- Billie Holiday
Billie Holiday, born Eleanora Fagan and later called Lady Day, was an American jazz singer. - John Coltrane
John William Coltrane, nicknamed Trane, was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Although recordings of his work from as early as 1946 exist, Coltrane's recording career did not begin in earnest until 1955. From 1957 onward he recorded and produced dozens of albums, many of them not released until years after his death. - Mario Lanza
Mario Lanza (31 January 1921 - 7 October 1959) was an American tenor and Hollywood movie star who enjoyed success in the late 1940s and 1950s. His voice was considered by many to rival that of Enrico Caruso, whom Lanza portrayed in the 1951 film "The Great Caruso". Lanza was able to sing all types of music. While his highly emotional style was not always universally praised by critics, he was immensely popular and his many recordings are still prized today. - Ray Anthony
Ray Anthony (born Raymond Antonioni, January 20 1922, in Bentleyville, Pennsylvania) is an American bandleader, trumpeter, songwriter and actor. As a child Anthony moved with his family to Cleveland, Ohio, where he began studying the trumpet with his father. He played in Glenn Miller's band from 1940-1941 before joining the U.S. Navy during World War II. After the war he formed his own group. The Ray Anthony Orchestra became very popular in the early 1950s, … - Jill Scott
Jill Scott (born April 4 1972) is a Grammy Award-winning American soul, R&B, jazz, and neo soul singer and songwriter. - Josh Wink
Josh Wink (born Joshua Winkelman in 1970) is an electronic music DJ, label owner, producer, remixer, and artist. He is a native of Philadelphia, United States. A pioneering DJ in the American rave scene during the early 1990s, Wink was the most prominent exponent of the tribal forms of techno and house in the U.S. Wink's current style is a mixture of techno, acid, house, drum and bass, and experimental music. - Dizzy Gillespie
John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie (October 21 1917 - January 6 1993) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, singer, and composer. He was born in Cheraw, South Carolina. Together with Charlie Parker, he was a major figure in the development of bebop and modern jazz. In addition to featuring in these epochal moments in jazz, he was instrumental in founding Afro-Cuban jazz, the modern jazz version of the "Spanish Tinge". Gillespie was a trumpet virtuoso and gifted improviser, … - McCoy Tyner
Alfred McCoy Tyner (born December 11 1938) is a jazz pianist from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, best known for his work with the John Coltrane Quartet. Tyner was born in Philadelphia as the oldest of three children. He was encouraged to study piano by his mother. He finally began studying the piano at age 13 and within two years, music had become the focal point in his life. Among many other things, his playing can be distinguished by a low bass left hand, … - Michael McCary
Michael Sean McCary (born December 16 1971, in Philadelphia) is an African-American R&B singer, best known as the bass singer of the popular R&B group, Boyz II Men. He also worked with the pop music legend Mariah Carey. In 2003, Michael McCary left the Boyz II Men due to chronic back problems resulting from scoliosis and personal problems. - Marian Anderson
Marian Anderson, was an American contralto, perhaps best remembered for her performance on Easter Sunday, 1939 on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. Anderson was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She joined a junior church choir at the age of six, and applied to an all-white music school after her graduation from high school in 1921, but was turned away because she was black. - Jimmy Smith
Jimmy Smith, nicknamed "The Incredible Jimmy Smith", (December 8, 1925 - February 8, 2005) was a jazz musician whose Hammond B-3 electric organ performances helped to popularize this instrument. Born James Oscar Smith in Norristown, Pennsylvania, USA. Smith was influenced by both gospel and blues. He first achieved prominence in the 1950s when his recordings became popular on jukeboxes. - Todd Rundgren
Todd Harry Rundgren (born June 22, 1948 in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, USA), is an American musician, singer, songwriter and record producer. - G. Love
Garrett Dutton III, better known as G. Love, is the front man for the band, G. Love & Special Sauce. - Al Martino
Al Martino (born October 7, 1927 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania as Alfred Cini) is an Italian-American singer and actor. After service with the U.S. Marines in World War II, including being a part of the Iwo Jima invasion where he was wounded, he commenced his singing career. His single "Here In My Heart" was number one in the first UK Singles Chart, published by the "New Musical Express" in 1952, putting him into the Guinness Book of World Records. - Joan Jett
Joan Jett (born Joan Marie Larkin on September 22, 1958) is an American rock guitarist, singer, producer and actress. She is best known for her hit single "I Love Rock N' Roll," which was #1 on the Billboard charts from March 20 to May 8, 1982, … - Amos Lee
Amos Lee is a singer-songwriter and guitarist from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His musical style encompasses folk, soul, and jazz. He has released two albums on Blue Note Records, "Amos Lee" and "Supply and Demand". He has been on tour with musicians such as Bob Dylan, Norah Jones, Paul Simon, and Merle Haggard. Lee performs with drummer Fred Berman and bassist Jaron Olevsky. Some of his musical influences include Stevie Wonder, John Prine, Bill Withers, … - Ethel Waters
Ethel Waters (October 31, 1896 - September 1, 1977) was an Oscar-nominated American blues vocalist and actress. She was the second African American to ever be nominated for an Academy Award. Waters frequently performed jazz, big band, gospel, and popular music, on the Broadway stage and in concerts. Her best-known recording was her version of the spiritual "His Eye is on the Sparrow". - Bill Haley
Bill Haley (July 6 1925 – February 9 1981) was one of the first American rock and roll musicians, and is credited by many with first popularizing this form of music in the mid-1950s with his group Bill Haley & His Comets and their hit song "Rock Around the Clock". - Jimmy Dorsey
James "Jimmy" Dorsey was a prominent jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, trumpeter and big band leader. Jimmy Dorsey was born in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania, the son of a music teacher and older brother of Tommy Dorsey who also became a prominent musician. He played trumpet in his youth, appearing on stage in a Vaudeville act as early as 1913. He switched to alto saxophone in 1915, and then learned to double on clarinet. - Jim Croce
James Joseph Croce, popularly known as Jim Croce (pronounced CRO-chee), was an American singer-songwriter. - David Amram
David Amram (born November 17 1930) is an American composer, musician, and writer. His eclectic use of jazz (including being the first noted for jazz French horn), ethnic and folk music has led him to work with the likes of Thelonious Monk, Willie Nelson, Charles Mingus, Leonard Bernstein, and Jack Kerouac throughout the course of his career. He was appointed composer-in-residence to the New York Philharmonic Orchestra in the 1966-1967 season. - Joey Defrancesco
Joey DeFrancesco (b. April 10 1971) is an American jazz organist, trumpeter, and vocalist. "Down Beat's" 2003 Critics Poll selected him as the top jazz organist. DeFrancesco was born in Springfield, Pennsylvania. His grandfather was multi-instrumentalist Joe DeFrancesco, and his father was Hammond B3 player "Papa" John DeFrancesco, who took his son to jazz clubs from the age of seven. Joey DeFrancesco started playing the piano at the age of four, … - Elisa Fiorillo
Elisa Fiorillo (born 28 February 1969, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States) is a singer. Her father was a classical pianist, who was under the guidance of Vladimir Horowitz. Her biological background is vast as it includes German, Italian, Irish and Cherokee. Fiorillo also has three brothers. At the age of fifteen she won the 1983 "Star Search" talent show. In 1990 She released the album "I Am" on Chrysalis Records, Inc. She mainly does back-up singing. - Bahamadia
Bahamadia (born Antonia Reed) is a Philadelphia-born hip hop artist, a DJ who later became an MC. As an affilliate of the Gang Starr Foundation, she released her critically-acclaimed debut album entitled "Kollage" in 1996; the album featured production by Guru and DJ Premier of Gang Starr. "Kollage" was followed in 2001 by "BB Queen", an EP release. Bahamadia is a respected lyricist in hip hop and is known for her silky, … - Perry Como
Pierino Ronald "Perry" Como (May 18 1912 - May 12 2001) was an American crooner. During a career spanning more than half a century he recorded exclusively for the RCA Victor label after signing with it in 1943. He sold millions of records for RCA and also pioneered a weekly musical variety television show, which set the standards for the genre and proved to be one of the most successful in television history. - Pat Martino
Pat Martino (born Pat Azzara, August 25, 1944, in South Philadelphia) is an Italian-American jazz guitarist and composer within the post bop, soul jazz, mainstream jazz and hard bop idioms. - Jimmy Degrasso
Jimmy DeGrasso (born March 16, 1963 in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania) is an American heavy metal drummer. He graduated from Liberty High School in Bethlehem, Pa in 1981. DeGrasso has performed with Alice Cooper, Lita Ford, Ozzy Osbourne, White Lion, Suicidal Tendencies, and Y&T. More recently, DeGrasso was a former member of Megadeth, a multi-platinum heavy metal band. He was Alice Cooper's drummer who played in "Waynes World" (at the very end of the 'Hey Stoopid' tour), … - Jeff Lorber
Jeff Lorber (born November 4, 1952 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an American Grammy Award-nominated keyboardist, composer, and record producer. After leading his own group, The Jeff Lorber Fusion, he went on to pioneer the smooth jazz genre in his solo career. Many of his songs were featured on The Weather Channel's "Local On The 8s" segments. - Archie Shepp
Archie Shepp is an American jazz saxophonist. Shepp was born in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on May 24, 1937, but raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he studied piano, clarinet and alto saxophone before focusing on tenor saxophone (he occasionally plays soprano saxophone). He is best known for his passionately Afrocentric music of the late sixties which focused on highlighting the injustices faced by the African race, … - Sun Ra
Sun Ra (Born Herman Poole Blount; legal name Le Sony'r Ra; born May 22, 1914 in Birmingham, Alabama, died May 30, 1993 in Birmingham, Alabama) was an innovative jazz composer, bandleader, piano and synthesizer player, poet and philosopher known for his "cosmic philosophy", musical compositions and performances. He abandoned his birth name and took on the name and persona of Sun Ra (Ra being the ancient Egyptian god of the Sun). - Stanley Clarke
Stanley Clarke (born 30 June 1951) is an American musician and composer known for his innovative and influential work on double bass and bass guitar as well as his numerous film and television scores. - Christian McBride
Christian McBride (born May 31, 1972, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is a jazz bassist. His father, Lee Smith, and his great uncle, Howard Cooper, are well known Philadelphia bassists who served as McBride's early mentors. In the jazz community, McBride is widely considered to be one of the best bassists of his generation. McBride has performed and recorded with a huge number of jazz legends, including Diana Krall, Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard, Herbie Hancock, Pat Metheny, … - Percy Heath
Percy Heath, (April 30, 1923 - April 28, 2005), was a jazz musician, most famous for his 40+ years as the double bass player for the Modern Jazz Quartet (MJQ). He is the brother of tenor saxophonist Jimmy Heath and drummer Tootie Heath, with whom he formed the Heath Brothers in 1975. Heath also worked with Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, and Thelonious Monk. At the age of 81, he released his first album as bandleader through the Daddy Jazz label. - Daryl Hall
Daryl Hall (born Daryl Franklin Hohl on October 11, 1946, Pottstown, Pennsylvania) is an American singer and songwriter best known as half of the music duo Hall & Oates (with music partner John Oates). - Benny Golson
Benny Golson (born January 25, 1929) is an American bebop/hard bop jazz tenor saxophonist, composer, and arranger. While in high school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Golson played with several other promising young musicians, including John Coltrane, Red Garland, Jimmy Heath, Percy Heath, Philly Joe Jones, and Red Rodney. After graduating from Howard University Golson joined Bull Moose Jackson's rhythm and blues band; Tadd Dameron, … - Randy Brecker
Ronald "Randy" Brecker (b. Cheltenham, Pennsylvania, November 27, 1945) is an American trumpeter and flugelhornist. He is a highly sought after performer in the genres of jazz, rock, and R&B, and has performed or recorded with Billy Cobham, Bruce Springsteen, Sandip Burman, Charles Mingus, Blood, Sweat & Tears, Horace Silver, Frank Zappa, Parliament, Chris Parker, Jaco Pastorius, Dire Straits, and many others. Randy Brecker played on the first Blood Sweat & Tears album, … - Musiq Soulchild
Musiq Soulchild (born Talib Johnson on September 16, 1977. in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), is an American neo soul and R&B artist, and was one of the most popular artists on the Def Soul label. In 2001, he dropped the "Soulchild" from his moniker and began referring to himself simply as "Musiq", stating that he had not yet mastered his craft, and thus was not yet "music's soulchild". - Richie Kotzen
Richie Kotzen (born February 3, 1970 in Birdsboro, Pennsylvania) is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. - Tommy Dorsey
Tommy Dorsey (November 19 1905 - November 26 1956) was an American jazz trombonist, trumpeter and bandleader in the Big Band era. He was the younger brother of Jimmy Dorsey. - Lee Morgan
Lee Morgan (10 July, 1938 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - 19 February, 1972 in New York City) was an American hard bop trumpeter.
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