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Jazz in America

16 March 2012

Learn about some of the great jazz performers in American history.

During the swing era, jazz artists stood at the forefront of American popular music. In subsequent decades, genres from rock to country to hip-hop mostly supplanted jazz in this role. But jazz continued to influence other forms of American music, even as it branched out in new directions. Bee-bop, acid, fusion, and other styles appealed to smaller and more specialized –- but equally enthusiastic –- audiences. The photographs here portray a number of post-swing jazz giants: artists of unsurpassed creativity, sophistication, and talent.
ALT = Grammy Award-winning jazz singer Cassandra Wilson (AP Images)
Grammy Award-winning jazz singer Cassandra Wilson at the Avo Session in Basel, Switzerland, in 2006.
Slide 2: http://photos.state.gov/galleries/amgov/30145/jazz_gallery/jazz2.jpg
ALT = Wynton Marsalis playing trumpet (AP Images)
Pulitzer Prize winner Wynton Marsalis, a contemporary champion of “traditional” jazz.
Slide 3: http://photos.state.gov/galleries/amgov/30145/jazz_gallery/jazz3.jpg
ALT = Art Blakely playing drums (AP Images)
“Hard bop” drummer Art Blakey played with many of his era’s leading jazz stars, and founded the Jazz Messengers.
Slide 4: http://photos.state.gov/galleries/amgov/30145/jazz_gallery/jazz4.jpg
ALT = Ornette Coleman playing sax (AP Images)
Saxophonist Ornette Coleman initiated the “free jazz” style, which abandoned fixed harmonic patterns to permit greater improvisation.
Slide 5: http://photos.state.gov/galleries/amgov/30145/jazz_gallery/jazz5.jpg
ALT = Herbie Hancock at the piano (AP Images)
A protégé of Miles Davis, pianist Herbie Hancock led a number of seminal jazz-rock fusion groups.
Slide 6: http://photos.state.gov/galleries/amgov/30145/jazz_gallery/jazz6.jpg
ALT = Thelonious Monk (AP Images)
Thelonious Monk, one of the most inventive pianists of any musical genre, helped usher in the bebop revolution in the 1940s.
Slide 7: http://photos.state.gov/galleries/amgov/30145/jazz_gallery/jazz7.jpg
ALT = Charlie Parker playing sax (AP Images)
Known as “Bird,” Charlie Parker was the principal genius stimulating the chromatically and rhythmically complex bebop style.
Slide 8: http://photos.state.gov/galleries/amgov/30145/jazz_gallery/jazz8.jpg
ALT = Singer Ella Fitzgerald (Getty Images)
“First Lady of Song” Ella Fitzgerald was the most popular female jazz singer in the United States for more than half a century.
Slide 9: http://photos.state.gov/galleries/amgov/30145/jazz_gallery/jazz9_001.jpg
ALT = John Coltrane (AP Images)
The supremely creative John Coltrane explored the limits of bop and free jazz improvisation.
Slide 10: http://photos.state.gov/galleries/amgov/30145/jazz_gallery/jazz10.jpg
ALT = Pat Metheny playing guitar (AP Images)
Successful and critically acclaimed guitarist Pat Metheny has been touring for the last 30 years, playing 120-140 concerts each year.
Slide 11: http://photos.state.gov/galleries/amgov/30145/jazz_gallery/jazz11.jpg
ALT = Trumpeter Miles Davis (AP Images)
Trumpeter Miles Davis stood at the forefront of multiple jazz revolutions, from 1950s “cool jazz” to 1970s jazz-rock-funk fusion.
Slide 12: http://photos.state.gov/galleries/amgov/30145/jazz_gallery/jazz12.jpg
ALT = Trumpeter-vocalist Chet Baker (AP Images)
Trumpeter-vocalist Chet Baker battled drug addiction, but his distinctively sad tone was unduplicated.
Slide 13: http://photos.state.gov/galleries/amgov/30145/jazz_gallery/jazz13.jpg
ALT = Stan Getz (AP Images)
Stan Getz pioneered the West Coast “cool jazz” style and later introduced U.S. audiences to the Brazilian-inflected Bossa Nova.
Slide 14: http://photos.state.gov/galleries/amgov/30145/jazz_gallery/jazz14.jpg
ALT = Lester “Prez” Young (Getty Images)
Lester “Prez” Young was famous for performing with jazz greats like Billie Holiday and Count Basie and for playing his tenor saxophone at an angle.