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James Stanley Hall (December 4, 1930 – December 10, 2013) was an American jazz guitarist, composer and arranger.

Born in Buffalo, New York, Hall moved with his family to Cleveland, Ohio during his childhood. Hall’s mother played the piano, his grandfather violin, and his uncle guitar. He began playing the guitar at the age of 10, when his mother gave him an instrument as a Christmas present. At 13 he heard Charlie Christian play on a Benny Goodman record, which he calls his “spiritual awakening”. As a teenager in Cleveland, he performed professionally, and also took up the double bass. Hall’s major influences since childhood were tenor saxophonists Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, Paul Gonsalves, and Lucky Thompson. While he copied out solos by Charlie Christian, and later Barney Kessel, it was horn players from whom he took the lead. In 1955, Hall attended the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he majored in composition, studying piano and bass in addition to theory.

Michael Barry Finnerty (born December 3, 1951) is an American jazz guitarist, keyboardist, singer, songwriter, and arranger, known for his work as a touring and recording session musician for Miles Davis, The Crusaders, the Brecker Brothers, Hubert Laws, and Ray Barretto. Finnerty is the author of books on music improvisation and a semi-autobiographical novel.

Finnerty was born in San Francisco and raised on the West Coast, studying at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and University of California Berkeley. He lived in Hong Kong with his mother in the early 1960s. When he was fourteen, he began playing electric guitar and joined a band that opened a show for Herman’s Hermits. On returning to San Francisco, he became friends with guitarist Jim Checkley, who invited him to join Beefy Red in 1969. He played in that band for several years.

December 3rd 1929 Clarence Ford, American jazz and R&B clarinet and saxophone player, born in New Orleans, Louisiana (d. 1994) Saxophonist/clarinetist Clarence Ford was one of the many local legends to grace the New Orleans music scene. In the early 50’s he became active in the Rhythm and Blues productions of David Bartholmew, ultimately landing a gig with Fats Domino that would last 15 years. He can be heard on several of Domino’s hits, including Walking to New Orleans and My Blue Heaven. Equally adept on saxophone and clarinet, his outstanding musicianship made him one of the most in demand session players in New Orleans of his era. This solo from 1961 features him on clarinet with The All-Star Marching Band and is an absolute gem. The song, Paul Barbarin’s Second Line, is based on Bourbon Street Parade, also written by Barbarin.

Kanaka Dasa (1509 – 1609) was a Haridasa, a renowned composer of Carnatic music, poet, philosopher and musician. He is known for his keertanas and ugabhoga, compositions in the Kannada language for Carnatic music. Like other Haridasas, he used simple Kannada language and native metrical forms for his compositions. Kanakadasa Jayanti is celebrated on the commemoration to their great poet, saint, philosopher, composer and musician.

He was born in Baada village, near Bankapura and he was a warrior at Bankapura fort. Based on one of his compositions, it is interpreted that he was seriously injured in a battle and was miraculously saved. After this incident, he gave up his profession as a warrior and devoted himself to composing music, writing literature and explaining philosophy to the common man. His early work includes poems titled Narasimha stotra, Ramadhyana Mantra, and Mohanatarangini.

A Rondeña is a palo or musical form of flamenco originating in the town of Ronda in the province of Málaga in Spain.In common with other palos originating in Málaga, the rondeña antedated flamenco proper and became incorporated into it during the 19th century.The rondeña has its origin in the fandango malagueño and it is said that it is “the oldest fandango actually known”.According to the experts, the name does not derive from “nocturnal rounds”, as some have suggested, but is based solely on the name of the town Ronda.The rondeña spread enormously throughout Andalusia in the 19th century, to such an extent that numerous foreign observers, touring the region at the time, referred to it later in their writings.The rondeña has evolved in recent times, with a decrease in melismatic ornamentation, and generally the tempo is somewhat slower than was previously the case. It is a composition with an ad libtime signature
( compás ), and the lyrics are frequently about rustic life. A verse consists of four octosyllabic lines which sometimes become five through repetition of the second line.

Ronald Mathews (December 2, 1935 in New York City – June 28, 2008 in Brooklyn) was an American jazz pianist who worked with Max Roach from 1963 to 1968 and Art Blakey‘s Jazz Messengers. He acted as lead in recording from 1963 and 1978–79. His most recent work was in 2008, as both a mentor and musician with Generations, a group of jazz musicians headed by veteran drummer Jimmy Cobb. He contributed two new compositions for the album that was released by San Francisco State University’s International Center for the Arts on September 15, 2008. Critics have compared him to pianists Thelonious Monk, Bud Powell, and McCoy Tyner.

In his twenties, Mathews toured internationally and recorded with Roach, Freddie Hubbard and Roy Haynes. He was also a member of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers in the late 1950s through the 1960s. By thirty, he began teaching jazz piano and led workshops, clinics and master classes at Long Island University in New York City. Besides Dexter Gordon and Clark Terry, he toured and recorded on two Louis Hayes projects in the 70’s (i.e. the Louis Hayes-Woody Shaw Quintet and the Louis Hayes-Junior Cook Quintet).

Wynton Charles Kelly (December 2, 1931 – April 12, 1971) was an American jazz pianist and composer. He is known for his lively, blues-based playing and as one of the finest accompanists in jazz. He began playing professionally at the age of 12 and was pianist on a No. 1 R&B hit at the age of 16. His recording debut as a leader occurred three years later, around the time he started to become better known as an accompanist to singer Dinah Washington, and as a member of trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie‘s band. This progress was interrupted by two years in the United States Army, after which Kelly worked again with Washington and Gillespie, and played with other leaders. Over the next few years, these included instrumentalists Cannonball Adderley, John Coltrane, Hank Mobley, Wes Montgomery, and Sonny Rollins, and vocalists Betty Carter, Billie Holiday, and Abbey Lincoln.

Kelly attracted the most attention as part of Miles Davis‘ band from 1959, including an appearance on the trumpeter’s Kind of Blue, often mentioned as the best-selling jazz album ever.^[1][2] After leaving Davis in 1963, Kelly played with his own trio, which recorded for several labels and toured the United States and internationally. His career did not develop much further, and he had difficulty finding enough work late in his career. Kelly, who was known to have epilepsy, died in a hotel room in Canada following a seizure, aged 39.

Charlie Ventura (born Charles Venturo; December 2, 1916 – January 17, 1992) was an American tenor saxophonist and bandleader from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States.

During the 1940s, Ventura played saxophone for the bands of Gene Krupa and Teddy Powell. In 1945 he was named best tenor saxophonist by DownBeat magazine. He led a band which included Conte Candoli, Bennie Green, Boots Mussulli, Ed Shaughnessy, Jackie Cain, and Roy Kral. He led big bands in the 1940s and 1950s and formed the Big Four with Buddy Rich, Marty Napoleon, and Chubby Jackson. He was a sideman with Krupa through the 1960s, then worked in Las Vegas with comedian Jackie Gleason. In 1992 he died of lung cancer.

Pastorius suffered from drug addiction and mental health issues, and despite his widespread acclaim, over the latter part of his life he had problems holding down jobs due to his unreliability. In frequent financial difficulties, he was often homeless in the mid-1980s. He died in 1987 as a result of injuries sustained in a fight outside a South Florida after-hours nightclub.

Since his death, his work has continued to be widely influential. He was elected to the DownBeat Hall of Fame in 1988 and was the subject of the 2014 documentary film Jaco.