Sonny Rollins (born Sept. 7, 1930) is an American jazz tenor saxophonist whose seven-decade career spans bebop, hard bop, and post-bop, marking him as one of the music’s most influential improvisers and composers. Rollins began recording as a sideman in 1949 with pianist Bud Powell and singer Babs Gonzales. Between 1951 and 1953 he appeared […]
Ornette Coleman (March 9, 1930 — June 11, 2015) was an American jazz saxophonist, violinist, trumpeter, and composer. He was a chief proponent of avant-garde free jazz, as heralded on his popular 1959 Atlantic release The Shape of Jazz to Come. On this and the 1960/61 albums Change of the Century and This Is Our […]
Don Cherry (November 18, 1936 — October 19, 1995) was an American avant-garde jazz trumpeter. He emerged in 1958 as a sideman for Ornette Coleman on the trumpeter’s early Contemporary/Atlantic run. During the 1960s, Cherry moved through frontline roles with Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane, Albert Ayler, George Russell, and the New York Contemporary Five, often […]
