Carl Perkins, Piano, 1928, Indianapolis, IN
One of Carl's first major gigs was with Big Jay McNeely, playing rhythm-and-blues, in 1948 in California. He settled there in 1949 where he worked with Miles Davis and also performed and recorded with Illinois Jacquet's big-band into the early '50s. After two years in the army (early '50s.), he rejoined Davis and also managed to perform and record with Oscar Moore. From around 1955 he worked mainly with bop groups, playing with Jim Hall, Teddy Edwards, and Red Mitchell. During this same period he also worked with the Clifford Brown /Max Roach group. By the end of the decade he had put in time with notables such as Dexter Gordon, Chet Baker, Pepper Adams, Buddy DeFranco, Victor Feldman, and Art Pepper. He was an important member of Curtis Counce's band during the mid '50s and at the same time managed to keep his own group together. Carl Perkins died in 1958.
Mal Waldron, Piano, 1926, New York, NY
When Mal first started in music he wanted to become a classical pianist. While studying classical piano he also played jazz on the alto sax, changing principally to piano when he was a student at Queens College, CUNY. After graduating (BA in composition) he played in several bands in the New York area, and made his first recordings with Ike Quebec. He became a member of Charles Mingus' Jazz Workshop in 1954, and played with the Workshop group at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1955-56. He next formed a quintet of his own which included Gigi Gryce and Idrees Sulieman in late '56. He was Billy Holiday's accompanist from 1957 until her death in 1959. He next worked with Abbey Lincoln and also worked as a studio musician. Mal suffered a nervous breakdown in 1963, and he had to relearn the fundamentals of playing, which he did partly by studying his own compositions. He made his home in Europe in 1965 and settled in Munich. He has continued to performed frequently with local German musicians and visiting Americans, including Steve Lacy and Archie Shepp. Mal has also gained a wide audience in Japan and in 1975 he began making return visits to the U.S. As a player and composer, Waldron owes much to Thelonious Monk's spare, angular style. Over the years Waldron has written several film and ballet scores.
Bill Evans, Piano, 1929, Plainfield, NJ
An enormously influential figure, Bill Evans seemingly sprang upon the jazz scene fully formed. He attended Southeastern Louisana University before working with Mundell Lowe and Red Mitchell and serving a term in the army before beginning his jazz career in earnest. He worked with Tony Scott, Jerry Wald, and George Russell, among others, and met the drummer Paul Motian, who later played an important role in several of Bill's groups. He made his first recordings as a leader in the mid '50s, and then began performing with Charles Mingus around 1958 before joining Miles Davis. Bill played a significant role in the important Davis album, "Kind Of Blue", by which time his distinctive style had largely crystallized. His musical development from around 1960 may be traced by examining the work of his various trios. Although his preferred format was piano, bass, and drums, he occasionally made recordings in other contexts, such as playing against a prerecorded track of his own ("conversations With Myself", 1963), or as a member of a duo(e.g., Bob Brookmeyer, Jim Hall, or Tony Bennett). Despite many personal difficulties and some serious health problems, Evans appeared in public and recorded with some regularity until shortly before his death. Bill most successfully assimilated and developed a bop style based on the style of Bud Powell. He brought exceptional refinement and freshness to the jazz harmonic idiom, and this, together with his insistance on a more independent role for his accompanists, his sensitive, well-modulated touch, and an often introspective, lyrical personality, had a lasting influence on many musicians, includiong Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, Keith Jarrett, and Steve Kuhn. Evans acknowledged a debt to most of the prominent figures of the bop era; Lennie Tristano, Bud Powell, and Horace Silver. His relatively aggressive attack and strong links to the bop style gradually receded as time went by in favor of a more lyrical approach to his playing. Still, his basic bop orientation never changed, and he showed little interest in the experiments of the 1960s and 1970s; even the use of the electric piano remained somewhat foreign to him. Relationships with a few key double bass players (and to a lesser extent, drummers) were important to Evans's career. Perhaps the most significant of these bass players was Scott LaFaro who worked with Evans and Motian from 1959 to 1961. LaFaro's death in an auto accident deeply affected Evans, and he did not play for several months. The only bass players who were able to fill LaFaro's spot in the trio were Eddie Gomez and Gary Peacock. Evans excelled as an accompanist, combining discretion with rhythmic flair, an inexhaustible invention in the voicing of chords, and a wide variety of touch. He chose his repertory of tunes carefully and over the years he increasingly played more of his own compositions. v His tunes "Waltz For Debby", and "Comrade Conrad" have become jazz standards. His recasting of familiar melodies was exceptionally resourceful; in "My Foolish Heart", for example, by the careful placement of a few substitute bass notes and nonharmonic tones and a sensitive use of register, he produced a striking transformation of the original tune. A collection of material relating to his life and work is held at Southeastern Lousiana University. Bill Evans died in 1980.
Al Hibbler, Singer, 1915, Little Rock, AR
Al's professional career began in the early 1930s, and about ten years later he bagan working with Jay McShann after winning an amateur contest. Blind since birth, Al worked at his career, and eventually enjoyed a long association with Duke Ellington (1943-51) which really brought him to prominence. He recorded as a leader of his own band during the '40s and '50s, but his groups were usually directed by musicians such as Harry Carney, Mercer Ellington, Billy Kyle and Billy Taylor. He also made numerous recordings with Duke, Count Basie, and Roland Kirk. In 1971 Al performed at Louis Armstrong's funeral. The work Al did with Ellington probably best represents his appealing baritone voice, a full round tone, with a sharp attack and clear enunciation. Hibbler affected a pseudo-Cockney accent that he would often punctuate with odd tonal distortions and growls. His versions of "The Very Thought of You", "Stardust", and "Unchained Melody" became popular favorites. Al was one of the first artists signed by Frank Sinatra, to record on his new label, Reprise (1960). Al Hibbler died in 2001.
