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Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974)

• American composer
• pianist
• jazz orchestra leader

Duke Ellington became one of the most influential artists in the history of recorded music, and is largely recognized as one of the greatest figures in the history of jazz, though his music stretched into various other genres, including blues, gospel, movie soundtracks, popular, and classical. His career spanned five decades and comprised of leading his orchestra, an inexhaustible songbook, scoring for movies and world tours. Due to his inventive use of the orchestra, or big band, and in part to his refined public manner and extraordinary charisma, he is generally considered to have elevated the perception of jazz to an artistic level on par with that of classical music. His reputation increased after his death, and he received a special award citation from the Pulitzer Prize Board in 1999.

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Wayne Shorter (born August 25, 1933)

• American jazz saxophonist
• composer

He is often referred as one of the most important American jazz musicians of his generation. His efforts have arguably made him a household name amongst jazz fans around the world, and won him honors and recognition, including multiple Grammy Awards.

Wayne Shorter has recorded over 20 albums as a leader, and appeared on dozens more with others including Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers in the late 1950s, Miles Davis’s second great quintet in the 1960s and the jazz fusion band Weather Report, which Shorter co-led in the 1970s. Many of his compositions have become standards.

More about Wayne Shorter you can find HERE and HERE.

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John William Coltrane (September 23, 1926 – July 17, 1967)

• jazz saxophonist
• composer

Starting in bebop and hard bop, Coltrane later pioneered free jazz. He influenced generations of other musicians, and remains one of the most significant tenor saxophonists in jazz history. He was astonishingly prolific: he made about fifty recordings as a leader in his twelve-year-long recording career, and appeared as a sideman on many other albums, notably with trumpeter Miles Davis. As his career progressed, Coltrane’s music took on an increasingly spiritual dimension. His second wife was pianist Alice Coltrane, and their son Ravi Coltrane is also a saxophonist.

He received a posthumous Special Citation from the Pulitzer Prize Board in 2007 for his “masterful improvisation, supreme musicianship and iconic centrality to the history of jazz.”

More about John Coltrane HERE.

John Coltrane official site.

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Miles Dewey Davis III

(May 25, 1926 – September 28, 1991)

Miles Davis played on various early bebop records and recorded one of the first cool jazz records. He was partially responsible for the development of hard bop and modal jazz and both jazz-funk and jazz fusion arose from his work with other musicians in the late 1960s and early 1970s. His final album blended jazz and rap. Many leading jazz musicians made their names in Davis’s groups, including: Joe Zawinul, Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock, saxophonists John Coltrane, Julian “Cannonball” Adderley, Gerry Mulligan, Wayne Shorter, George Coleman, and Kenny Garrett, drummer Tony Williams and guitarist John McLaughlin.
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