October 4, 1999 Arthur Stewart Farmer, jazz trumpeter and flugelhorn player, died. Farmer was born August 21, 1928 in Council Bluff, Iowa but raised in Phoenix, Arizona. He began his musical education by studying the piano and violin. He moved to Los Angeles, California at the age of 16 and worked as a musician from […]
Tag Archives | NEA Jazz Master
September 28th in African American History – Miles Dewey Davis III
September 28, 1991 Miles Dewey Davis III, jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and composer, died. Davis was born May 26, 1926 in Alton, Illinois. By the age of 16, Davis was a member of the musical society and playing professionally. In 1944, he moved to New York City to study at the Juilliard School of Music. In […]
September 7th in African American History – Theodore Walter “Sonny” Rollins
September 7, 1930 Theodore Walter “Sonny” Rollins, jazz tenor saxophonist and composer, was born in New York City. Rollins received his first saxophone at 13 and first recorded in 1949. By 1954, Rollins had recorded with such jazz giants as Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, and Thelonious Monk. By 1956, Rollins was leading his own groups […]
September 3rd in African American History – Jonathan David Samuel “Jo” Jones
September 3, 1985 Jonathan David Samuel “Jo” Jones, influential jazz drummer, died. Jones was born October 7, 1911 in Chicago, Illinois but raised in Birmingham, Alabama. He worked as a drummer and tap dancer at carnival shows until joining Walter Page’s band in the late 1920s. In 1933, Jones joined Count Basie’s band and he […]
August 31st in African American History – Lionel Leo Hampton
August 31, 2002 Lionel Leo Hampton, jazz vibraphonist and band leader, died. Hampton was born April 20, 1908 in Louisville, Kentucky. While still a teenager, he played the xylophone and drums. In 1936, he joined the Benny Goodman Quartet, making it one of the first racially integrated jazz groups to record and play before wide […]
August 16th in African American History – Maxwell Lemuel Roach
August 16, 2007 Maxwell Lemuel Roach, jazz percussionist, drummer and composer, died. Maxwell Roach was born January 10, 1924 in Newland, North Carolina. At the age of 10, Roach was playing drums in gospel bands and by 18 he was playing in jazz clubs. Roach’s most significant innovations came in the 1940s when he devised […]
July 31st in African American History – Theodore Shaw “Teddy” Wilson
July 31, 1986 Theodore Shaw “Teddy” Wilson, jazz pianist, died. Wilson was born November 24, 1912 in Austin, Texas. He studied piano and violin at Tuskegee Institute. In 1935, Wilson joined the Benny Goodman Trio, becoming the first black musician to perform in public with a previously all-white group.