Guitarist Joe Pass has been on the scene since the 1940s, achieving widespread recognition in the '70s due to shrewd management by Norman Granz. A veteran of countless sessions with a wide selection of musicians-Chet Baker, Bud Shank, Gerald Wilson, Les McCann, Earl Bostic and Duke Ellington - Pass is a complete professional. Since singing to Pablo, he made triumphant appearances at the Montreux Festival (Joe Pass at Montreux) and JATP tours with Oscar Peterson, Zoot Sims etc. A sensiti …

The distinguished Norwegian tenor saxophonist Jan Garbarek has been describes by George Russell as 'just about the most uniquely talented jazz musician Europe has produced since Django Reinhardt'. Garbarek is undoubtedly one of the most original individualists on saxophone to have emerged since the '70s. Born in Mysen, Norway, 1947, Garbarek taught himself to play saxophone at age 14, inspired by hearing John Coltrane's Countdown on the radio. A year later, he was fronting the leading q …

One of the greatest pioneers of free drumming in company with Sonny Murray and Milford Graves. Ed Blackwell's main body of work remains within the group context Ornette Coleman's Quartet and Don Cherry's units. Born in New Orleans, his drum concept fitted perfectly the needs of the new collective music-indeed, traditional New Orleans march rhythms combined with an African and Afro-Cuban influence in his work. A master craftsman, his preoccupation with shifting metres and sonics made him the idea …

Julian Cannonball Adderley was born in 1928 in Florida, moving to New York and emphatically into the big league in 1955. Basically a Charlie Parker disciple, the altoist had plenty of bite and a rhythmic directness that became more pronounced in his later work. The meeting with Miles Davis Somethin' Else proved something of a comeuppance, for the trumpeter was playing with such concision that Cannonball sounded positively garrulous. His work in the Miles Davis Group from 1957 Milestones, Kind of …

Born in New York, 1917, drummer Buddy Rich began in vaudeville at the age of 18 months, earning the nickname 'Baby Traps' by the time he was seven. He worked with the bands of Bunny Berigan, Artie Shaw and Tommy Dorsey, developing into one of the best big-band drummers of the swing period. In 1946, he formed his own big band with financial help from Frank Sinatra with whom the belligerent drummer had had stormy relations since their Dorsey days. With the decline of big bands, R …