A French composer of dramatic, orchestral, vocal, chamber, and instrumental music. Milhaud was a member of "Les Six," whose works were influenced by Erik Satie and Jean Cocteau, and was one of the first composers to use bitonality (playing in two keys at once). In the '20s and '30s he incorporated jazz and Latin rhythms into his music,... [+] Read More

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George Antheil studied compositon and theory privately with Sternberg and Bloch. His first symphony was one of the first to include jazz elements. His modern mechanical style developed in the 1920s was in reaction to the sentimental styles of Strauss and the impressionists. His Airplane Sonata, a piece that employed jazz, noise and ostinato is... [+] Read More

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One of the great composers of the American popular song, Hoagy Carmichael differed from most of the others (with the obvious exception of Duke Ellington) in that he was also a fine performer. Such Carmichael songs as "Stardust," "Georgia on My Mind," "Up the Lazy River," "Rockin' Chair," "The Nearness of You," "Heart and Soul," "In the Cool,... [+] Read More

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Irving Berlin (1888-1989) was the most successful songwriter of the 20th century. Though, like his contemporaries, he spent the better part of his career writing songs (usually both words and music) to be used in Broadway musicals, he is better remembered for the songs themselves than for the shows (and sometimes films) in which they were... [+] Read More

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J. Russel Robinson (with only one "L") was a pianist and songwriter from Indianapolis. Robinson began his career in vaudeville around 1908 as part of an act called the Robinson Brothers; his first published composition was "Dynamite Rag," which appeared in 1910. Robinson's first hit was in 1912 with "That Eccentric Rag," and in 1916 he earned a... [+] Read More

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Considered one of the top living composers during the 1990's, Johnny Mandel is one of the few writers around who is capable of writing standards that can be recorded and performed by a wide variety of jazz musicians and singer. Mandel starting writing arrangements when he was 13 but he made his living during the 1940's as a trombonist and... [+] Read More

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Johnny Mercer's main claim to immortality is his incredible songwriting output, penning the lyrics or music and lyrics to roughly 1,500 songs. Marked by a sophisticated, occasionally whimsical mastery of language and rhymes, many of Mercer's songs have become standards regularly covered by jazz artists. Yet Mercer was also a successful singer,... [+] Read More

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During the '40s and '50s, lyricist/librettist Oscar Hammerstein II and composer Richard Rodgers were the most successful composing team on Broadway, writing several long-running shows that were eventually made into movie musicals. Hammerstein was also the second most prolific lyricist of the 20th century, second only to Irving Berlin. Born into... [+] Read More

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Because press agents dubbed him "The King of Jazz" in the 1920s, Paul Whiteman has always been considered a controversial figure in jazz history. Actually, his orchestra was the most popular during the era and at times (despite its size) it did play very good jazz; perhaps "King of the Jazz Age" would have been a better title.
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