Thelonious Monk, piano, 1912-1982, Rocky Mount, NC
When Monk was four years old his family moved to New York, which was to remain his home for the rest of his life. He was very much devoted to his mother, a church organist and singer, and when he married his childhood sweetheart, Nellie, they moved into his mother's apartment. Monk's deep roots in the Harlem Stride style of piano came from James P Johnson, a well known stride piano player, who happened to be a neighbor, when Monk was growing up. Oddly enough, Monk began his professional career playing piano for a traveling evangelist, but he came back to New York to work with jazz groups in the early forties. Eventually Monk became the house pianist at Minton's Playhouse in Harlem, the birthplace of Bebop, where he, Dizzy and Bird created a unique sound with complicated chord changes and fast tempos that they used to weed out the amatuers. In 1944 Monk made his first recording as a member of Coleman Hawkins quartet, and that same year his best known tune, "'Round Midnight" was recorded by the trumpet, player Cootie Williams. Monk's style of playing and composing is so unique that you can recognize his angular melodies and crushed note clusters immediately. His tunes "Evidence", "Misterioso", "Blue Monk" and "Criss-Cross" are just a few of his additions to the jazz repertoire. You can find out more about this imaginative genius at WWW.Thelonious-Monk.com
Harry "Sweets" Edison, Trumpet, Columbus, OH
Harry 's early childhood was spent spent in Kentucky, and he moved back to Columbus when he was 12 years old. It was around this time he took up the trumpet. His professional work began in 1933 in Cleveland ,and then in St. Louis, where he spent the next few years. In 1937 he joined Lucky Millinder's orchestra in New York, and around six months later he joined Count Basie and became an important soloist with the band. Basie's orchestra disbanded in the early '50s, and thereafter Sweets worked with various groups; leading his own band, traveling with Jazz At The Philharmonic, and working as a freelance with numerous other orchestras. Harry made his home on the West Coast in 1953, where he became very successful as a studio musician. He regularly led his own popular jazz group in Los Angeles during most of the 1960s and rejoined Count Basie on numerous occasions for special events. During thelatter part of the '70s ' and early '80s he traveled extensively with various bands as a featured soloist. A highly original soloist, Harry prefers playing in the middle register, and has created a style that is strictly Harry Edison. He is noted for his absolutely perfect sense of timing and his unique manner of repeating a single note or phrase over several measures.
Junior Mance, Piano, 1928, Chicago, IL
Junior Mance was taught the piano by his father, a stride and boogie-woogie pianist, and later by attending Roosevelt College in Chicago. He actually performed professionally before he was 15 years old. His first important engagement was with Gene Ammons with whom he worked several times over the years. During the early '50s, while in the service, he played in army bands at Ft. Knox, Kentucky. Among his fellow musicians at Ft. Knox were Cannonball and Nat Adderly, and Curtis Fuller. Later, as the house pianist at the Bee Hive, in Chicago, he performed with many important jazz musicians in the area and those who visited. Junior next spent a year and a half as accompanist to Dinah Washington. He later worked with Dizzy Gillespie, Eddie"Lockjaw" Davis, and Johnny Griffin. Junior's playing is a technically polished blend of the blues and styles that developed from bop.
Oscar Brown Jr, Singer/Composer, 1926, Chicago, IL
As a child, Oscar worked in a variety of non-musical jobs and became a professional singer and songwriter only in 1956 when he was 30 years old. He had an important collaboration with Max Roach on the album "We Insist! Freedom Now Suite" in 1960. Also in 1960 Oscar recorded his own first album, "Sin and Soul" under his own name. During the early '60s he had a gig as a television host for the television series "Jazz Scene USA". Around this time he also traveled to London where he performed with Annie Ross in the revue Wham! Bam! Thank You Ma'am" . Over the years he has worked in clubs in New York, Los Angeles and London with Jonah Jones, Dizzy Gillespie, and others. Brown was well known for adding lyrics to soul-jazz and modal-jazz themes, such as Nat Adderley's "Work Song" and Miles Davis's "All Blues". Oscar Brown Jr. died in 1963.
