Trumpeter and cornetist Bob Barnard passed away on May 7, 2022 at the age of 88. He was born in Melbourne, Australia on Nov. 24, 1933, the younger brother of drummer Len Bernard. Barnard, who developed into one of the most important jazz trumpeters of Australia, worked with his parent’s dance band starting in 1947, […]

Pianist Theodore “Teddy” Wilson was born on November 24, 1912 in Austin, Texas. Wilson studied clarinet, oboe, violin and piano and attended the Tuskegee Institute, eventually choosing to concentrate on the piano. He picked up early experience playing with Speed Webb’s orchestra (1929-31), settling in Chicago and working with Erskine Tate, Eddie Mallory, Jimmie Noone, […]

Louise Tobin passed away on Nov. 26, 2022 at the age of 104. She was the last person alive who had recorded before 1940. She was born on Nov. 11, 1918 in Aubrey, Texas and was a singer by the time she was 14. In 1935 when she was 16, she married a 19-year old […]

Flutist and saxophonist Hubert Laws was born on November 10, 1939 in Houston, Texas. Laws’s musical endeavors encompass a wide array of genres; at various points in his career, he worked with classical orchestras, small jazz combos, and even the jazz poet Gil-Scott Heron. Laws, along with Herbie Mann and Eric Dolphy, is regarded as […]

Guitarist Russell Malone was born November 8, 1963 in Albany, Georgia. Originally interested in blues and country music, Malone turned towards jazz when he was 12 after seeing George Benson play with Benny Goodman on television. Self-taught, Malone worked locally in Georgia until he toured with Jimmy Smith (1988-90) and the Harry Connick Big Band […]

Trumpeter and composer Arturo Sandoval was born on November 6, 1949, in Artemisa, Cuba. In the early ‘70s, Sandoval was a member of the influential Afro-Cuban band Irakere. Before defecting to the United States in 1990, Sandoval led his own group that (at the behest of the Castro regime) stayed mostly in Cuba. His technically […]

Alto-saxophonist Lou Donaldson was born on November 1, 1926 in Badin, North Carolina. After attending the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University in the early 1940s, he served in the Navy during World War II. Originally a clarinetist, Donaldson permanently switched to alto after seeing Charlie Parker play. Donaldson worked locally in North Carolina […]

Trumpeter Clifford Brown was born on October 30, 1930 in Wilmington, Delaware. Brown sang in a family vocal quartet with his brothers as a youth and started playing trumpet when he was ten. After high school, he was a Math major for a short time at Delaware State University, switching to Maryland State College where […]

Sidney Bechet (1897-1959) was not only one of the very first jazz soloists to record but one of the most individual. Originally a New Orleans clarinetist who eventually switched exclusively to soprano, Bechet had his own sound, was a virtuoso, and was easily identifiable within two notes. During his last decade, he lived and played […]

Pianist-composer-arranger-bandleader Carla Bley passed away on Oct. 17, 2023 at the age of 87. She was born as Lovella May Borg on May 11, 1936 in Oakland. Bley sang (which she later gave up) and played piano from an early age. When she was 17, she moved to New York, worked as a cigarette girl […]