Duke Ellington Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974)[1] was an American composer, pianist and bandleader of jazz orchestras. His career spanned over 50 years, leading his orchestra from 1923 until he died. Though widely considered to have been a pivotal figure in the history of jazz, Ellington himself embraced the phrase "beyond category" as a "liberating principle", and referred his music to the more general category of "American Music", rather than to a musical genre such as "jazz".[2] Born in Washington, D.C., he was based in New York City from the mid-1920s, and gained a national profile through his orchestra's appearances at the Cotton Club. In the 1930s they toured in Europe. After 1941, Ellington collaborated with composer-arranger-pianist Billy Strayhorn, whom he called his "writing and arranging companion".[3] With Strayhorn, he composed many extended compositions, or 'suites', as well as further shorter pieces. Early life[edit] Music career[edit] "East St.
Ray Charles Rolling Stone ranked Charles number ten on their list of "100 Greatest Artists of All Time" in 2004,[9] and number two on their November 2008 list of "100 Greatest Singers of All Time".[10] In honoring Charles, Billy Joel noted: "This may sound like sacrilege, but I think Ray Charles was more important than Elvis Presley.[11]" Early life[edit] Ray Charles Robinson was the son of Aretha (William) Robinson,[12] a sharecropper, and Bailey Robinson, a railroad repair man, mechanic and handyman.[13] Aretha was a devout Christian and the family attended the New Shiloh Baptist Church.[12] When Ray was an infant, his family moved from Albany, Georgia, where he was born, to the poor black community on the western side of Greenville, Florida. In his early years, Charles showed a curiosity for mechanical things and he often watched the neighborhood men working on their cars and farm machinery. His musical curiosity was sparked at Mr. Career[edit] Early career[edit] Atlantic Records[edit]
Sammy Davis, Jr. After reuniting with Sinatra and Dean Martin in 1987, Davis toured with them and Liza Minnelli internationally, before he died of throat cancer in 1990. He died in debt to the Internal Revenue Service, and his estate was the subject of legal battles.[8] Davis was awarded the Spingarn Medal by the NAACP and was nominated for a Golden Globe and an Emmy Award for his television performances. Early life[edit] Samuel George Davis, Jr. was born in the Harlem section of Manhattan in New York City, as an only child, to Sammy Davis, Sr., an African-American entertainer, and Elvera Sanchez,[9] a tap dancer of Afro-Cuban descent. Davis's parents were vaudeville dancers. Will Mastin Trio: (L–R) Sammy Davis Sr., Sammy Davis Jr., and Will Mastin Davis learned to dance from his father and his "uncle" Will Mastin, who led the dance troupe his father worked for. Career[edit] Davis performing in 1966. On December 11, 1967, NBC broadcast a musical-variety special entitled Movin' With Nancy. WikiMiniAtlas
Louis Armstrong Louis Armstrong[1] (August 4, 1901 – July 6, 1971),[2] nicknamed Satchmo[3] or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter, singer, and an influential figure in jazz music. Coming to prominence in the 1920s as an "inventive" trumpet and cornet player, Armstrong was a foundational influence in jazz, shifting the focus of the music from collective improvisation to solo performance. With his instantly recognizable gravelly voice, Armstrong was also an influential singer, demonstrating great dexterity as an improviser, bending the lyrics and melody of a song for expressive purposes. He was also skilled at scat singing (vocalizing using sounds and syllables instead of actual lyrics). Renowned for his charismatic stage presence and voice almost as much as for his trumpet-playing, Armstrong's influence extends well beyond jazz music, and by the end of his career in the 1960s, he was widely regarded as a profound influence on popular music in general. Early life[edit] Career[edit]
Miles Davis Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926 – September 28, 1991) was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century,[3] Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz, hard bop, modal jazz, and jazz fusion. Miles Davis was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006.[4] Davis was noted as "one of the key figures in the history of jazz".[4] On October 7, 2008, his 1959 album Kind of Blue received its fourth platinum certification from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), for shipments of at least four million copies in the United States.[5] On December 15, 2009, the U.S. Life and career[edit] Early life (1926–44)[edit] Miles Dewey Davis was born on May 26, 1926, to an affluent African American family in Alton, Illinois. In 1944, the Billy Eckstine band visited East St.