Famous Jazz Musicians

charlie parker

Charlie Parker (1920 – 1955)

Charlie ‘Yardbird’ Parker was born in Kansas City, Kansas, but grew up in Kansas City, Missouri. He began to play the saxophone at the age of 11 and by age 20 had move to New York, where he first met Dizzy Gillespie. The two collaborators in music and close friends in life. They play together in the Earl Hines Band and later in Billy Eckstine’s Band. Parker and contemporaries, including the legendary pianist Thelonious Monk, sowed the seeds of a new revolutionary jazz style called ‘bebop’ a complex style that disregarded the four-and eight-bar standards of the genre. His addiction to alcohol and drugs led to his untimely death at age of 34.

Glenn Miller (1904 – 1944)

glenn miller

Bandleader and trombonist Glenn Miller grew up in Colorado, where he also studied music. He joined Ben Pollack’s Band in 1924 and stayed with them for four years before moving to New York, where he worked as a session musician and arranger, then, in 1938, founded the Miller Orchestra. Thanks to frequent radio broadcasts, the ensemble soon had nationwide followers and became extremely popular. In 1942, Miller arranged to receive an officer’s commission in the US Air Force, where he formed a service band that played for troops and at war-bond rallies. In 1944, his plane disappeared while over the English Channel on its way to Paris. His recordings remain popular today and several Glenn Miller Orchestras continue to play his music.

Louis Armstrong (1901 – 1971)

louis armstrong

Best known as ‘Satchmo’, Louis Armstrong grew up in New Orleans, Louisiana, when jazz music was still very young. He first played the cornet in marching bands and on riverboats, before moving to Chicago and joining King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band. In 1924, he played with the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra in New York City. A year later, Satchmo switched instruments from cornet to trumpet and started recording with his own band, The Hot Seven. He was especially famous for his groundbreaking trumpet solos and his distinctive, raspy voice. He was international celebrity, and an icon to music lovers and jazz fans worldwide.

Miles Davis (1926 -1991)

miles davis

Trumpeter and bandleader Miles Davis began to take trumpet lessons at the age of 12, and was touring locally with Billy Eckstine’s Band while still in high school. In 1940s, he went to New York City to study at Juilliard, an internationally renowned school of performing arts, but soon abandoned his academic studies to become a full-time jazz musician. Davis played side by side with Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. Davis’s own efforts as a bandleader in the late 1940s led to the more relaxed ‘cool jazz’ of the 1950s. A decade later, Davis was the first to blend jazz and rock music. After a five years break due to illness, Davis made a musical comeback in 1981 and remained active until his death.

dizzy gillespie

Dizzy Gillespie (1917 -1993)
Dizzy Gillespie taught himself to play the trumpet and trombone. He played with a variety of bands in the late 1930s and early 40s, featuring other renowned musicians such as Ella Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington, and of course Charlie Parker, with whom he pioneered the famous bebop sound and style. Gillespie founded his own orchestra in the late 1940s, which was considered one of the finest large jazz ensembles around. Even though his most innovative period seemed to be over by the end of the 1950s, Gillespie continue to perform and became a musical ambassador, travelling throughout the world to share his knowledge with younger players.
(Jakarta Globe, March 5 2009)

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