Sonny Rollins
Sonny Rollins' improvisations are a stream of brilliant ideas on phrasing, timing and timbre that enable him to skate over a given chord sequence for endless bars without losing the listener’s interest
Artists
John Coltrane
John Coltrane had vision and unlimited amounts of soul: true soul, not the showbiz variety
Ella Fitzgerald
The best known and most popular jazz artist of all time, often referred to as The First Lady of Song
Kurt Elling
Kurt Elling's baritone is capable of great power, and his approach to scat singing often leads him to produce timbral colours that are as much dark and grainy as they are light and pastel
Courtney Pine
Courtney Pine became one of the key standard-bearers of British jazz in the ‘80s, and, more specifically, the emblem of a new generation of London-based black players of West Indian origin who opted to play acoustic bebop rather than electric fusion
Dave Holland
Bassist Dave Holland has played with everone from Miles Davis to Thelonious Monk in an extraordinarily successful career
Robert Glasper
Robert Glasper’s eclecticism and his love of the human voice, both by way of singers and rappers, as well as state of the art production gives him an artistic identity very much of his own
Bud Powell
Bud Powell developed a style that had a sweeping grandeur when he played at the high tempos beloved of the gifted horn players – such as Gillespie and ‘Fats’ Navarro – he admired and worked with
Branford Marsalis
Branford Marsalis’ commitment to the quartet format has not wavered and the current incarnation has proved itself to be a vital presence in contemporary jazz
Eric Dolphy
With a penchant for stark, sometimes acerbic themes set to rhythms that move abruptly from swing to pedal point, Dolphy delighted in making music with a brash, daredevil energy