93 articles
1920s in jazz
The 1920s in jazz, the Jazz Age: New Orleans jazz spread via Prohibition speakeasies, records, and radio; Armstrong's Hot Five (1925) and early big bands in Chicago and New York led to swing.
A Love Supreme
A Love Supreme is John Coltrane's four-part 1964 spiritual jazz suite for his classic quartet (Tyner, Garrison, Jones), recorded December 9, 1964 at Van Gelder Studios, released January 1965 on Impulse! A-77, later certified Platinum and added to the National Recording Registry.
Acid jazz
Acid jazz (club jazz) is 1980s-90s London-originated dance music fusing jazz, funk, soul, and hip-hop, named by DJs Gilles Peterson and Chris Bangs and popularized by the Acid Jazz Records label.
Altered scale
The altered scale, also called super Locrian or diminished whole-tone, is the seventh mode of the melodic minor scale, used in jazz over altered dominant seventh chords (G7alt) because it contains every altered tension and resolves smoothly to the following chord.
Bebop
Bebop, also called bop or rebop, is a 1940s American jazz style built on fast tempos, complex chord progressions, and harmonic improvisation, developed at Harlem's Minton's Playhouse by Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, and Kenny Clarke, and ancestral to cool jazz and hard bop.
Bebop scale
Bebop scale: any seven-note jazz scale with one chromatic passing tone added, making eight notes so chord tones land on downbeats in eighth-note runs. Main forms are bebop dominant (Mixolydian plus major 7th), bebop major, and bebop minor; codified by David Baker and Barry Harris.
Bill Evans discography
Bill Evans discography: recorded catalog of jazz pianist Bill Evans (1929–1980), from New Jazz Conceptions (1956) and the LaFaro–Motian Village Vanguard albums to The Bill Evans Album (1971, two Grammys) and posthumous Warner releases.
Billy Cobham
Billy Cobham (William Emanuel Cobham Jr.), Panamanian-American jazz drummer born 1944 in Colón, Panama; Miles Davis and Mahavishnu Orchestra founding drummer, Spectrum (1973) solo debut, open-handed fusion technique.
Birth of the Cool
Birth of the Cool, first titled on a 1957 Capitol LP, collects Miles Davis Nonet recordings from 1949–50 with Gil Evans, Gerry Mulligan, and John Lewis arrangements, French horn and tuba textures, and credit as a starting point of cool jazz.
Bitches Brew
Bitches Brew, Miles Davis's 1970 Columbia double album recorded August 1969 with Teo Macero, defined jazz fusion with electric instruments and edited improvisations, sold over 100,000 copies, and won a 1971 Grammy.
Bix Beiderbecke
Bix Beiderbecke (Leon Bix Beiderbecke) was a leading American jazz cornetist and composer from Davenport, Iowa, known for his recordings with the Wolverine and Goldkette orchestras.
Blue Note Records
Blue Note Records: American jazz label founded January 6, 1939, in New York by German immigrants Alfred Lion and Francis Wolff, known for the Van Gelder-engineered Blue Note sound, Reid Miles covers, and Universal Music Group ownership.
Blue Train (album)
Blue Train is John Coltrane's 1957 hard bop album, his second as leader and only one for Blue Note (BLP 1577), recorded at Van Gelder's Hackensack studio with Lee Morgan, Curtis Fuller, Kenny Drew, Paul Chambers, and Philly Joe Jones.
Bud Powell
Bud Powell (Earl Rudolph Powell, 1924–1966), American bebop pianist and composer from Harlem who translated Charlie Parker's horn language to the piano; father of modern jazz piano, composer of "Tempus Fugit" and "Un Poco Loco" era classics.
Candy Dulfer
Candy Dulfer, Dutch alto saxophonist (born 1969, Amsterdam), daughter of Hans Dulfer; funk-jazz crossover star behind Saxuality (1990), the hit Lily Was Here with Dave Stewart, and long collaboration with Prince.
Cheek to Cheek (album)
Cheek to Cheek (2014) is a jazz standards duet album by Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga on Columbia/Interscope. It debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, sold 130,521 first-week copies, and won the Grammy for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album.
Chet Baker
Chet Baker (Chesney Henry Baker Jr., 1929-1988), American jazz trumpeter and vocalist of West Coast cool jazz; star of Gerry Mulligan's pianoless quartet and Chet Baker Sings (1954); died in Amsterdam in 1988 after a hotel fall.
Chick Corea
Chick Corea (Armando Anthony Corea), American jazz pianist and composer (1941–2021); founder of Return to Forever, Miles Davis sideman, 23-time Grammy winner, composer of "Spain."
Chuck Mangione
Chuck Mangione (Charles Frank Mangione, 1940-2025) was an American flugelhorn and trumpet player from Rochester, New York, whose 1977 single "Feels So Good" hit No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100. Eastman graduate, Jazz Messengers alumnus, two-time Grammy winner.
Coleman Hawkins
Coleman Hawkins (1904–1969), nicknamed Bean and called the father of the tenor saxophone, was the first great jazz tenor saxophonist; his 1939 "Body and Soul" and chord-based vertical style, contrasting with Lester Young, shaped generations of players.
Coltrane changes
Coltrane changes, also known as the Coltrane matrix, Coltrane cycle, or multi-tonic changes, are a jazz harmonic system built on three tonal centers a major third apart, first heard in John Coltrane's 1959 recording "Giant Steps".
Cool jazz
Cool jazz: relaxed, arranged post-bebop jazz style of 1949–1955, launched by Miles Davis's Birth of the Cool nonet; also linked to West Coast jazz, Gil Evans, Mulligan, Brubeck, Chet Baker.
Crime jazz
Crime jazz, also called noir jazz, is a hard-edged, cinematic strain of mid-century American jazz made for film noir and crime and detective television of the 1950s and 1960s.
David Sanborn
David Sanborn (1945-2024), American alto saxophonist of jazz fusion and smooth jazz; six Grammys, eight gold and one platinum album; solo on Bowie's "Young Americans"; died of prostate cancer.
Dexter Gordon
Dexter Gordon (1923-1990) was an American bebop tenor saxophonist from Los Angeles, known for 'The Chase,' Blue Note albums like Go!, his Copenhagen years, and his Oscar-nominated role in 'Round Midnight.
Earl Hines
Earl "Fatha" Hines (1903-1983), American jazz pianist and bandleader from Duquesne, Pennsylvania, creator of the octave-based "trumpet style"; 1928 Armstrong recordings, Grand Terrace big band, mentor to Parker and Gillespie.
Elvin Jones
Elvin Ray Jones (1927–2004) was an American jazz drummer with the John Coltrane Quartet from 1960, known for a polyrhythmic style that changed jazz drumming.
Freddie Hubbard
Freddie Hubbard (Frederick Dewayne Hubbard, 1938–2008), American jazz trumpeter and flugelhornist from Indianapolis; Blue Note leader of Open Sesame and Ready for Freddie, Jazz Messengers trumpeter, CTI crossover star, NEA Jazz Master 2006.
Gene Krupa
Gene Krupa (Eugene Bertram Krupa, 1909-1973), American swing drummer and bandleader with Benny Goodman from 1934; first drum superstar, famed for the 'Sing, Sing, Sing' solo, his own orchestra, and the Buddy Rich drum battles.
George Benson discography
George Benson discography: catalog of the Pittsburgh-born jazz guitarist (born 1943), from 1964's The New Boss Guitar through CTI albums, the platinum 1976 Breezin', Warner Bros. pop hits, and 2024's Dreams Do Come True.