Here is an eclectic selection of jazz musicians, born in September, prepared by Louise Levy and Phillip Cant
Essiet Essiet
1 September, 1956
“Some musicians are purist, but I like to mix styles. I like many different types of cultures”.
Essiet is an American jazz double-bassist. Essiet’s parents were Nigerian immigrants to the United States. He studied violin, as a child, then learned both bass guitar and stand-up bass as a high schooler in Portland Oregon. In 1983 he moved to New York City, playing with Abdullah Ibrahim, Art Blakey, Marty Cook, and Ralph Peterson, Jr. Subsequent associations include performing or recording with George Adams, Ron Affif, Kenny Barron. He is the leader of the group “Intercontinental Bush Orchestra”, founded in 1995. In 2018 Benito Gonzalez:, Gerry Gibbs and Essiet Okon Essiet exhilarating tribute to McCoy Tyner, Passion Reverence Transcendence.
Horace Silver
2 September, 1928 – 18 June, 2014
“Musical composition should bring happiness and joy to people and make them forget their troubles.”
Horace Silver was an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger, particularly in the hard bop style that he helped pioneer in the 1950s. After playing tenor saxophone and piano at school in Connecticut, Silver got his break on piano when his trio was recruited by Stan Getz in 1950. Silver soon moved to New York City, where he developed a reputation as a composer and for his bluesy playing.
Peter Bernstein
3 September, 1967
Peter Bernstein is an American jazz guitarist. Born in New York City on September 3, 1967, Bernstein began playing piano when he was eight but switched to guitar when he was thirteen, learning the instrument primarily by ear. He studied jazz at Rutgers University with Ted Dunbar, and Kenny Barron. In 2008, Bernstein became part of the Blue Note 7, a septet formed that year in honor of the 70th anniversary of Blue Note Records. The group recorded the album Mosaic.
Dave Leiberman
4 September, 1946
“Art is constant tension and release. That is where artists live, between the two, or at times, submerged in either. The challenge is never-ending perfection is impossible, it could always be different, better, or worse. It’s not important, just process and striving to be like the man who walks the trapeze maintaining balance.”
Dave Leiberman is an American saxophonist, flautist and jazz educator. He is known for his innovative lines and use of atonality. He was a frequent collaborator with pianist Richie Beirach. In June 2010, he received a NEA Jazz Masters lifetime achievement award from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA).
Jeff Lofton
5 September, 1966
Jazz trumpeter and composer Jeff Lofton is a Grammy member and two time SXSW Austin Music Awards winner. Jeff has performed at One World Theater, Stateside at the Paramount, and the Long Center for the Performing Arts since his arrival on the Austin music scene in 2007. Lofton studied composition at the University of South Carolina and moved to Austin in 2007 at the age of 40. Since then his career has grown from being mostly unknown, to a local favorite and to national and international recognition.
Claire Martin
6 September, 1967
Claire Martin is an English jazz singer. She grew up in a house “full of music” thanks to jazz-loving parents. She cites Ella Fitzgerald’s Song Books as the inspiration to study singing at the Doris Holford Stage School and in New York and London. Martin collaborated with the Montpellier Cello Quartet, performing arrangements written for her by Rodney Bennett, Mark Anthony Turnage, and Django Bates. This chamber jazz ensemble toured throughout 2014 to promote the album Time and Place.
Sonny Rollins
7 September, 1930
“Music represents nature. Nature represents life. Jazz represents nature. Jazz is life.”
Sonny Rollins is an American jazz tenor saxophonist who is widely recognized as one of the most important and influential jazz musicians. In a seven-decade career, he has recorded over sixty albums as a leader. A number of his compositions, including “St. Thomas”, “Oleo”, “Doxy”, “Pent-Up House”, and “Airegin”, have become jazz standards. Rollins has been called “the greatest living improviser” and the “Saxophone Colossus”.”
Maggie Green
8 September, 1977
During her early years, Maggie sat at the piano and studied the complex harmonies and melodies of Bach, Mozart and Beethoven. However, while pursuing a degree in classical piano at Michigan State University, her ear began to wander toward jazz music, especially the haunting vocals of Billie Holiday and Chet Baker. This proved to be a significant point, for she not only moved from classical music to jazz, but she also strayed from the piano and focused on her voice.
Elvin Jones
9 September, 1927 – 18 May, 2004
“The greatest contribution jazz has made in music has been to replace the role of the conductor with a member of the ensemble who, instead of waving his arms to keep time and convey mood, is an active member of the musical statement. That person is the drummer.”
Elvin Jones was an American jazz drummer of the post-bop era. He showed an interest in drums at a young age, watching the circus bands march by his family’s home in Pontiac, Michigan. He served in the United States Army from 1946 to 1949 and subsequently played in a Detroit house band led by Billy Mitchell. He moved to New York City in 1955 and worked as a sideman for Charles Mingus, Teddy Charles, Bud Powell and Miles Davis.
Lorraine Feather
10 September, 1948
Lorraine Feather is an American singer, lyricist, and songwriter. A native of Manhattan, she was born to jazz writer Leonard Feather and his wife Jane, a former big-band singer. She was named Billie Jane Lee Lorraine for her godmother Billie Holiday, her mother’s former roommate Peggy Lee, and for the song “Sweet Lorraine”. Three of her albums have been nominated for Grammy Awards in the Best Jazz Vocal Album category: Ages (2010), Attachments (2013), and Flirting with Disaster (2015).
Harry Connick Jr.
11 September, 1967
“If your record doesn’t sell that well, man, who cares? All the satisfaction I need… comes when I step out onstage and see the people. That’s awesome. I love that.”
Harry Connick Jr. is an American singer, pianist, composer, actor, and television host. He has sold over 28 million albums worldwide. Connick is ranked among the top 60 best-selling male artists in the United States by the Recording Industry Association of America, with 16 million in certified sales. He has had seven top 20 US albums, and ten number-one US jazz albums, earning more number-one albums than any other artist in US jazz chart history.
Bryan Lynch
12 September, 1956
Bryan Lynch is a multi-Grammy winning jazz trumpeter. He has been a member of Eddie Palmieri’s Afro-Caribbean Jazz group and has led the Latin Side of Miles project with trombonist Conrad Herwig. He arranged for Japanese pop star Mika Nakashima and producer Shinichi Osawa, has written string charts for Phil Woods, and has played with Maxwell, Prince, and Sheila E. On February 11, 2007, Brian Lynch and Eddie Palmieri won the Grammy Award for Best Latin Jazz Album for Simpático at the 49th Annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles. On January 27, 2020, Brian Lynch and the Brian Lynch Big Band won the Grammy Award for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album for the album, The Omni-American Book Club.
Mel Tormé
13 September, 1925 – 5 June, 1999
Nicknamed “The Velvet Fog”, Mel Tormé was an American musician, singer, composer, arranger, drummer, actor, and author. A child prodigy, he first performed professionally at age 4 with the Coon-Sanders Orchestra, singing “You’re Driving Me Crazy” at Chicago’s Blackhawk restaurant. In 1949, he moved to Capitol, where his first record, “Careless Hands,” became his only number-one hit. His versions of “Again” and “Blue Moon” became signature songs. His composition California Suite, prompted by Gordon Jenkins’s “Manhattan Tower,” became Capitol’s first 12-inch LP album. Around this time, he helped pioneer cool jazz.
Oliver Lake
15 August, 1925 – 23 December, 2007
Oliver Lake is an American jazz saxophonist, flutist, composer, poet, and visual artist. He is known mainly for alto saxophone but he also performs on soprano and flute. He has appeared on more than 80 albums as a bandleader, co-leader, and side musician.
Cannonball Adderley
15 September, 1928 – 8 August, 1975
“Understanding is the least important thing when it comes to digging jazz because, like anything else, jazz is a form of entertainment. It is created to be enjoyed, not understood like you read a blueprint.”
Cannonball Adderley was an American jazz alto saxophonist of the hard bop era of the 1950s and 1960s. Adderley is remembered for his 1966 soul jazz single “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy”, a crossover hit on the pop charts (it was also covered by the Buckinghams). He worked with trumpeter Miles Davis, on his own 1958 Somethin’ Else album, and on the seminal Davis records Milestones (1958) and Kind of Blue (1959).
Charlie Byrd
16 September, 1925 – 11 November, 1999
Charlie Byrd was an American jazz guitarist. Byrd was best known for his association with Brazilian music, especially bossa nova. In 1962, he collaborated with Stan Getz on the album Jazz Samba, a recording which brought bossa nova into the mainstream of North American music. Byrd played fingerstyle on a classical guitar.
Jack McDuff
17 September, 1926 – 23 January, 2001
Known professionally as “Brother” Jack McDuff or “Captain” Jack McDuff, was an American jazz organist and organ trio bandleader who was most prominent during the hard bop and soul-jazz era of the 1960s, often performing with an organ trio. He is also credited with giving guitarist George Benson his first break.
Nils Petter Molvaer
18 September, 1960
Nils Petter Molvaer is a Norwegian jazz trumpeter, composer, and record producer. He is considered a pioneer of future jazz, a genre that fuses jazz and electronic music, best showcased on his most commercially successful album, Khmer.
Cuong Vu
19 September, 1969
“I think experimentation is the only way to push any type of situation forward. You can sit there and try and analyze the past and keep harping on what’s been done and refine it more, and more, and more, but there’s not gonna be much movement. … For me, the music doesn’t have to be experimental; the artist doesn’t have to be experimental to be legit. I just want everything to be honest to the artistic vision and maybe less about trying to make a product that sells.”
Cuong Vu is a Vietnamese-American jazz trumpeter who was a member of the Pat Metheny Group. Vu immigrated to Seattle with his family when he was six. At 11 he began to play the trumpet. He received a scholarship from the New England Conservatory of Music.
After graduating Vu moved to New York City in 1994….While a member of the Pat Metheny Group, Vu won two Grammy Awards for Best Contemporary Jazz Album: Speaking of Now and The Way Up.
Steve Coleman
20 September, 1956
“Laugh, love, dream, strive, smile, feel, joy, look, try, fail, read, walk, search, share, help, work, fun, learn, retry, sweat, cry, rest, wait, fear, hope, trust, pride… when we have lived all of these, our photography might stop being a record of what our camera sees and become an expression of what we as photographers feel.”
Steve Coleman is an American saxophonist, composer, and bandleader. Coleman regards the music tradition he is coming from as African Diasporan culture with essential African retentions, especially a certain kind of sensibility. He searched for these roots and their connections of contemporary African-American music. In September 2014, Coleman was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship for “refreshing traditional templates to create distinctive and innovative work in … jazz.
Chico Hamilton
21 September, 1921 – 26 November, 2013
“The type of band that I have now, the type of music that we’re playing you either like it or you dislike it. If you dislike it, you probably don’t know why. By the same token, you can’t even really say why you like it.”
“Personally, I can’t see how anyone can produce any beautiful music out of being angry.”
“But you can’t extend, or go beyond any point musically, without the basic fundamentals.”
Chico Hamilton was an American jazz drummer and bandleader. He came to prominence as sideman for Lester Young, Gerry Mulligan, Count Basie, and Lena Horne. Hamilton became a bandleader, first with a quintet featuring the cello as a lead instrument, an unusual choice for a jazz band in the 1950s, and subsequently leading bands that performed cool jazz, post bop, and jazz fusion.
Marlena Shaw
22 September, 1942
“I never auditioned. The guy writing the charts, Fred Foster (told her) ‘When Basie sees you and hears you, he’ll hire you.’ … (After) the first time Basie is hearing me… Basie came back with pony glasses filled with some kind of wine, one for him and one for me. He put the glass on the stage and told me, ‘Save your voice — you’re going to need it for tonight.’ That was the first night of the gig, having all these wonderful horns (playing behind her). Coming from a trio, I was crying. I had these Mary Quant (false) eyelashes and I stuck ’em on the side of the microphone (because) I was singing and didn’t care what I looked like.”
Marlena Shaw is an American singer. Shaw began her singing career in the 1960s and is still singing today. Her music has often been sampled in hip hop music, and used in television commercials. Shaw began to make singing appearances in jazz clubs whenever she could spare the time. The most notable of these appearances was in 1963 when she worked with jazz trumpeter Howard McGhee. She was supposed to play at the Newport Jazz Festival with McGhee and his band.”
John Coltrane
23 September, 1926 – 17 July, 1967
“My music is the spiritual expression of what I am — my faith, my knowledge, my being…When you begin to see the possibilities of music, you desire to do something really good for people, to help humanity free itself from its hangups… I want to speak to their souls.”
John Coltrane was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Working in the bebop and hard bop idioms early in his career, Coltrane helped pioneer the use of modes and was at the forefront of free jazz. He led at least fifty recording sessions and appeared on many albums by other musicians, including trumpeter Miles Davis and pianist Thelonious Monk. Over the course of his career, Coltrane’s music took on an increasingly spiritual dimension. He remains one of the most influential saxophonists in music history.
Ingrid Laubrock
24 September, 1970
“Some young jazz musicians find their style and move in lock, stock and barrel, making little refinements over the years but basically keeping their place. Ingrid Laubrock, a German saxophonist who started her career in London and has spent the last 15 years playing there, sounds happily unsettled. On tenor and soprano, she’s omnivorous and pointed, slouching and precise, humorous and austere (…) You didn’t walk away thinking, well, that sounded like a certain person, place or time. Ms. Laubrock encouraged its constant sense of renewal.”
Ingrid Laubrock is a German jazz saxophonist, who primarily plays tenor saxophone but also performs and records on soprano, alto, and baritone saxophones. In 1998, she released her first solo album Who Is It? and was nominated for the ‘Rising Star of the Year’ award at the 1999 BT Jazz Awards. The composition ‘Vogelfrei’ for orchestra, soloists and choir from the Album ‘Contemporary Chaos Practices’ was included in The New York Times 25 Best Classical Music Tracks of 2018 by NY Times critic Seth Colter Walls.
Sam Rivers
25 September, 1923 – 26 December, 2011
“Well I’m a third-generation musician. My Grandfather’s a musician and my father and mother were both musicians and so I’m a musician. It was just natural that I should be a musician ’cause I was born into the family.”
Sam Rivers was an American jazz musician and composer. He performed on soprano and tenor saxophones, bass clarinet, flute, harmonica and piano. Active in jazz since the early 1950s, he earned wider attention during the mid-1960s spread of free jazz. With a thorough command of music theory, orchestration and composition, Rivers was an influential and prominent artist in jazz music.
George Gershwin
26 September, 1898 – 11 July, 1937
“I frequently hear music in the very heart of noise.”
“When I’m in my normal mood, music drips from my fingers.”
“True music must repeat the thought and inspirations of the people and the time.”
George Gershwin was an American composer and pianist whose compositions spanned both popular and classical genres. Among his best-known works are the orchestral compositions Rhapsody in Blue (1924) and An American in Paris (1928), …the jazz standard “I Got Rhythm” (1930), and the opera Porgy and Bess (1935) which gave birth to the hit “Summertime”.
Bud Powell
27 September, 1924 – 31 July, 1966
“If I had to choose one single musician for his artistic integrity, for the incomparable originality of his creation and the grandeur of his work, it would be Bud Powell. He was in a class by himself.” – Bill Evans
Earl Rudolph “Bud” Powell was an American jazz pianist and composer. Along with Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, and Dizzy Gillespie, Powell was a leading figure in the development of bebop. His virtuosity led many to call him the Charlie Parker of the piano. Powell was also a composer, and many jazz critics credit his works and his playing as having “greatly extended the range of jazz harmony”.
Paul Grabowsky
27 September, 1958
“To use the piano is an extension of you. Sing through the instrument. Make the instrument sing which, when you think about it, is not a kind of a given because the piano is mechanical. You hit a key and there’s all those things that happen and finally a hammer strikes the string.”
Paul Grabowsky is a pianist, composer, arranger, conductor – and is one Australia’s most distinguished artists. Born in Papua New Guinea, Paul was raised in Melbourne. During the late 70’s he became prominent in the music scene in Melbourne, working in various jazz, theatre and cabaret projects. He lived and worked in Europe and the US from 1980-85, during which time he performed with many jazz luminaries including Art Farmer and Johnny Griffin. He returned to Australia in 1986 and established a reputation as one of Australia’s leading jazz musicians with such bands as his own trio and sextet, the Wizards of Oz and as musical director for singer Vince Jones. .
Kenny Kirkland
28 September, 1955 – 12 November, 1998
“I learned a lot from him—that way of approaching harmony where there are no wrong notes, just the note that you follow with… there are no mistakes in a Kenny Kirkland solo. What you think is wrong momentarily is suddenly put right by a choice, so that philosophy was something I learned at his feet… You can bring that into life, too. We all make mistakes, [but] it’s how we cope with them or how we react next, so that for me is the essence of jazz. You take a risk and you’re rewarded by your subsequent choices.” – Sting
Kenneth David Kirkland was an American pianist and keyboardist and took up piano at the age of six. The enthusiasm and urgency Kirkland applied to his piano lessons at such an early age, confirmed that his life was to be devoted to music, “although it wasn’t until I was 13 that it actually caught on for me,” he remembered. He began by studying classical music, but distracted by the radio, he soon became interested in rhythm and blues. “I tried to learn something “from everyone.”
He studied classical piano performance at the Manhattan School of Music for 18 months and then classical theory and composition before graduating as a teacher. Kirkland moved into one of New York’s celebrated lofts and it turned out to be one that musicians used to turn up to after work to play at all-night jam sessions. At the instigation of three jazz pianists who became his friends – Larry Willis, Herbie Hancock and Kenny Barron – he threw himself into the world of jazz, playing electric keyboards and acoustic piano.
Jean-Luc Ponty
29 September, 1942
“I listen very rarely to my albums, for me it is like looking at pictures of myself, once or twice is enough, music is a live experience and my desire is to keep creating, I am so busy every day that I have very little time to listen to music but when I can it’s mostly classical music.”
Jean-Luc Ponty is a French jazz violinist and composer. While still a member of the orchestra in Paris, Ponty picked up a side job playing clarinet…for a college jazz band that regularly performed at local parties. It proved life-changing. A growing interest in Miles Davis and John Coltrane compelled him to take up tenor saxophone. One night after an orchestra concert, and still wearing his tuxedo, Ponty found himself at a local club with only his violin. Within four years, he was widely accepted as the leading figure in “jazz fiddle”.
Buddy Rich
30 September, 1917 – 2 April, 1987
“But, I don’t think any arranger should ever write a drum part for a drummer because if a drummer can’t create his own interpretation of the chart and he plays everything that’s written, he becomes mechanical; he has no freedom.”
“I consider every drummer that ever played before me an influence, in every way.”
Buddy Rich was an American jazz drummer and bandleader. He is considered one of the most influential drummers of all time. Rich was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. He discovered his affinity for jazz music at a young age and began drumming at the age of 2. He began playing jazz in 1937, working with acts such as Tommy Dorsey, Count Basie, and Harry James… .In 1966, he recorded a big-band style arrangement of songs from West Side Story. He found lasting success in 1967 with the formation of the Buddy Rich Big Band.
Oscar Pettiford
30 September, 1922 – 8 September, 1960
“Bassist, cellist, and composer Oscar Pettiford is in the odd position of being both legendary and forgotten. If you ask any aficionado of jazz string bass playing to name a dozen favorites — living and dead — it’s likely that the names will come easily. But Pettiford’s is often not among them. Yes, he died young, but not before performing and recording every famous musician (with some notable exceptions) in a short career. An incomplete list would include Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker, Bud Powell …” – Whitney Balliett
Oscar Pettiford was an American jazz double bassist, cellist and composer. He was one of the earliest musicians to work in the bebop idiom. In 1942 he joined the Charlie Barnet band and in 1943 gained wider public attention after recording with Coleman Hawkins on his “The Man I Love”. Pettiford also recorded with Earl Hines and Ben Webster around this time. After he moved to New York, he was one of the musicians (together with Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, Kenny Clarke) who in the early 1940s jammed at Minton’s Playhouse, where the music style developed that later was called bebop.