Tuesday 2/1
Louis Armstrong

Jazz 88 salutes Black History Month with the music of Louis Armstrong, who was called "the beginning and end of music in America" by his good friend Bing Crosby. Armstrong's humble roots in New Orleans are well-known; he got his first cornet with the help of a junk dealer he worked for as a child. Armstrong dropped out of school, and he was put into the Colored Waifs' Home, a reform school, after firing a gun during a New Year's Eve celebration. It was a blessing in disguise, since Armstrong got formal musical training while in the Waifs' Home band. After Armstrong was released, he did menial day jobs and played music on the side. Eventually, he joined Kid Ory's and Fate Marable's bands, and moved to Chicago in 1922 after his mentor, King Oliver, sent for him. Armstrong married King Oliver's pianist, Lil Hardin, and she encouraged him to leave the Oliver band and show his own great talents. Armstrong did so,switched from cornet to trumpet and made pioneering recordings as a leader of studio groups known as the Hot Five and Hot Seven. He soon made his mark as one of the greatest innovators and most virtuosic trumpeters in jazz history. Armstrong eventually became a bandleader himself, and also became a singer who helped popularize scat singing; his freewheeling style changed the sound of popular singing forever. After spending a few years in Europe, Armstrong returned to the U.S. and, under the management of Joe Glaser, became one of the most popular musicians and entertainers in the country. He led a big band and often appeared on radio and in films. When the big-band era ended after World War II, Armstrong started playing with smaller "All-Stars" groups that emphasized a traditional New Orleans style. He made international State Department tours as a goodwill ambassador, and also stood up for civil rights in the 1950s at a time when many other entertainment figures were not yet ready to take a stand. Armstrong had a huge pop hit in 1964 with "Hello, Dolly," and guest-starred in Barbra Streisand's movie of that hit musical. He also had such pop hits as "What a Wonderful World," which became a hit again years after his death in the film "Good Morning, Vietnam." Age and ill health forced Armstrong to cut back on performing in his last years, but he was planning yet another tour when he died in 1971. Although Louis Armstrong's career as a popular entertainer didn't please some jazz purists, he nonetheless laid many of the foundations for what jazz became. Dizzy Gillespie said it best when he said of Louis Armstrong, "No him--no me."

Wednesday 2/2
Sarah Vaughan

Jazz 88 salutes Black History Month with the music of Sarah Vaughan. "Sassy" started out singing and playing piano in church, but was hired for Earl "Fatha" Hines' legendary big band after she won one of the famed amateur contests at the Apollo Theatre. However, due to the recording ban of the mid-1940s, she was not heard on records until she joined Billy Eckstine's band, which also had such luminaries as Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. Being around these giants of bebop greatly influenced Sarah Vaughan's style, and between her near-operatic voice and her sense of musical daring, Sarah Vaughan became hard to top. Like the great actress Sarah Bernhardt, she also became known as "The Divine Sarah." Along with her many fine jazz recordings, Vaughan also recorded a huge number of pop hits such as "Tenderly" and "Broken-Hearted Melody," and perhaps as a nod to those who thought she could have had a classical career, also recorded an extended religious work called "The Mystery of Man." Vaughan's voice grew somewhat deeper over the years so that she could almost sing baritone, but she never lost her great vocal beauty and flexibility, and kept singing until shortly before her death from cancer in 1990. Thanks to the many recordings that she left behind, jazz fans will continue to enjoy the artistic legacy of the "Divine One," Sarah Vaughan.

Thursday 2/3
Bessie Smith

Jazz 88 salutes Black History Month with the music of the "Empress of the Blues," Bessie Smith. Although the year of her birth is not certain, she was born in the early 1890s in Chattanooga, Tennessee. As a young woman, she became a protégée of the great blues singer Ma Rainey and toured with her, gaining valuable experience and an audience for herself. Within a few years, Smith was a star herself, popular both as a live performer and as a recording artist. Smith's many 78s are still available today on CD, and her first-rate blues singing was often enhanced by such fine jazz instrumentalists as Louis Armstrong, James P. Johnson, and Joe Smith, to name a few. However, the blues became far less popular once the Depression came, and the recording business was also quite hard-hit due to the poor economy. Still, Bessie Smith kept working, and she was starting to make a comeback when she was killed in a car accident in Missisippi in 1937. Although Bessie Smith's life and career were cut short by this tragedy, her recordings remained to inspire and entertain those who came after her, and she served as a model for later singers, such as Billie Holiday, Dinah Washington, and Janis Joplin. It has been said by scholars that Bessie Smith is the blues singer from the past with the most appeal for today's audiences, and her honest communication, sense of showmanship, and powerful voice reach across the generations to show us today that she is still "the Empress."

Friday 2/4
Herbie Hancock

Jazz 88 salutes Black History Month with the music of Herbie Hancock. Hancock was a child prodigy in classical piano, and appeared as a soloist with the Chicago Symphony when he was just 11. After further study, he showed a leaning toward jazz, and got his first break when he worked with trumpeter Donald Byrd. Hancock was signed to Blue Note Records, and also showed early talent as a composer when his song "Watermelon Man" became a crossover jazz and pop hit thanks to Mongo Santamaria's recording. Hancock joined Miles Davis' group in 1963, and worked with him for five years. While in the Davis band, Hancock started using electronic keyboards, and eventually formed his own sextet and got into a funkier style. This led to the hit album "Head Hunters" and other electronic jazz, and also to some disco recordings when that style was popular. Hancock also played acoustic jazz, and after a reunion of the Miles Davis quintet minus Miles in 1976, the group went on tour as V.S.O.P. This group helped point the way to the acoustic jazz revival of the 1980s that brought on Wynton Marsalis and others of the "young lions" generation. Hancock has continued in several directions with such projects as a "Head Hunters" revival, film music, a CD that treated modern pop songs as "new standards" to inspire jazz musicians, and the award-winning "Gershwin's World." Herbie Hancock continues to be one of the most versatile players and composers in jazz.

Monday 2/7
Miles Davis

Jazz 88 salutes Black History Month with the music of Miles Davis. Miles was born in 1926 and showed musical talent as a child. He began playing professionally while still in school. After Davis saw the Billy Eckstine band, he decided to study at the Juilliard School in New York. However, he soon dropped out and got his real education in bebop by playing with Charlie Parker, Benny Carter and Billy Eckstine. Davis made his first recordings in 1947 with Charlie Parker, but made his first real musical history with a nine-piece band in the late 1940s and early 1950s. This band made the celebrated recordings that were released in the famous album "Birth of the Cool," which started the "cool" or "West Coast" school of jazz, which was marked by a more relaxed and economical style of playing than that of early bebop. Davis' career and life were hampered by heroin addiction, but he returned to his family's home and kicked the habit cold turkey. Davis put together his famous quintet that also featured John Coltrane, and made a number of recordings with them. Davis also teamed up with arranger and composer Gil Evans for a series of albums that included "Sketches of Spain," "Miles Ahead," "Porgy and Bess," and many others. Davis formed a sextet that experimented with modal playing, and that group recorded one of the best-selling jazz albums of all time, "Kind of Blue." Eventually, Davis formed a new quintet with such stars as Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter and others. Miles began experimenting with electronic instruments and fusion, and attracted a younger group of fans with such rock-tinged albums as "Bitches Brew" while influencing many younger musicians. While this turn toward fusion angered many fans of his older music, Davis' influence was undeniable, and he was not one to look back, only returning to an older style when he played some of the classic Gil Evans arrangements at the Montreux Jazz Festival a few months before his death in 1991. Davis even experimented with hip-hop in his final studio recording, "Doo-Bop." With a unique style that stripped away everything but the essentials of what he was trying to communicate, and with his willingness to try new paths instead of sticking to the tried and true, Miles Davis continues to be one of the greatest influences on jazz and on American music.

Tuesday 2/8
John Lee Hooker

Jazz 88 salutes Black History Month with the music of John Lee Hooker. Hooker was born in Mississippi in 1917, and learned to play blues guitar from his stepfather. After a rocky musical start in Memphis, Hooker moved on to Cincinnati and to Detroit, where he started to have some success in clubs and soon became a star of the Motor City's thriving blues scene. He was soon able to quit his day job and play music full-time. Hooker made his first recordings in 1948, and they stood out from the rest because of his extremely spare style of just vocal and guitar. His early single "Boogie Chillen" became an R & B hit, the first of many over the years, and he became known as "the Boogie Man." Hooker made many recordings under many names, and was willing to try experiments, such as an early attempt at multitracking by overdubbing his voice three times. Hooker also recorded in band settings and did more pop-oriented songs for the R & B market, but his signature solo sound caught on with folk-blues fans in the 1960s. Hooker was also popular with such British blues and rock bands as the Animals and the Yardbirds, who were very influenced by his style, and he gained a sizeable following among young listeners in both Europe and the U.S. Hooker was one of the many musical legends to do a cameo in the popular film "The Blues Brothers" in 1980. In his later career, Hooker did many recordings with such younger blues stars as Bonnie Raitt and Robert Cray, along with rock stars like Carlos Santana and Van Morrison. Hooker slowed down somewhat in his last years, when it was no longer necessary for him to scuffle for a living and he could pick and choose what projects he did. However, his distinguished career continued until almost the end of his long life, and Hooker died in 2001 at the age of 83. John Lee Hooker was very influential to blues and rock musicians of several generations and many nations, and he will certainly be remembered as one of the greats of the blues.

Wednesday 2/9
Charlie Parker

Jazz 88 salutes Black History Month with the music of Charlie "Bird" Parker. Parker was born in Kansas City in 1920. He began his musical career on the baritone horn, but in a move that changed the entire history of jazz, switched to alto sax. He dropped out of school at 14 to become a professional musician, but after some initial efforts that didn't go well, he spent a summer getting a solid grasp of his technique. Parker taught himself to play with equal ease in all possible keys, something that most saxophonists had thought was too difficult to attempt. His first break was with the Jay McShann big band. His early recordings with the McShann band showed great potential on his solos. After Parker came to New York for the first time in 1939, he worked with big bands led by Earl Hines and Billy Eckstine, and developed a friendship and partnership with Dizzy Gillespie that helped to bring on the musical revolution known as bebop. This new music was a radical departure from the swing that had been the main form of jazz for a decade, and it has left its stamp on most jazz that has come along since 1945. Sadly, despite his artistic success, Parker had problems with drugs that put him into a mental hospital in California for a while, and that would contribute to his death at only 34. Despite this, he created some of the most influential music in the history of jazz, leaving behind classic recordings on several labels. Most saxophonists in jazz who have come along since Charlie Parker's time have learned something from his style. He also recorded a famous album with strings, something rather unusual for a jazz artist at that time, that paved the way for string-backed albums by several later generations of jazz musicians. After his early death, graffiti appeared all over New York City proclaiming, "Bird Lives," and Charlie Parker's music will certainly live as long as there are people to listen to jazz.

Thursday 2/10
Muddy Waters

Jazz 88 salutes Black History Month with the music of Muddy Waters. Waters was born in Mississippi in 1915 with the name of McKinley Morganfield. As a young man, Waters was influenced by the slide guitar blues of the legendary Son House, and became a noted slide player himself.. In 1941, the noted music historian Alan Lomax came through Mississippi to do field recordings of Delta blues musicians. Lomax made recordings of Waters for the Library of Congress, and came back to record him some more in 1942, both as a soloist and with the Son Simms Four. In 1943, Waters decided to move to Chicago. It turned out to be a wide move, since he eventually became the star of the Chicago blues scene. Waters' first recordings for Columbia in 1946 remained unissued for many years, since nobody at the label knew what to make of them. However, in 1947, Waters accompanied Sunnyland Slim to a recording session, and then recorded a couple of solo sides that same day. Soon, such records as "I Can't Be Satisfied" became huge sellers in Chicago. Waters' band, the Headhunters, also featured such blues giants as harmonica player Little Walter, guitarist Jimmy Rogers, and drummer/guitarist Baby Face Leroy Foster. Waters became nationally popular on the R & B charts in the 1950s, and his 1950 song "Rollin' Stone" provided the name for a certain British rock band and an influential magazine covering music and pop culture. Although rock cut into much of the popularity of R & B, Waters still had such hits as "Mannish Boy" and the 1960 live recording of "Got My Mojo Working" from the Newport Jazz Festival. Although Waters' style was a shock to many British blues fans, rockers such as Led Zeppelin were influenced by his signature slide guitar playing. In 1964, during the folk-blues craze, Waters went back to an acoustic style that was well-received in both the U.S. and Europe. Attempts at a psychedelic style in the late 1960s were not successful, but Waters recovered his form in work with such younger artists as Paul Butterfield, Johnny Winter and Bob Margolin with a return to his stylistic roots. By the time of his death in 1983, Muddy Waters' legend was secure, and he will always be remembered as a huge contributor to the history of the blues and other popular music.

Friday 2/11
Duke Ellington

Jazz 88 salutes Black History Month with the music of Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington. Ellington grew up in Washington, D.C. as the son of a White House butler. He started studying piano as a child and left school to play professionally. After leading bands in the Washington area, Ellington went to New York with a small group, the Washingtonians. The band started making recordings and appearing in clubs. Ellington added musicians to his group, experimented with various "jungle" and other musical effects, and became famous thanks to radio broadcasts his band made during its three years at the world-famous Cotton Club. Ellington left the club in 1931, and continued leading his own bands until his death in 1973. Ellington continued to compose as well, and wrote such standards as "Rockin' In Rhythm," "Mood Indigo," "Sophisticated Lady," "It Don't Mean A Thing If It Ain't Got That Swing," and a host of others. Ellington became famous for the musical sophistication of his compositions. He also showcased the many stars who came through his band, ranging from Bubber Miley and Johnny Hodges to Ben Webster and Jimmy Blanton. One of the biggest assets Ellington had was the great composer, arranger, and pianist Billy Strayhorn, whose "Take the 'A' Train" became the band's theme song. Ellington also wrote extended works such as "Black, Brown and Beige," scores for several Broadway musicals, and music for such films as "The Asphalt Jungle" and "Anatomy of a Murder." After the decline of the big bands, Ellington was one of the few leaders who was able to keep his band working, and continued to record and tour. After a few years of diminished fortunes, the Ellington band returned to the spotlight after a famous performance of "Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue" at the 1956 Newport Jazz Festival that nearly caused a riot. The album of that concert still sells well today, and Ellington was put on the cover of Time magazine. Ellington frequently appeared on TV and on the road in his later career, recorded projects on his own and with such singers as Frank Sinatra and Rosemary Clooney, and composed works ranging from sacred music to a moving tribute to Billy Strayhorn that won a Grammy. Ellington died in 1974, but the band was continued by his son, Mercer Ellington and by his grandson, Paul Mercer Ellington. Also, Ellington received some posthumous justice when he was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for his compositions, an honor denied him during his lifetime. The 1999 centennial of Ellington's birth saw reissues of many of his recordings, as well as a re-examination of his long career. Without a doubt, Duke Ellington was and is the best-known composer of jazz, one of its most enduring bandleaders, and a continued influence on jazz as it goes into  its second century.

Monday 2/14
Etta James

Jazz 88 salutes Black History Month with the music of Etta James. She was born Jamesetta Hawkins in Los Angeles in 1938, and started singing as a child in a church choir. When she was in her teens, she and two other girls auditioned for Johnny Otis, and Otis changed her name to Etta James. In 1955, Etta and her group, the Peaches, recorded "Roll With Me Henry" with Otis' band, and it became an R & B classic. When Etta went over to Chess Records, she recorded such classics as "At Last," "Tell Mama," and "I'd Rather Go Blind," to name a few. James had some serious setbacks due to drug addiction and other personal problems, but she eventually went into recovery and enjoyed a career resurgence that began in the late 1980s and that continues to this day. Etta James has shown great versatility in her long career, with fine singing in the blues, soul, rock, pop and jazz styles. Her 2003 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award was a reward for years of hardship and hard work, but Etta James is not one to rest on her laurels, and continues to record and perform for a new generation of fans.

Tuesday 2/15
John Coltrane

Jazz 88 salutes Black History Month with the music of John Coltrane. "Trane," a North Carolina native born in 1926, learned to play clarinet and saxophone in community and high school bands. After graduating from high school, he moved to Philadephia to join his family that was already there, and studied music and played in local clubs until he went into the U.S. Navy. While stationed in Hawaii, Coltrane kept playing and made his first recording with a group of other sailors. After his return to Philadelphia, he worked for several bands, and switched to the tenor sax. He remained with Dizzy Gillespie from 1949 to 1951, but a drug problem made him hard to deal with, and he was fired several times by Miles Davis and other leaders before he finally gave up drugs and became more reliable. Coltrane made his first record as a leader in 1957, and soon rejoined Miles Davis, becoming part of the sextet that recorded "Milestones" and "Kind of Blue." His own projects became the subject of controversy for what became known as "sheets of sound". However, he also enjoyed popular success with such recordings as "My Favorite Things," "Ballads," and recordings with Duke Ellington and Johnny Hartman. Coltrane's later playing included a great deal of free jazz, long solos and influences from world music from Africa and India. John Coltrane died of liver cancer when he was only 40, but his willingness to take musical chances and his emotionally powerful playing will inspire both musicians and listeners as long as there is jazz.

Wednesday 2/16
B.B. King

Jazz 88 salutes Black History Month with the music of B.B. King. Riley King was born in the Mississippi Delta in 1925, and was exposed to blues, country, gospel and jazz in his youth. After working as a sharecropper, he went to Memphis at 21 and learned to play guitar from his cousin, the blues star Bukka White. King went back to the Delta for a while, but soon returned to Memphis and became a disc jockey on the great black radio station WDIA. On radio, King became known as "the Beale Street Blues Boy," but soon shortened his stage name to B.B. King. King began his recording career in 1949, and had his first national hit in 1951. During this time, when a fight in a roadhouse over a woman named Lucille caused a fire, King ran back to the burning building to get his guitar, and barely escaped with his life. After that close call, King named his guitar "Lucille" to remind himself never to do such a foolish thing again, and all King's guitars have had that name ever since. King had to quit his radio job when his hit recordings put him in huge demand around the country, and has toured regularly ever since. King's excellent guitar playing and expressive vocals made him a favorite with blues audiences, and he made it onto the pop charts in 1969 with his legendary recording of "The Thrill Is Gone." He has recorded with many blues and R & B greats, with rock stars like Eric Clapton, and also with such jazz artists as the Crusaders, Diane Schuur, Gary Burton, and Tony Bennett. King has had to cut back somewhat on touring and recording in recent years due to age and diabetes, but he remains a very well-loved performer, and the name B.B. King has become synonymous with the blues.

Thursday 2/17
Ella Fitzgerald

Jazz 88 salutes Black History Month with the music of Ella Fitzgerald. Ella started out in very tough circumstances, and was homeless as a teenager after her mother died and she had to escape from an abusive stepfather. Fitzgerald won one of the famous amateur contests at New York's Apollo Theatre in 1934, and became popular when she became the vocalist with Chick Webb's big band. After Webb died, Ella took over the band until she went solo in 1941. In 1946, she began working with Norman Granz's "Jazz at the Philharmonic," where she learned about the new bebop style from such colleagues as Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, and bassist Ray Brown, who was her husband for a few years. Some other developments that broadened Ella's career included a series of songbook albums with the work of various composers, and a switch to Norman Granz's management and his Verve recording label. Ella became one of the most popular singers in jazz history due to her great scat singing, sweet-toned voice, and immaculate diction and musicianship. Sadly, problems with diabetes, vision and high blood pressure took their toll on Fitzgerald's health, and also affected her voice, so that she had to cut back her activities in later years. She decided not to appear in public again after her feet had to be amputated due to diabetic complications. However, when Ella Fitzgerald died in 1996, the tributes from all over the world showed that she had not been forgotten, and her many fine recordings will ensure that she continue to be remembered as the "First Lady of Song."

Friday 2/18
Dizzy Gillespie

John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie was born in South Carolina in 1917. Gillespie taught himself the trombone, switched to trumpet, and got more musical training while in an agricultural school, which he left so he could play professionally. Gillespie gained experience in the bands of Frankie Fairfax and Teddy Hill, and got his first big break as a member of Cab Calloway's orchestra. He got the nickname of "Dizzy" because of his crazy antics and sense of humor, and was fired from the Calloway band when someone else threw a spitball at Cab and blamed it on Dizzy. However, Gillespie was far from "dizzy" musically; along with Charlie Parker and other musicians, he pioneered bebop in the Earl Hines and Billy Eckstine big bands and in the famous jam sessions at Minton's Playhouse in New York. After World War II, the records that Gillespie and Parker did caught the music world and the public by surprise, but the new bebop style became the foundation for jazz in the second half of the 20th century. After an early big band failed, Gillespie tried again in 1946, and made such great records as "A Night In Tunisia" and experiments with Afro-Cuban music featuring the great Chano Pozo. Gillespie's showmanship helped get public attention for the new style, and his famous beret, glasses and goatee were copied by jazz musicians and fans. After the novelty of bebop wore off, Gillespie broke up the big band, but continued to play in smaller groups, and the famous "Jazz at Massey Hall" concert in Toronto in 1953 with Dizzy, Parker and other stars of the new style was recorded and became an inspiration to later players. Gillespie formed another big band in 1956 for a State Department tour, and it included the young Quincy Jones, Benny Golson and Melba Liston as players and arrangers. In later years, Dizzy kept performing with small groups, and was also a mentor to many younger musicians. He also formed the United Nation Orchestra, which got its name from Gillespie's belief that music could help the world be one united nation; this band included players from a number of countries. Gillespie kept working until 1992, when his health began failing, and he died of cancer in 1993. Dizzy Gillespie will be remembered for his musical adventurousness, his incredible virtuosity on the trumpet, his help of up-and-coming talent, and for the showmanship that delighted several generations of jazz fans.

Monday 2/21
Jimmy Smith

Jazz 88 salutes Black History Month with the music of organist Jimmy Smith. Smith was born in Norristown, Pennsylvania in 1925, and received musical education from his parents and after serving in the Navy. Although Smith was not the first jazz musician to attempt to use the organ in jazz, he was the one who showed its many possibilities. Smith got his first Hammond B-3 organ in the early 1950s, and kept it in a warehouse where he practiced until he was ready to play it in public. After a couple of years of experimentation, Smith astonished the jazz world with his use of the pedals for walking bass lines, chords in the left hand and melody in the right, and a unique combination of jazz, R & B and gospel influences. His early New York appearances landed him a contract with Blue Note Records, where he made a series of albums with many of the greats in jazz; Smith also did many fine albums for Verve Records. He also attracted attention at the 1957 Newport Jazz Festival, and toured for many years. When the jazz organ lost some popularity in the 1970s, Smith kept recording and touring on a smaller scale, and he and his wife ran a nightclub in Los Angeles. In the 1980s, when a new generation of players and fans discovered the jazz organ sound, Smith went back on the road, and did a number of albums in his later career for several labels. One of the young players who was influenced by Smith was Joey de Francesco, and the two performed and recorded together. In fact, Smith had just recorded a new CD with de Francesco, and was about to perform with him at the famous Yoshi's jazz club when he unexpectedly died at home on February 8th, 2005. In a sign of respect for his great career, WKCR radio in New York played nothing but Jimmy Smith's music for several days. The man known as "The Incredible Jimmy Smith" will always be remembered by jazz fans, and also by the new generation of jazz organists who learned so much from him.

Tuesday 2/22
Robert Johnson

Jazz 88 salutes Black History Month with the music of blues legend Robert Johnson. Johnson was born in Mississippi in 1911. His abilities in singing, playing, and composing the blues were so amazing that a legend grew of his having sold his soul to the Devil to become a musical genius. The truth was a bit less dramatic. Johnson's early attempts at playing blues harmonica and guitar were considered laughable by older Delta bluesmen. However, Johnson learned from hearing the established musicians and from the recordings of his idol Lonnie Johnson. He also received training from a little-known but talented musician by the name of Ike Zinneman, who helped him develop a solid technique. After a year with Ike Zinneman, Johnson was a new musician, and was able to handle all sorts of musical techniques. Johnson also came up with some ideas of his own that changed the blues, such as playing a boogie bass line on the lower strings of the guitar to give the music a foundation without the need for a bass player. Johnson also became a talented songwriter, and devoted his short life to extensive touring in the South and Midwest. Johnson also made some radio appearances, and did a small number of recordings that are greatly cherished by blues fans to this day. Unfortunately, Johnson was given moonshine whiskey that had been poisoned, presumably by the jealous husband of a woman with whom Johnson had become romantically involved. Although Johnson survived the poison's effects, he developed pneumonia while recovering, and died in 1938 at the age of only 27. Johnson's legend and influence continued, though. For years, only some of his recordings were available, but those were enough to inspire such rock stars as Mick Jagger, Eric Clapton, and hosts of others in blues and jazz as well. Johnson songs like "Hellhound on My Trail" and "Sweet Home Chicago" became standards. In 1990, when a complete box set of Johnson's recordings became available after years of legal disputes between Johnson's heirs and his recording company, the set became the first of its kind to sell over a million copies. Robert Johnson continues to be a legend to a new generation of fans, and also is an influence on anyone who plays and sings the blues.

Wednesday 2/23
Count Basie

Jazz 88 salutes Black History Month with the music of William "Count" Basie. Basie was born in 1904 in Red Bank, New Jersey. He came from a musical family, and his mother taught him piano, although he was also influenced by the great stride pianists. Basie played in vaudeville as a young man, and became stranded in Kansas City when his troupe broke up in 1927. It was a blessing in disguise, for Basie stayed there and became part of several bands, including Walter Page's Blue Devils and the Bennie Moten band. After Moten died in 1935, Basie worked as a single, and then formed a band that included many of Moten's former musicians. This band had such legends as saxophonist Lester Young, drummer Jo Jones, and vocalist Jimmy Rushing. Basie's famous "splank" style of light piano and rhythm accompaniment gave the band its special sound, providing just enough of a framework to let the band swing. The young Basie band was soon heard on radio broadcasts from Kansas City by listeners all over the Midwest, and Basie got his nickname of "Count" from a radio announcer who thought he should have a title like Duke Ellington or Earl Hines. Jazz critic and record producer John Hammond heard Basie on the radio and helped him get a record contract and performances in other cities such as Chicago and New York. "One O'Clock Jump," the band's theme song, also became its first recording on the charts in 1937. The Basie band soon became a household name, enjoying great popularity during the big band era. When big bands declined after World War II, Basie led small groups for a few years. However, he formed a new big band in 1952, and this band took off thanks to recordings and touring around the world. The band's new vocalist, Joe Williams, also added to the Basie band's appeal. The famous 1956 Basie recording of "April in Paris" was a Top 40 hit, even at a time when rock and roll was starting to capture public fancy. The band won many awards and continued recording and touring, and also backed Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, and other singers in several popular albums. In Basie's later years, he had serious problems with his health that resulted in several hospitalizations, but he continued to lead the band and play piano from a wheelchair until his death in 1984. Since Basie's death, the Count Basie Orchestra has continued under several directors, and it continues to tour and record, including the famous Basie standards and some newer pieces. Thanks to the continued existence of the band, and the many great recordings he left behind, Count Basie will be remembered as one of the great big band leaders.

Thursday 2/24
Oscar Peterson

Jazz 88 salutes Black History Month with the music of Oscar Peterson. This great pianist was born in 1925 in Montreal, Canada. Peterson studied classical piano as a child, and started performing professionally in his teens, including radio appearances and with the Johnny Holmes Orchestra. Jazz impresario and record producer Norman Granz invited him to play in a concert at Carnegie Hall in 1949, and from there his career took off. Peterson formed his own trios based on the piano-guitar-bass format pioneered by Nat King Cole, became a prolific composer, and in later years started to concentrate more on solo performances. Peterson's virtuosity is among the greatest in the history of jazz piano. Despite health problems that left him unable to use his left hand for playing, Oscar Peterson still records and makes some appearances, and his work in recent years has taken on a more introspective quality. Without a doubt, Oscar Peterson is one of the finest pianists in all of music.

Friday 2/25
Buddy Guy

Jazz 88 salutes Black History Month with the music of Buddy Guy. Guy was born in Louisiana in 1936, and got his early start as a guitarist in Baton Rouge in the 1950s. He went to Chicago in 1957, and after a slow start, he got some notice thanks to both good playing and lively showmanship. Guy soon became associated with such Chicago blues stars as Muddy Waters and Otis Rush, and also started making records, with many fine ones for the Chess label as both a soloist and a session guitarist. Guy also became friends and musical partners with harmonica player Junior Wells, with whom he made many recordings and tours. Despite his success with Wells, and the admiration of many blues and rock musicians for his playing and singing, it took many years for Buddy Guy to get another domestic recording contract. That finally happened when he signed with Silvertone in 1991. Guy's album "Damn Right, I've Got the Blues" won him one of several Grammy Awards, and he soon attained new popularity that continues to this day. Guy has tried some projects with rock and country stars with varying results, but he has also won more Grammys for his blues work, he still tours, and runs and appears in his own blues club in Chicago. Buddy Guy deservedly remains one of the most popular artists in blues.

Monday 2/28
Ray Charles

Jazz 88 concludes this year's Black History Month salute with the music of Ray Charles. He was born Ray Charles Robinson in Albany, Georgia in 1930, and became blind at the age of six due to childhood glaucoma. Charles learned to sing and play many instruments in a school for the blind, and gained early performing experience in Florida and Seattle. His early style was rather like that of Nat "King" Cole, but he soon developed a soulful sound all his own in both his singing and his piano playing. Charles made his first recordings in the late 1940s, and within a few years his sound caught on, especially with his hit song "I Got a Woman" in 1955. Charles' unique style had elements of gospel, R & B, jazz and blues, and it stayed his own even when he tried other kinds of music. Although much of his work has been in such styles as R & B, country, and mainstream pop, Charles recorded a lot of jazz as well, and worked with such jazz stars as Betty Carter, Milt Jackson, Tony Bennett and David "Fathead" Newman. Charles' unmistakable gospel-influenced voice has been an inspiration to singers in music ranging from soul to rock and pop. Despite increasing health problems, Charles continued to perform and record as long as possible, and his final album, a set of duets called "Genius Loves Company," won multiple Grammys a few months after his death in June of 2004. Ray Charles was often known in life as "The Genius," and he will certainly keep that title for his great contributions to American music.

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