Monday  2/2
Charlie Parker

Jazz 88 salutes Black History Month with the music of Charlie Parker. Parker revolutionized the jazz world in the 1940s as one of the creators of bebop.  He has been called the greatest saxophonist of all time by many jazz fans, and also composed a number of jazz standards such as "Parker's Mood" and "Scrapple from the Apple."  Although "Bird's" life and career were cut short by his early demise in 1955, his virtuosity, musical inventiveness, and harmonic sense made him one of the most influential artists in jazz history.  In that sense, as his fans declared after his death, "Bird lives," and will for a long time to come through his music.

Tuesday 2/3
Lionel Hampton

Jazz 88 salutes Black History Month with the music of Lionel Hampton. Hampton was encouraged by Louis Armstrong to continue his early efforts on the vibraphone, and went on to put the instrument on the map in jazz. After being heard and hired by Benny Goodman, Hampton and pianist Teddy Wilson broke the color barrier in big band and small group jazz.  Hampton went on to form his own big band, which he fronted until his death in 2002 at the age of 93.  Hampton helped to open doors for black musicians and entertainers, and also discovered a number of leading artists, including the person who will be honored in our profile tomorrow.  Tune in to Jazz 88 tomorrow to find out who it is!

Wednesday 2/4
Dinah Washington

Jazz 88 salutes Black History Month with the music of the woman we hinted about in yesterday's Lionel Hampton tribute.  Ruth Lee Jones started in music as a teenager singing gospel, but then began singing and playing piano in nightclubs.  Lionel Hampton hired her as a vocalist and changed her name to Dinah Washington.  She soon became a star in jazz and R & B, and earned the nickname of "Queen of the Blues."  Dinah Washington also branched out into mainstream pop with great success.  She died at only 39, but was a great influence on later singers such as Nancy Wilson, Diane Schuur, and her own godchild Patti Austin.  Dinah Washington's powerful, honest style and versatility have kept her as "The Queen" in the hearts of her many fans nearly 40 years after her passing.

Thursday 2/5
Bud Powell

Jazz 88 salutes Black History month with the music of Earl "Bud" Powell. Powell got his start in the 1940s as a protege of Thelonious Monk, and was a promising pianist with the Cootie Williams orchestra when he suffered head injuries from a police beating during a racial incident. Bud Powell would suffer from mental illness and headaches for the rest of his short life, but despite this severe disability, he was able to bring a virtuosic bebop sound to the piano, and was also a fine composer.  Jazz fans still treasure the famous 1953 "Jazz at Massey Hall" live concert recording that featured Powell, Charlie Parker, and Dizzy Gillespie.  Bud Powell died at the age of 42, but his style continues to influence such pianists as Chick Corea, George Shearing and Ramsey Lewis.

Friday 2/6
Count Basie

Jazz 88 salutes Black History Month with the music of William "Count" Basie.  When Kansas City bandleader Bennie Moten died, Basie formed his own band with some of his employer's former musicians, and it caught on thanks to radio and the help of jazz writer and record producer John Hammond. Basie disbanded his orchestra due to the decline of the big bands after World War II.  Basie formed a new orchestra in the 1950s, and remained a star until his death at 79 in 1984.  Basie's strong blues influence and spare piano style made his sound unique, and the band also featured such great singers as Jimmy Rushing, Billie Holiday and Joe Williams.  The Count Basie Orchestra continues to play and record some 20 years after its founder's death.

Monday 2/9
Dizzy Gillespie

Jazz 88 salutes Black History Month with the music of John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie.  Gillespie was self-taught on trombone, switched to trumpet at 12, and dropped out of school to become a professional musician.  Within a few years, he worked his way up through a number of bands and worked with other musicians such as Charlie Parker to perfect the new style called bebop.  Gillespie also had great talent as a composer and arranger, and became a bandleader in his own right with both big bands and smaller groups, showcasing bebop and the Afro‑Cuban jazz he helped create with such musicians as Machito and Chano Pozo.  Gillespie was also quite a showman, and got the nickname "Dizzy" because of his onstage antics and humor; he also started a fashion trend among musicians and beatniks with his famous beret and goatee.  However, Gillespie was "dizzy like a fox," and his style attracted attention.  After the novelty of bebop wore off, Gillespie proved to have staying power, and was one of jazz's all‑time great trumpeters, innovators and teachers until his death in 1993.

Tuesday 2/10
Thelonious Monk

Jazz 88 salutes Black History Month with the music of Thelonious Monk. Monk grew up playing gospel and stride piano, but when he was pianist at the celebrated Minton's Playhouse in the 1940s, he was there for the beginnings of bebop.  Although such jazz figures as Coleman Hawkins, Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker recognized Monk's genius early on, many people thought that he was just crazy due to his unusual playing style, advanced harmonies, and eccentric ways.  Eventually, though, public taste caught up with Monk, and he even wound up on the cover of Time Magazine in 1964.  After the early 1970s, Monk seldom appeared in public due to mental illness, but his recordings and compositions like "'Round Midnight," "Rhythm-A-Ning," and numerous others kept his name before the public.  Since his death in 1982, Thelonious Monk has come to be appreciated as one of the true originals of American music, and he has been remembered with everything from a U.S. postage stamp to the annual music competitions held by the Thelonious Monk Institute.  The Monk family has gone into a second generation of first-rate jazz, with his son T.S. Monk showing great talent as a drummer and group leader.

Wednesday 2/11
Billie Holiday

Jazz 88 salutes Black History Month with the music of Billie Holiday. Billie escaped from a terrifying adolescence thanks to her singing talents. After Billie's singing attracted the attention of writer and record producer John Hammond, she made her first record in 1933 with a small group led by Benny Goodman.  Holiday made many fine small-group records in the 30s, often having to do her best with second-rate material because music publishers saved their best songs for white artists.  Holiday's collaboration with saxophonist Lester Young was especially fruitful, and Young gave her the nickname of "Lady Day."  However, she also faced many hardships due to racial discrimination and her individual style, and she courageously popularized the haunting "Strange Fruit," a song that protested against lynching.  Holiday's life was complicated by problems with drugs, alcohol and several unhappy marriages, but she kept working and recording.  Sadly, the years of tough living wore out Holiday's body, and she died at just 44 years old.  Holiday's life and career made her a cult figure, and a film of her book "Lady Sings the Blues" made her popular with a new generation of fans.  However, Holiday's blues‑based, emotionally direct singing is the real reason that she is remembered with such devotion by her fans.

Thursday 2/12
John Coltrane

Jazz 88 salutes Black History Month with the music of John Coltrane. Coltrane made his first recording while in the Navy in 1946, and got his real start as a professional after returning to civilian life. Coltrane became noticed after being part of Miles Davis' quintet, but after he was fired twice by Davis because drug use had made him unreliable, Coltrane finally kicked the habit.  In the late 1950s, Coltrane began recording more under his own name, and was also reunited with Davis.  He began to be noticed for his "sheets of sound" style and for playing that was based more on modes than on chord changes.  Although Coltrane recorded a number of albums that were more musically accessible to the public, he also became more free-form in his style, and also incorporated some elements of world music.  Coltrane died suddenly of cancer at 40 while still at the height of his powers, but his style continues to inspire musicians who came after him, and his recordings also keep his name alive.  His widow, Alice, has continued her work as a composer and pianist, while his son Ravi is a respected saxophonist and his daughter Miki is a singer.

Friday 2/13
Mary Lou Williams

Jazz 88 salutes Black History Month with the music of Mary Lou Williams.  Williams played piano from childhood, and married saxophonist John Williams.  When her husband was with Andy Kirk's big band, Mary Lou was often called "The Pest" because she hung around rehearsals.  However, when she took the place of a missing pianist at Kirk's first recording session and contributed arrangements to the group, she earned the title of "The Lady Who Swings the Band."  After leaving the Kirk band and divorcing John Williams, Mary Lou wrote for Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman and others.  Mary Lou Williams did much to support the rise of bebop, and was a fine teacher in addition to her own playing and writing.  After leaving music for a few years for religious reasons, she returned to performing, teaching and composing, keeping current with jazz developments until her death at 78 in 1981. Mary Lou Williams wasn't just "someone who played good for a girl," but was a major artist who paved the way for jazz innovators of both sexes and all races.  Her memory is honored by the Mary Lou Williams Women in Jazz Festival held every year at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

Monday 2/16
Wynton Marsalis

Jazz 88 salutes Black History Month with the music of Wynton Marsalis. Wynton Marsalis is one of the many talented children of jazz pianist and educator Ellis Marsalis, and was named after the great pianist Wynton Kelly.  He showed great talent in both jazz and classical trumpet at a young age, and surprised many in the music world when he chose to concentrate on acoustic jazz at a time when its fortunes were at a low point.  However, Marsalis proved to be a leader of a new group of "Young Lions" who have done much to reawaken interest in jazz. Many of the young musicians he has championed have become stars in their own right, and Marsalis has also done much to support jazz education. Although some of his views about jazz history have been controversial, he has also learned much from that history to use in his own playing and compositions.  His extended work "Blood on the Fields" was the first jazz composition to win a Pulitzer Prize.  Although only in his early 40s, Wynton Marsalis has accomplished a great deal in a relatively short time, and he should be making major contributions to American music for years to come.

Tuesday 2/17
Nina Simone

Jazz 88 salutes Black History Month with the music of Dr. Nina Simone. Simone originally went to the Juilliard School of Music to study classical piano, which was rare for a black musician at the time, but had to play in nightclubs to support herself.  Simone began singing when a club owner would only hire her if she both sang and played.  She came up with a unique style that combined jazz with classical, soul, folk and blues influences.  Simone's emotional singing style, strong statements against racism and oppression, and strong personality made her a star.  Richard Pryor once said that, while white people had Judy Garland, black people had Nina Simone.  Simone kept on despite problems with racism, mental and physical illness, and unhappiness in her personal life.  Late in her career, Simone became known to a new generation when her famous recording of "My Baby Just Cares For Me" was used in a perfume commercial, and she even returned for occasional American appearances after years as an expatriate in Europe and Africa.  Nina Simone died in April of 2003 after years of poor health, but her great artistic integrity will ensure that she'll be remembered as long as people can hear her recordings.

Wednesday 2/18
Jon Hendricks

Jazz 88 salutes Black History Month with the music of Jon Hendricks. Hendricks sang on the radio in his native Toledo, Ohio as a young man. After serving in World War II, Hendricks studied law for a time and played drums on the side.  However, after Charlie Parker heard him sing and told him he should stick to that, Hendricks followed Bird's advice. Hendricks formed Lambert, Hendricks and Ross with Dave Lambert and Annie Ross, and the group took off after they used overdubbing to vocally render the various parts of some Count Basie songs.  Hendricks' use of vocalese and witty lyrics helped put the group on the map, and they kept going with Sri Lankan singer Yolande Bavan after Annie Ross left the group.  LH & R influenced such later vocal jazz groups as the Manhattan Transfer and the New York Voices, and his command of vocalese influenced such younger singers as Al Jarreau, Bobby McFerrin and Kurt Elling.  Hendricks has kept active with his own vocal groups since the death of Dave Lambert; one of the singers from those groups, his daughter Michelle Hendricks, has become a prominent singer and jazz educator who Jon calls "the flower of my garden."  Hendricks has also recorded with the Manhattan Transfer, Kurt Elling, and many others.  The man Time Magazine once called "the James Joyce of Jive" has done much for vocal jazz with his lively humor and musical sophistication.

Thursday 2/19
Sarah Vaughan

Jazz 88 salutes Black History Month with the music of Sarah Vaughan. "Sassy" started out singing and playing piano in church, but was hired for Earl "Fatha" Hines' legendary big band after she won one of the famed amateur contests at the Apollo Theatre.  However, due to the recording ban of the mid-1940s, she was not heard on records until she joined Billy Eckstine's band, which also had such luminaries as Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie.  Being around these giants of bebop greatly influenced Sarah Vaughan's style, and between her near-operatic voice and her sense of musical daring, Sarah Vaughan became hard to top.  Like the great actress Sarah Bernhardt, she also became known as "The Divine Sarah." Along with her many fine jazz recordings, Vaughan also recorded a huge number of pop hits such as "Tenderly" and "Broken‑Hearted Melody," and perhaps as a nod to those who thought she could have had a classical career, also recorded an extended religious work called "The Mystery of Man."  Vaughan's voice grew somewhat deeper over the years so that she could almost sing baritone, but she never lost her great vocal beauty and flexibility, and kept singing until shortly before her death from cancer in 1990.  Thanks to the many recordings that she left behind, jazz fans will continue to enjoy the artistic legacy of the "Divine One," Sarah Vaughan.

Friday 2/20
Miles Davis

Jazz 88 salutes Black History Month with the music of Miles Davis.  Miles showed musical talent as a child, and began playing professionally while still in school.  After Davis saw the Billy Eckstine band, he decided to study at the Juilliard School in New York.  However, he soon dropped out and got his real education in bebop by playing with Charlie Parker, Benny Carter and Billy Eckstine.  Davis made his first recordings in 1947 with Charlie Parker, but made his first real musical history with a nine-piece band in the late 1940s and early 1950s.  This band made the celebrated recordings that were released in the famous album "Birth of the Cool," which started the "cool" or "West Coast" school of jazz, which was marked by a more relaxed and economical style of playing than that of early bebop.  Davis' career and life were hampered by heroin addiction, but he returned to his family's home and kicked the habit cold turkey.  Davis put together his famous quintet that also featured John Coltrane, and made a number of recordings with them.  Davis also teamed up with arranger and composer Gil Evans for a series of albums that included "Sketches of Spain," "Miles Ahead," "Porgy and Bess," and many others.  Davis formed a sextet that experimented with modal playing, and that group recorded one of the best‑selling jazz albums of all time, "Kind of Blue."   Eventually, Davis formed a new quintet with such stars as Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter and others.  Miles began experimenting with electronic instruments and fusion, and attracted a younger group of fans with such rock-tinged albums as "Bitches Brew" while influencing many younger musicians.  While this turn toward fusion angered many fans of his older music, Davis' influence was undeniable, and he was not one to look back, only returning to an older style when he played some of the classic Gil Evans arrangements at the Montreux Jazz Festival a few months before his death in 1991.  Davis even experimented with hip‑hop in his final studio recording, "Doo‑Bop."  With a unique style that stripped away everything but the essentials of what he was trying to communicate, and with his willingness to try new paths instead of sticking to the tried and true, Miles Davis continues to be one of the greatest influences on jazz and on American music.

Monday 2/23
George Benson

Jazz 88 salutes Black History Month with the music of George Benson. Benson started out in music as a singer when he was only eight years old, and as a teenager started playing rock music with a guitar that his stepfather made for him.  After he heard recordings by such jazz guitarists as Wes Montgomery and Charlie Christian, Benson decided that jazz was for him.  After a stint with organist Jack McDuff, Benson was discovered by legendary record producer John Hammond, and started making records under his own name and playing with other jazz greats. After Wes Montgomery died in the late 60s, Benson followed his lead by working with producer Creed Taylor with larger groups and with a pop-influenced sound.  Benson showed in the 1970s that his singing was equal to his guitar playing, and the album "Breezin'" became one of the biggest crossover sellers in jazz history thanks to the song "This Masquerade."  However, once the novelty of such efforts wore off, Benson returned to a more jazz‑centered approach that showed both guitar and voice, making the standards album "Tenderly" and "Big Boss Band" with the Count Basie Orchestra.  He has also continued pop‑jazz guitar, but with more substance than in his work from the 1980s.  George Benson is an artist of great versatility, and can sound at home with anyone from Benny Goodman to Jon Hendricks.

Tuesday 2/24
Ella Fitzgerald

Jazz 88 salutes Black History Month with the music of Ella Fitzgerald. Ella started out in very tough circumstances, and was homeless as a teenager after her mother died and she had to escape from an abusive stepfather.  Fitzgerald won one of the famous amateur contests at New York's Apollo Theatre in 1934, and became popular when she became the vocalist with Chick Webb's big band.  After Webb died, Ella took over the band until she went solo in 1941.  In 1946, she began working with Norman Granz's "Jazz at the Philharmonic," where she learned about the new bebop style from such colleagues as Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, and bassist Ray Brown, who was her husband for a few years.  Some other developments that broadened Ella's career included a series of songbook albums with the work of various composers, and a switch to Norman Granz's management and his Verve recording label.  Ella became one of the most popular singers in jazz history due to her great scat singing, sweet‑toned voice, and immaculate diction and musicianship.  Sadly, problems with diabetes, vision and high blood pressure took their toll on Fitzgerald's health, and also affected her voice, so that she had to cut back her activities in later years.  She decided not to appear in public again after her feet had to be amputated due to diabetic complications. However, when Ella Fitzgerald died in 1996, the tributes from all over the world showed that she had not been forgotten, and her many fine recordings continue to show why she was one of the greatest singers in the history of jazz and pop music.

Wednesday 2/25
Herbie Hancock

Jazz 88 salutes Black History Month with the music of Herbie Hancock. Hancock was a child prodigy in classical piano, and appeared as a soloist with the Chicago Symphony when he was just 11.  After further study, he showed a leaning toward jazz, and got his first break when he worked with trumpeter Donald Byrd.  Hancock was signed to Blue Note Records, and also showed early talent as a composer when his song "Watermelon Man" became a crossover jazz and pop hit thanks to Mongo Santamaria's recording. Hancock joined Miles Davis' group in 1963, and worked with him for five years.  While in the Davis band, Hancock started using electronic keyboards, and eventually formed his own sextet and got into a funkier style.  This led to the hit album "Head Hunters" and other electronic jazz, and also to some disco recordings when that style was popular. Hancock also played acoustic jazz, and after a reunion of the Miles Davis quintet minus Miles in 1976, the group went on tour as V.S.O.P.  This group helped point the way to the acoustic jazz revival of the 1980s that brought on Wynton Marsalis and others of the "young lions" generation. Hancock has continued in several directions with such projects as a "Head Hunters" revival, film music, a CD that treated modern pop songs as "new standard" to inspire jazz musicians, and the award‑winning "Gershwin's World."  Herbie Hancock continues to be one of the most versatile players and composers in jazz.

Thursday 2/26
Louis Armstrong

Jazz 88 salutes Black History Month with the music of Louis Armstrong. Armstrong's humble roots in New Orleans are well-known; he got his first cornet with the help of a junk dealer he worked for as a child.  After Armstrong dropped out of school, he was put into the Colored Waifs' Home, a reform school, after firing a gun during a New Year's Eve celebration. It was a blessing in disguise, since Armstrong got formal musical training while in the Waifs' Home band.  After Armstrong was released, he did menial day jobs and played music on the side.  Eventually, he joined Kid Ory's and Fate Marable's bands, and moved to Chicago in 1922 after his mentor, King Oliver, sent for him.  Armstrong married King Oliver's pianist, Lil Hardin, and she encouraged him to leave the Oliver band and show his own great talents.  Armstrong did so,switched from cornet to trumpet and made pioneering recordings as a leader of studio groups known as the Hot Five and Hot Seven.  He soon made his mark as one of the greatest innovators and most virtuosic trumpeters in jazz history.  Armstrong eventually became a bandleader himself, and also became a singer who helped popularize scat singing; his freewheeling style changed the sound of popular singing forever.  After spending a few years in Europe,  Armstrong returned to the U.S. and, under the management of Joe Glaser, became one of the most popular musicians and entertainers in the country.  He led a big band and often appeared on radio and in films.  When the big‑band era ended after World War II, Armstrong started playing with smaller "All-Stars" groups that emphasized a traditional New Orleans style.  He made international State Department tours as a goodwill ambassador, and also stood up for civil rights in the 1950s at a time when many other entertainment figures were not yet ready to take a stand. Armstrong had a huge pop hit in 1964 with "Hello, Dolly," and guest‑starred in Barbra Streisand's movie of that hit musical. He also had such pop hits such as "What a Wonderful World," which became a hit again years after his death in the film "Good Morning, Vietnam."  Age and ill health forced Armstrong to cut back on performing in his last years, but he was planning yet another tour when he died in 1971.  Although Louis Armstrong's career as a popular entertainer didn't please some jazz purists, he nonetheless laid many of the foundations for what jazz became.  Dizzy Gillespie said it best when he said of Louis Armstrong, "No him--no me."

Friday 2/27
Duke Ellington

Jazz 88 salutes Black History Month with the music of Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington.  Ellington grew up in Washington, D.C. as the son of a White House butler.  He started studying piano as a child and left school to play professionally.  After leading bands in the Washington area, Ellington went to New York with a small group, the Washingtonians. He started making recordings and appearing in clubs.  Ellington added musicians to his group, experimented with various "jungle" and other musical effects, and became famous thanks to radio broadcasts his band made during its three years at the world-famous Cotton Club. Ellington left the club in 1931, and continued leading his own bands until his death in 1973.  Ellington continued to compose as well, and wrote such standards as "Rockin' In Rhythm," "Mood Indigo," "Sophisticated Lady," "It Don't Mean A Thing If It Ain't Got That Swing," and a host of others. Ellington became famous for the musical sophistication of his compositions.  He also showcased the many stars who came through his band, ranging from Bubber Miley and Johnny Hodges to Ben Webster and Jimmy Blanton.  One of the biggest assets Ellington had was the great composer, arranger, and pianist Billy Strayhorn, whose "Take the 'A' Train" became the band's theme song.  Ellington also wrote extended works such as "Black, Brown and Beige," scores for several Broadway musicals, and music for such films as "The Asphalt Jungle" and "Anatomy of a Murder."  After the decline of the big bands, Ellington was one of the few leaders who was able to keep his band working, and continued to record and tour.  After a few years of diminished fortunes, the Ellington band returned to the spotlight after a famous performance of "Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue" at the 1956 Newport Jazz Festival that nearly caused a riot.  The album of that concert still sells well today, and Ellington was put on the cover of Time magazine.  Ellington frequently appeared on TV and on the road in his later career, recorded projects on his own and with such singers as Frank Sinatra and Rosemary Clooney, and composed works ranging from sacred music to a moving tribute to Billy Strayhorn that won a Grammy. Ellington died in 1974, but the band was continued by his son, Mercer Ellington and by his grandson, Paul Mercer Ellington.  Also, Ellington received some posthumous justice when he was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for his compositions, an honor denied him during his lifetime.  The 1999 centennial of Ellington's birth saw reissues of many of his recordings, as well as a re‑examination of his long career.  Without a doubt, Duke Ellington was and is the best‑known composer of jazz, one of its most enduring bandleaders, and a continued influence on jazz as it goes into its second century.

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