Frank Foster (b. 23 September 1928) is an American tenor and soprano saxophonist, arranger, and composer, who is best known for his work in different periods with the Count Basie orchestra, as well as under his own name. His playing style has been influenced by that of John Coltrane, but has remained very much his own. Foster was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and educated at Wilberforce University. In 1949 he played in Detroit with local musicians such as Wardell Gray, …

Lester Willis Young (August 27, 1909 - March 15, 1959), nicknamed "Prez", was an American jazz tenor saxophonist and clarinetist. He is remembered as one of the finest, most influential players on his instrument and for inventing or establishing much of the hipster ethos which came to be associated with jazz.

Jo Jones (later known as Papa Jo Jones) was an American drummer, one of the most influential in the history of jazz.

Thaddeus Joseph Jones was an American jazz trumpeter, composer, and bandleader. He was born in Pontiac, Michigan to a musical family of ten (an older brother was pianist Hank Jones and a younger brother was drummer Elvin Jones). Thad Jones was a self taught musician, performing professionally by the age of sixteen. He served in U.S. Army bands during World War II (1943-46). After the war, Thad Jones continued his professional music career, …

Marshall Royal (12 May 1912-5 May 1995) was an American clarinettist and alto saxophonist best known for his work with Count Basie, with whose band he played for nearly twenty years. Royal was born in Oklahoma, the elder brother of trumpeter Ernie Royal, and learned to play violin, guitar, as well as clarinet and sax while still a child. He first performed in public at the age of thirteen, …

Clark Terry (born December 14, 1920 in St. Louis, Missouri), nicknamed Mumbles, is an American swing and bop trumpeter, a pioneer of the fluegelhorn in jazz, educator, and NEA Jazz Master.

Harry "Sweets" Edison (October 10, 1915 - July 27, 1999), was born in Columbus, Ohio. He spent his early childhood in Kentucky, where he was introduced to music by an uncle. After moving back to Columbus at the age of 12, the young Edison began playing the trumpet with local bands. In 1933, he became a member of the Jeter-Pillars Orchestra in Cleveland. Afterwards he played with the "Mills Blue Rhythm Band" and Lucky Millinder.

Joseph Dwight Newman (7 September 1922-4 July 1992) was an American jazz trumpeter, composer, and educator, best known for his time with Count Basie. Newman was born in New Orleans, Louisiana to a musical family, having his first music lessons from David Jones. He attended Alabama State College, where he joined the college band, became its leader, and took it on tour. In 1941 he joined Lionel Hampton for two years, before signing with Count Basie, …

Freddie Green (baptized Frederick William Green, March 31 1911-March 1 1987) was an American swing jazz guitarist. He was especially noted for his sophisticated rhythm guitar in big band settings, particularly for the Count Basie orchestra, where he was part of the "All-American Rhythm Section" with Basie on piano, Jo Jones on drums, and Walter Page on bass. He was born in Charleston, South Carolina on the 31st of March 1911. He was exposed to music from an early age, …

Buck Clayton (born Wilbur Dorsey Clayton in Parsons, Kansas on November 12, 1911-died in New York City on December 8, 1991) was an American jazz trumpet player, fondly remembered for being a leading member of Count Basie’s 'Old Testament' orchestra and leader of mainstream orientated jam session recordings in the 1950s. His principal influence was Louis Armstrong.

Luigi Paulino Alfredo Francesco Antonio Balassoni (born 6 July 1924), better known by the stage name Louie Bellson, is an American jazz drummer. He is considered to be one of the few drummers whose technical proficiency is in the league of Buddy Rich. He is a composer, arranger, bandleader, and jazz educator, and is credited with pioneering the use of two bass drums.

William Wells, (June 10, 1907 - November 12, 1985), more famous under the name of Dicky Wells (sometimes Dickie Wells), was an American jazz trombonist. Dickie Wells was born in Centerville, Tennessee. He moved to New York City in 1926, and became a member of the Lloyd Scott band. He played with Count Basie between 1938-1945 and 1947-1950. He also played with Cecil Scott, Spike Hughes, Fletcher Henderson, Benny Carter, Teddy Hill, …

Curtis DuBois Fuller (born in Detroit, December 15, 1934) is a United States hard bop trombonist. Fuller's parents were Jamaican and died when he was young, so as a result he was raised in an orphanage. While in Detroit he was a schoolfriend of Paul Chambers and Donald Byrd, and also knew Tommy Flanagan, Thad Jones and Milt Jackson. After army service between 1953 and 1955 (when he played in a band with Chambers and brothers Cannonball and Nat Adderley), …

Carlos Wesley (Don) Byas (October 21, 1912-August 24, 1972) was an African American jazz tenor saxophonist born in Muskogee, Oklahoma in the United States. Although his long residence in Europe kept him out of the public eye in the United States, he is often considered to be one of the great jazz musicians on his instrument.

George Holmes "Buddy" Tate (born February 22, 1913 in Sherman, Texas and died February 10, 2001 in Chandler, Arizona) was a jazz saxophonist and clarinetist who played tenor saxophone. He has been counted as one of the great tenor saxophonists of his generation and was inducted into the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame. He began on alto saxophone, but quickly switched to tenor making a name for himself in bands like Andy Kirk's.

Fred Wesley (born 1943) is an American jazz and funk trombonist, best known for his work with James Brown in the 1960s and 1970s. Wesley was born in Mobile, Alabama, the son of a high school teacher and big band leader. During the 1960s and 1970s he was a pivotal member of James Brown's bands, playing on many hit recordings including "Say it Loud - I'm Black and I'm Proud", "Mother Popcorn" and co-writing tunes such as "Hot Pants".

Eugene "Snooky" Young (born 3 February 1919) is an American jazz trumpeter. He is known for his mastery of the plunger mute, with which he is able to create a wide range of sounds. Young was lead trumpeter of the Jimmie Lunceford band from 1939 to 1942. He played with Count Basie (three stints totalling eight years) and Lionel Hampton, among others, and was an original member of the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Big Band.

Sonny Payne (4 May 1926-29 January 1979) was an American jazz drummer, best known for his work with Count Basie and Harry James. Born Percival Payne in New York, his father was Wild Bill Davis's drummer Chris Columbus. After early study with Vic Berton, in 1944 Payne started playing professionally around New York with the Dud and Paul Bascomb band, Hot Lips Page, Earl Bostic (1945-1947), Tiny Grimes (between 1947 and 1950), and Lucille Dixon (1948).

Eli (Lucky) Thompson (June 16, 1924, Columbia, South Carolina - July 30, 2005, Seattle, Washington) was an African American jazz tenor and soprano saxophonist. He is considered, alongside Steve Lacy, to have brought the soprano saxophone out of obsolescence, playing it in a more advanced boppish format, which inspired John Coltrane to take it up in the early 1960s. After playing with the swing orchestras of Lionel Hampton, Don Redman, Billy Eckstine, Lucky Millinder, …

Paul Quinichette (17 May, 1916 - 25 May, 1983) was a jazz tenor saxophone musician. He was known as the Vice President or Vice Prez for his uncanny emulation of the breathy style of Lester Young, known as Prez. Young called him Lady Q, not considered a compliment. He was also capable of a gruffer style on his own.

Al Grey (June 6, 1925 - March 24, 2000) was a Jazz Trombonist who is most remembered for his association with the Count Basie orchestra. Grey is known for his plunger mute technique (comparable only to Tricky Sam Nanton, Bob Hunt and Wycliffe Gordon), and also wrote an instructional book called "Plunger Techniques". Al Grey was born in Aldie, Virginia and grew up in Pottstown, Pennsylvania. During World War II he served in the Navy where he started playing the trombone.

Paul Gonsalves (July 12, 1920, Brockton, Massachusetts - May 15, 1974, London, England), an American jazz tenor saxophonist of Cape Verdean (mixed Portuguese-black African) blood, was considered one of the best and most tasteful players on his instrument. But no review of his musicianship is ever left untouched by the performance that made his name in the first place---the near-riot he caused at the 1956 Newport Jazz Festival, with an arresting, 27-chorus solo, …

Oran Thaddeus Page (27 January, 1908 - 4 November, 1954) jazz trumpeter, singer, bandleader born in Dallas, Texas, better known as Hot Lips Page by the public, and Lips Page by his fellow musicians. He was known as a scorching soloist and powerful vocalist. In his early years, Page travelled the southwest backing such blues singers as Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Ida Cox.

Serge Chaloff (November 24, 1923-July 16, 1957) was an American jazz baritone saxophonist, and the son of noted Boston piano teachers, Margaret Chaloff and Julius Chaloff. He is one of the few major jazz performers on his instrument, and the first major bebop performer, and was originally influenced by Charlie Parker. He first became well known as one of the "Four Brothers" reed section in Woody Herman's Second Herd. He also played with Boyd Raeburn, Georgie Auld, …

Talmadge (Tab) Smith (January 11, 1909-August 17, 1971), was an American swing and rhythm and blues alto saxophonist. In the 1930s and 1940s he spent several years in the bands of Lucky Millinder and Count Basie, as well as spending long periods freelancing both as a player and as an arranger. After the Second World War he led his own groups, which concentrated on rhythm and blues as jazz turned from swing to bop.

Edward Davis (March 2, 1922-November 3, 1986), who performed and recorded as Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. He played with Cootie Williams, Lucky Millinder, Andy Kirk, Louis Armstrong, and Count Basie, as well as leading his own bands and making many recordings as a leader. He played in the swing, bop, hard bop, Latin jazz, and soul jazz genres. Some of his recordings of the 1940s also could be classified as rhythm and blues.

Jean-Baptiste Illinois Jacquet (October 31, 1922-July 22, 2004) was a jazz tenor saxophonist most famous for his solo on "Flying Home". He is better known simply as Illinois Jacquet. Although he was a pioneer of the honking tenor sax that became a regular feature of jazz playing and a hallmark of rock and roll, he was a skilled and melodic improviser, both on up-tempo tunes and ballads.

Walter Sylvester Page (February 9, 1900-December 20, 1957) was an African American jazz bassist and leader of the Oklahoma City Blue Devils jazz orchestra from 1925-1931. He was born in Gallatin, Missouri, and his career began with Bennie Moten, performing with the seminal bandleader from 1918-1923. He later joined the Count Basie band, becoming part of a legendary rhythm section with Basie, drummer Jo Jones and guitarist Freddie Greene.

Vic (Victor) Dickenson (August 6, 1906 - November 16, 1984) was an African-American jazz trombonist. Dickenson's career started out in the 1920s and led him through musical partnerships with such legends as Count Basie, Sidney Bechet and Earl Hines. Also a soloist of wide acclaim, Vic Dickenson was known for the distinctive sound he coaxed out of the trombone. Dickenson was born in Xenia, Ohio and died in New York City.

Emmett Berry (born July 23, 1915 in Macon, Georgia; died June 22, 1993 in Cleveland, Ohio) was a jazz trumpeter. He began with study of classical trumpet in Georgia, but by 18 had switched to jazz and moved to New York City. He became a member of Fletcher Henderson's band and later replaced Roy Eldridge as soloist. Interestingly in the 1940s he would work in Eldridge's "Little Jazz Trumpet Ensemble." He also played in Count Basie's band.

Charlie Fowlkes (16 February 1916-9 February 1980) was an American baritone saxophonist, best known for his time with Count Basie, which lasted for more than twenty-five years. Fowlkes was born in New York, and studied alto and tenor saxophone, clarinet, and violin before settling on the baritone sax (he also played occasional flute). He spent most of his early career in New York, playing with Tiny Bradshaw (1938-1944), Lionel Hampton (1944-1948), …

Gus Johnson (November 15, 1913 - February 6, 2000) was the drummer in various jazz bands for many years. In the 1960s he played for saxophonist Gerry Mulligan and accompanied singer Ella Fitzgerald in her 1960 concert in Berlin. He is memorialized in the Medeski Martin & Wood song "Whatever Happened to Gus."

Wardell Gray (1921-1955) was an American jazz bebop tenor saxophonist.

Billy Mitchell (b. Kansas City, Missouri, November 3, 1926; d. Rockville Centre, NY, April 18, 2001) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist best known for his work with Woody Herman when he replaced Gene Ammons in his band. In 1949 Mitchell recorded with the Milt Buckner band, and from 1956 to 1957 he played with Dizzy Gillespie in his big band. From 1957 until 1961 and from 1966 to 1967 Mitchell played with Count Basie, having replaced Lockjaw Davis.

Benny Morton (born January 31, 1907 in New York City; died December 28, 1985 in New York City) was a jazz trombonist most associated with the swing (genre). He was praised by Bill Watrous among other. One of his first jobs was working with Clarence Holiday and towards the end of her life appeared with his daughter Billie Holiday on The Sound of Jazz That stated he is probably best known for his work with Count Basie and Fletcher Henderson.

Jimmy Robert Forrest Jr. (January 24 1920 - August 26 1980) was a jazz musician who played tenor saxophone throughout his career. He is famous for his first solo recording of "Night Train," with its irresistible hook and classic tenor solo. He recorded frequently as both a side man and a leader. "Night Train" reached # 1 on the R&B charts in March 1952, and stayed at the top for seven weeks. "Hey Mrs Jones (# 3 R&B) and "Bolo Blues" were his other major hits.

Herschel Evans (born March 9, 1909 in Denton, Texas; died February 9, 1939 in New York City) was a tenor saxophonist who worked in the Count Basie Orchestra. He had also worked with Lionel Hampton and Buck Clayton. He is also known for starting his cousin Joe McQueen's interest in saxophone. He died before he turned thirty from a heart ailment.