Artie Shaw (May 23, 1910, New York, New York - December 30, 2004, Thousand Oaks, California) is considered to be one of the best jazz musicians of his time jazz clarinetist, composer, bandleader; he is also the author of both fiction and non-fiction writings.

Woodrow Charles Herman (May 16 1913 - October 29 1987), better known as Woody Herman, was an American jazz clarinetist, alto and soprano saxophonist, singer, and big band leader.

John Cornelius "Johnny" Hodges (25 July, 1907-11 May, 1970) was an American alto saxophonist and lead player of Duke Ellington's saxophone section, born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He spent 38 years with Ellington, leaving to lead his own band from 1951 to 1955. Hodges started playing with Lloyd Scott, Sidney Bechet, Lucky Roberts and Chick Webb. When Ellington wanted to expand his band in 1928, Ellington's clarinet player Barney Bigard recommended Hodges, …

Benny Goodman, born Benjamin David Goodman, (May 30, 1909 - June 13, 1986) was an American jazz musician, known as "King of Swing", "Patriarch of the Clarinet", "The Professor", and "Swing's Senior Statesman".

Joe Marsala (born January 4, 1907 in Chicago; died March 4, 1978 om Santa Barbara, California) was a Chicago-based jazz clarinetist and songwriter. He was active during the big band era. Marsala is notable as one of the early employers of drummer Buddy Rich. Among his other musicians included pianist Joe Bushkin and guitarist Carmen Mastren. Leonard Feather, among others, gives him a good deal of credit for breaking down segregation in jazz.

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.

Bennett Lester Carter (August 8 1907 - July 12 2003) was an American jazz alto saxophonist, clarinetist, trumpeter, composer, arranger, and bandleader. He was a major figure in jazz from the 1930s to the 1990s, and was recognised as such by other jazz musicians who called him "King". Carter was admired for his ability to write saxophone solos, which are sections of music that the entire section plays as one unit in the manner of a solo.

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.

Michael Andrew "Peanuts" Hucko (April 7 1918 - June 19 2003) was an American big band musician. His primary instrument was the clarinet.

Albany Leon Bigard (March 3, 1906 - June 27, 1980) was an American jazz clarinetist and tenor saxophonist, though primarily known for the clarinet. Barney Bigard was born in New Orleans and studied music and clarinet with Lorenzo Tio. He moved to Chicago in the early 1920s, where he worked with "King" Joe Oliver and others. During this period, much of his recording with Oliver and others including clarinetist Johnny Dodds was on tenor saxophone, …

Charles Ellsworth Russell, much better known by his nickname Pee Wee Russell, (27 March, 1906 - 15 February, 1969) was a jazz musician. Early in his career he played clarinet and saxophones, but eventually focused solely on clarinet. Russell was born in Maplewood, Missouri and grew up in Muskogee, Oklahoma.

John Kenneth Davern, better known as Kenny Davern, was one of the premier jazz clarinetists of his generation. He was born in Huntington, Long Island to a family of mixed Jewish and Irish-Catholic ancestry. His mother’s family originally came from Vienna, Austria, were his great-grandfather Alfred Roth had been a colonel in the Austro-Hungarian cavalry, the highest rank accessible to a Jew in the Habsburg Imperial army.

Matty (Julian Clifton) Matlock (27 April 1907-14 June 1978) was an American Dixieland jazz clarinettist, saxophonist and arranger born in Paducah, Kentucky. From 1929-1934 Matlock replaced Benny Goodman in the Ben Pollack band doing arrangements and performing on clarinet. From 1935-1942, after a falling out with Pollack, Matty began playing on clarinet with Bob Crosby.

Donald Matthew Redman (July 29, 1900, Piedmont, West Virginia - November 30, 1964, New York) was an American jazz musician, arranger, and composer. Redman was born in Piedmont, West Virginia. His father was a music teacher, his mother was a singer. Don began playing the trumpet at the age of 3, joined his first band at 6 and by age 12 he was proficient on all wind instruments ranging from trumpet to oboe as well as piano.

Ken Peplowski (b. May 23, 1959) is a jazz clarinetist born in Cleveland, Ohio, known primarily for playing in the swing music idiom. He is sometimes compared to Benny Goodman in terms of tone and virtuosity. For over a decade, Peplowski recorded for Concord Records; his most recent albums have appeared on the "Nagel-Heyer Records" record label. In 2007 Peplowski was named jazz advisor of Oregon Festival of American Music and music director of Jazz Party at The Shedd, …

Edmond Hall (15 May, 1901 in New Orleans - 11 February, 1967 in Boston) was a jazz clarinetist from a musical family. His father Edward and brothers Robert, Clarence and Herb were all clarinetists as well, while a fourth brother played bass. He performed for several New Orleans bands before going to New York City with Alonzo Ross. In the city he played with a variety of groups and by the 1940s turned down an offer by Duke Ellington in order to work with Teddy Wilson.

Hal Kemp was a Jazz alto saxophonist, clarinetist, bandleader, composer, and arranger. He was born in Marion, Alabama and died in Madera, California following an auto accident. Art Jarrett took on leadership of Kemp's orchestra in 1941.

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.

Omer Victor Simeon (21 July, 1902 - 17 September, 1959) was an American jazz clarinetist. He also played soprano, alto, and baritone saxophone and bass clarinet. Omer Simeon was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, the son of a cigar maker. His family moved to Chicago, Illinois. He learned clarinet from the New Orleans master Lorenzo Tio, Jr., and started playing professionally in 1920. He worked in Chicago and Milwaukee, Wisconsin with various bands, …

Irving Fazola was an American jazz clarinetist. Fazola or Faz was born in New Orleans, Louisiana as Irving Henry Prestopnik. He got the nickname Fazola from his childhood skill at Solfege ("Fa-Sol-La"). He decided to use the nickname as his family name, and many fellow musicians were unaware that Fazola was not his birth name. Influenced early on by Leon Roppolo, who Fazola continued to idolize throughout his life, …

Humphrey Richard Adeane Lyttelton (born 23 May 1921), also known as 'Humph', is a well-known British jazz musician and broadcaster, and chairman of the BBC radio programme "I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue". He is a cousin of the 10th Viscount Cobham and a nephew of the politician and sportsman Alfred Lyttelton, who was the first man to represent England at both football and cricket.

Jimmy Hamilton (25 May 1917 - 20 September 1994) was an American jazz clarinettist, tenor saxophonist, arranger, composer, and music educator, best known for his twenty-five years with Duke Ellington. Hamilton was born in Dillon, South Carolina, and grew up in Philadelphia. Having originally learnt to play piano and brass instruments, in the 1930s he started playing the latter in local bands, before switching to clarinet and saxophone.

John LaPorta was a Philadelphia-born jazz clarinetist and saxophonist. LaPorta's sound has been compared to that of fellow jazz experimenter Jimmy Giuffre. He is usually considered a member of the "Cool" school in jazz and his improvisations identify him as a well-schooled, thoughtful player. LaPorta began studying clarinet at the age of nine and studied methods at the Mastbaum School in Philadelphia, where one of his classmates was fellow clarinettist Buddy DeFranco.

Albert J. Johnson(born December 14, 1910 in Dallas, Texas; died October 20, 1984 in Kansas City, Missouri) was a jazz saxophonist and clarinetist best known as a "behind-the-scenes player" and writer. He is generally known as "Budd Johnson." He initially played drums and piano before switching to tenor saxophone. In the 1920s he performed in Texas and parts of the Midwest, working with Jesse Stone among others.

Phillip Rista (Phil) Nimmons, O.C. (born June 3, 1923) is a Canadian jazz clarinetist, composer, bandleader, and academic. Born in Kamloops, British Columbia, the son of George Rista and Hilda Louise (McCrum), he attended Lord Byng Secondary School, graduating in 1940. He then received a B.A. from the University of British Columbia in 1944. From 1945 to 1947, he was a scholar at the Juilliard School of Music. From 1948 to 1950, he attended the Royal Conservatory of Music.

Harry Howell Carney (1910 - 1974) was a swing baritone saxophonist, and bass clarinetist best known for his 45-year tenure in Duke Ellington's band. Carney started off in Ellington's band playing alto, but soon switched to the baritone. His strong, steady saxophone often serves as the anchor of Duke's music. He also played bass clarinet on occasion.

Russell Procope (11 August 1908-21 January 1981), an American clarinettist and alto saxophonist, was known best for his long tenure in the reed section of Duke Ellington's orchestra, where he was one of its two signature clarinet soloists.

Otto Hardwick (May 31 1904 - August 5 1970) was a saxophone player. He got his start with Duke Ellington in 1919.

Benny Waters (born Benjamin Waters on January 23, 1902 near Baltimore, Maryland; died August 11, 1998 in Columbia, Maryland) was a jazz saxophonist and clarinetist known, in part, for the longevity of his career. He began on organ, then switched to clarinet and later added saxophone. He joined his first band in 1918. He later attended the New England Conservatory of Music where he gave lessons to Harry Carney. He later went on to work with King Oliver, Fletcher Henderson, …

Alix Combelle (15 June, 1912-2 March, 1978) was a French swing jazz tenor saxophonist, clarinetist and bandleader, born in and performing in Paris, France for most of his life. He was well known on the Continental Jazz scene of Europe, active mostly in the 1930s and 1940s. He performed or featured in his bands such musicians as Arthur Briggs, Michel Warlop and Gregor et ses Gregoriens, among others. During the 1940s his popularity eased off somewhat, …

Tommy Douglas (November 9, 1911-9 March, 1965) is or was an American jazz clarinetist, bandleader and reed instrumentalist born in Eskridge, Kansas, probably better known for his work as a sideman for Jelly Roll Morton and Bennie Moten. He was also an accomplished bandleader, showcasing such talent in his bands as Charlie Parker and Jo Jones, among others. He also performed with Captain Woolmack's Band and the Clarence Love Orchestra.

Hubert Rostaing (September 17, 1918; June 10, 1990) was a jazz clarinetist and tenor saxophonist. He also did film composition and classical music. He began in Algiers with the "Red Hotters" and later moved to Paris. He might be best known for playing clarinet or saxophone in Django Reinhardt's quintet. His most known performance in that role might be his playing clarinet on "Nuages." He later led a band, …

Harlan Leonard (1905-1983) was an American jazz bandleader and clarinetist from Kansas City, Missouri. A professional musician from the age of 17, he joined Benny Moten's orchestra in 1923, where he led the reed section until 1931. In 1931 he and Thamon Hates the Kansas City Skyrockets, which included trumpeter Ed Lewis, trombonist Vic Dickenson, and pianist Jesse Stone. After disputes with the Chicago local of the American Federation of Musicians the band broke up.

Shoji Suzuki (born August 16, 1932 - died September 10, 1995) was a Japanese jazz clarinet player and band leader nicknamed the "Benny Goodman of Japan".