Elvis Presley (Elvis Aaron Presley)
01/08/1935 - 08/16/1977
Elvis Aaron Presley began his career as first performer of rockabilly, an up-tempo fusion of country and rhythm and blues with a strong back beat. Presley had a versatile voice and had unusually wide success encompassing other genres, including go...
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Sandy Courage (Alexander Mair Courage)
12/10/1919 - 05/15/2008
Alexander "Sandy" Mair Courage Jr. (December 10, 1919 –May 15, 2008) was an American orchestrator, arranger, and composer of music, primarily for television and film.
Red Garland (William Garland)
05/13/1923 - 04/23/1984
William "Red" Garland (May 13, 1923 – April 23, 1984) was an American hard bop jazz pianist whose block chord style, in part originated by Milt Buckner, influenced many forthcoming pianists in the...
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06/29/1943 - 04/10/2003
Eva Narcissus Boyd (June 29, 1943 – April 10, 2003), known by the stage name of Little Eva (after a character from Uncle Tom's Cabin), was an American pop singer.
Tommy Newsom (Thomas Penn Newsom)
02/25/1929 - 04/28/2007
Thomas Penn "Tommy" Newsom (February 25, 1929 – April 28, 2007) was a saxophone player in the NBC Orchestra on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, for which he later became assistant director.
Jimmy Dorsey (James Dorsey)
04/29/1904 - 06/12/1957
James "Jimmy" Dorsey (February 29, 1904 – June 12, 1957) was a prominent American jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, trumpeter, composer, and big band leader. He was known as "JD". He c...
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10/09/1927 - 05/18/2004
Elvin Ray Jones (September 9, 1927 – May 18, 2004) was a jazz drummer of the post-bop era. He showed interest in drums at a young age, watching the circus bands march by his family's home in Pontiac, Mi...
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07/03/1952 - 08/26/2004
Laura Ann Frances Branigan (July 3, 1952 – August 26, 2004) was an American singer-songwriter and actress of Italian and Irish ancestry. She is best known in the United States for her 1982 Platinum-cer...
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Art Blakey (Arthur Blakey)
10/11/1919 - 10/16/1990
Arthur "Art" Blakey (October 11, 1919 – October 16, 1990), known later as Abdullah Ibn Buhaina, was an American jazz drummer and bandleader.
08/13/1951 - 12/16/2007
Daniel Grayling "Dan" Fogelberg (August 13, 1951 – December 16, 2007) was an American singer-songwriter, composer, and multi-instrumentalist, whose music was inspired by sources as diverse as folk, pop, rock, classical, jazz, and b...
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10/20/1874 - 05/19/1954
Charles Edward Ives (October 20, 1874 – May 19, 1954) was an American modernist composer. He is widely regarded as one of the first American composers of international renown. Ives' music was largely ignored during his life, and many of...
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08/29/1920 - 03/12/1955
Charles "Yardbird" Parker (born August 29, 1920, Kansas City, Kan., U.S.—died March 12, 1955, New York, N.Y.) American alto saxophonist, composer, and bandleader, a lyric artist generally considered the greatest jazz saxophonist. P...
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02/24/1923 - 06/23/2011
Fred Steiner (February 24, 1923 – June 23, 2011) was an American composer, conductor, orchestrator, film historian and arranger for television, radio and film.
Benny Goodman (Benjamin David Goodman)
05/30/1909 - 06/13/1986
Benjamin David “Benny” Goodman (May 30, 1909 – June 13, 1986) was an American jazz and swing musician, clarinetist and bandleader; widely known as the "King of Swing