Portal:Jazz/Did you know/Archive

This a complete list, by year, of all the jazz-related articles which have appeared on the main page of Wikipedia, in the "Did You Know" section.

2004

• ... that The Mississippi Rag has been reporting on traditional jazz and ragtime music since 1973?
• ... that Wingy Manone's "Tar Paper Stomp" was used as the basis for Glenn Miller's "In the Mood"? (Manone pictured, right)
• ... that the real name of drummer Mel Lewis (pictured, left) was Melvin Sokoloff?

2004

2005

January/February

... that the Squirrel Nut Zippers (pictured) were influenced by the energetic sounds of 1920s hot jazz?
... that Hungarian-born composer Mátyás Seiber was killed in a car crash while on a lecture tour of South Africa?
... that Nica de Koenigswarter of the Rothschild family was known as the "bebop baroness" for her patronage of jazz musicians, including Thelonious Monk and Charlie Parker?

January/February 2005

March - June

... that a double tonic is a basic chord progression or melodic motion extremely common in African, Asian, and European music consisting of a "regular back-and-forth motion" most commonly between notes a whole tone apart?
... that a sideman is a professional musician who is hired to perform or record with a group of which he is not formally a member?
... that Doc Cheatham (pictured) (1905–1997) has been described as the only jazz musician to create his best work after the age of 70?

March - June 2005

July - December

... that legendary producer and arranger Quincy Jones produced jazz vocalist Helen Merrill's self-titled debut album when he was just 21 years old?
... that Miles Copeland, Jr., the father of Stewart and Miles III, was a CIA spy involved in several Mideast coups, but began his career as a trumpeter for big bands including Glenn Miller?
... that Dennis Berry (pictured, centre top) was a musician, composer, arranger and producer who not only produced the music to the first Monty Python film, but has also had his music featured on the BBC's Little Britain, MTV's The Osbournes and the Nickelodeon cartoon Spongebob Squarepants?
... that as a child, B.A. Rolfe was billed as "The Boy Trumpet Wonder", and that he went on to become a bandleader and significant film producer?

July - December 2005

2006

January - May

• ... that jazz singer Ilse Huizinga (pictured, right) is known in the Netherlands as the First Lady of Jazz?
• ... that the 1934 jazz standard "Stars Fell on Alabama" was inspired by the Leonid meteor shower that was observed in Alabama a century earlier, in 1833? (Alabama license plate pictured)
• ... that Katie Melua (pictured, left) agreed to re-record her song "Nine Million Bicycles" (2005) in response to criticisms from physicist Simon Singh, who described its lyrics as "an insult to a century of astronomical progress"?

January - May 2006

June - December

• ... that Chicago composer Margaret Bonds (pictured, left) wrote her first work, the Marquette Street Blues, at the age of five?
• ... that the early musical influences of Austrian jazz-fusion guitarist Alex Machacek, who has been praised by legends like John McLaughlin, included heavy metal bands like Iron Maiden and KISS
• ... that Erin Bode (pictured, right) performed with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra for three seasons before starting her recording career as a singer?

June - December 2006

2007

Jazz/January

... that jazz musician Roscoe Mitchell, while in Germany for the U.S. Army, studied under the first clarinetist of the Heidelberg Symphony?
... that three members of the Hot 8 Brass Band have died as a result of gun violence in New Orleans?
... that Dave Burrell's operatic live jazz album Windward Passages was his response to land development in Hawaii during the late 1970s?
... that Dave Burrell recorded Echo to honor an all-star group Archie Shepp asked him to be a part of during the 1969 Pan-African Music Festival in Algiers?
... that the word jazz was originally a California baseball slang term and was first applied to a style of music in Chicago?

January 2007

Jazz/February - May

... that the artist and illustrator N. C. Wyeth was the grandfather of Howard Wyeth, the stride pianist and drummer for Bob Dylan?
... that the modern meaning of "ballad", a slow, sentimental tune or love song, often written in a fairly standardized form, came about from Tin Pan Alley and Broadway composers? Dewacasino168
... that Leo Arnaud (pictured) is the composer of the well-known Olympic theme "Bugler's Dream?"

February - May 2007

Jazz/June

... that Dave Brubeck's The Real Ambassadors was largely based on the goodwill tours of Louis Armstrong and other jazz musicians on behalf of the U.S. State Department during the Cold War?
... that for the jazz album The Meeting, Joseph Jarman returned to the Art Ensemble of Chicago after leaving in 1993 to open a Buddhist dojo in Brooklyn, New York?
... that for Lee Ritenour's first album, First Course, he drafted his friends, including Dave Grusin, Frank Rosolino and Tom Scott, from Dante's and the Baked Potato club in Studio City? (pictured, 2009)

June 2007

Jazz/July #1

... that Anna Mae Winburn led the International Sweethearts of Rhythm, the only integrated, all-female big band of the 1940s?
... that prominent pops conductor and arranger Jeff Tyzik released six albums from 1981–1990 as a solo trumpeter?
... that although Lloyd Hunter played trumpet and led a big band for 38 years, he only recorded once, for the race record label Vocalion (pictured)?

July 2007

Jazz/July #2

... that Bill Barber (pictured) played tuba on a number of Miles Davis albums including Birth of the Cool, Miles Ahead and Sketches of Spain?
... that Danny Barcelona was a Filipino American self-taught drummer for Louis Armstrong’s All-Stars jazz band?
... that Rob Mazurek's avant-garde Chicago Underground projects began as a workshop at local jazz club The Green Mill?

July 2007

Jazz/August - December

Éva Gauthier wearing a Javanese headdress

• ... that the song "See See Rider" was first recorded in 1924 by Ma Rainey and reached the top of the rhythm and blues charts twice in versions by Bea Booze and Chuck Willis?
• ... that Éva Gauthier (pictured, left) was the first classically trained singer to present the works of George Gershwin in concert?
• ... that the Jay Pritzker Pavilion (pictured, right), an outdoor bandshell and great lawn, uses an innovative sound system that recreates an indoor concert hall sound experience?
• ... that some of Frank Sinatra's recordings of the 1964 song "My Kind of Town" change the original lyrics to omit reference to the Union Stock Yard which closed in 1971?
• ... that The Legendary Buster Smith was the only solo album by Charlie Parker's mentor Buster Smith?
• ... that The Cannonball Adderley Quintet in San Francisco, a 1959 album by jazz band The Cannonball Adderley Quintet (Adderly brothers pictured), reached the bestseller charts with 50,000 copies sold by May 1960?
August - December 2007

2008

January

... that the Midwestern United States territory band leader Nat Towles' fear of losing his best musicians kept him from striving for national prominence in the 1930s and 40s?
... that the 1956 My Fair Lady by Shelly Manne & His Friends was the first album ever made consisting entirely of jazz versions of tunes from a single Broadway musical?
... that The Hazel Scott Show was the first U.S. network television series to be hosted by a black woman? (Hazel Scott pictured)

January 2008

March/April

... that jazz saxophonist John Coltrane's song "Ogunde" is based on the Afro-Brazilian folk song "Ogunde Varere", which translates to "Prayer of the Gods"?
... that hard bop jazz drummer Roy Brooks, who played with Horace Silver and Max Roach, was sentenced to four years in prison for assault at age 62?
... that jazz drummer Butch Ballard was hired by Duke Ellington as a backup drummer due to the excessive drinking of his regular drummer Sonny Greer?
... that Filipino jazz singer Katy de la Cruz was once a top-billed performer at the famed Forbidden City nightclub in San Francisco?
... that the John Coltrane Home (pictured) is where the saxophonist composed many of his later works including the masterwork, A Love Supreme?

March/April 2008

Jazz/June #1

• ... that jazz bassist Esperanza Spalding (pictured) became one of the youngest faculty members in the history of Berklee College of Music almost immediately after her graduation?
• ... that Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard composed the music for Space Jazz – a concept album companion to his science fiction novel Battlefield Earth?
• ... that the Dunbar Hotel (pictured) was the heart of LA's jazz scene with visits by Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, and Louis Armstrong?

June 2008

Jazz/June #2

Harris Theater

... that Dizzy Gillespie (pictured) may have been inspired to write the jazz standard "Groovin' High" by a film serial he saw as a child?
... that Melomani, the first self-styled Polish jazz ensemble, was created in 1951 when jazz music was officially forbidden in Poland?
... that the jazz album To the Stars by Chick Corea was inspired by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard's science fiction novel of the same name?
... that the Harris Theater (pictured) is the first new performing arts venue built in downtown Chicago, Illinois since 1929?

June 2008

Jazz/July - December

... that Washington State politician Vic Meyers once showed up for a candidates' forum dressed as Mahatma Gandhi and leading a goat?
... that jazz pianist Geoff Eales played the French horn with the National Youth Orchestra of Wales and piano with the BBC Big Band (pictured)?
... that Leon "Pee Wee" Whittaker, an African American trombonist from the Mississippi River delta country, played at least five instruments in a 74-year musical career?
... that the Melbourne Jazz Co-operative runs three jazz concerts a week and is the most active jazz presenter organisation in Australia?
... that Rosetta Reitz (pictured), whose Rosetta Records focused on the women of jazz, was behind the 1980 Newport Jazz Festival tribute called "Blues is a Woman", featuring Adelaide Hall and Big Mama Thornton?

July - December 2008

2009

January - April

... that Tony Bennett literally threw up before recording his 1970 album Tony Sings the Great Hits of Today!, a misguided collection of Beatles and other current songs done under record company pressure?
... that the lyrics on the album Kew. Rhone. are filled with anagrams, palindromes, and other verbal puzzles? (composer John Greaves pictured)
... that the music of Burnt Sugar has been described as "a big cloud"?
... that one critic wrote that Jivin' in Be-Bop includes "one of the worst ballets ever put on film"?

January - April 2009

May

... that vibraphonist Karel Velebný is considered one of the founders of modern Czech jazz?
... that Czech singer and pianist Jiří Šlitr died from coal gas poisoning? (grave pictured)
... that Czech jazz double-bassist Luděk Hulan co-founded Studio 5, one of the most important modern jazz ensembles in Czechoslovakia?
... that The Orckestra's debut performance was at the Moving Left Revue, a Communist Party benefit concert in London in 1977?

May 2009

June

... that the jazz singer Eva Olmerová was persecuted by the State Security service of the Czechoslovak communist regime? (Communist Party of Czechoslovakia emblem pictured)
... that Centipede were an English jazz/progressive rock band with more than 50 members?
... that the Feminist Improvising Group challenged the male-dominated musical improvisation scene in the late 1970s?

June 2009

July

... that the bus for Australian jazz band leader, pianist and composer, Graeme Bell, had groupies posing as band member's wives?
... that Czech composer Jan Rychlík played the drums in the jazz orchestra of Karel Vlach?
... that Australian jazz singer Grace Knight, ex-Eurogliders, organised a nude protest of 750 women against the 2003 invasion of Iraq?
... that the 1973 album Love Devotion Surrender by Carlos Santana and John McLaughlin was made as a tribute to guru Sri Chinmoy (pictured)?

July 2009

August

... that producer Ozzie Cadena's first session at Savoy Records was for trombonists J. J. Johnson and Kai Winding, the first in a long collaboration by the duo?
... that multi-platinum selling artist Harry Connick, Jr., is scheduled to release his new album Your Songs on vinyl, a whole month before its CD release?
... that the Original Dixieland Jass Band's "Livery Stable Blues" (1917) was the first released jazz recording? (historical 1917 sheet music pictured)
... that in 1965, Czech jazz singer Vlasta Průchová (pictured) invited Louis Armstrong for dinner?
... that Miles Davis owed Bob Weinstock of Prestige Records four albums, so Davis recorded in two days of sessions the music for the 1956 albums Cookin', Relaxin', Workin' and Steamin'?

August 2009

September - December

... that Grammy award winning guitarist John Jorgenson (pictgured) of the John Jorgenson Quintet portrays French guitarist Django Reinhardt in the film Head in the Clouds?
... that P53, a live album by experimental music group P53, features two classical grand pianists, a turntablist and a real-time sampler/processor?
... that the American progressive rock/avant-jazz group The Muffins were influenced by the English Canterbury scene?
... that in his mid-career, the American blues and boogie-woogie pianist, Big Joe Duskin, had not touched a keyboard for sixteen years as a promise to his father who thought he played the devil's music?
... that since 1995 a quintet of untitled jazz musicians has been performing near Indiana Avenue in Indianapolis?
... that during his imprisonment in the Theresienstadt concentration camp, Fritz Weiss continued his collaboration with jazz orchestras outside of the camp?

September - December 2009

2010

January - April

... that jazz pianist and vocalist Dena DeRose (pictured) only considered singing professionally after carpal tunnel syndrome and arthritis forced her to give up playing the piano?
... that eclectic and non-traditional Quartet San Francisco has been nominated five times for Grammy Awards, most recently for QSF Plays Brubeck, the first all-Dave Brubeck string quartet recording?
... that Lena Horne (pictured) won six awards for her 1981 one-woman show Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music?
... that "Have Ya Got Any Gum, Chum?", a 1944 novelty jazz song written by Murray Kane and performed by the Glenn Miller Orchestra, was inspired by a phrase used by British children towards American soldiers during World War II?

January - April 2010

May

... that Johnny Noble was the first Hawaiian composer to be inducted into the ASCAP?
... that Louisiana Creole jazz clarinetist Louis Cottrell, Jr. (pictured) played Carnegie Hall in 1974?
... that Animal's drumming on The Muppet Show was performed by English drummer Ronnie Verrell?
... that hotel lounge singer Loretta Ables Sayre, in her 2008 Broadway debut in South Pacific was nominated for a Tony Award and won a Theatre World Award?

May 2010

June/July

... that a pioneer of the pre-war Czechoslovak swing music Jiří Traxler (pictured) lives in Canada?
... that Paraguayan and jarocho harpist Celso Duarte (pictured) began touring at age 10 and has performed with his band at Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center and the Getty Center?
... that African-American composer Wendell Logan described jazz as "our classical music", saying it "belongs here just as much as Americans belong on this soil"?
... that the piano riff played by Johnny Parker on the 1956 song "Bad Penny Blues" has been suggested as a possible influence on The Beatles' "Lady Madonna"?

June/July 2010

August/September

... that Bob Dylan paid US$2,500 per week to percussionist Bobbye Hall to get her to tour with him in 1978, in compensation for missed session musician work?
... that the samba-inspired song "Are You Going With Me?" by the Pat Metheny Group was the background music for a Los Angeles Lakers highlight reel after they won an NBA title?
... that Storyville, a nightclub housed in Boston Hotel Buckminster (pictured), hosted recording sessions by Billie Holiday and Charlie Parker?
... that pianist and session musician Don Randi claims to have played on over three hundred hit records?

August/September 2010

October

... that the American boogie-woogie pianist and singer, Mose Vinson, recorded two versions of "Forty-Four", one retitled "Worry You Off My Mind", and the other as "My Love Has Gone"?
... that American Piedmont blues singer Irene Scruggs worked alongside Clarence Williams, Joe "King" Oliver, Lonnie Johnson, and Little Brother Montgomery, but today remains largely forgotten?
... that Dennis Mackrel, the last jazz drummer to be personally hired by Count Basie, is the new director of the Count Basie Orchestra?
... that Clyde Lucas and His California Dons (Lucas pictured) recorded background music for some of the early talkies?
... that Herb Wiedoeft, Ad and Gay all played Cinderella, and that their brother Rudy and their sister Erica were both players too?

October 2010

November/December

... that in the late 1940s, American blues shouter and jazz singer Duke Henderson renounced his past and began broadcasting as Brother Henderson, a minister and gospel DJ?
... that American boogie-woogie pianist Booker T. Laury appeared in two films, but did not record his debut album until he was almost eighty years of age?
... that between 1933 and 1935, American blues and boogie-woogie pianist and singer Walter Roland recorded around fifty songs for Banner Records? (record sleeve pictured)
... that the jazz history of 1924 included George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, widely regarded as one of the finest compositions of the 20th century?

November/December 2010

2011

January

... that singer Gary Williams (pictured) played Frank Sinatra in the West End production of The Rat Pack?
... that the album A Time for Love recorded by Arturo Sandoval was inspired by trumpeter Bobby Hackett and the album Clifford Brown with Strings?
... that after losing a job, the Salty Dogs Jazz Band would sometimes find that they had been replaced by another jazz band with the same name?
... that Duke Ellington's 1940 live recording At Fargo was an amateur bootleg not officially released until 1978?
... that three different versions of "Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree" reached the radio airplay charts in the same year? (Andrews Sisters pictured)

January 2011

February

... that the track "Palermo" from the Chicago Underground Trio's album Slon contains recorded sounds from a Sicilian fish market?
... that Dani Siciliano wanted her cover of Nirvana's "Come as You Are", from her album Likes..., to have the feel of a jazz standard?
... that during his United States Army service, Graciela replaced her foster brother Machito (both pictured) as the lead singer of his band, the Afro-Cubans?
... that Dave Douglas got the name for his album Strange Liberation from a phrase used by Martin Luther King Jr. in reference to America's involvement in the Vietnam War?
... that "Here I Stand", a song by Usher, was compared to the work of Stevie Wonder, and was nominated for a Grammy Award?
... that Tony Burrello's single "There's a New Sound" was described by Billboard magazine as "a studied attempt to be as screwy as possible", but went on to sell over 100,000 copies?

February 2011

March

• ... that John McLaughlin's Grammy nominated album To the One was inspired by John Coltrane's album A Love Supreme?
• ... that Stanley Clarke's album The Stanley Clarke Band won the 2011 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Jazz Album?
• ... that the Grammy-nominated album Now Is the Time features the Blood, Sweat & Tears horn section on two of its tracks?
• ... that James Moody (pictured, left) received his first Grammy Award for Moody 4B after he died?
• ... that Joey DeFrancesco's tribute to Michael Jackson, Never Can Say Goodbye: The Music of Michael Jackson, was nominated for a Grammy Award?
• ... that Lenny Kravitz was a guest musician on Backatown, the major label debut by his former apprentice Trombone Shorty (pictured, right)?
March 2011

April

... that Urbanus, the Grammy nominated album by Stefon Harris (pictured), was recorded in the days leading up to Barack Obama's inauguration?
... that jazz guitarist Julian Lage recorded his Grammy-nominated debut album Sounding Point when he was only 20 years old?
... that music writer Piero Scaruffi called the 1980s American experimental rock group the Orthotonics, "one of the most surreal and unpredictable combos of the era"?
... that saxophonist King Curtis was stabbed to death a week after releasing his album Live at Fillmore West?
... that "Zawinul's Mambo" from the Grammy winning Chucho's Steps was dedicated to Joe Zawinul (pictured) who heard a recording of it before he died?

April 2011

May

... that although Ray Charles and Nancy Sinatra solos of "Here We Go Again" made Billboard's Hot 100, Charles' 2004 duet with Norah Jones became the second Grammy Record of the Year that did not?
... that Willie Nelson, Wynton Marsalis and Norah Jones (trio pictured) recorded a live tribute album covering songs of Ray Charles?
... that Philippe Saisse's Grammy-nominated album At World's Edge was dedicated to his father Maurice?
... that most of 75 was recorded on Joe Zawinul's 75th birthday and about two months before he died? (Zawinul pictured)
... that Steve Vai plays the sitar on "Moroccan Roll", a track from Mike Stern's Grammy-nominated album Big Neighborhood?

May 2011

June/July

• ... that jazz pianist Ahmad Jamal's first live album At the Pershing: But Not for Me, recorded in 1958, has sold over one million copies? (Jamal pictured)
• ... that Cal Lampley formed the first all-black, 45-piece band, the US Navy B-1 Band, in the then white-only US Navy?
• ... that the Lincoln Theater (pictured) in Los Angeles was known as the "West Coast Apollo" and featured performances by jazz legends before being converted into a church?
• ... that musician David Rothenberg appears in a YouTube video playing jazz with cassini periodical cicadas, insects noted for their synchronized rhythm?
June/July 2011

August - December

... that Kid Ory's composition "Ory's Creole Trombone" was the first jazz record made by a black orchestra?
... that Mircea Florian, seen as one of the four leading protest singers in Communist Romania in his folk rock years, pioneered minimal music in his career as a computer scientist?
... that Dira Sugandi (pictured) was awarded the Indonesian Young Jazz Talent Award for her duet with Jason Mraz?
... that Papa Celestin's Golden Wedding featured Papa Celestin's final recording session before his death?

August - December 2011

2012

January - May

... that a broken right ankle prevented Earl Belcher from playing in the NBA, and he is now a professional jazz musician?
... that Megitza (pictured), the vocalist and bass player, got the highest score at a Polish National IQ contest held in 2004?
... that for years Smalls Jazz Club did not serve alcohol?
... that the "most famous signature in rock 'n' roll" – the opening riff to Chuck Berry's 1958 hit "Johnny B. Goode" – was actually a jazz riff played 12 years earlier by Carl Hogan?
... that jazz trio BADBADNOTGOOD had a crowd moshing at a J Dilla tribute show?
... that the use of noise by Ottoman military bands inspired European composers such as Haydn, Beethoven, and Mozart?

February - May 2012

September

A seven-string guitar with the open strings annotated with the notes D-G-B-D-G-B-D

Baseball player Van Lingle Mungo

... that the Russian guitar's D-G-B-D-G-B-D tuning (illustrated) approximates the major-thirds tuning D#-G-B-D#-G-B-D#?
... that poet Ishmael Reed learned to play jazz piano at the Jazzschool beginning when he was 60?
... that the music of Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane, and Arnold Schoenberg inspired jazz-guitarist Ralph Patt to invent major-thirds tuning?
... that Dave Frishberg wrote the lyrics to "Van Lingle Mungo" while reading a baseball encyclopedia? (Van Lingle Mungo pictured)

September 2012

2013

January - March

... that Dave Brubeck's wife Iola wrote the lyrics to "In Your Own Sweet Way"?
... that the 1969 song "It's Too Bad" by Jimi Hendrix was considered newly discovered thirty years later when it was added to The Jimi Hendrix Experience (2000) album?
... that Bebo (pictured) and Chucho Valdés won the Grammy and the Latin Grammy Award for Best Latin Jazz Album for their album Juntos Para Siempre?

January - March 2013

April

... that Supernova by Cuban pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba's trio was beaten to a Grammy Award by an album produced and performed by Rubalcaba?
... that the album Solo by Cuban pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba includes songs inspired by John Coltrane's Giant Steps?
... that Akokan, Roberto Fonseca's sixth studio album, features some "lovely sax work"? (Fonseca pictured)

April 2013

May

... that not Memphis Slim but 1930s St. Louis blues pianist Pinetop Sparks wrote the blues standard "Every Day I Have the Blues"?
... that Paquito D'Rivera (pictured) became the first performer to be honored in the Jazz and Classical musical fields after winning a Latin Grammy for the albums Brazilian Dreams and Historia del Soldado?
... that Paquito D'Rivera won a Latin Grammy Award with a suite?
... that in 1933 St. Louis blues singer Dorothea Trowbridge recorded "Grinding Blues", the lyrics of which are cited as an "open declaration of erotic desire"?

May 2013

July

• ... that Duke Ellington praised pianist Maurice Rocco's sophisticated performance style? (Rocco pictured, left)
• ... that flamenco percussionist Tino di Geraldo (pictured, right) produced Jackson Browne's album Love Is Strange: En Vivo Con Tino, in which he was featured?
• ... that the AC/DC song "Whole Lotta Rosie" has an opening riff directly mimicking a track from the Dave Brubeck Quartet album Countdown—Time in Outer Space?
July 2013

August - November

... that Jackie Davis, who had a bit part in Caddyshack, was an accomplished jazz organist, preceding the better known Jimmy Smith by several years?
... that jazz organist Joey DeFrancesco obtained a stake in Diversi after playing one of their clonewheel organs?
... that in the 35th year of her career, blues singer Julia Gerity (pictured) lost much of her performance materials, including gowns and music, in a 1947 fire at Coney Island?

August - November 2013

2014

January/February

... that the 1932 jazz standard "Moten Swing" was an important development in the move towards a freer form of orchestral jazz and the development of swing music?
... that an agent liked the sound of Onzy Matthews's band and music but expressed concern after seeing the band was racially mixed?
... that as of January 2014, Desfado by fado singer Ana Moura has not dropped from the Portuguese Albums Chart Top 20 since its release in November 2012?
... that U.S. President Bill Clinton participated in a jam session at Reduta Jazz Club (pictured) during a 1994 visit to the Czech Republic?

January/February 2014

April - July

... that Jamaican American jazz pianist and composer Wynton Kelly toured the Caribbean with an R&B band at age 15?
... that pianist Brad Mehldau (pictured) compared the difficulty of composing music to a game of chess?
... that Elmo Hope survived being shot by New York police to become an influential jazz pianist?
... that on the music chart week ending November 30, 2013, Wrapped in Red was the only non-Universal Music Group release to chart inside the Billboard 200's top ten?

April - July 2014

August -

Portal:Jazz/Did you know/46