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Nasheet Waits NY June 15th 1971 is an American jazz drummer.

Son of percussionist Freddie Waits, Nasheet Waits is a New York native who has been active on the jazz scene since early in his life. Before pursuing a music career, he studied psychology and history at Morehouse College in Atlanta. He also holds a degree from Long Island University in music. While studying at L.I.U, instructor Michael Carvin secured Waits a spot in the percussion ensemble M’Boom, started by drummer Max Roach and Freddie Waits, in 1970. Waits has recorded or performed with Fred Hersch, Antonio Hart, Joe Lovano, Jason Moran, Andrew Hill, Ron Carter, Tony Malaby, Bunky Green, William Parker, Eddie Gómez, Casimir Liberski, John Medeski, Kurt Rosenwinkel, and Mark Turner.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-Y98Ncz71k

June 15th 1961 Jazz guitarist John Hart is a lecturer at the University of Miami Frost School of Music. A New York fixture for 29 years, he is one of the most prolific and versatile guitarists on the jazz scene today. He released eight CDs as bandleader on such prestigious labels as Blue Note and Concord and has appeared on over 100 CDs as a sideman, including a 16-year stint with organist Jack McDuff. JazzTimes wrote, “An alum of the Brother Jack McDuff University of Jazz Guitar, John Hart can burn his way through blues changes on a level that’s right up there with fellow graduates George Benson and Pat Martino.” John Hart has also worked with Jimmy Smith, James Moody, Jon Hendricks, Brian Blade, Chris Potter, Larry Goldings, Bob Belden, Javon Jackson and vocalists Lizz Wright and Hilary Kole. He has played with the Maria Schneider Orchestra for the last 20 years.

John Hart has headlined at the Montreux Jazz Festival, Edinburgh Jazz Festival, Vancouver Jazz Festival, Nairn Jazz Festival, Victoria Jazz Festival and many of the premier jazz clubs in the USA. He is featured on soundtracks including HBO’s Sex in the City and appeared on the Garrison Keillor Show with the popular band Pink Martini. In 1992 he formed the John Hart Quartet featuring young star Chris Potter. The band toured extensively for seven years, was featured on NPR’s Jazzset and recorded one album for Concord Records. In 2001 he formed the John Hart Trio and recorded three CDs for Hep Records. Recent recordings include a jazz organ trio CD on the Index Jazz label.

Erroll Louis Garner (June 15, 1921 – January 2, 1977) was an American jazz pianist and composer known for his swing playing and ballads. His best-known composition, the instrumental ballad “Misty,” has become a jazz standard. It was first recorded in 1956 with Mitch Miller and his orchestra, and played a prominent part in the motion picture “Play Misty for Me.”

Scott Yanow, of Allmusic, calls him “one of the most distinctive of all pianists” and a “brilliant virtuoso.” He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6363 Hollywood Blvd. His live album, Concert by the Sea, first released in 1955, sold over a million copies by 1958, and Yanow’s opinion on the album is that it “made such a strong impression that Garner was considered immortal from then on.”

Garner was born, along with a twin brother, Ernest, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on June 15, 1921, the youngest of six children. He attended George Westinghouse High School (as did fellow pianists Billy Strayhorn and Ahmad Jamal). Interviews with his family, music teachers, other musicians, and a detailed family tree can be found in Erroll Garner: The Most Happy Piano, by James M Doran.

John Arthur “Jaki” Byard June 15, 1922 – February 11, 1999) was an American jazz multi-instrumentalist, composer, and arranger. Mainly a pianist, he also played tenor and alto saxophones, among several other instruments. He was known for his eclectic style, incorporating everything from ragtime and stride to free jazz.

Byard played with trumpeter Maynard Ferguson in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and was a member of bands led by bassist Charles Mingus for several years, including on several studio and concert recordings. The first of his recordings as a leader was in 1960, but, despite being praised by critics, his albums and performances did not gain him much wider attention. In his 60-year career, Byard recorded at least 35 albums as leader, and more than 50 as a sideman. Byard’s influence on the music comes from his combining of musical styles during performance, and his parallel career in teaching.

From 1969 Byard was heavily involved in jazz education: he began teaching at the New England Conservatory of Music and went on to work at several other music institutions, as well as having private students. He continued performing and recording, mainly in solo and small group settings, but he also led two big bands – one made up of some of his students, and the other of professional musicians. His death, from a single gunshot while in his home, remains an unsolved mystery.

Byard was born in Worcester, Massachusetts. At that time, his parents – John Sr and Geraldine Garr – were living at 47 Clayton Street. Both of his parents played musical instruments; his mother played the piano, as did his uncles and grandmother, the last playing in cinemas during the silent film era. He began piano lessons at the age of six, but they ended when his family was affected by the Great Depression.

Jules Shungu Wembadio Pene Kikumba (14 June 1949 – 24 April 2016), known professionally as Papa Wemba , was a Congolese singer and musician who played Congolese rumba, soukous, and ndombolo. Dubbed the “King of Rumba Rock”, he was one of the most popular musicians of his time in Africa and played an important role in world music. He was also a fashion icon who popularized the Sape look and style through his musical group Viva la Musica, with whom he performed on stages throughout the world.

Papa Wemba’s road to fame and prominence began when he joined the music group Zaiko Langa Langa in the late 1960s. This was followed by his success as a founding member both of Isifi Lokole and then Yoka Lokole, along with a short stint as a member of Afrisa International for a few months. During these early stages of his career, he was establishing a style that included traditional Congolese rumba and soukous, infused with traditional African sounds, Caribbean rhythms, rock and soul.But Wemba gained international success and status with his band Viva La Musica, especially after he took them to Paris, France in the early 1980s. It was there that Wemba was able to achieve more of an “eclectic sound” in his work,inf luenced by western popular music that reflected a European flavor and style, referred to as “Europop.

William Henry Marcus Miller Jr. (born June 14, 1959) is an American multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, composer, producer and singer, best known as a bassist. He has worked with trumpeter Miles Davis, pianist Herbie Hancock, singer Luther Vandross, and saxophonist David Sanborn, among others. His collaboration with Vandross was especially close: Miller co-produced and served as the arranger for most of Vandross’s albums, and co-wrote (with Vandross) many of his songs, including the hits “I Really Didn’t Mean It“, “Any Love“, “Power of Love/Love Power” and “Don’t Want to Be a Fool“. He also co-wrote the 1988 single “Da Butt” for Experience Unlimited. Miller was the main songwriter and producer on three of Miles Davis’s albums: Tutu (1986), Music from Siesta (1987), and Amandla(1989).

Miller was born in Brooklyn, New York City, United States, and raised in a musical family. His father, William Miller, was a church organist and choir director; Miller is jazz pianist Wynton Kelly‘s cousin.Miller is classically trained as a clarinetist and also plays keyboards, saxophone and guitar. He began to work regularly in New York City, eventually playing bass and writing music for jazz flutist Bobbi Humphrey and keyboardist Lonnie Liston Smith. Miller became a session musician. Miller’s earliest influences include James Jamerson and Larry Graham.

Kenny Drew Jr. (June 14, 1958 – August 3, 2014) was an American jazz pianist. His music is known for its hard-swinging bluesy sound and large, two-handed rooty chords contrasting with fast runs. The son of jazz pianist Kenny Drew, he did not credit his father as an influence.

His initial study was in classical music with his aunt and grandmother. In his teens he became interested in jazz and pop, but initially worked in funk bands. Later he went into jazz piano and in 1990 won The Great American Jazz Piano Competition in Jacksonville, Florida. Drew continued to perform jazz, but he also performed some chamber music. His style has some similarities to his father’s, but is different enough to generally avoid comparison; he was considered the more eclectic of the two men.

Drew attended Iona College in New Rochelle, New York, for a period during 1977 to 1978. There, he became pianist for the Iona College Singers, an entertainment troop promoting the college’s name and goodwill among local high schools, retirement homes and the like in the Northeast region of the US.

Drew cited Thelonious Monk as an influence and like Monk often recorded (and performed) solo.

Drew died at home in St. Petersburg, Florida, on August 3, 2014.

Autry DeWalt Mixon Jr. (June 14, 1931 – November 23, 1995), known professionally as Junior Walker, was an American multi-instrumentalist (primarily saxophonist and vocalist) who recorded for Motownduring the 1960s. He also performed as a session and live-performing saxophonist with the band Foreigner during the 1980s.

Walker was born Autry DeWalt Mixon Jr. on June 14, 1931, in Blytheville, Arkansas, but grew up in South Bend, Indiana. He began playing saxophone while in high school, and his saxophone style was the anchor for the sound of the bands he later played in.

His career started when he developed his own band in the mid-1950s as the Jumping Jacks. His longtime friend and drummer Billy Nicks (1935–2017) formed his own group, the Rhythm Rockers. Periodically, Nicks would sit in on Jumping Jack’s shows, and Walker would sit in on the Rhythm Rockers shows.

Nicks obtained a permanent gig at a local TV station in South Bend, Indiana, and asked Walker to join him and keyboard player Fred Patton permanently. Nicks asked Willie Woods (1936–1997), a local singer, to perform with the group; Woods would learn how to play guitar. When Nicks was drafted into the United States Army, Walker convinced the band to move from South Bend to Battle Creek, Michigan. While performing in Benton Harbor, Walker found a drummer, Tony Washington, to replace Nicks. Eventually, Fred Patton left the group, and Victor Thomas stepped in. The original name, The Rhythm Rockers, was changed to “The All Stars.” Walker’s style was inspired by jump blues and early R&B, particularly players like Louis Jordan, Earl Bostic, and Illinois Jacquet.

Baaba Maal (born 13 June 1953) is a Senegalese singer and guitarist born in Podor, on the Senegal River. In addition to acoustic guitar, he also plays percussion. He has released several albums, both for independent and major labels. In July 2003, he was made a UNDP Youth Emissary.

Maal sings primarily in Pulaar and promotes the traditions of the Pulaar-speaking people, who live on either side of the Senegal River in the ancient Senegalese kingdom of Futa Tooro.

Maal was expected to follow in his father’s profession and become a fisherman. However, under the influence of his lifelong friend and family gawlo, blind guitarist Mansour Seck, Maal devoted himself to learning music from his mother and his school’s headmaster. He went on to study music at the university in Dakar before leaving for postgraduate studies on a scholarship at Beaux-Arts in Paris.