Guitarist James Stanley Hall was born on December 4, 1930 in Buffalo, New York. Hall attended the Cleveland Institute of Music and studied classical guitar with Vincente Gomez. During 1955-65 he was a member of some of the most important jazz groups of the era: the Chico Hamilton Quintet (1955-56), the Jimmy Giuffre Three (1956-59), […]

Five of the great veteran tenor-saxophonists shared the stage on July 15, 1979 at the North Sea Jazz Festival. With swinging support from pianist Hank Jones, bassist Gene Ramey and drummer Gus Johnson, Illinois Jacquet, Dexter Gordon, Arnett Cobb, Buddy Tate and Budd Johnson (each of whom were already quite active by the early 1940s […]

Pianist Wynton Kelly was born on December 2, 1931 in Brooklyn, New York. Kelly began playing piano when he was four but was largely self-taught although he studied the bass in high school. He began playing professionally quite young, in 1943, working for a few years primarily with r&b bands, touring the Caribbean when he […]

Electric bassist John Francis Anthony “Jaco” Pastorius III. was born on December 1, 1951 in Morristown, Pennsylvania. The son of singer-drummer Jack Pastorius, Jaco started on drums but gave it up after he hurt his wrist playing football when he was 13. At 17, he started learning acoustic bass but soon switched to bass guitar […]

Trumpeter, flugelhorn player and composer Randy Brecker was born on November 27, 1945 in Cheltenham, Pennsylvania. Randy is the brother of the late Michael Brecker, an immensely accomplished saxophonist with whom he collaborated frequently. Randy has applied his top-notch trumpet playing to a variety of settings: Horace Silver’s quintet, the fusion group Dreams, jazz-funk band […]

Keyboardist Lyle Mays passed away on February 10, 2020 at the age of 66 in Los Angeles. Mays was born November 27, 1953 in Wausaukee, Wisconsin; his father was a guitarist and his mother was a pianist. He began playing piano and organ at an early age and, while Bill Evans was an early inspiration, […]

Cornetist, composer and leader Nathaniel Adderley was born November 25, 1931 in Tampa, Florida. The younger brother of Cannonball Adderley, Nat began playing trumpet in 1946, switched permanently to cornet in 1950. After serving in the military during 1951-53 and working with Lionel Hampton during part of 1954-55, Adderley seemed destined to become a schoolteacher […]

Alto-saxophonist Paul Breitenfeld (Paul Desmond) was born on November 25, 1924 in San Francisco, California. His first instrument was the violin, he switched to clarinet when he was 12, and it was not until he was a freshman at college that he switched to the alto-sax. Desmond first met Dave Brubeck in 1944 when he […]

Tenor-saxophonist Coleman Hawkins was born on November 21, 1904 in Saint Joseph, Missouri. Hawkins at first played piano and cello, switching to the tenor-sax when he was nine and working professionally five years later. The earliest significant tenor-saxophonist (Isham Jones was one of the very few who preceded him), Hawkins developed his own large sound […]

Bassist Sam Jones was born on November 12, 1924 in Jacksonville, Florida. After working with the Tiny Bradshaw r&b band during 1953-55, he moved to New York and became immediately in demand. Jones worked with Kenny Dorham, Cannonball Adderley (1957), Dizzy Gillespie’s quintet (1958-59) and Thelonious Monk, making many record dates including for the Riverside […]