Bob Scobey was born on December 9th, 1916 in Tucumcari, New Mexico. In the ‘30s he played trumper in several dance bands, mostly in California where he grew up.
In 1938 he began a lasting friendship with Lu Watters with whome he staged the jazz revival movement. During the 50’s Scobey led his own traditional band and attained considerable popularity like that of Lu Watters and another of his west coast dixieland companions—Turk Murphy. In the 60’s, Scobey ran his own club in Chicago and remained a popular figure at traditional jazz festivals.

Charlie Shavers

Charlie Shavers was born in New York city on August 3rd
1917, and took up trumpet in his early teens. He joined Tiny Bradshaw’s
band in 1937 and, the same year, played with Jimmy Noone and John
Kirby. He stayed with Kirby for seven years, working as both
trumpeter and arranger. Among his compositions was "Undecided", which
became a jazz standard and—with lyrics added, proved as smash hit for
Ella Fitzgerald. In 1944 Shavers joined Tommy Dorsey, with whom he was
a featured soloist for a decade. Shavers was featured with various bands
throughout these years, including sessions with Nat King Cole and Buddy
Rich. Shavers passed away in 1971, at the age of 54.

Arvell Shaw:

Arvell Shaw was born in St. Louis, Missouri on September 15th, 1923.
He began playing bass with the Fate Marable band in the early 40’s
and after World War Two he joined Louis Armstrong—a jobb which lasted, on and off for a quarter of a century. In the late 50´s
and 60´s Shaw continued to play with Armstrong, but also found time
to perform with Benny Goodman and Teddy Wilson and others, and after
Satchmo´s death in ´71, he joined some mainstream artists like Buddy
Tate and Earl Hines.

Omer Simeon

Was born in New Orleans on July 21st, 1902, and his musical education
took place in Chicago where he lived from 1914. While playing with
Charlie Elgar’s popular Chicago dance band he appeared on a
number of recording dates with Jelly Roll Morton and also played
with Joe King Oliver. In the late twenties he was with Luis Russell
in New York and then went back to Jelly Roll Morton’s group.
Back in Chicago in the late twenties, Simeon spent a couple of years with
Erskine Tate and then joined Earl ‘Fatha’ Hines for a six year spell.
In the 40’s he played with several bands including that of Jimmy Lunceford , and spent most of the fifties with Wilbur de Paris in New York. A bold and imaginative clarinetist, Simeon’s talent comes to full bloom in his playing with small groups.

Nina Simone

Was born on February 21st, 1933 in Tyron, North Carolina, and has been
called "A performer of raw power." Her real name, Eunice Wayman,
she studied piano at the prestigeous Julliard school of music before
making records. Nina Simone showed strong jazz feelings in a variety of
numbers, both traditional and modern.

Zutty Singleton

Was born in Bunkie, Louisiana on May 14^th, 1898. He played
drums in early childhood and began professionally in 1915.
Following service in World War One Singleton played in the
New Orleans Bands of Papa Oscar Celestine and Louis Nelson,
and then worked the riverboats with Fate Marable in the
early twenties. After moving to Chicago, he teamed up with
Louis Armstrong and Earl Hines for record dates and, for a
short time, went into partnership with them as co-owners of
a c lub. As a member of theCarroll Dickerson Band he went to New York
and played with the leading jazzmen of the day, and also led his own band.
Singleton recorded extensively during the 30’s with Roy Eldridge,
Mess Mezzrow and Sidney Bechet, and in the 40’s he accompanied
Charlie Parker, Wingy Manone and Dizzie Gillespie. Singleton went right
on playing and recording extensively throughout the 60’s as well.
A stroke in 1970 ended his playing career.

Bessie Smith

Born in Chattanooga, Tennessee on April 15^th, 1895,
"She was a wild lady with her lips". That’s how Lester Young
described her—the ‘Empress of the blues.’ She was indeed the
greatest blues singer ever, with a rich, passionate contralto voice
that could fill a hall and make the rafters ring with grief or joy—
with the pleasures of gin or sin. Bessie Smith was a protégé´of
Ma Rainey and sang In her minstrel show. By 1913, when she was
eighteen, Bessie, strikingly beautiful and very black was stopping all
shows around the south. By 1920 she had her own show in Atlantic
City, and in 1923 made her big career move to N.Y. She signed with
Columbia Records, made her first recordings with pianist Fletcher
Henderson and began a long year performing for clubs and on tours.
She was the star of her own summer tent show "Harlem Frolics" which
travelled the south in its own luxury train-car, thus avoiding the problems
of racial segregation. Bessie Smith became the highest salaried black star
in the world. By 1928 she had recorded with the greatest—James P. Johnson,
Fletcher Henderson, Louis Armstrong and others. In 1933, she made her last classic recordings with Jack Teagarden, Benny Goodman and Coleman Hawkins.
In 1937, Bessie Smith died in a car crash. Seven thousand people attended her funeral, but her grave went unmarked until Janis Joplin and Juanita Green financed a headstone in 1970. It reads, "The greatest blues singer in the world will never stop singing."

Hezekia Leroy Gordon "Stuff"  Smith ---

From Portsmouth, Ohio, began playing violin as a child and started his
professional career at the age of 15. By 1936 he was playing at New York´s
Onyx Club with Jonah Jones and Cozy Cole, and wearing a battered top
hat and a stuffed parrot on his shoulder, Stuff established his reputation as a hard-swinging jazz man with a wierd sense of humor. He was perhaps the most exciting and dynamic of all jazz fiddlers.

Willie (The lion) Smith

            was born in Goshen , New York on November 25th 1897, and began playing the piano at the age of six, encouraged by his mother. In his teens, already, he had established a glowing reputation as a ragtime pianist in New York, and following World War One, Smith became one of
Harlem’s best known pianists . Despite his popularity and the high respect payed him bu Fats Waller, Duke Ellington, and James P. Johnson, Willy Smith made few records and was relativcly unknown outside of New York. Admiration continues for "The Lion" by all great jazz musicians and jazz fans.

TAB SMITH

Was born as Talmadge Smith on January 11th, 1909 in Kinston,
North Carolina. After learning to play piano and saxophone he settled on
Alto and soprano sax, and it was on Alto that he made a name for himself.
He worked in bands led by Fate Marable, Lucky Milander and Frankie Newton during the thirties, and he also played in Teddy Wilson’s ill-fated band He was in great demand during the forties, recording with Billy Holiday, Earl Hines, Charlie Shavers, Coleman Hawkins and Count Basie and also led his own band. He continued doing so into the fifties after making some popular rhythm and blues records. Tab Smith dropped out of full time music in the late fifties and ended his career playing the organ in a St. Louis restaurant. Smith was a forceful player and persured a ‘soul-funk’ path during the 70’s, sometimes using a synthesizer.

Muggsy Spanier

Muggsy Spanier was born as Francis Joseph Spanier on November 9th, 1906 in Chicago. He began playing cornet while barely in his teens and within a couple of years was a professional musician. By the end of the 20’s he was hired by Ted Lewis to play in his popular orchestra and, in the mid-thirties joined Ben Pollack. Later, he formed his own band—"The Ragtimers" and made an enormous impact on the public. During the forties he led his own band and played with such notables as Bob Crosby, Pee Wee Russell and Miff Mole, and in the fifties he worked with Earl Hines, playing a numerous hotels, clubs and festivals clear across
the USA. Spanier’s style was simple and direct—very closely related to earlier jazzmen. Spanier was forced to retire in 1964 due to poor health and he died in 1967.

Johnny St. Cyr

Was born in New Orleans on April 17th 1890. After teaching
himself to play guitar on a home-made instrument he began
leading his own small band in New Orleans during his teens
and then played banjo with some of the biggest names—
Freddy Keppard, Oscar ‘papa’ Celestin, Joe ‘king’ Oliver,
and in 1923 went to Chicago and played with Oliver, Jimmy Noone
Louis Armstrong and Jelly Roll Morton. St. Cyr continued to play
with these giants in the 50’s and 60’s, and for a long time played
an instrument which he devised himself: A six string guitar with a
banjo head.

Jess Stacy

Jess Stacy was born in Bird’s Point, Missouri on August 11th, 1904, and
after teaching himself to play the piano, he played on riverboats for a number of years, arriving in Chicago in the mid-twenties. Stacy worked with numerous bands and was brought to the attention of Benny Goodman in 1935. For the next four years he was a regular member of Goodman’s band, playing at the Carnegie Hall Concert in 1938. Stacy joined Bob Crosby from 1939 to 1942, And then returned to Goodman. 19 1974, Stacy performed at the Newport Jazz Festival to a cheering public, and continued to delight audiences. And even in 1992 he was presented with the Benny Carter Award by the American Federation of Jaz Societies. Stacy died in Los Angeles in 1995.

Rex Stewart

Rex Stewart was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on February 22, 1907. His major contribution to jazz trumpet and cornet was the development of "Half-Valving"—that is, a technique of pushing the trumpet valves half-way down, to create quarter tones and freak sounds to their limits. Like most of his contemporaries in the 20’s, Stewart idolized Louis Armstrong. He said, "I tried to walk like him, talk like him, eat like him, sleep like him and , of course, play like him."
Later on, Stewart found it futile to play like Satchmo. Indeed, that became painfully clear to him when he replaced Louis in Fletcher Henderson’s orchestra. That was, in fact, at Armstrong’s recommendation, but Stewart had to fake his way through passages   that were beyond him. Nevertheless, Rex Stewart was a hard-blowing trumpeter who was
lucky to join Duke Ellington—an orchestrator who made the most of Stewart’s basic talent. He remained with the Duke for eleven years—from ‘34- 45. In 1957 he organized the Fletcher Henderson reunion band for the South Bay jazz festival. This is Rex Stewart with his own Big Seven:

Slam Stewart

Leroy Stewart, was born in Englewood, New Jersey, on September 21st, 1914.
He studied bass at the Boston,conservatory of music, and almost from the start, began experimenting with his distinctive style of humming in unison with his bass.
In the forties, following huge recording succeses with Slim Gaillard, Stewart joined Art Tatum, Lester Young, Roy Eldridge and Benny Goodman. In the 60’s Stewart added classical music to his repertoire, and during the next two decades he continued to tour extensively , playing with a wide range of artists, mostly in mainstream-jazz. Stewart always played in an intensely rhythmic manner and was never afraid to display wit and humor.

Billy Strayhorn

Billy Strayhorn was born in Dayton, Ohio on November 29th, 1915.
After studying music at school and privately he began writing music
and late in 1938 submitted material to Duke Ellington. The following
year Ellington recorded the first of these works and Strayhorn was soon
a mainstay in the Duke’s band. In fact, Strayhorn remained with
Ellington almost exclusively for the rest of his life. When he did write
and play for or with other artists, they were Ellington musicians.
Strayhorn’s greatest contributions were, of course, immortilized by
the Duke. Before he was hospitalized in 1967, Strayhorn continued
composing until his very end.

Buddy Tate

Buddy Tate was born in Sherman, Texas on February 22, 1913, and learned to play saxophone with Southwest territory bands. In 1939 Tate was invited to join Count Basie, to replace Herschel Evans who had died suddenly.
Tate stayed with Basie for nine happy years, and then worked with Lucky
Millander, Hot Lips Page and Jimmy Rushing’s Savoy Band before
getting a residence offer at the Celebrity Club in Harlem where he stayed
for twenty-one straight years Throughout the fifties Tate recorded
regularly, toured with Buck Clayton and worked at Jazz festivals. Buddy Tate is regarded as a giant of tenor Sax .

Art Tatum

Art Tatum, also came to the world on October 13th—in 1909 in Toledo, Ohio.
Born into a musical family, he was handicapped at birth with impaired sight. Blind in one eye and partially blind in the other, he nevertheless studied piano formally and by his mid-teens was already playing professionally in Toledo. Tatum worked mostly as a solo entertainer—in clubs and on radio, and later became the accompanist of Adelaide Hall during her road tours. Tatum travelled to New York with her in 1932 and made his first recording the following year. In 1937, Tatum’s playing in New York clubs, on radio and recordings earned him a reputation as one of the world’s great Jazz figures. Many jazz experts rate Art Tatum as the greatest Jazz pianist in history and even Fats Waller, an acknowledged master of the keyboard, spotted Tatum in the audience while he was playing one night and declared: "God is in the house tonight."

   Clark Terry:

Born in St. Louis, Missouri on December 14th, 1920, played trumpet in local bands and developed his remarkable technique while playing in the U.S. Navy.
He later joined Charlie Barnet and then became a mainstay with Count Basie’s band for three years—until 1981 when he went to work for Duke Ellington for eight years. Terry continued to play in jazz groups for club and record dates with Bob Brookmeyer, J.J. Johnson and others and laso led his own "Big B-A-D- Band.
During the 70’s, Clark Terry began playing the flugelhorn, eventually making it his main instrument. Terry remains a major figure in the history of jazz trumpet and is one of the most repected and admired ambassador’s of jazz.