved to be an outst
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Conrad Yeatis Clark, 21 July 1931, Herminie, near Elizabeth, Pennsylvania, USA, d. 13 January 1963, New York City, New York, USA. An underrated piano genius of the hard-bop era, Clark cast a glorious ray of sunshine over some of the Blue Note Records labels most memorable sessions. Art Tatum, one of his childhood heroes, and Count Basie, whose big band radio broadcasts
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Edward Haydn Higgins, 21 February 1932, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. After studying privately, with his mother, and at university, Higgins played piano in Chicago nightspots. Sometimes he led his own trio but he also played with a wide range of artists including Georg Brunis, Al Grey, Coleman Hawkins, Freddie Hubbard and Ira Sullivan. Higgins held a residency at Chicago
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John Lenwood McLean, 17 May 1932, New York City, New York, USA, d. 31 March 2006, Hartford, Connecticut, USA (some sources cite 1931 as his year of birth). Coming as he did from a musical background (McLeans father played guitar with the Tiny Bradshaw band), Jackie was encouraged by family friends who included Bud Powell. It was through Powell that alto saxophonist McL
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Malcolm Earl Waldron, 16 August 1926, New York City, New York, USA, d. 2 December 2002, Brussels, Belgium. After studying piano and composition formally, Waldron began playing professionally with a succession of R&B bands. He also recorded with Ike Quebec and from 1954 was a regular associate of Charles Mingus. Waldrons own mid-50s band enjoyed a measure of success
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16 April 1923, Chicago, Illinois, USA, d. 23 March 1977, San Diego, California, USA. After playing locally for a while during his teenage years, trombonist Green joined the bebop-orientated Earl Fatha Hines band in 1942. He continued to be associated with Hines until the early 50s, his spells with the band being interrupted by military service and periods working
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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
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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 Yorks Coney Island, where he played in a band featuring Valaida Snow around 1940. During the next couple of years he became a regular
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McKinley Howard Dorham, 30 August 1924, Fairfield, Texas, USA, d. 5 December 1972, New York City, New York, USA. After learning to play trumpet while at high school, Dorham played in several late 40s big bands, including Lionel Hamptons and, more significantly given his musical leanings, the bop-orientated outfits of Dizzy Gillespie and Billy Eckstine. He was originall
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10 July 1938, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, d. 19 February 1972, New York City, New York, USA. Prodigiously talented, Morgan played trumpet professionally at the age of 15 and three years later joined Dizzy Gillespies big band. During this same period he recorded with John Coltrane, Hank Mobley and others. In 1958 the Gillespie band folded and Morgan joined Art Blak
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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
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