The sax player and flautist Roland Kirk unjustly earned a reputation for being gimmicky because of his eccentric, often bizarre appearance on stage and because he played as many as three instruments in his mouth at once. His stature is worth defending because Kirk was an innovative soloist and an entertaining performer who was well […]

“The King of Swing,” Artie Shaw, was one of the most colourful and popular jazz musicians in the 1930s and 1940s. Shaw was also opinionated, litigious, and cantankerous, but more importantly he possessed a brilliant mind and was a gifted musician. He was married eight times, and his wives included Betty Kern (the daughter of […]

Listening to Mose Allison’s music properly is an exercise in alertness. He draws on jazz, R&B, and country music to come up with his sound. Lyrically, he has the intellectual flair of a beat poet and satirist combined. His voice sounds southern, hip, and uncomplicated. Allison has fans around the world, but in Britain it […]

Duke Ellington is one of the most important musical figures of the twentieth century. He refused to recognize boundaries of any kind and created a staggering body of work that includes three thousand compositions and two thousand records. Born in 1899 in Washington, D.C., Edward Kennedy Ellington grew up to be tall, handsome, and a […]

Quincy Jones’s story is extraordinary. He started in the 1950s as a jazz musician playing the trumpet and as a freelance arranger and became a mogul and one of the most sought-after record producers in the world. He has defied the boundary lines for music genres because he sees it as a whole. In August […]