Oscar Emmanuel Peterson CC CQ OOnt was a Canadian jazz pianist and composer. Considered a virtuoso and one of the greatest jazz pianists of all time, Peterson released more than 200 recordings, won eight Grammy Awards, as well as a lifetime achievement award from the Recording Academy, and received numerous other awards and honours. He played thousands of concerts worldwide in a career lasting more than 60 years. He was called the "Maharaja of the keyboard" by Duke Ellington, simply "O.P." by his friends, and informally in the jazz community, "the King of inside swing".

Jean Reinhardt known by his Romani nickname Django (French: [dʒãŋɡo ʁɛjnaʁt] or [dʒɑ̃ɡo ʁenɑʁt]), was a Belgian Manouche or Sinti jazz guitarist and composer. He was one of the first major jazz talents to emerge in Europe and has been hailed as one of its most significant exponents.
With violinist Stéphane Grappelli, Reinhardt formed the Paris-based Quintette du Hot Club de France in 1934. The group was among the first to play jazz that featured the guitar as a lead instrument. Reinhardt recorded in France with many visiting American musicians, including Coleman Hawkins and Benny Carter, and briefly toured the United States with Duke Ellington's orchestra in 1946. He died suddenly of a stroke in 1953 at the age of 43.

Coleman Randolph Hawkins - was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. One of the first prominent jazz musicians on his instrument, as Joachim E. Berendt explained: "there were some tenor players before him, but the instrument was not an acknowledged jazz horn". Hawkins biographer John Chilton described the prevalent styles of tenor saxophone solos prior to Hawkins as "mooing" and "rubbery belches". Hawkins denied being first and noted his contemporaries Happy Caldwell, Stump Evans, and Prince Robinson, although he was the first to tailor his method of improvisation to the saxophone rather than imitate the techniques of the clarinet.

Carlos Wesley "Don" Byas - was an American jazz tenor saxophonist, associated with Swing and bebop. He played with Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Art Blakey, and Dizzy Gillespie, among others, and also led his own band. He lived in Europe for the last 26 years of his life.

Lester Willis Young - nicknamed "Pres" or "Prez", was an American jazz tenor saxophonist and occasional clarinetist.
Coming to prominence while a member of Count Basie's orchestra, Young was one of the most influential players on his instrument. In contrast to many of his hard-driving peers, Young played with a relaxed, cool tone and used sophisticated harmonies, using what one critic called "a free-floating style, wheeling and diving like a gull, banking with low, funky riffs that pleased dancers and listeners alike".
Known for his hip, introverted style, he invented or popularized much of the hipster jargon which came to be associated with the music.

Benjamin Francis „Ben“ Webster - war ein US-amerikanischer Tenorsaxophonist des Jazz, der gelegentlich auch Piano und Klarinette spielte. Er wird ähnlich wie Coleman Hawkins und Lester Young als einer der großen Tenorsaxophonisten der Swing-Epoche angesehen. Seine Spielweise variierte vom manchmal gehauchten Ton in Balladen bis zum „kehlig-krächzenden Vibrato“ bei schnelleren Tempi. Bekannt wurde er vor allem durch seine Soli im Duke Ellington Orchestra von 1940 bis 1943 und später als ein meisterhafter Interpret von Balladen. Seine Spitznamen waren Frog und Brute.

Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington - was an American composer, pianist, and leader of a jazz orchestra from 1923 through the rest of his life.
Some of the jazz musicians who were members of Ellington's orchestra, such as saxophonist Johnny Hodges, are considered among the best players in the idiom. Ellington melded them into the best-regarded orchestral unit in the history of jazz. Some members stayed with the orchestra for several decades. A master at writing miniatures for the three-minute 78 rpm recording format, Ellington wrote or collaborated on more than one thousand compositions; his extensive body of work is the largest recorded personal jazz legacy, and many of his pieces have become standards. He also recorded songs written by his bandsmen, such as Juan Tizol's "Caravan", which brought a Spanish tinge to big band jazz. At the end of the 1930s, Ellington began a nearly thirty-year collaboration with composer-arranger-pianist Billy Strayhorn, whom he called his writing and arranging companion.[2] With Strayhorn, he composed multiple extended compositions, or suites, as well as many short pieces.

Love Me Tender) — американская песня 1956 года, написанная на основе сентиментальной баллады времён Гражданской войны «Аура Ли» (англ. Aura Lee или Aura Lea). Баллада была написана поэтом-песенником В. В. Фосдиком и композитором Джордж Р. Поултоном и издана в 1861 году. Версия записанная Элвисом Пресли и включённая в одноимённый фильм, входит в список «500 величайших песен по версии журнала „Роллинг стоун“

"Easy Listening Blues" is a bit of an oxymoron, especially in the hands of B.B. King, who might be smooth and urbane in some respects, but who's rarely recorded music that could be categorized as easy listening. That's the title that Crown used, however, for this all-instrumental 1962 collection.

Also in 1955, B.B. King recorded "Every Day I Have the Blues". King attributed the song's appeal to arranger Maxwell Davis: "He [Davis] wrote a chart of 'Every Day I Have the Blues' with a crisp and relaxed sound I'd never heard before. I liked it so well, I made it my theme ... ... The induction statement includes: "Everyday I Have the Blues" is one of the most ubiquitous of all blues songs, a required number in the repertoires of the countless bar and lounge bands of many genres. Its late entry into the Blues Hall of Fame reflects the fact that no strong consensus emerged as to which of the hundreds of recorded versions was most deserving. But it often is associated with B.B. King, and so the first of his own many versions gets the honors.

Universal's double-disc Icon doubles the size of their single-disc set of the same name and covers the same ground only in greater detail, adding a few more live tracks and studio staples to draw a greater picture of his ABC and MCA recordings of the late ‘60s, ‘70s, and beyond. It’s a bit shorter than 2006’s Gold and not quite as rounded, yet it’s still a very good sampler of B.B. King at his latter-day best.

В 2000 году Би Би Кинг вместе с Эриком Клэптоном записали совместный альбом «Riding With the King». С 2004 года Кинг, ссылаясь на свой возраст и состояние здоровья, решил уменьшить интенсивность гастролей. Летом 2005 года он предпринял так называемый «Прощальный Тур» (Final Farewell Tour) по Европе. Однако уже в 2006 году он вновь гастролировал по США и Европе.

His Best — The Electric B.B. King is a 1968 album by B.B. King. Two songs from the album, "The B.B. Jones" and "You Put It on Me", are from the motion picture soundtrack for the film For Love of Ivy.