Discover music through the musicians who made it.
Dig into music — from instrument to musician.
On the title track of Nefertiti (1967), the Miles Davis/Wayne Shorter front line repeats a single melody while the rhythm section improvises around them — an inverted approach that was avant-garde for its time.
— Footprints: The Life and Work of Wayne Shorter, Michelle Mercer, 2004
Jimmy Cobb was the newcomer who had just replaced the previous drummer in Miles Davis's sextet. The Kind of Blue (1959) sessions were cut almost live off the sketches, with barely any rehearsal, and the result became the best-selling jazz album of all time.
The 1954–56 Clifford Brown-Max Roach Quintet refined bebop's vocabulary to a peak of elegance. When Brownie died at 26 in 1956, the abrupt end left Rollins asking what to do next — a question that produced Saxophone Colossus.
Dave Holland was an unknown young bassist playing London clubs in 1968 when Miles Davis heard him and invited him on the spot. Within days Holland had moved to New York to join the band, and by 1970 he was on Bitches Brew — one of the most influential sessions in jazz history.
The 1961 album Mosaic is filed under Art Blakey's name, but the title tune was written by the pianist, Cedar Walton. The record everyone remembers as the bandleader's takes its name from the small print.
In June 1955 an alto player fresh out of Florida sat in at the Cafe Bohemia and was a talking point within weeks. The record made that summer, Bohemia After Dark (1955), went out under the drummer's name — so Cannonball Adderley's starting point is not a leader date of his own, and his brother Nat Adderley is on it too, on cornet.
Lee Morgan's The Sidewinder (1964) was meant as routine hard bop, but the title track became a surprise hit — a chart single that ended up in a TV ad — and it shored up a struggling Blue Note. Afterward the label kept pressing its players for 'another Sidewinder.'
Red Garland's piano was distinguished by his trademark shift from right-hand single-note lines to two-handed block chords. His solos on 'Round About Midnight and Milestones showcase that formal beauty at its best.
— So What: The Life of Miles Davis, John Szwed, 2002
Ron Carter is remembered as the bass of Miles Davis's classic quintet. But shortly before he took that chair, he recalls, he filled in for one night at the Half Note when Paul Chambers fell ill — the man about to inherit the seat quietly covering the one leaving it.
— Statement stmt-ron-carter-on-paul-chambers
NPR Tiny Desk (Home) Concert from 2020. This solo piano set cuts straight to the core of Hamasyan's music — around 20 minutes including 'Road Song' and several other pieces. A different quality from his studio recordings: just one person in dialogue with the space.
— NPR Music Tiny Desk (Home) Concert, 2020
Miles Davis
Wayne Shorter
Herbie Hancock
Ron Carter
Tony Williams
Jimmy Cobb
Clifford Brown
Max Roach
Sonny Rollins
Dave Holland
Cedar Walton
Lee Morgan
Red Garland
Paul Chambers
Tigran Hamasyan