Danish naturalized American trombonist and composer (Aarhus, 18.5.1922 - Yonkers, New York, 7.5.1983).

Raised in New York, where his family settled in 1934, he decided to play the trombone after the accordion. He made his debut in Shorty Allen's orchestras, Sonny Dunham and Alvino Ray (1940-41). During his military service, he plays in the group directed by trombone player Bill Schallen (1942-45).

After being part of the line-up of Benny Goodman (1945-46), he worked with Stan Kenton (1946-47), and when his orchestra disbanded, he joined Charlie Ventura (1947-48) and performed on 52nd Street in New York as a co-leader, together with Buddy Stewart, of a small group (1948-49). He works in New York studios as an independent soloist. He arranges with J.J. Johnson a quintet (1954-56) and later a sextet that includes four trombones.

In 1962 he was appointed music director of the Playboy Club of New York, where he performs from time to time. The following year he recorded the first of a series of records that gave him particular popularity, but that didn't have much to do with jazz. He replaces Carl Fontana for some time in the World's Greatest Jazz Band (1969), then plays in the orchestra of the Merv Grifin Show, then leaves for Los Angeles, where he plays a lot in the studio.

In 1977 he abandoned his recording studies and moved to Spain to devote himself more to composition. He has participated in numerous European festivals. In 1979 he organized another trombone duo with Curtis Fuller, The Giant Bones, and in 1982 he contacted J.J. Johnson to play in Japan. He passed away the following year following a brain tumor.

Kai Winding was, along with J.J. Johnson, one of the first to have adapted the contributions of bebop to the trombone. Influenced by Trummy Young and Jack Teagarden, he developed a vibrato-free sound that affected all of Stan Kenton's trombone section, giving it its original color. An excellent technician, he profoundly contributed to making the possibilities of his instrument recognized in a modern context.
​
[A.T.]

American vibraphonist (New York, 17.5.1920 - Palm Beach County, Florida, 12.10.2009).

He does his clarinet studies at Juilliard (1937-38). He then conducts various small orchestras before adopting the xylophone in 1940. Enlisted in May 1942 and until 1946, he is destined for the Aleutian Islands. Discharged, he buys a vibraphone and performs in and around New York.

In 1951 he joined Oscar Pettiford's group before replacing Don Elliott in George Shearing's quintet (September 1951-February 1953). As a co-leader with Howard McGhee, he leads a group before going on tour with Artie Shaw (September 1953 - February 1954). In New York, he founds a quintet (with Freddie Redd, Dick Garcia, Dante Martucci, and Ron Jefferson) that lasts over a year. He later directed various lineups in East Coast clubs.

It is perhaps because Joe Roland also started with the xylophone, which brings to mind Red Norvo and his playing style, corrected by the influences of Lionel Hampton and Milt Jackson. George Shearing's quintet and Artie Shaw's Gramercy Five were the perfect settings for his delicate and elegant style to blossom.
​
[A.T.]

Canadian arranger, pianist, and conductor (Toronto, 13.5.1912 - Cuernavaca, Mexico, 20.3.1988).

Self-taught, he made his debut in Stockton as the conductor of an orchestra that he led from 1933 to 1938, sometimes playing the piano with great discretion. In 1938, Skinnay Ennis took over the management of the complex; Gil Evans remains as an arranger with Claude Thornhill. In 1941 Thornhill founded his orchestra, and Evans followed him to New York, collaborating with him until 1948, excluding an interlude of military life (1943-46).

Now separated from Thornhill, he began a career as a free lance arranger. From 1948 to 1950 he collaborated in the development of the repertoire in Miles Davis' nonet, from which the famous << Birth Of The Cool >> was born. He composes arrangements for Billy Butterfield (1952-56), collaborates with Parker (1953) or Helen Merrill (for the Mercury company, 1956) ... and waits six years before getting a new writing with Miles Davis, where the famous < <Miles Ahead >> (1957), << Porgy And Bess >> (1958), << SketchesOf Spain >> (1959), as well as << At Carnegie Hall >> (1961) and << Quiet Night >> (1962 ).

At that time he also recorded records in his name: << Gil Evans + Ten >>, with Steve Lacy, Lee Konitz and Jimmy Cleveland (1957); << New Bottle Old Wine >>, with Cannonball Aderley and Frank Rehak (1958), and << Great Jazz Standards >>, with Lacy and Coles (1959). Little produced during the 1960s, but he continued his activity as arranger for Kenny Burrell with << Guitar Forms >> (1964) and for Astrud Gilberto: << Look To The Rainbow >> (1964-65). He continues to record under his own name: << Out Of The Cool >> with jimmy Knepper, Johnny Coles, Konitz and Budd Johnson (1960); << The Individualism Of Gil Evans >> (1963-64), << Gil Evans Orchestra, Kenny Burrell & Phil Woods >> (1964-65).

Since the late 1960s, he has been interested in the electronic synthesizer in search of new sounds, which he adds to his orchestras both in the studio and in clubs. In 1972 he was in Japan with singer Kimiko Kasai and pianist Masabumi Kikuchi and performed regularly in the United States. He makes << Svengali >> (1973), a “electric” album that arouses many controversies. Then, on the trail of the concert organized by the New York Jazz Repertory Company at Carnegie Hall (1974), she records a disc dedicated to compositions by Jimi Hendrix. It is produced in Montreaux and, for the first time in France, in Antibes.

Renew some classics: King Porter Stomp, The Meaning Of The Blues (1975). He tours and records in Europe: in Warsaw (1976), London (1978), Rome (1978), Germany (1978), then in the United States (Village Vanguard, 1975) and in the Antilles (1977). He plays in a trio, in duo with Lee Konitz (1980). He is invited to Seattle (1981) by the Composer & Improvisation Orchestra. In 1983 he performed at the Kool Jazz Festival and lent support to Miles Davis for the Star People. He records at Sweet Basil in New York (1984) and becomes a regular at the club, where his orchestra is produced every Monday.

While remaining autonomous, it manages to constitute a complex of some importance: Johnny Coles, Marvin Peterson, Lew Soloff, Jon Faddis, Steve Lacy, Arthur Blythe, David Sanborn, Billy Harper, George Adams, Hamiet Bluiett, Howard Johnson, Bob Steward, George Lewis, Warren Smith, Billy Cobham. Available for all meetings, for all experiences, he went to France several times, where he collaborated with the Orchestre National de Jazz (1986 and 1987) with the big band Lumière by Laurent Cugny (1987). Also, in 1987, with Helen Merrill, he made a remake of their first meeting (<<Collaboration>>) and recorded with Steve Lacy a duo that represents one of the infrequent occasions to hear him play long at the piano. His son, Miles Evans, a trumpeter, will conduct his father's orchestra after his death.

Gil Evans has upset the traditional big band organization. Valuing instruments such as the horn, the tuba - already tested by Thornhill - and the synthesizer, he dares to mix unheard-of timbres. Based on a tremendous harmonic sophistication, his impressionist style loves complex architectures in which effects of intensity and depth prevail. With his arrangements, this original soundbox manages to push the soloists further and further, giving them all the benefits of exceptional freedom.

The omnipresence of the blues, which accords with an innate melancholy, gives his music an essential character. He conducts more emotionally than formally. His insatiable curiosity and his youthful freshness as a disheveled artist make Gil Evans one of the very rare poets of the work in progress.
​
[J.L.A., C.B]

American double bass player, pianist, and composer (Burley, Idaho, 12.5.1935 - New York, 4.9.2020).

He starts studying piano and drums at school. He is interested in rock and roll, then in his early days, before approaching swing and bebop. Drummer in local orchestras, he left Idaho for Washington and then for Oregon (1952).

Determined to become a professional musician, he spends ten months at Wesley College of Music in Los Angeles after high school. During his military service in 1954, in Germany, he was pianist-flugelhorn of the regiment's orchestra and of a small local group taking advantage of the absence of the bass player to play the instrument. After his discharge, he works as a bass player in Federal Germany, with Hans Koller, Attila Zoller, Albert Mangelsdorff, Tony Scott, Bud Shank, and singer Gary Crosby.

In 1958 he returned to the United States and California. He collaborated with Shank, Paul Horn, Terry Gibbs, Barney Kessel, Shorty Rogers, Clare Fischer, Shelly Manne, Hampton Hawes, the Indian sitarist Ravi Shankar and Don Ellis, who introduced him to Paul Bley. In 1962 in New York, he launched into new musical experiences with the Bley trio, the formations of Jimmy Giuffre, Roland Kirk, Sonny Rollins, George Russell, Bill Evans (<< Trio 64 >>), Roswell Rudd, Steve Lacy, Archie Shepp. He also plays with Albert Ayler: in trio with Sunny Murray, in a quartet with Don Cherry, in 1964 (<< Spiritual Unity >>, << Ghosts >>).

After a European tour with Ayler, he stays in Europe for some time. He still records with Ayler in 1965 (<< Spirit Rejoice >>), works with Gil Evans, Miles Davis (with whom he is on tour and plays until 1966), plays with Tony Williams, Richard Davis, John Gilmore, then re-enters the Bley's orchestra, before abandoning music for some time. He goes to Japan to study Zen philosophy, collaborates with Jack DeJohnette (<< Have You Heard >>). He then records at the head of trios in which he occupies the position of leader (the first records in his name will be << Eastward >> and << Voices >>).

Back in the United States, he has taught macrobiotics and music in Seattle since 1972. In 1976 he returned to jazz and accompanied Paul Bley on his tour in Japan and Europe. In 1977 he recorded << Tales Of Another >> with DeJohnette and Keith Jarrett, and << December Poems >>, almost entirely solo. He plays with Bill Connors, performs with Ralph Towner, Jay Clayton, Julian Priester. Throughout the 1980s, he played in a trio with Jarrett and DeJohnette. In 1988 he accompanied Michel Petrucciani together with Roy Hynes.

He went on to perform with the Keith Jarrett trio (now renamed the Standards Trio), appearing on many recordings for the ECM label, some of which are also his name. At the same time, he has often collaborated with Paul Bley, also on record, and in carefully selected contexts, for example, the refined duo with pianist Marc Copland.

Struck by some health problems, he slowed down his business in the last few years of his life but remains one of the most important double bass players at the turn of the millennium. He wrote a book, Book For Improvising.

Acoustic expressiveness and great rhythmic freedom make Gary Peacock a double bass player of sonority rather than time. It can be recognized by its harsh, almost grainy sound, with round treble, prolonged notes, decisive attacks, and chord extensions (of ninth and thirteenth), double notes, and harmonics is frequent. This introverted musician stood out for his discreet, almost invisible vibrato, whose function is to act as a halo to the note and for his potential speed, which he rarely showed off.
​
[J.L.A., C.B]

American trombonist (Social Circle, Georgia, 11.5.1906 - New York, 26.5.1973).

He works as a waiter in his parents' restaurant, and in the meantime, he makes his first trombone performances in provincial orchestras. He goes to tailoring school in Cincinnati and then works as a mechanic in a General Motors workshop.

He made his professional debut with Wesley Helvey, Wingie Carpenter, and his group (1924-25). Arriving in New York, he plays with King Oliver, Chick Webb (1928), Luis Russell (1931), Fletcher Henderson (1932), Benny Carter (1933), Lucky Millinder (1934-36), Louis Armstrong (1937-40); together with Henry Allen he forms a group that performs at the Café Metropole in New York (1940-47). He founds an orchestra with which he plays in Boston. Joe Thomas and Rex Stewart appear as soloists and participate in the reconstitution of the orchestra of Fletcher Henderson (1947). He comes to Europe with Sammy Price and engages in the Newport festival (1963). After a tour in Scandinavia (1966), he returns to Atlanta, where he appears in numerous television broadcasts.

J.C. Higginbotham is one of the first great soloists in the history of jazz. Unlike other trombonists who still stick to a primitive style, he expresses himself with faster phrasing and vigorous attacks. Indeed, his style is very similar to that of trumpet players like Louis Armstrong, who is happily inspired.
​
[M.L.]

American trombone and banjo player, singer, and conductor (Mount Healthy, Ohio, 10.5.1907 - Plymouth, Maryland, 22.6.1979).

Coming from a family of musicians, after studying at Ohio State University, he began playing the banjo at the age of seventeen. Graduated from the Cincinnati Conservatory, he performed with local orchestras (banjo and trombone) before reaching Jean Goldkette's formation in Kansas City in late 1927-early 1928.

After working in Detroit in 1929, he became one of the founding members of the Casa Loma Band, directed by Glen Gray and performing as a singer. In May 1943, he left Gray and became a disc jockey in Hollywood, acted as a soloist, and in early 1945 joined the merchant navy. In 1946 Pee Wee Hunt created a small formation which he leads for a long time.

A thundering, parody version of Twelfth Street Rag recorded in 1946 makes him famous; Hunt is content to exploit the vein to the end. Nothing in his previous career seemed to lead him to follow that path. His chorus in the Casa Loma Orchestra highlighted an expressive, dynamic, but disciplined musician animated by a spirit of seriousness.
​
[A.T.]

After making his debut on sax and piano, he opts for trumpet while still a teenager. He plays in different student ensembles, then joins the orchestra of Ben Pollack (1933-34), Will Osborne (early 1935), works in the recording studios of New York, and becomes one of the founders of the Bob Crosby orchestra (1938- 39). He then joins Tommy Dorsey (1938-39) and gets several engagements before returning with Bob Crosbey (1941), who leaves for Benny Goodman in 1942.

He then devotes himself solely to studio work, then gives life to a formation (1951) with Bob Haggart. The latter, until 1960, recorded several records inspired by traditional jazz musicians: Jelly Roll Morton, King Oliver, Louis Armstrong. The World’s Greatest Jazz Band was born from this group in 1968, a formation that, dusting off the repertoire of classical jazz, welcomes very heterogeneous soloists. Often on tour, the group participates in numerous European festivals.

During the 1960s, Yank Lawson conducted his orchestra, played with Eddie Condon (alongside Peanuts Hucko, 1964-66), met Bob Crosby with whom he toured the East (1964). Forced to silence for a few years for health reasons, he participates in the reconstitution of the Crosby Orchestra. He co-directs a group with Haggart, performing during the 1980s in various European festivals, including the Grande Parade jazz in Nice (1981).

Lawson, one of the most prominent trumpet players in the Dixieland movement, is a very skilled technician at using mutes. His solos are brilliant and characterized by a classicism that does not exclude whimsy.
​
[J.P.D.]

American double bass player, tuba player, and arranger (Chicago, Illinois 1.5.1907 - New York, 29.12.1972).

At first, he plays drums, in particular with Jelly Roll Morton (1927-28), then he specializes in tuba, which he plays in the orchestras of Earl Hines (1928-30) and Jimmie Noone (1931). He joined the Mills Blue Rhythm Band, which he left in 1935 for Duke Ellington's orchestra, where he took over from Wellman Braud alongside Billy Taylor. He remained there until 1938.

He then forms a small band whose existence will be brief, and with trumpeter Freddy Jenkins he performs in the Blackbirds Show and is hired by Benny carter for his large orchestra playing at the Savoy. We then find him in the orchestras of Bobby Burnett, Louis Armstrong (1941-42), and Joe Sullivan's trio.

After his military service (1943-45), he played in several small bands (Gene Fields, Dave Martin, Harry Dial) before being hired as a double bass player by the Café Society of New York. At the same time, and without abandoning music, he deals with furniture, starts studying as a dental technician, and obtains an aeronautical pilot's license! In 1958 he returned to music full-time in Wilbur DeParis's band, with whom he participated in the Antibes festival (1960). He returns to Europe in 1970 with Jay McShann and Tiny Grimes.

In a big band, Alvis's is a robust and biting way of playing, like a great double bass player. In a small one, it is a real presence, ensured by an elegant and stimulating style.
​
[A.C.]

American trumpet player (Bessie, Tennessee, 30.4.1900 - Chicago, Illinois, 5.4.1983).

Settling in St Louis with his family, he learns to play drums and flugelhorn in a local orchestra. As part of school education, he then moved on to the trumpet (1911). After serving in the military, he returns to St Louis (1919) and performs on riverboats alongside Charlie Creath.

Settled in Chicago in 1921, he played with Honoré Dutrey's orchestra (at Lincoln Gardens) and then with King Oliver's, practically without interruption, from 1924 to 1927. Later, he was hired, among others, by Dave Peyton (1927), Charles Elgar (1928), Erskine Tate, the McKinney's Cotton Pickers (1931), Frankie Half Pint Jaxon (1932), Earl Hines, Fess Williams, Hot Lips Page, (at Small's Paradise, 1938).

At the beginning of the 1940s, he left the musical activity full time to resume it in 1957, with the Franz Jackson orchestra, in whose ranks he entertained until the mid-1960s.

Trumpeter, exponent of the New Orleans tradition, is a vehement musician, nevertheless capable of a great delicacy (Hotter Than That, with F. Jackson, 1961).
​
[A.C.]

American pianist, composer, arranger and conductor (Washington, D.C., 29.4.1899 - New York, 24.5.1974).

Born from the "petty bourgeoisie of color" (his father, an official, supplemented the salary as a maître with wealthy families in Washington), Duke studied decorative art (he won the competition of the NAACP - National Association for the Advancement of Colored People). Before choosing the music he knows from Henry Grant and which he plays by attending meetings in Washington (True Reformer's Hall, Abbott House, Oriental Theater, etc.).
​
He is hired by Louis Thomas, Daniel Doyle, Doc Perry, Elmer Snowden, Russell Wooding before reuniting a group, The Duke's Serenaders, which becomes The Washingtonians. We find with him: Elmer Snowden, Otto Hardwick, and Arthur Whetsol. Duke plays at Barron's and the Hollywood Club.

At the direction of his orchestra, in 1924, he signed the success of Chocolate Kiddies show. He began performing regularly in New England, particularly at the Charleshurts Ballroom in Salem, at the Flamingo in New York, at Ciro's, with Harry Richman, at the Café Plantation, in Kentucky Club, Lafayette, and the Standard Theater in Philadelphia. All this happens from 1925 to 1927. The year in which his orchestra, managed by Irving Mills, is chosen to play at the Cotton Club, until 1931. but this does not prevent him from also playing at the Palace, the Paramount, the Fulton (with Maurice Chevalier), and going to California, where he works for the cinema (Check And Double Check, 1930).
​
It would become boring to list Duke's travels and training in detail since 1933, the year of his first concerts in London and Paris. Until the eve of his death, tireless and driven by a true missionary spirit, Ellington travels worldwide. He played both popular dances and high-rise clubs, concert halls, festivals, for all audiences, for all ethnic groups, from students to heads of state and jazz lovers.

1. 1924-39. The jungle style. Having obeyed the "hopping" style, fashionable in the early 1920s, Ellington explores a new universe of sound in which the raucous tone of brass, aggressive and vocalized by the use of rubber mute (mute wa wa), mixes to the sweetness of reed instruments on a solidly constructed rhythmic base. The meeting of him with Bubber Miley determines this choice. Nicknamed jungle style (the jungle of the Harlem ghetto, Air Conditioned Jungle, but also the memory of African origins), this unique and original way allows Ellington to enhance a repertoire in which the blues, at all times, occupies an important place (The Mooche, 1928) alongside refined and exotic melodies (Mood Indigo, 1930). The Kentucky Club and the Cotton Club are the scenes of the extraordinary exploits of the jungle in which music accompanies ballets and acrobatic dances in the frenetic stomps (Cotton Club Stomp, 1929). In this way, Duke knows how to integrate Latin American rhythms and colors - Cuba and Puerto Rico - to attract more audiences and achieve commercial success (Caravan, 1937). He is also a precursor of the concertante formulas that allow the enhancement of a soloist (Echoes Of Harlem, 1936). Around Duke, his musicians, all of his generation, are in perfect agreement with his ambitions: trumpeters Bubber Miley, Art Whetsol, Cootie Williams, Freddie Jenkins, Wallace Jones, Rex Stewart, trombonists Joe Tricky-Sam Nanton, Lawrence Brown, Juan Tizol, saxophonists Otto Hardwick, Johnny Hodges, Harry Carney, clarinetist Barney Bigard, double bass players Wellman Braud, Billy Taylor, drummer Sonny Greer, vocalists Adelaide Hall, Ivie Anderson, Baby Cox. In this period, to circumvent exclusive contracts, the orchestra records - as well as under the name D.E. And His Famous Orchestra - under the names of Washingtonians, Whoopee Makers, Harlem Footwarmers, Six Jolly Jester's, Mill's Ten Blackberries, Harlem Hot Chocolates, Jungle Band, Memphis Hot Shots, Sonny Greer And His Memphis Men.
2. 1939-45. The Strayhorn period, Blanton, Webster. Became Ellington's trusted man, pianist, and arranger Billy Strayhorn, twenty-five years old in 1940, contributes to rejuvenating the formula of the great Ellington Orchestra, thus allowing it to rival the bands of the swing era (Goodman, Lunceford, Dorsey, Basie ). The spirit of the jungle style is integrated into a more flexible scheme. The instrumental sections have increased, the use of the riff develops, the rhythm becomes more agile (In A Mellowtone, 1940). The soloists take over again. Among them, the brilliant double bass player Jimmy Blanton and the passionate tenor Ben Webster. But also the trumpeter and violinist Ray Nance, the trumpeters Taft Jordan and Cat Anderson, the clarinetist Jimmy Hamilton, the double bassist Alvin Raglin, the vocalists Joya Sherrill, Betty Roché, Al Hibbler, and Herb Jeffries.
3. 1945- 54. From exoticism to impressionism. Duke Ellington develops his repertoire. He retains some of the pieces of his jungle and his hits from the 1940s. But adds descriptive or impressionist works, often at a slow pace in which an exoticism in languid and nuanced halftones develops. He composes long-lasting concertante suites in which he mixes all these ingredients to build something coherent in which he can express a global idea of the world of emotions. Joining the orchestra: trumpeters Harold Baker, Nelson Williams, Francis Williams, Willie Cock and Clark Terry, trombonists Claude Jones, Wilbur DeParis, Tyree Glenn, Quentin Jackson, saxophonists Russell Procope, Willie Smith, Paul Gonsalves, bass players Oscar Pettiford, Wendell Marshall, drummers Dave Black, Louie Bellson, vocalists Kay Davis, Yvonne Lanauze. Billy Strayhorn is still Duke's right-hand man.
4. 1955-74. The update. Since 1955 Ellington has been looking, on the one hand, for a synthesis of his works, and on the other, for new encounters. He conducts his orchestra, plays and resonates with it, triumphs at the Newport Festival (1956). He is heard more and more on the piano, with his orchestra, and in other contexts, particularly in trio. Since 1965, in particular, he has tried to finish a suite of sacred music, In The Beginning God, which he presents in churches and temples in the United States and Europe, seeking an ecumenical life that also incorporates the main movements of Black, Brown, And Beige (history of blacks). After other successes, the lookouts who had already joined him return next to Duke: Cootie Williams, Johnny Hodges, Lawrence Brown. They are the prominent soloists with Cat Anderson, Ray Nance, Buster Cooper, Paul Gonsalves, Jimmy Hamilton, Norris Turney, Harold Ashby, and the faithful Harry Carney, from 1927 with Duke. In the rhythm section, there are double bass players Jimmy Woode, Aaron Bell, Ernie Shepard, John Lamb, Jeff Castleman, Joe Benjamin, drummers Sam Woodyard, Louie Bellson, Rufus Jones, and organist Wild Bill Davis who, after the death of Billy Strayhorn (1967), prepares some arrangements for the orchestra.

Duke Ellington's art stands out as the original expression, accessible to all audiences, of a negritude that is both accepted and overcome at the same time. It preaches a possibility of universal communication without abusing too much of the songs or the effects of virtuosity. Mixing the spirit of the blues with the finest orchestral inventiveness, Duke Ellington's music, in constant reference to African American culture, remains popular while avoiding fashion traps.

Duke Ellington is, with Louis Armstrong, the essential jazz creator. Unlike Armstrong, whose genius is expressed in improvisations, Ellington translates his thought through the excellent orchestra. In collaboration with the musicians, he composes, from a reasonably simple material - in which the plot of the blues occupies a place of merit - seductive themes that he covers with superb orchestrations with a refined harmonic atmosphere, with delicate sound mixes.

In the interpretation of these pieces, he aims at emotion, movement, and swing, making carefully chosen soloists give the best of themselves, enhancing their improvisations with original backgrounds and piano interventions, an instrument that Ellington uses in a very personal way. His performance, coming from the ragtime and the stride of New York, is based on a vibrant sense of contrasts and nuances and a rhythmic tension that is always accentuated. There is a sound universe in him that he develops with his superb orchestra.

Duke Ellington will remain faithful to the great black American musical tradition (blues and swing). He is the actual creator of the aesthetics of the large orchestra and manages to please all the world's peoples by telling the story of his people.
​
[F.T.]