John Stubblefield, Saxophone, 1945, Little Rock, AR
In the mid '60s John moved to Chicago and joined the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians. He also studied with Muhal Richard Abrams and George Coleman, and made some recordings with Joseph Jarman in the late '60s. In 1971 John made his home in New York where he worked with the Collective Black Artists big band and with Mary Lou Williams's group. He also did a considerable amount of work with Charles Mingus, the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra, and Tito Puente. In 1972 he performed at a Town Hall concert with Anthony Braxton, playing free jazz. Stubblefield later performed and recorded with McCoy Tyner (playing oboe and flute), Gil Evans and Lester Bowie. During the'70s he worked with Nat Adderley, Sonny Phillips, Kenny Barron and numerous others, and the next decade found him working many times with groups of his own, always employing the best musicians available. He has also been active as a teacher working with Jazzmobile, lecturing, leading seminars, and organizing numerous workshops at several universities on the East Coast.
Wally Cirillo, Piano, 1927, Huntington, NY
Wally was very active in Chicago and New York during most of the the 1950s. In 1954 he took part in an important concert by the Jazz Composers Workshop with Teo Macero and Charles Mingus. It was around 1955 that Cirillo made an important album as a leader, "Trans-season", but for some unknown reason it was issued under Mingus's name. It was said to be the first jazz piece based on a 12-tone row. Elsewhere on the album Wally plays standard sequences with lines reminiscent of Lennie Tristano. Wally moved to Southern Florida in the early '60s and worked with musicians such as; Flip Phillips, Phil Napoleon, and Ira Sullivan. He also composed many orchestral works and taught university courses in jazz piano and improvisation . In the1970s he made several important duet albums with Joe Diorio. Wally Cirillo died in 1977.
Frank Wess, Saxophone, 1922, Kansas City, MO
Wade Legge, Piano, 1934, Huntington, WV
