Bobby Enriquez had the nickname of "the Madman," a title he earned through his very hyper piano playing. A virtuoso who was largely self-taught from the age of four, Enriquez was a professional by the time he was 14. In the 1960s, he played in Manila, Hong Kong, and Honolulu, becoming Don Ho's musical director for a time. He arrived on the... [+] Read More

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Candido was the Latin percussionist of the 1950s, the first person that jazz people would call when they wanted a conga or bongo player. Early on, he had recorded in his native Cuba with Machito, and he worked regularly with the house band at the Tropicana Club in Havana for six years. Dizzy Gillespie heard him and encouraged him to move... [+] Read More

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Tasteful, low-key, and ingratiatingly melodic, Charlie Byrd had two notable accomplishments to his credit -- applying acoustic classical guitar techniques to jazz and popular music and helping to introduce Brazilian music to mass North American audiences. Born into a musical family, Byrd experienced his first brush with greatness while a... [+] Read More

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Clare Fischer has had a varied career as keyboardist, composer, arranger, and bandleader. The composer of two standards, "Pensativa" and "Morning," Fischer has long had an interest in Latin rhythms. After graduating from Michigan State University, he moved to Los Angeles in 1957, working as accompanist and arranger for the Hi-Lo's. He wrote for... [+] Read More

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Eddie Palmieri is one of the foremost Latin jazz pianists of the last half of the 20th century, blessed with a technique that fuses such ubiquitous jazz influences as the styles of Herbie Hancock, Thelonious Monk, and McCoy Tyner into a Latin context. No purist, he has also shown a welcome willingness to experiment with fusions of Latin and... [+] Read More

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Laurindo Almeida helped introduce the Brazilian guitar to jazz, and on his 1954 recordings with Bud Shank was essentially playing bossa nova seven years before Stan Getz. After spending time as a staff guitarist in Brazil, Almeida moved to Los Angeles and was a member of Stan Kenton's orchestra (1947-1948). A studio guitarist in L.A. from 1950... [+] Read More

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A fine middle-register trumpeter whose style seemed to practically define "cool jazz," Shorty Rogers was actually more significant for his arranging, both in jazz and in the movie studios. After gaining early experience with Will Bradley and Red Norvo and serving in the military, Rogers rose to fame as a member of Woody Herman's First and Second... [+] Read More

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One of the most hyper of all jazzmen (even his ballads are taken mostly double time), Terry Gibbs is a consistently exciting and competitive vibraphonist. As a xylophonist, he won an amateur contest when he was 12. After spending three years in the military during World War II, Gibbs played on 52nd Street, gigged with Tommy Dorsey (1946 and... [+] Read More

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Although preceded by Larry Adler (who has actually spent much of his career playing popular and classical music), Toots Thielemans virtually introduced the chromatic harmonica as a jazz instrument. In fact, ever since the mid-'50s, he has had no close competitors. Toots simply plays the harmonica with the dexterity of a saxophonist and has even... [+] Read More

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Willie Bobo was one of the great Latin percussionists of his time, a relentless swinger on the congas and timbales, a flamboyant showman onstage, and an engaging if modestly endowed singer. He also made serious inroads into the pop, R&B and straight jazz worlds, and he always said that his favorite song was Antonio Carlos Jobim's "Dindi."... [+] Read More

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