The Afro-Danish reedsman John Tchicai was one of the unique talents on the international out-jazz scene after the "October Revolution" of 1964. Born in Copenhagen (and of Congolese descent), he played violin as a child and switched to reeds as a teenager. He was pro by the late '50s traveling around Europe before setting off for NYC in '62. He hooked up with groups of major statement, such as New York Contemporary Five (with Don Cherry and Archie Shepp) and the New York Art Quartet. He participated in the behemoth free jazz recordings New York Eye & Ear Control (with...

The Mother of the Blues, Gertrude Pridgett aka Ma Rainey, was an early singing star for that newfangled phonograph record player invention, as well as traveling and performing since the age of 12. She came from Georgia and heard the blues around 1902. She and her husband Will Rainey started groups called Alabama Fun Makers Company and then Assassinators of the Blues(!) and hit the road, also joining minstrel & medicine shows. She found herself in New Orleans in 1914 and started hanging with King Oliver, Louie Armstrong and Sidney Bechet. With her powerfully expressive vocals she cut her first...

The reedsman (especially clarinet) Jimmy Giuffre was an innovator in experimental jazz, namely "third stream" (or "chamber jazz") and free improv. He moved from his native Texas to the West Coast around '50, becoming a major part of the scene and the development of "cool jazz". He played tenor & baritone with Howard Rumsey's Lighthouse All Stars until '53 and played for a minute in the band of ex-Lighthouser Shorty Rogers before going out on his own with his avant-garde music. His drummerless trios consisted of reeds/bass/guitar, reeds/trombone/guitar and clarinet/piano/bass formats, in the process exploring free improvisation much earlier than...

Happy birthday to the great and influential bluesman Albert King, one of my all time favorites. I saw him play back in the '80s when I was a kid and it left a HUGE impression on me. A major guitar figure (who was a left-hander playing "backwards") and an excellent singer, he was born in the Mississippi Delta area. His first professional gigs were in Arkansas and he eventually moved North. Some of his earliest recordings were as a drummer for Jimmy Reed. He had limited success in the '50s in Chicago & St Louis but really found his fame...

The speed metalist of the hard bop saxophone players, the tenor runs of Johnny Griffin could waste most competitors and his stretch in the '50s/early '60s with Blue Note, Riverside and Jazzland is hard to beat. He co-led a band with Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis and was a memorable feature with some of Thelonious Monk's best line-ups. He came out of that jazz factory of Chicago's DuSable High and got early gigs with T-Bone Walker, Lionel Hampton and Arnett Cobb. He was old enough to have been part of the bop generation, despite not making a record 'til '53. He joined...