John Gilmore, Saxophone, 1931, Summit, MS
John began studying the clarinet when he was around 14 years old, while growing up in Chicago. From 1948 he spent four years in the air force, where he played in various service bands. After his discharge he worked for a short time with Earl Hines and then joined a traveling show organized around the basketball team, the Harlem Globetrotters. In the mid '50s John joined Sun Ra's band, often serving as drummer, not as a saxophonist. He remained with Sun Ra for most of the decade, and in 1962 he returned to more traditional music, recording as a sideman with Freddie Hubbard, Elmo Hope, and McCoy Tyner. The late '60s found Gilmore working with Chick Corea, Pete LaRoca, Andrew Hill, and Dizzy Reece. Many members of the avant garde style have credited Gilmore as the first to produce the sustained, screaming type of improvisation in the upper register of the tenor saxophone that eventually became integral to the style of John Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders, and others in the mid '60s.
Mike Osborne, Saxophone, 1941, England
The clarinet and alto sax were the first instruments Mike learned to play when he was a youngster. He moved to London in 1959 where he studied piano, clarinet and harmony at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. While at Guildhall he formed friendships with fellow students who were to become prominent in the field of jazz. He worked with Chris McGregor and Stan Tracey during most of the 1970s. It was during this same period that Mike led his own trios, including onethat included Harry Miller and Louis Moholo. From 1970 he made several recordings as leader of a group that included Marcel's Muse as one of his sidemen. Mike, an excellent reader, was much in demand with English and visiting American musicians. He was seldom idle, but from the early '80s he ceased to perform in public.
Kenny Kirkland, Piano, 1957, Brooklyn, NY
Kenny was only six years old when he took up his studies on the piano and by the time he was in high school he was firmly interested in jazz. This is when he also began to play the saxophone. He graduated from the Manhattan School of Music in 1977 and went to work for Michal Urbaniak, playing and touring. During the late '70s Kenny joined Miroslav Vitous's band ,and also played with the percussionist Don Alias. He later toured Japan with Terumasa Hino, worked with Elvin Jones, and from 1981 to 1985 spent an important period with Wynton Marsalis. He played synthesizers on two highly publicized and important albums, and on tours with the rock singer, Sting. Kirkland had classical training when he was very young ,and this led him towards sophisticated modernists such as Herbie Hancock; but in the mid '80s his style began turning toward bop(under the influence, notably, of Bud Powell). His experience with rock (Sting, and the group Crosby, Stills and Nash,) also led him to performing more in the field of rock. Kirkland's technical ability, inventiveness, and awareness of tradition mark him as a player of unusual skill and potential.
Koko Taylor, Singer, 1935, Memphis, TN
To many, Koko is known as "Queen of The Blues". She is known primarily for her rough and powerful vocals and traditional blues stylings. Taylor moved to Chicago in 1954 with her husband, truck driver Robert "Pops" Taylor, and in the late '50s began singing in Chicago blues clubs. She was discovered by Willie Dixon in 1962, and this led to wider performances and her first recording contract. In 1965 Taylor was signed by Chess Records, for which her single "Wang Dang Doodle" (written by Dixon, and a hit for Howlin' Wolf five years earlier) became a major hit, reaching number 4 on the R & B charts in 1966 and selling a million copies. Taylor has recorded many versions of this song, but has never repeated that initial chart success. National touring in the late '60s and early '70s improved her fan base, and she became accessible to a wider record-buying public when she signed with Alligator Records in 1975. She has since recorded over a dozen albums for Alligator, with many nominated for Grammy Awards. She has won 24 W.C. Handy Awards (more than any other artist). After recovery from a near-fatal car crash in 1989, the 1990s found Koko in movies such as "Blues Brothers" in 2000, and she opened a short-lived blues club in Chicago in 1999. Koko Taylor has influenced such musicians as Bonnie Raitt, Shemekia Copeland, Janis Joplin, Shannon Curfman, and Susan Tedeschi. She currently resides and occasionally performs in Vancouver, where also ran a club for a short time.
