Jazz Legends

Brazilian singer/songwriter Ivan Lins (born June 16, 1945), has been active for over fifty years. His composition 'Love Dance', a hit in 1989, is one of the most recorded songs in contemporary music. He has won several Latin Grammy awards and his tunes have been recorded by myriad artists, a veritable who’s who of the jazz world.

Vibraphonist / composer Bobby Hutcherson (born  January 27, 1941), was inspired to take up the vibraphone at the age of twelve after hearing Milt Jackson, and became the inspiration for younger musicians like Joe Locke, Stefon Harris, and Steve Nelson. He recorded for Blue Note records from 1963 to 1977, longer than anyone else was associated with that label with the exception of Horace Silver.

Pianist/composer Michel Legrand (born Feb 24, 1932) is credited with composing over 200 film and television scores. He was active in the jazz world for most of his life. A musical milestone was his recording "Legrand Jazz" which released in 1958 and featured luminaries like Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bill Evans, Hank Jones and many others. His recordings over the years featured his virtuoso piano...

William “Count” Basie, (born August 21, 1904) was a pianist, organist and composer who lead one of the greatest big bands of all time for 50 years. The band still performs hundreds of dates throughout the world to this day. Over the years, a procession of jazz giants have passed through the band: Lester Young, Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis, Frank Foster, Frank Wess, and Thad Jones, just to name a few. 

Songwriter Jimmy McHugh (born July 10, 1894) was one of the most prolific songwriters from the 1920s through the 1950s, credited with over 500 songs. His songs have long been favorites of jazz musicians for their interesting harmonic and melodic content. The tunes "On the Sunny Side of the Street", "I Can’t Give You Anything But Love", "Don’t Blame Me", "Exactly Like You", "I’m In the Mood For Lov...

Pianist, composer Bud Powell (born September 7, 1924) was one of the primary innovators of bebop. His prodigious technique and strong sense of swing placed him head and shoulders above all his contemporaries. His struggles with mental issues sadly affected his career, particularly later in life.

Since even before the advent of “talkies” music has been an integral part of motion pictures. Even small cinemas often had a pianist or organist who contributed musical accompaniment to the action on screen, but with the advent of sound, the music composed and synchronized with the action on screen and became an integral part of every film from then on. Great songwriters were drawn to work in Holl...

Victor Young, born in Chicago (August 8, 1899), started playing the violin at the age of six and was sent to live with his grandfather in Poland when he was ten. He attended the Warsaw Conservatory, and while still a teenager, embarked on a career as a concert violinist with the Warsaw Philharmonic. World War I kept him from returning to the United States until 1920, when he took a job performing...

Ray Noble, born Dec 17th, 1903, was a British big band leader responsible for composing a number of songs that have become standards. Jazz musicians have long played his tune Cherokee, with its bridge that traverses a number of far-flung key centers foreign to the tune’s home key, but he is also responsible for The Very Thought of You, I Hadn’t Anyone Till You, Goodnight Sweetheart, The Touch of Y...

Woody Shaw (born Dec 24, 1944) was one of the most influential and prolifically virtuostic trumpet players and jazz composers of the twentieth century. In his brief career (he died at the young age of 44) he was pivotal in applying many of the harmonic and technical innovations of saxophonist John Coltrane to the trumpet, and his compositions celebrated those innovations as well, pushing the  boun...

The Jazz Evensong Quintet continues its tradition of kicking off a new season with a celebration of traditional jazz. New Orleans is widely considered the birthplace of jazz music, and this style is still universally admired and practiced throughout the world. Devotees of such artists as Louis Armstrong, Sidney Bechet, King Oliver, Jelly Roll Morton, Bix Beiderbecke and many others, are still insp...

Music is an integral part of any Christmas celebration and over the years, jazz musicians and popular songwriters have contributed their art to celebrate the season. The repertoire includes traditional carols done up in jazz style as well as Great American Songbook tunes written especially for the season of light. At St. Michael’s by-the-Sea on December 14th, our Jazz Family Christmas event includ...

Pianist McCoy Tyner ( born December 11, 1938) is perhaps best remembered for his association as the youngest member of the John Coltrane Quartet, but his long career as a band leader in his own right eclipses even that of his association with the legendary saxophonist. He was an NEA Jazz Master and five-time Grammy winner and recorded over eight albums as a leader, and many more as a sideman. He w...

Pianist Dave Brubeck (born December 6, 1920) and saxophonist Paul Desmond (born November 25, 1924), along with bassist Eugene Wright and drummer Joe Morello, formed one of the most popular jazz quartets ever assembled. They were responsible for over 60 albums, and Desmond’s composition “Take Five” became the biggest selling jazz single of all time and an unlikely hit on pop charts as well. The gro...

While often overshadowed by his association with his longtime employer and collaborator Duke Ellington, composer/arranger and pianist Billy Strayhorn (born November 29, 1915) was no less a genius in his own right. In a life cut short by cancer at the age of 51, he produced a huge catalog of original music, all of it bearing his unique harmonic and melodic stamp. In his autobiography and in a spoke...

Songwriter Hoagy Carmichael (born November 22, 1899) is one of the best-loved and most prolific of the Great American Songbook composers. He is responsible for several hundred songs, including fifty that achieved hit record status. His timeless compositions, Stardust, Georgia on my Mind, Skylark, I Get Along Without You Very Well, The Nearness of You, How Little We Know and many others still inspi...

Saxophonist Phil Woods (born November 2, 1931) was much more than just another alto saxophonist who followed in the footsteps of the great Charlie Parker. Throughout his career, he carved his own path, continuing to develop his own voice on the instrument, as well as his voice as a prolific composer. He delved into the avant-guarde with his group 'The European Rhythm Machine' for several years whe...

Before his life was tragically ended by an automobile accident at the age of 25, trumpeter Clifford Brown (born October 30, 1930) set the jazz world ablaze with his seemingly effortless mastery of his instrument and incendiary playing. His trailblazing quintet with drummer Max Roach and saxophonists Sonny Rollins, and later, Harold Land, set the standard for the post bop era, and many of the compo...

Saxophonist Charlie “Yardbird” Parker (born  August 29, 1920) and trumpeter John Birks “Dizzy” Gillespie (born October 21, 1917) together revolutionized jazz music with their harmonic and rhythmic innovations. Both virtuosos on their respective instruments, they basically set the standard for others to aspire to. While Parker’s life was cut short by his addictive, self destructive life style, he s...

Pianist / composer Thelonius Sphere Monk (born October 10, 1917), often referred to as the 'High Priest of Bebop', was one of the founders of the musical movement, alongside Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie at Minton’s Playhouse in Harlem. His idiosyncratic piano style and compositions are so distinctive as to be immediately identifiable as completely his own. His total originality is undeniable...

Pianist/composer Bill Evans (born August 16, 1929) remains one of the most influential jazz pianists to this day, some 45 years after his death. His introspective, impressionistic use of harmony, and his unique touch and piano sound have shaped the concept of all players who have come after him. He produced an enormous body of work: over 50 albums as a leader and nearly as many more as a sideman,...

Saxophonist Julian “Cannonball” Adderley (born September 15, 1928) and his cornet-playing brother Nat (born November 25, 1931) co-led a popular jazz combo for many years in the 1960s and 70s. While Nat composed much of the music for the group, Cannonball’s galvanic,  pyrotechnic alto saxophone playing was the big draw. Indeed, from the time he arrived on the New York jazz scene in the 1950s, he se...

Saxophonist and composer John Coltrane (born September 23, 1926) remains one of the most revered and influential musicians of all time across genres. The spiritual force of his music speaks to people who aren’t even jazz aficionados, but has been an overwhelming influence on all of us who play this music to this day.   And don't forget ... St. Michael’s Jazz Fest returns for a second year of incre...

Trumpeter / composer Kenny Dorham (born August 30, 1924) is hardly a household name, but one would be hard pressed to name a musician held in as high regard by other jazz musicians. He played at a consistently high level throughout a career that included stints with Charlie Parker, Max Roach, Art Blakey, Joe Henderson to name just a few, and myriad excellent recordings under his own name. A number...

Saxophonist Sonny Rollins turns 95 this Sunday, and the Jazz Evensong Quintet honors this milestone by programming an afternoon of his compositions. Widely recognized as the greatest improviser of all time, his well of inspiration sometimes seems bottomless, and he refuses to fall back on licks and patterns on the rare occasion when he feels less than inspired. Sadly, health issues forced his reti...