on and off again and performing with tenor saxophonist David Murray.
BLAIR, LEE (1903–1966)
Born in Savannah, Georgia, Blair was a self-taught banjo player and guitarist. He was the banjo player for Paul Whiteman, playing with an unusual left-handed approach to the instrument. He recorded with Jelly Roll Morton’s Red Hot Peppers from 1928 to 1930, and he played with Louis Armstrong from 1935 to 1940. He appeared with Wilbur De Paris and at Jimmy Ryan’s Club in New York City, and he participated in a State Department tour to Africa in the summer of 1957. In the 1960s, he played less frequently but appeared at the 1964 World’s Fair in a trio with guitarists Danny Barker and Eddie Gibbs.
BLAKE, EUBIE (1887–1983)
One of the most influential pianists of the early part of the 20th century, Blake, along with James P. Johnson and Fats Waller, played an important role in the development of jazz piano. During the 1920s, Blake performed in a variety of settings, including solo, duo, and with bands fronted by himself. Blake was also a composer of significant substance (including the “Charleston Rag”), while also writing for Broadway shows.
After the 1930s, Blake composed for various shows and acts and was not as prominent a performer as he had been during the previous decades. Blake primarily produced and published music for the remainder of his career, always being held in high regard as a stellar ragtime and stride pianist. A Broadway show written about Blake, titled Eubie, toured for several years in the late 1970s and 1980s.
BLAKEY, ART (1919–1990)
Originally a pianist, Blakey’s career took off after he started playing drum set. Working with several groups in the 1940s, including groups led by Fletcher Henderson and Billy Eckstine, Blakey developed into a popular drummer who would go on to work with Miles Davis and Dexter Gordon. In addition to steadily working as a sideman, Blakey also began leading his own groups toward the end of the decade, including the first incarnation of the famous group the Jazz Messengers.
Throughout the 1950s, Blakey would work predominantly as a leader, oftentimes featuring a band that had many of the top working musicians of the day. Blakey paired with Horace Silver in the first part of the 1950s, and the two made a formidable pairing, putting together several jazz groups that featured musicians including Clifford Brown, Lou Donaldson, Kenny Dorham, and Hank Mobley. Silver and Blakey split due to creative differences, and Blakey kept the working title of Jazz Messengers for the groups he led over the next several decades.
Wayne Shorter, Lee Morgan, Benny Golson, Bobby Timmons, Curtis Fuller, and Freddie Hubbard were all members of the Jazz Messengers during the late 1950s and early 1960s. Throughout the next several decades, many other famous musicians joined the Jazz Messengers, including Keith Jarrett, Bobby Watson, Chuck Mangione, Woody Shaw, Wynton Marsalis, and Terence Blanchard. Blakey was considered to be an important figure, giving younger players the opportunity to perform and develop. See also HARD BOP.
BLANCHARD, TERENCE OLIVER (1962–)
Born in New Orleans, Louisiana, Blanchard began playing piano at the age of five, then took up the trumpet at age eight. He played trumpet with his childhood friend Wynton Marsalis in summer music camps but showed little proficiency on the instrument. In high school, he studied at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts under the guidance of Ellis Marsalis and attended Rutgers University for two years. In 1982, he was touring with the Lionel Hampton Orchestra when Wynton Marsalis recommended him as his replacement in Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers. With the band, he played alongside Blakey, saxophonist Donald Harrison, and pianist Mulgrew Miller. He released his first solo album in 1991, leading to a string of acclaimed works and over 40 movie scores, primarily feature films and documentaries for director Spike Lee. In the fall of 2000, Blanchard was named artistic director of the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, and in 2011 he was named artistic director of the Henry Mancini Institute at the University of Miami. Blanchard is a six-time Grammy Award winner and received a total of 14 nominations. An authorized biography of Blanchard was published by Scarecrow Press in 2002 titled Contemporary Cat: Terence Blanchard with Special Guests. He has recorded 22 albums as a leader.
BLANTON, JIMMY (1918–1942)
After working in a variety of show bands and riverboat bands, Blanton’s bass playing was heard by bandleader Duke Ellington in the late 1930s. Immediately Blanton became an important bass player because of his tremendous ability to play walking bass lines. Before his death at the age of 23, Blanton worked with Ellington and pianist Billy Taylor.
BLEY, CARLA (1938–)
As a member of a musical family, Bley began her composing career as a teenager writing for popular jazz leaders in the 1950s, including George Russell and Jimmy Giuffre. Bley played an important role in the development of the Jazz Composers Guild Orchestra and continued to be an active composer, primarily of free jazz, throughout the 1960s. Bley led her own groups throughout the 1970s and 1980s in addition to frequently working with Charlie Haden and Roswell Rudd, while also developing a strong following in Europe. Adept at working in small groups, Bley has performed in groups that included musicians Pharoah Sanders, Billy Drummond, Peter Brötzmann, and Steve Lacy. In 2015, she arranged the music for and performed on Charlie Haden’s Liberation Music Orchestra tour and recording, Not in Our Name (Verve). She has recorded several duet albums with bassist Steve Swallow. Bley received the NEA Jazz Masters Award in 2015. She continues to record with her big band and a number of smaller ensembles.
BLEY, PAUL (1932–2016)
Bley was born in Canada and began his professional career in Montreal before moving to the United States to study at the Juilliard School in the 1940s. During the 1950s, Bley worked predominantly as a sideman and was featured with groups led by Charles Mingus, Jackie McLean, and Chet Baker. Bley’s career took off in the 1960s when he began to lead his own groups and worked as a sideman with Jimmy Giuffre, Don Ellis, Sonny Rollins, and Steve Swallow.
Actively involved in several genres of jazz, Bley was an adept soloist who could play within straight-ahead, free jazz, third stream, and fusion settings. During the 1970s and 1980s, he worked with a diverse set of musicians that included Gary Peacock, Steve Lacy, Lester Bowie, Dave Holland, and Sam Rivers.
BLOOD, SWEAT & TEARS
A New York–based American jazz-rock group formed in 1967. It was known for fusing musical styles including rock, pop, blues, and jazz. The hybrid of these styles came to be known as jazz-rock. They were also known for their horn arrangements, which contained elements from the big band tradition. See also BRECKER, RANDY (1945–); SOLOFF, LEW(IS) MICHAEL (1944–2015); STERN, MIKE (1953–).
BLOOM, JANE IRA (1955–)
Bloom, a pioneer in the use of live electronics and movement in jazz, plays soprano saxophone. She first began playing the saxophone at the age of nine and studied music at Yale University where she received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in music. She is a six-time winner of the Jazz Journalists Award for Soprano Saxophone, the winner of the DownBeat