bebop

Wayne Shorter (born August 25, 1933) is an American jazz composer and saxophonist. Shorter has recorded dozens of albums as a leader, and appeared on dozens more with others. Many of his compositions have become standards. Shorter was born in Newark, New Jersey, and attended Newark Arts High School. He was encouraged by his father to take up the saxophone as a teenager (his brother Alan became a trumpeter).

John Aaron Lewis (3 May 1920 – 29 March 2001) was an American jazz pianist and composer best known as the musical director of the Modern Jazz Quartet. Born in LaGrange, Illinois and raised in Albuquerque, NM, he learned classical music and piano from his mother. He served in the Army in World War II, where he met Kenny Clarke. After the war, they moved to New York City and he joined Dizzy Gillespie's band. He also performed or recorded with Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Illinois Jacquet, Miles Davis, and Lester Young.

Celebrated pianist-composer Ahmad Jamal continues his performance schedule around the world, as he has for well over the last four decades. Noted for his outstanding technical command and identifiable sound as a piano stylist, Mr. Jamal was born on July 2, 1930, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. A child prodigy who began to play the piano at the age of three, he began formal studies at age seven. While in high school, he completed the equivalent of college master classes under the noted African-American concert singer and teacher Mary Cardwell Dawson and pianist James Miller.

Born in St. Louis, Missouri, January 8th, 1960, to a mother who loved music and a father who played the piano as a hobby, Dave started playing drums around the age of 8. During his high school years he received many awards from the NAJE (National Association of Jazz Educators) for his outstanding performances in his high school's competition winning jazz band, and was involved with numerous local groups from a very early age while studying with St.