Nicknames are common among jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 musicians. Nicknames and sobriquets can also sometimes become stage names, and there are several cases of performers being known almost exclusively by their nicknames as opposed to their given names. Some of the most notable are listed here.

Although the term Jazz royalty

Jazz royalty

Jazz royalty is a term that reflects the many great jazz musicians who have been termed as musically gifted, honorific, "aristocratic" or "royal" and had titles added to their names or nicknames due to their strong musical abilities....

 exists for "Kings" and similar royal or aristocratic nicknames, there is a wide range of other terms, many of them obscure. Where the origin of the nickname is known, this is explained at each artist's corresponding article.

B

• Babs: Babs Gonzales
  Babs Gonzales
  Babs Gonzales , born Lee Brown, was an American jazz vocalist of the bebop era most notable for penning the song "Oop-Pop-A-Da", which was originally recorded and performed by his own band and was later made famous by Dizzy Gillespie . Babs was also once the chauffeur for Errol Flynn...
  
  
• Baby: Rubén López Furst
• Baby: Warren Dodds
• Baby Sweets: Walter Perkins
• Bags: Milt Jackson
  Milt Jackson
  Milton "Bags" Jackson was an American jazz vibraphonist, usually thought of as a bebop player, although he performed in several jazz idioms...
  
  
• Barney: Barney Bigard
  Barney Bigard
  Albany Leon Bigard, aka Barney Bigard, was an American jazz clarinetist and tenor saxophonist, though primarily known for the clarinet....
  
  
• Barney: Barney Wilen
  Barney Wilen
  Barney Wilen was a French tenor and soprano saxophonist and jazz composer.Wilen was born in Nice; his father was an American dentist turned inventor, and his mother was French. He began performing in clubs in Nice after being encouraged by Blaise Cendrars who was a friend of his mother...
  
  
• Baron: Charles Mingus
  Charles Mingus
  Charles Mingus Jr. was an American jazz musician, composer, bandleader, and civil rights activist.Mingus's compositions retained the hot and soulful feel of hard bop and drew heavily from black gospel music while sometimes drawing on elements of Third stream, free jazz, and classical music...
  
  
• Bean: Coleman Hawkins
  Coleman Hawkins
  Coleman Randolph Hawkins was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. Hawkins was 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"...
  
   aka "Hawk"
• Bear (The): Bob Hunt
• Beaver: Beaver Harris
  Beaver Harris
  William Godvin "Beaver" Harris was an American jazz drummer, who worked extensively with Archie Shepp.-Biography:...
  
  
• Betty Bebop: Betty Carter
  Betty Carter
  Betty Carter was an American jazz singer renowned for her improvisational technique and idiosyncratic vocal style...
  
  
• Big Chief: Big Chief Russell Moore
  Big Chief Russell Moore
  Big Chief Russell Moore was an American jazz trombonist.Moore was a Pima American Indian, and lived in Blue Island, Illinois from age twelve, where he studied trumpet, piano, drums, french horn, and trombone. He moved to Los Angeles in the early 1930s, where he worked freelance with Lionel Hampton...
  
  
• Big-Eye: Louis Nelson Delisle
• Big Jim: Jim Robinson
  Jim Robinson (trombonist)
  Jim Robinson, also known as Big Jim Robinson was an American jazz musician, based in New Orleans, renowned for his deep, wide-toned, robust "tailgate" style of trombone playing, which enabled him to achieve a wide swoop between two notes as he moved the slide—while continually buzzing air...
  
  
• Big Mama: Big Mama Thornton
  Big Mama Thornton
  Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton was an American rhythm and blues singer and songwriter. She was the first to record the hit song "Hound Dog" in 1952. The song was #1 on the Billboard R&B charts for seven weeks in 1953. The B-side was "They Call Me Big Mama," and the single sold almost two million...
  
  
• Big Nick: "Big Nick" Nicholas
• Big Sid: Sid Catlett
  Sid Catlett
  Sidney Catlett , was a swinging jazz drummer often referred to as "Big Sid Catlett" because of his large frame.-Biography:...
  
  
• Billie: Billie Holiday
  Billie Holiday
  Billie Holiday was an American jazz singer and songwriter. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and musical partner Lester Young, Holiday had a seminal influence on jazz and pop singing...
  
   aka "Lady Day"
• Bing: Bing Crosby
  Bing Crosby
  Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby was an American singer and actor. Crosby's trademark bass-baritone voice made him one of the best-selling recording artists of the 20th century, with over half a billion records in circulation....
  
  
• Bird: Charlie Parker
  Charlie Parker
  Charles Parker, Jr. , famously called Bird or Yardbird, was an American jazz saxophonist and composer....
  
   aka Yardbird
• Bix: Leon Bismarck Beiderbecke, though it appears his given names were Leon Bix.
• Blood: James "Blood" Ulmer
• Blue: Blue Mitchell
  Blue Mitchell
  Richard Allen Mitchell was an American jazz, rhythm and blues, soul, rock, and funk trumpeter, known for many albums recorded as leader and sideman for Riverside, Blue Note and then Mainstream Records.-Biography:...
  
  
• Blue Lou: Lou Marini
  Lou Marini
  Lou Marini, Jr. is an American saxophonist, arranger and composer. He is noted for his work in the jazz, rock, blues and soul music traditions.-Early life and range of musical experience:...
  
  
• Bobo: Bobo Stenson
  Bobo Stenson
  Bo Gustav Stenson is a Swedish jazz pianist. Stenson was noted as early as 1963, when he stepped up from the local scene in Västerås to start playing frequently in Stockholm, where he accompanied a long line of visiting American players including Sonny Rollins, Stan Getz and Gary Burton...
  
  
• Boogaloo Joe: Ivan "Boogaloo Joe" Jones
• Boots: Boots Mussulli
  Boots Mussulli
  Boots Mussulli was an American jazz saxophonist, based chiefly out of Boston....
  
  
• Bootsie: Bootsie Barnes
  Bootsie Barnes
  Robert "Bootsie" Barnes is an American jazz tenor saxophonist from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.In the 1950s Barnes played with various musicians in Philadelphia, including Lee Morgan, Philly Joe Jones and Bill Cosby ....
  
  
• Booty: Booty Wood
  Booty Wood
  Mitchell W. Wood, better known as Booty Wood was an American jazz trombonist.Wood played professionally on trombone from the late 1930s. He worked with Tiny Bradshaw and Lionel Hampton in the 1940s before joining the Navy during World War II. While there he played in a band with Clark Terry,...
  
  
• Bones: Tom Malone
  Tom Malone (musician)
  Tom "Bones" Malone is an American jazz musician. As his nickname implies, he specializes on the trombone, but also plays trumpet, tuba, tenor sax, baritone sax, flutes, piccolo, and other instruments....
  
  
• Bops Junior: Oliver Jackson
  Oliver Jackson
  Oliver Jackson , aka Bops Junior, was an American jazz drummer.Jackson played in Detroit in the 1940s with Thad Jones, Tommy Flanagan, and Wardell Gray, and had a variety show with Eddie Locke called Bop & Locke...
  
  
• The Boss of the Blues: Ruben Aelbrecht
• Brick: Jacob Fleagle
• Brother: Brother Jack McDuff
• Brother Ray: Ray Charles
  Ray Charles
  Ray Charles Robinson , known by his shortened stage name Ray Charles, was an American musician. He was a pioneer in the genre of soul music during the 1950s by fusing rhythm and blues, gospel, and blues styles into his early recordings with Atlantic Records...
  
  
• Brownie: Clifford Brown
  Clifford Brown
  Clifford Brown , aka "Brownie," was an influential and highly rated American jazz trumpeter. He died aged 25, leaving behind only four years' worth of recordings...
  
  
• Brute (The), Frog: Ben Webster
  Ben Webster
  Benjamin Francis Webster , a.k.a. "The Brute" or "Frog," was an influential American jazz tenor saxophonist. Webster, born in Kansas City, Missouri, was considered one of the three most important "swing tenors" along with Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young...
  
  
• Bu: Art Blakey
  Art Blakey
  Arthur "Art" Blakey , known later as Abdullah Ibn Buhaina, was an American Grammy Award-winning jazz drummer and bandleader. He was a member of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community....
  
   took the name "Abdullah Ibn Buhaina" after a reported trip to Africa. Friends shortened it to "Bu".
• Bubba: Bubba Brooks
  Bubba Brooks
  David Kenneth Brooks, Jr., better known as Bubba Brooks or Bubber Brooks was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. He was the brother of Tina Brooks....
  
  
• Bubber: James "Bubber" Miley
• Buck: Wilbur Clayton
• Bucky: Bucky Calabrese
• Bucky: Bucky Pizzarelli
  Bucky Pizzarelli
  John Paul "Bucky" Pizzarelli is an American Jazz guitarist and banjoist, and the father of jazz guitarist John Pizzarelli and upright bassist Martin Pizzarelli. Pizzarelli has also worked for NBC as a staffman for Dick Cavett and also ABC with Bobby Rosengarden in...
  
  
• Bud: Bud Brisbois
  Bud Brisbois
  Austin Dean "Bud" Brisbois was a jazz and studio trumpet player. He played all styles, including big band lead, jazz soloing, pop, rock, country, Motown, and classical, but it was his high-note playing that set him apart...
  
  
• Bud: Bud Powell
  Bud Powell
  Earl Rudolph "Bud" Powell was an American Jazz pianist. Powell has been described as one of "the two most significant pianists of the style of modern jazz that came to be known as bop", the other being his friend and contemporary Thelonious Monk...
  
  
• Bud: Bud Shank
  Bud Shank
  Clifford Everett "Bud" Shank, Jr. was an American alto saxophonist and flautist. He rose to prominence in the early 1950s playing lead alto and flute in Stan Kenton's Innovations in Modern Music Orchestra and throughout the decade worked in various small jazz combos. He spent the 1960s as a first...
  
  
• Budd: Budd Johnson
  Budd Johnson
  Not to be confused with Buddy Johnson.Budd Johnson was an American jazz saxophonist and clarinetist who worked extensively with Ben Webster, Benny Goodman, Big Joe Turner, Coleman Hawkins, Dizzy Gillespie, Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday and Earl Hines, among others.-Biography:He initially played...
  
  
• Buddie: Buddie Petit
  Buddie Petit
  Buddie Petit or Buddy Petit was a highly regarded early jazz cornetist.His early life is somewhat mysterious, with dates of his birth given in various sources ranging from 1887 to 1897; if the later date is correct he was evidently a prodigy, regarded as one of the best in New Orleans, Louisiana...
  
  
• Buddy: Bernard Anderson
  Bernard Anderson
  Bernard Hartwell "Step-Buddy" Anderson was an American jazz trumpeter from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Having studied music at school under Zelia Breaux, Anderson was a professional musician by 1934, playing with the Ted Armstrong band in Clinton, Oklahoma...
  
   aka "Step-Buddy"
• Buddy: Buddy Clark
  Buddy Clark
  Buddy Clark was a popular American singer in the 1930s and 1940s.-Life and career:Clark was born Samuel Goldberg to Jewish parents in Dorchester, Massachusetts. He made his Big Band singing debut in 1934 with Benny Goodman on the Let's Dance radio program. In 1936 he started to perform on the...
  
  
• Buddy: Buddy Featherstonhaugh
  Buddy Featherstonhaugh
  Rupert Edward Lee "Buddy" Featherstonhaugh was an English jazz saxophonist.Featherstonhaugh studied in Sussex, and had his first professional gig with Pat O'Malley in 1927. He was with Spike Hughes from 1930 to 1932, and toured England in Billy Mason's band behind Louis Armstrong that same year...
  
  
• Buddy: Buddy Morrow
  Buddy Morrow
  Buddy Morrow was an American trombonist and bandleader. He is known for his mastery of the upper range which is evident on records such as "The Golden Trombone," as well as his ballad playing.- His life :Morrow was once a member of The Tonight Show Band...
  
  
• Buddy: Buddy Rich
  Buddy Rich
  Bernard "Buddy" Rich was an American jazz drummer and bandleader. Rich was billed as "the world's greatest drummer" and was known for his virtuosic technique, power, groove, and speed.-Early life:...
  
  
• Buddy: Buddy Tate
• Bumps: Robert Blackwell
  Robert Blackwell
  Robert "Bumps" Blackwell was an American songwriter, arranger, and record producer, best known for his work overseeing the early hits of Little Richard, as well as grooming Ray Charles, Quincy Jones, Lloyd Price, Sam Cooke, Herb Alpert, Larry Williams, and Sly and the Family Stone at the start of...
  
  
• Bunk: Bunk Johnson
  Bunk Johnson
  Willie Gary "Bunk" Johnson was a prominent early New Orleans jazz trumpet player in the early years of the 20th century who enjoyed a revived career in the 1940s....
  
  
• Bunky: Bunky Green
  Bunky Green
  Bunky Green is an American jazz alto saxophonist and educator.-Biography:Vernice "Bunky" Green was raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he played the alto saxophone, mainly at a local club called "The Brass Rail."...
  
  
• Bunny: Rowland Berigan
• Buster: Buster Bailey
  Buster Bailey
  William C. "Buster" Bailey was a jazz musician specializing in the clarinet, but also well versed on saxophone...
  
  
• Buster: Buster Cooper
  Buster Cooper
  George "Buster" Cooper is an American jazz trombonist.Cooper was born in St. Petersburg, Florida. He played in a territory band with Nat Towles in Texas in the late 1940s, and gigged with Lionel Hampton in 1953. He played in the house band at the Apollo Theater in New York City in the mid-1950s,...
  
  
• Buster: Buster Smith
  Buster Smith
  Henry "Buster" Smith , also known as Professor Smith, was an American jazz alto saxophonist and mentor to Charlie Parker. Smith was instrumental in instituting the Texas Sax Sound with Count Basie and Lester Young in the 1930s...
  
   aka Professor
• Buster: Buster Williams
  Buster Williams
  Charles Anthony Williams is an American jazz bassist.-Biography:Williams has gained prestige among jazz musicians as a solid supportive player. Since the early 1960s, he has made subtle swing, a precise rhythm and superb technique the landmark of his playing...
  
  
• Buster: Buster Wilson
  Buster Wilson
  Albert Wesley "Buster" Wilson was an American jazz pianist.Wilson was born in Atlanta but grew up in Los Angeles. He was the replacement for Lil Hardin in King Oliver's band in 1921 during its engagement at the Wayside Park. In 1922 he played with Dink Johnson's Five Hounds of Jazz, then with the...
  
  
• Butter: Quentin Jackson
  Quentin Jackson
  Quentin "Butter" Jackson was an American jazz trombonist. In the early stage of his career he worked with Cab Calloway and was in the Duke Ellington Orchestra...
  
  
• Butch: Butch Ballard
  Butch Ballard
  George Edward "Butch" Ballard was an American jazz drummer who during his long career has played with musicians such as Louis Armstrong, Count Basie and Duke Ellington.-Biography:...
  
  
• Buzzy: Buzzy Drootin
  Buzzy Drootin
  Benjamin "Buzzy" Drootin was a legendary jazz drummer. He played with some of the greatest leading jazz musicians for over sixty years....
  
  

C

• Cab: Cab Kaye
  Cab Kaye
  Nii-lante Augustus Kwamlah Quaye, better known as Cab Kaye was an English-Ghanaian-Dutch jazz musician, bandleader, entertainer, drummer, guitarist, pianist, songwriter and singer. His singing was influenced by Billie Holiday and he often accompanied himself on piano with a graceful, rhythmic style...
  
  
• Cake: Al "Cake" Wichard
  Al "Cake" Wichard
  Al "Cake" Wichard, born Albert Wichard, was an American blues and jazz drummer, especially active as a recording artist in the late 1940s. Little is known about Wichard except that he died in the early 1950s.-Biography:...
  
   - drummer
• Candy: Otis "Candy" Finch
• Candy: Floyd "Candy" Johnson
• Cannonball: Julian Adderley
• Captain: Captain John Handy
  Captain John Handy
  Captain John Handy , was an American jazz alto saxophonist. Handy's style was rooted in New Orleans Jazz but also incorporated elements of R&B....
  
  
• Casallita: Eduardo Casalla
• Cat: William Alonzo Anderson
• Cat (The): Jimmy Smith
  Jimmy Smith (musician)
  Jimmy Smith was a jazz musician whose performances on the Hammond B-3 electric organ helped to popularize this instrument...
  
  
• Chairman of the Board: Frank Sinatra
  Frank Sinatra
  Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
  
   aka Ol' Blue Eyes and The Voice
• Chick: Chick Corea
  Chick Corea
  Armando Anthony "Chick" Corea is an American jazz pianist, keyboardist, and composer.Many of his compositions are considered jazz standards. As a member of Miles Davis' band in the 1960s, he participated in the birth of the electric jazz fusion movement. In the 1970s he formed Return to Forever...
  
  
• Chick: Chick Webb
  Chick Webb
  William Henry Webb, usually known as Chick Webb was an American jazz and swing music drummer as well as a band leader.-Biography:...
  
  
• Chink: Chink Martin
  Chink Martin
  Chink Abraham, better known as Chink Martin was an American jazz tubist.Martin played guitar in his youth before settling on tuba. He played with Papa Jack Laine's Reliance Brass Band around 1910, and worked in various other brass bands in the city in the 1910s...
  
  
• Chu: Leon "Chu" Berry Charlie Parker named his first son "Leon" after Chu
• Chubby: Chubby Jackson
  Chubby Jackson
  Greig Stewart 'Chubby' Jackson was an American jazz double-bassist and band leader.Born in New York City, Jackson began at the age of seventeen as a clarinetist, but quickly changed to bass....
  
  
• Crap: Chummy MacGregor
  Chummy MacGregor
  John Chalmers MacGregor , better known as Chummy MacGregor, a pianist and composer, was Glenn Miller’s pianist from 1936-1942. He composed the songs "Moon Dreams", "It Must Be Jelly ", and "Slumber Song"....
  
  
• Cie: Cie Frazier
  Cie Frazier
  Josiah "Cie" Frazier was an American jazz drummer.Frazier studied drums under several New Orleans jazz musicians, including Louis Cottrell, Sr., Red Happy Bolton, and Face-O Woods. He joined the Golden Rule Band with cousin Lawrence Marrero in 1921, and played in Marrero's Young Tuxedo Orchestra...
  
  
• Cleanhead: Eddie Vinson
  Eddie Vinson
  Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson was an American jump blues, jazz, bebop and R&B alto saxophonist and blues shouter. He was nicknamed Cleanhead after an incident in which his hair was accidentally destroyed by lye contained in a hair straightening product.-Biography:Vinson was born in Houston, Texas...
  
  
• Conte: Conte Candoli
  Conte Candoli
  Secondo "Conte" Candoli was an American jazz trumpeter based on the West Coast. He played in the big bands of Woody Herman, Stan Kenton, Benny Goodman, and Dizzy Gillespie, and in Doc Severinsen's NBC Orchestra on The Tonight Show. He played with Gerry Mulligan, and on Frank Sinatra's TV specials...
  
  
• Cootie: Charles Williams
  Cootie Williams
  Charles Melvin "Cootie" Williams was an American jazz, jump blues, and rhythm and blues trumpeter.-Biography:...
  
  
• Corky: Corky
  Corky
  Corky is a female captive orca from the A5 Pod in British Columbia, Canada. She currently lives at SeaWorld San Diego in California. Corky received her name after the park's original Corky died in December 1970. Of the other animals captured on that day, only Corky still survives...
  
  
• Count: Count Basie
  Count Basie
  William "Count" Basie was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. Basie led his jazz orchestra almost continuously for nearly 50 years...
  
  
• Count (The): Steve Marcus
  Steve Marcus
  Steve Marcus was an American jazz saxophonist....
  
  
• Cozy: Cozy Cole
  Cozy Cole
  Cozy Cole was an American jazz drummer who scored a #1 Cashbox magazine hit with the record "Topsy Part 2". "Topsy" peaked at number three on Billboard Hot 100, and at number one on the R&B chart. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. The track peaked at #29 in the UK...
  
  
• Cutty: Cutty Cutshall
  Cutty Cutshall
  Robert Dewees "Cutty" Cutshall was an American jazz trombonist.Cutshall played in Pittsburgh early in his career, making his first major tour in 1934 with Charley Dornberger. He joined Jan Savitt's orchestra in 1938, then played with Benny Goodman in the early 1940s...
  
  

D

• Deacon: Arnold "Deacon" Loyacano
• Dee: Dee Barton
  Dee Barton
  Dee Barton was an American film score composer noted for his horror-esque style of composing in action thriller films...
  
  
• Dee Dee: Dee Dee Bridgewater
  Dee Dee Bridgewater
  Dee Dee Bridgewater is an American Jazz singer. She is a three-time Grammy Award winning singer-songwriter, as well as a Tony Award - winning stage actress and host of National Public Radio's syndicated radio show JazzSet with Dee Dee Bridgewater...
  
  
• Deedles: Diane Schuur
  Diane Schuur
  Diane Schuur is an American jazz singer and pianist. Nicknamed "Deedles", she has won two Grammy Awards, headlined many of the world's most prestigious music venues, including Carnegie Hall and The White House and has toured the world performing with such greats as Quincy Jones, Stan Getz, B. B...
  
  
• Dewey: Dewey Redman
  Dewey Redman
  Dewey Redman was an American jazz saxophonist, known for performing free jazz as a bandleader, and with Ornette Coleman and Keith Jarrett....
  
  
• Dink: Dink Johnson
  Dink Johnson
  Ollie "Dink" Johnson was a dixieland jazz pianist, clarinetist, and drummer.-Background:Dink Johnson was born in Biloxi, Mississippi, younger brother of the bass player/bandleader William Manuel Johnson. He worked around Mississippi and New Orleans, Louisiana before moving to the western United...
  
  
• Dippermouth: Louis Armstrong
  Louis Armstrong
  Louis Armstrong , nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana....
  
   aka Satchmo, Pops, Satchel Mouth, Dipper Mouth
• Divine One (The), Sassy: Sarah Vaughan
  Sarah Vaughan
  Sarah Lois Vaughan was an American jazz singer, described by Scott Yanow as having "one of the most wondrous voices of the 20th century."...
  
  
• Dizzy, or Diz: John Birks Gillespie
• Dizzy: Dizzy Reece
  Dizzy Reece
  Alphonso Son "Dizzy" Reece is a hard bop jazz trumpeter with a distinctive sound and compositional style.Reece was born 5 January 1931 in Kingston, Jamaica, the son of a silent film pianist. He attended the Alpha Boys School , switching from baritone to trumpet at 14...
  
  
• Django: Jean Baptiste Reinhardt
• Doc: Doc Cheatham
• Doc: Doc Cook
  Doc Cook
  Charles L. Cooke was an American jazz bandleader and arranger, who performed and recorded under the stage name Doc Cook...
  
  
• Doc: Doc Goldberg
  Doc Goldberg
  Doc Goldberg was a jazz bassist. He played in the Glenn Miller Orchestra and the Will Bradley Trio, alongside Freddie Slack on piano and Ray McKinley on drums. Before that, he played in George Hall's orchestra. He also played bass for George Paxton and His Orchestra.Bassist and photographer Milt...
  
   - bassist
• Doc: Doc Souchon
  Doc Souchon
  Edmond "Doc" Souchon was an American jazz guitarist and writer on music. He was a pivotal figure in the historical preservation of New Orleans jazz in the middle of the twentieth century....
  
  
• Doc: Doc West
  Doc West
  Harold "Doc" West was an American jazz drummer.West learned to play piano and cello as a child before switching to drums. In the 1930s he played in Chicago with Tiny Parham, Erskine Tate, and Roy Eldridge . Late in the 1930s he filled in for Chick Webb when Webb was unable to lead his own orchestra...
  
  
• Doctor Miller: Glenn Miller
  Glenn Miller
  Alton Glenn Miller was an American jazz musician , arranger, composer, and bandleader in the swing era. He was one of the best-selling recording artists from 1939 to 1943, leading one of the best known "Big Bands"...
  
  
• Dodo: Michael Marmarosa
• Dolo: Dolo Coker
  Dolo Coker
  Charles Mitchell “Dolo” Coker Charles Mitchell “Dolo” Coker Charles Mitchell “Dolo” Coker (November 16, 1927 – April 13, 1983 was a jazz pianist and composer who recorded four albums for Xanadu Records and extensively as a sideman, for artists like Sonny Stitt, Gene Ammons, Lou Donaldson, Art...
  
  
• Duck: Donald Bailey
  Donald Bailey (musician)
  Donald "Duck" Bailey is an American jazz drummer.He is probably best known as the drummer in the trio of jazz organist Jimmy Smith from 1956 to 1964 and also for his work with The Three Sounds on Blue Note Records. Bailey also worked as a sideman for some of the most famous musicians in jazz...
  
  
• Dud: Dud Bascomb
  Dud Bascomb
  Wilbur Odell "Dud" Bascomb was an American jazz trumpeter best known for his tenure with Erskine Hawkins. He is a 1979 inductee of the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame....
  
  
• Duke: Duke Ellington
  Duke Ellington
  Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...
  
  
• Duke: Duke Groner
  Duke Groner
  Edward "Duke" Groner was an American jazz bassist and vocalist.Groner was born in Ardmore, Oklahoma to a musical family, and began on violin as a child but quickly gave it up in favor of piano. He attended Wiley College, where he sang in college music organizations, then joined the band of Nat...
  
  
• Duke: Duke Jordan
  Duke Jordan
  Irving Sidney "Duke" Jordan was an American jazz pianist.-Biography:An imaginative and gifted pianist, Jordan was a regular member of Charlie Parker's so-called "classic quintet" , featuring Miles Davis...
  
  
• Duke: George Duke

F

• Fat Girl: Fats Navarro
  Fats Navarro
  Theodore "Fats" Navarro was an American jazz trumpet player. He was a pioneer of the bebop style of jazz improvisation in the 1940s. He had a strong stylistic influence on many other players, most notably Clifford Brown.-Life:Navarro was born in Key West, Florida, to Cuban-Black-Chinese parentage...
  
  
• Fathead: David Newman
  David Newman (jazz musician)
  David "Fathead" Newman was an American jazz saxophonist.-Biography:Born in Corsicana, Texas, Newman's professional career as a musician began in 1954 as a member of the Ray Charles Band....
  
  
• Fats: Jimmy Ponder
  Jimmy Ponder
  Jimmy Ponder is an American jazz guitarist.Ponder started playing guitar at age 14, and was heavily influenced by Wes Montgomery and Kenny Burrell. He began playing with Charles Earland at 17, and in the following years played with Lou Donaldson, Houston Person, Donald Byrd, Stanley Turrentine,...
  
  
• Fats: Fats Sadi
• Fats: Roberto Fernández
  Roberto Fernández
  Roberto Eladio Fernández Roa is a retired football goalkeeper from Paraguay. He was capped 78 times for the Paraguay national football team in an international career that lasted from 1976 to 1989. He was also a member of the Paraguayan team that won the 1979 Copa América...
  
  
• Fats Waller: Thomas Waller
  Fats Waller
  Fats Waller , born Thomas Wright Waller, was a jazz pianist, organist, composer, singer, and comedic entertainer...
  
  
• Fatha: Earl Hines
  Earl Hines
  Earl Kenneth Hines, universally known as Earl "Fatha" Hines, was an American jazz pianist. Hines was one of the most influential figures in the development of modern jazz piano and, according to one source, is "one of a small number of pianists whose playing shaped the history of jazz".-Early...
  
  
• Fess: Fess Williams
  Fess Williams
  Stanley Williams was an American jazz musician.-Early life:...
  
  
• Fiddler: Claude "Fiddler" Williams
  Claude Williams (musician)
  Claude "The Fiddler" Williams was an American jazz violinist and guitarist.Williams was born in Muskogee, Oklahoma, in 1908, and by 10 he had learned to play guitar, mandolin, banjo and cello. Upon hearing Joe Venuti play, he was inspired to take up the violin...
  
  
• First Lady (The): Ella Fitzgerald
  Ella Fitzgerald
  Ella Jane Fitzgerald , also known as the "First Lady of Song" and "Lady Ella," was an American jazz and song vocalist...
  
   (aka the First Lady of Song)
• Flip: Flip Phillips
  Flip Phillips
  Flip Phillips was an American jazz tenor saxophone and clarinet player. He is best remembered for his work with Jazz at the Philharmonic from 1946 to 1957.-Biography:...
  
  
• Foots: Walter 'Foots' Thomas
  Walter 'Foots' Thomas
  Walter 'Foots' Thomas was a saxophonist and arranger in Cab Calloway's orchestra.Born in Muskogee, Oklahoma, he moved to New York City in 1927, and played for a time with Jelly Roll Morton...
  
  
• Fox (The): Maynard Ferguson
  Maynard Ferguson
  Maynard Ferguson was a Canadian jazz musician and bandleader. He came to prominence playing in Stan Kenton's orchestra, before forming his own band in 1957...
  
  
• Frog: Ben Webster
  Ben Webster
  Benjamin Francis Webster , a.k.a. "The Brute" or "Frog," was an influential American jazz tenor saxophonist. Webster, born in Kansas City, Missouri, was considered one of the three most important "swing tenors" along with Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young...
  
  

G

• Gato: Leandro Barbieri, listed as Gato Barbieri
  Gato Barbieri
  Leandro Barbieri , better known as Gato Barbieri , is an Argentinean jazz tenor saxophonist and composer who rose to fame during the free jazz movement in the 1960s and from his latin jazz recordings in the 1970s.-Biography:Born to a family of musicians, Barbieri began playing music...
  
  
• Gigi: Gigi Gryce
  Gigi Gryce
  Gigi Gryce was an American saxophonist, flautist, clarinetist, composer, arranger, educator, and big band bandleader.His performing career was relatively short and, in comparison to other musicians of his...
  
  
• God: Art Tatum
  Art Tatum
  Arthur "Art" Tatum, Jr. was an American jazz pianist and virtuoso who played with phenomenal facility despite being nearly blind.Tatum is widely acknowledged as one of the greatest jazz pianists of all time...
  
  
• Great Dane (The): Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen
  Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen
  - Discography :* My Name Is Albert Ayler 1963 * Kirk in Copenhagen 1963 * Ben Webster in Denmark 1965-1971 Live at Danish Radio studios, Jazzhus Montmartre and Odd Fellow Palæet - Universal Music Denmark*One Flight Up 1964 *Sunday Walk 1969 - Discography :* My Name Is Albert Ayler 1963 (with...
  
  
• Groaner (The): Bing Crosby
  Bing Crosby
  Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby was an American singer and actor. Crosby's trademark bass-baritone voice made him one of the best-selling recording artists of the 20th century, with over half a billion records in circulation....
  
  
• Groove: Richard Holmes
  Richard Holmes (organist)
  Richard Arnold "Groove" Holmes was an American jazz organist who performed in the hard bop and soul jazz genre...
  
  
• Guvnor (The): Ken Colyer
  Ken Colyer
  Kenneth Colyer was a British jazz trumpeter and cornetist, devoted totally to New Orleans jazz. His band was also known for skiffle interludes.-Biography:...
  
  

H

• Half-Pint: Frankie Jaxon
  Frankie Jaxon
  Frankie "Half Pint" Jaxon was an African American vaudeville singer, female impersonator, stage designer and comedian, popular in the 1920s and 1930s.-Life and career:...
  
  
• Hammond: Johnny "Hammond" Smith
• Hamp or Mad Lionel: Lionel Hampton
  Lionel Hampton
  Lionel Leo Hampton was an American jazz vibraphonist, pianist, percussionist, bandleader and actor. Like Red Norvo, he was one of the first jazz vibraphone players. Hampton ranks among the great names in jazz history, having worked with a who's who of jazz musicians, from Benny Goodman and Buddy...
  
  
• Hank: Hank Crawford
  Hank Crawford
  Bennie Ross "Hank" Crawford, Jr. was an American R&B, hard bop, jazz-funk, soul jazz alto saxophonist, arranger and songwriter...
  
  
• Hawk: Coleman Hawkins
  Coleman Hawkins
  Coleman Randolph Hawkins was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. Hawkins was 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"...
  
   aka "Bean"
• Hi De Ho: Cab Calloway
  Cab Calloway
  Cabell "Cab" Calloway III was an American jazz singer and bandleader. He was strongly associated with the Cotton Club in Harlem, New York City where he was a regular performer....
  
  
• High Priest of Bop Thelonious Monk
  Thelonious Monk
  Thelonious Sphere Monk was an American jazz pianist and composer considered "one of the giants of American music". Monk had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including "Epistrophy", "'Round Midnight", "Blue Monk", "Straight, No Chaser"...
  
  
• High Priestess of Soul Nina Simone
  Nina Simone
  Eunice Kathleen Waymon , better known by her stage name Nina Simone , was an American singer, songwriter, pianist, arranger, and civil rights activist widely associated with jazz music...
  
  
• Hod: Hod O'Brien
• Honeybear: Gene Sedric
  Gene Sedric
  Gene Sedric was an American jazz clarinetist and tenor saxophonist. He acquired the nickname "Honey Bear" in the 1930s because of his large camelhair coat....
  
  
• Hootie; Jay McShann
  Jay McShann
  Jay McShann was an American Grammy Award-nominated jump blues, mainstream jazz, and swing bandleader, pianist and singer....
  
  
• Hoss: Walter Page
  Walter Page
  Walter Sylvester Page , nicknamed "Hoss," was an African American jazz bassist and leader of the Oklahoma City Blue Devils jazz orchestra from 1925–1931...
  
  
• Hot Lips or Lips: Oran Page
  Oran Page
  Oran Thaddeus Page was an American jazz trumpeter, singer, and bandleader born in Dallas, Texas, United States. He was better known as Hot Lips Page by the public, and Lips Page by his fellow musicians...
  
  

I

• Ironman: John "Ironman" Harris
• Ivory: Herman Chittison
  Herman Chittison
  Herman "Ivory" Chittison was an American jazz pianist.He began in Zack Whyte's band in 1928. In his early days he worked with Ethel Waters, Adelaide Hall, and Clarence Williams. In the mid-1930s he was associated with Willie Lewis's band and toured Europe with them...
  
  
• Ivory: Harold Ivory Williams
  Harold Ivory Williams
  Harold Ivory Williams, Jr. was an American jazz keyboardist most known for working with Miles Davis, Michal Urbaniak, and the late Rev...
  
  

J

• Jabbo: Jabbo Smith
  Jabbo Smith
  Jabbo Smith, born as Cladys Smith was a United States jazz musician, known for his hot virtuoso playing on the trumpet....
  
  
• Jaco: Jaco Pastorius
  Jaco Pastorius
  John Francis Anthony Pastorius III , known as Jaco Pastorius, was an American jazz musician and composer widely acknowledged as a virtuoso electric bass player....
  
  
• Jack: Jack Teagarden
  Jack Teagarden
  Weldon Leo "Jack" Teagarden , known as "Big T" and "The Swingin' Gate", was an influential jazz trombonist, bandleader, composer, and vocalist, regarded as the "Father of Jazz Trombone".-Early life:...
  
  
• Jackie: Jackie McLean
  Jackie McLean
  John Lenwood McLean was an American jazz alto saxophonist, composer, bandleader and educator, born in New York City.-Biography:McLean's father, John Sr., played guitar in Tiny Bradshaw's orchestra...
  
  
• Jaki: Jaki Byard
  Jaki Byard
  Jaki Byard was an American jazz pianist and composer who also played trumpet and saxophone, among several other instruments. He was noteworthy for his eclectic style, incorporating everything from ragtime and stride to free jazz...
  
  
• Jay: Jay Clayton
  Jay Clayton
  Jay Clayton is an internationally acclaimed avant-garde vocalist and jazz educator.- Early years :...
  
  
• Jay: Jay McShann
  Jay McShann
  Jay McShann was an American Grammy Award-nominated jump blues, mainstream jazz, and swing bandleader, pianist and singer....
  
   aka "Hootie"
• Jeep: Johnny Hodges
  Johnny Hodges
  John Cornelius "Johnny" Hodges was an American alto saxophonist, best known for his solo work with Duke Ellington's big band. He played lead alto in the saxophone section for many years, except the period between 1932–1946 when Otto Hardwick generally played first chair...
  
   aka "Rab" (short for "Rabbit")
• Jelly Roll: Ferdinand Joseph La Menthe
  Jelly Roll Morton
  Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe , known professionally as Jelly Roll Morton, was an American ragtime and early jazz pianist, bandleader and composer....
  
  
• Jeru: Gerry Mulligan
  Gerry Mulligan
  Gerald Joseph "Gerry" Mulligan was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, composer and arranger. Though Mulligan is primarily known as one of the leading baritone saxophonists in jazz history – playing the instrument with a light and airy tone in the era of cool jazz – he was also...
  
  
• Jiggs: Jiggs Whigham
  Jiggs Whigham
  Jiggs Whigham is an American jazz trombonist living in Europe.Born in Cleveland, Ohio, he began his professional career at age 17, joining the Glenn Miller/Ray Mckinley orchestra in 1961...
  
  
• Jiunie: Jiunie Booth
  Jiunie Booth
  Arthur Edward Booth , known as Jiunie, Junie, Junius, Joony, Juini, etc., is an American jazz double-bassist.Booth began playing piano at about age eight, and switched to bass at 12...
  
  
• Jiver: Jiver Hutchinson
  Jiver Hutchinson
  Leslie George "Jiver" Hutchinson was a Jamaican jazz trumpeter and bandleader.Hutchinson played in the band of Bertie King in Jamaica in the 1930s, then moved to England, where he played with Happy Blake's Cuba Club Band. In 1936 he played in Leslie Thompson's Emperors of Jazz and in 1938 with Ken...
  
  
• Joe Blade: Nick LaRocca
  Nick LaRocca
  Dominic James "Nick" LaRocca , was an early jazz cornetist and trumpeter and the leader of the Original Dixieland Jass Band. He is the composer of one of the most recorded jazz classics of all-time, "Tiger Rag"...
  
  
• Judge: Milt Hinton
  Milt Hinton
  Milton John "Milt" Hinton , "the dean of jazz bass players," was an American jazz double bassist and photographer. He was nicknamed "The Judge".-Biography:...
  
  
• Jug or Jughead: Gene Ammons
  Gene Ammons
  Eugene "Jug" Ammons also known as "The Boss," was an American jazz tenor saxophonist, and the son of boogie-woogie pianist Albert Ammons.-Biography:...
  
  
• Junior: Junior Cook
  Junior Cook
  Herman "Junior" Cook was a hard bop tenor saxophone player.-Biography:Cook was born in Pensacola, Florida. After playing with Dizzy Gillespie in 1958, Cook gained some fame for his longtime membership in the Horace Silver Quintet ; when he and Blue Mitchell left that band, Cook played in...
  
  
• Junior: Junior Mance
  Junior Mance
  Julian Clifford Mance, Jr. is an American jazz pianist and composer.-Biography:...
  
  
• Junior: Roberto Césari Jr.

K

• Kaiser: Kaiser Marshall
  Kaiser Marshall
  Joseph "Kaiser" Marshall was an American jazz drummer.Marshall was raised in Boston, where he studied under George L. Stone. He played with Charlie Dixon before moving to New York City early in the 1920s...
  
  
• Kansas: Carl Fields
• Keter: Keter Betts
  Keter Betts
  Keter Betts was an American jazz double bassist. Born William Thomas Betts in Port Chester, New York, he was nicknamed "Keter", a short form of the word mosquito.-Career:...
  
  
• Kid: Kid Ory
  Kid Ory
  Edward "Kid" Ory was a jazz trombonist and bandleader. He was born in Woodland Plantation near LaPlace, Louisiana.-Biography:...
  
  
• Kid: Kid Rena
  Kid Rena
  Henry "Kid" Rena was an American jazz trumpeter who was an early star of the New Orleans jazz scene....
  
  
• Kid Sheik: Kid Sheik
• Kidd: Kidd Jordan
  Kidd Jordan
  Edward "Kidd" Jordan is an American jazz saxophonist and music educator from New Orleans, Louisiana....
  
  
• King Buddy Bolden
  Buddy Bolden
  Charles "Buddy" Bolden was an African American cornetist and is regarded by contemporaries as a key figure in the development of a New Orleans style of rag-time music which later came to be known as jazz.- Life :...
  
  
• King: Nat King Cole
  Nat King Cole
  Nathaniel Adams Coles , known professionally as Nat King Cole, was an American musician who first came to prominence as a leading jazz pianist. Although an accomplished pianist, he owes most of his popular musical fame to his soft baritone voice, which he used to perform in big band and jazz genres...
  
   aka Shorty Nadine
• King: Joe Oliver
• King: King Fleming
  King Fleming
  Walter "King" Fleming is an American jazz pianist and bandleader.A classmate of Sonny Cohn, after playing trombone in the McKinley High School band, Fleming went on to study at the Midwest College of Music. He had already led several informal bands before King Fleming and His Swing Band first...
  
  
• King: Freddie Keppard
  Freddie Keppard
  Freddie Keppard was an early jazz cornetist.Keppard was born in the Creole of Color community of downtown New Orleans, Louisiana. His older brother Louis Keppard was also a professional musician. Freddie played violin, mandolin, and accordion before switching to cornet...
  
  
• King Kolax: King Kolax
  King Kolax
  King Kolax was a United States jazz trumpeter.-Biography:...
  
  
• King of the Clarinet: Artie Shaw
  Artie Shaw
  Arthur Jacob Arshawsky , better known as Artie Shaw, was an American jazz clarinetist, composer, and bandleader. He was also the author of both fiction and non-fiction writings....
  
  
• King Of Cool: Dean Martin
  Dean Martin
  Dean Martin was an American singer, film actor, television star and comedian. Martin's hit singles included "Memories Are Made of This", "That's Amore", "Everybody Loves Somebody", "You're Nobody till Somebody Loves You", "Sway", "Volare" and "Ain't That a Kick in the Head?"...
  
  
• King of Jazz: Paul Whiteman
  Paul Whiteman
  Paul Samuel Whiteman was an American bandleader and orchestral director.Leader of the most popular dance bands in the United States during the 1920s, Whiteman's recordings were immensely successful, and press notices often referred to him as the "King of Jazz"...
  
  
• King of the Jazz Guitar: Django Reinhardt
  Django Reinhardt
  Django Reinhardt was a pioneering virtuoso jazz guitarist and composer who invented an entirely new style of jazz guitar technique that has since become a living musical tradition within French gypsy culture...
  
  
• King of the Jukebox: Louis Jordan
  Louis Jordan
  Louis Thomas Jordan was a pioneering American jazz, blues and rhythm & blues musician, songwriter and bandleader who enjoyed his greatest popularity from the late 1930s to the early 1950s. Known as "The King of the Jukebox", Jordan was highly popular with both black and white audiences in the...
  
  
• King of Swing: Benny Goodman
  Benny Goodman
  Benjamin David “Benny” Goodman was an American jazz and swing musician, clarinetist and bandleader; widely known as the "King of Swing".In the mid-1930s, Benny Goodman led one of the most popular musical groups in America...
  
  
• King: King Pleasure
  King Pleasure
  King Pleasure was a jazz vocalist and an early master of vocalese, where a singer sings words to a famous instrumental solo....
  
  
• King: King Watzke
  King Watzke
  Alex "King" Watzke was a violinist and bandleader in New Orleans, Louisiana. His band enjoyed fair popularity ca. 1900-1910. The band played ragtime, popular music, and possibly an early or ancestral version of what later became known as jazz. By 1904 Watzke's band's repertory included an early...
  
  
• Klook-Mop or Klook: Kenny Clarke
  Kenny Clarke
  Kenny Clarke , born Kenneth Spearman Clarke, nicknamed "Klook" and later known as Liaqat Ali Salaam, was a jazz drummer and an early innovator of the bebop style of drumming...
  
  
• Knife (The): Pepper Adams
  Pepper Adams
  Park Frederick "Pepper" Adams III was a jazz baritone saxophonist and composer. He composed 43 pieces, was the leader on twenty albums, and participated in 600 sessions as a sideman.-Biography:...
  
  

L

• Lady Day: Billie Holiday
  Billie Holiday
  Billie Holiday was an American jazz singer and songwriter. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and musical partner Lester Young, Holiday had a seminal influence on jazz and pop singing...
  
  
• Lion (The): Willie Smith
• Lips or Hot Lips: Oran Page
  Oran Page
  Oran Thaddeus Page was an American jazz trumpeter, singer, and bandleader born in Dallas, Texas, United States. He was better known as Hot Lips Page by the public, and Lips Page by his fellow musicians...
  
  
• Little Bird: Albert Ayler
  Albert Ayler
  Albert Ayler was an American avant-garde jazz saxophonist, singer and composer.Ayler was among the most primal of the free jazz musicians of the 1960s; critic John Litweiler wrote that "never before or since has there been such naked aggression in jazz" He possessed a deep blistering tone—achieved...
  
  
• Little Bird: Jimmy Heath
  Jimmy Heath
  James Edward Heath , nicknamed Little Bird, is an American jazz saxophonist, composer and arranger. He is the brother of bassist Percy Heath and drummer Albert Heath.-Biography:...
  
  
• Little Brother: Little Brother Montgomery
  Little Brother Montgomery
  Eurreal Wilford "Little Brother" Montgomery was an American jazz, boogie-woogie and blues pianist and singer....
  
  
• Little Giant: Johnny Griffin
  Johnny Griffin
  John Arnold Griffin III was an American bop and hard bop tenor saxophonist.- Early life and career :Griffin studied music at DuSable High School in Chicago under Walter Dyett, starting out on clarinet before moving on to oboe and then alto sax...
  
  
• Little Jazz: Roy Eldridge
  Roy Eldridge
  Roy David Eldridge , nicknamed "Little Jazz" was an American jazz trumpet player. His sophisticated use of harmony, including the use of tritone substitutions, his virtuosic solos and his strong influence on Dizzy Gillespie mark him as one of the most exciting musicians of the swing era and a...
  
  
• Little Johnny C: Johnny Coles
  Johnny Coles
  Johnny Coles was an American jazz trumpeter.Coles spent his early career playing with R&B groups, including those of Eddie Vinson , Bull Moose Jackson , and Earl Bostic...
  
  
• Lockjaw: Eddie Davis
  Eddie Davis (saxophonist)
  Edward Davis , who performed and recorded as Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, was an American jazz tenor saxophonist.-Biography:...
  
  
• Long Tall Dexter: Dexter Gordon
  Dexter Gordon
  Dexter Gordon was an American jazz tenor saxophonist and an Academy Award-nominated actor . He is regarded as one of the first and most important musicians to adapt the bebop musical language of people like Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and Bud Powell to the tenor saxophone...
  
  
• Lovie: Lovie Austin
  Lovie Austin
  Lovie Austin was an American Chicago bandleader, session musician, composer, and arranger during the 1920s classic blues era. She and Lil Hardin Armstrong are often ranked as two of the best female jazz blues piano players of the period...
  
  
• Lucky: Lucky Millinder
  Lucky Millinder
  Lucius Venable "Lucky" Millinder was an American rhythm and blues and swing bandleader. Although he could not read or write music, did not play an instrument and rarely sang, his showmanship and musical taste made his bands successful...
  
  
• Lucky: Eli Thompson
  Lucky Thompson
  Eli "Lucky" Thompson was a United States jazz tenor and soprano saxophonist...
  
  

M

• Ma: Ma Rainey
  Ma Rainey
  Ma Rainey was one of the earliest known American professional blues singers and one of the first generation of such singers to record. She was billed as The Mother of the Blues....
  
  
• Mad Lionel: Lionel Hampton
  Lionel Hampton
  Lionel Leo Hampton was an American jazz vibraphonist, pianist, percussionist, bandleader and actor. Like Red Norvo, he was one of the first jazz vibraphone players. Hampton ranks among the great names in jazz history, having worked with a who's who of jazz musicians, from Benny Goodman and Buddy...
  
   aka "Hamp"
• Maggie: Howard McGhee
  Howard McGhee
  Howard McGhee was one of the very first bebop jazz trumpeters, together with Dizzy Gillespie, Fats Navarro and Idrees Sulieman. He was known for lightning-fast fingers and very high notes...
  
  
• Maharaja: Oscar Peterson
  Oscar Peterson
  Oscar Emmanuel Peterson was a Canadian jazz pianist and composer. He was called the "Maharaja of the keyboard" by Duke Ellington, "O.P." by his friends. He released over 200 recordings, won seven Grammy Awards, and received other numerous awards and honours over the course of his career...
  
  
• Major: Glenn Miller
  Glenn Miller
  Alton Glenn Miller was an American jazz musician , arranger, composer, and bandleader in the swing era. He was one of the best-selling recording artists from 1939 to 1943, leading one of the best known "Big Bands"...
  
  
• Mash: Art Blakey
  Art Blakey
  Arthur "Art" Blakey , known later as Abdullah Ibn Buhaina, was an American Grammy Award-winning jazz drummer and bandleader. He was a member of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community....
  
  
• Mex: Paul Gonsalves
  Paul Gonsalves
  Paul Gonsalves, was an American jazz tenor saxophonist best known for his association with Duke Ellington. At the 1956 Newport Jazz Festival, Gonsalves played a 27-chorus solo in the middle of Ellington's "Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue"...
  
  
• Mezz: Mezz Mezzrow
  Mezz Mezzrow
  Milton Mesirow, better known as Mezz Mezzrow was an American jazz clarinetist and saxophonist from Chicago, Illinois. Mezzrow is well known for organizing and financing historic recording sessions with Tommy Ladnier and Sidney Bechet. Mezzrow also recorded a number of times with Bechet and...
  
  
• Mickey: Dale McMickle - trumpeter
• Midge: Midge Williams
  Midge Williams
  Midge Williams was an African American swing and jazz vocalist during the 1930s and 1940s. Although not as famous as other jazz recording artists, Williams was a respected singer and her group, Midge Williams and Her Jazz Jesters, made several well-received recordings during the late 1930s.-Early...
  
  
• Miff: Miff Mole
  Miff Mole
  Irving Milfred Mole, better known as Miff Mole was a jazz trombonist and band leader. He is generally considered as one of the greatest jazz trombonists and credited with creating "the first distinctive and influential solo jazz trombone style." His major recordings included "Slippin' Around",...
  
  
• Mighty Flea (The): Gene Conners
  Gene Conners
  Gene Conners or Connors was an American trombonist and singer. He was known as "The Mighty Flea"....
  
  
• Miles: Miles Davis
  Miles Davis
  Miles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz,...
  
  
• Minor: Minor Hall
  Minor Hall
  Ram "Minor" Hall was an American jazz drummer active on the New Orleans jazz scene. He was the younger brother of Tubby Hall....
  
  
• Monk: Monk Hazel
  Monk Hazel
  Monk Hazel was a jazz drummer.In addition to being a well regarded drummer, Hazel occasionally took solos on brass instruments, notably cornet and melophone. Monk Hazel was a fixture on the New Orleans music scene for decades. Hazel's father was a drummer as well...
  
  
• Monk: Monk McFay
  Monk McFay
  Nathaniel Jack "Monk" McFay was an American jazz drummer and bandleader, known especially for leading jazz bands in Hawaii....
  
  
• Monk: William Montgomery
  Monk Montgomery
  William Howard "Monk" Montgomery was an American jazz bassist.Born in Indianapolis, Indiana, Montgomery was the older brother of guitarist Wes Montgomery; younger brother, Buddy Montgomery played vibraphone and piano...
  
  
• Monk: Thelonious Monk
  Thelonious Monk
  Thelonious Sphere Monk was an American jazz pianist and composer considered "one of the giants of American music". Monk had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including "Epistrophy", "'Round Midnight", "Blue Monk", "Straight, No Chaser"...
  
  
• Mono: Enrique Villegas
• Montudie: Ed Garland
  Ed Garland
  Edward Bertram Garland was a New Orleans jazz string bass player. He was commonly known as "Ed Garland", and sometimes "Montudie Garland" ....
  
  
• Moonface, Wurmpth: Claude Thornhill
  Claude Thornhill
  Claude Thornhill was an American pianist, arranger, composer, and bandleader...
  
  
• Mouse: Irving Randolph
• Mousie or Mousey: Elmer Alexander
• Mr. Bongo: Jack Costanzo
  Jack Costanzo
  Jack Costanzo is an American percussionist.-Biography:A composer, conductor and drummer, Costanzo is best known as a bongo player, and is nicknamed "Mr. Bongo"...
  
  
• Mr. Five by Five: Jimmy Rushing
  Jimmy Rushing
  James Andrew Rushing , known as Jimmy Rushing, was an American blues shouter and swing jazz singer from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States, best known as the featured vocalist of Count Basie's Orchestra from 1935 to 1948.Rushing was known as "Mr...
  
  
• Mr. T: Stanley Turrentine
  Stanley Turrentine
  Stanley William Turrentine, also known as "Mr. T" or "The Sugar Man", was an American jazz tenor saxophonist.-Biography:Turrentine was born in Pittsburgh's Hill District into a musical family...
  
  
• Mr. Clock: Freddie Green
  Freddie Green
  Frederick William "Freddie" Green was an American swing jazz guitarist. He was especially noted for his sophisticated rhythm guitar in big band settings, particularly for the Count Basie orchestra, where he was part of the "All-American Rhythm Section" with Basie on piano, Jo Jones on drums, and...
  
  
• Muffin, The Lamb: Donald Lambert
  Donald Lambert
  Donald "The Lamb" Lambert was an American jazz stride pianist born in Princeton, New Jersey, perhaps best-known for playing in Harlem night clubs throughout the 1920s. Lambert was taught piano by his mother but never learned to read the notes. For his particularly rapid left hand striding...
  
  
• Muggsy: Muggsy Spanier
  Muggsy Spanier
  Francis Joseph Julian "Muggsy" Spanier was a prominent cornet player based in Chicago. He was renowned as the best trumpet/cornet in Chicago until Bix Beiderbecke entered the scene....
  
  
• Mule: Major Holley
  Major Holley
  Major Holley was an American jazz upright bassist.Holley attended the prestigious Cass Technical High School. Holley played violin and tuba when young and started playing bass while serving in the Navy...
  
  
• Mutt: Tom Carey
  Mutt Carey
  Thomas "Papa Mutt" Carey was a New Orleans jazz trumpeter.Carey was born in Hahnville, Louisiana, and moved to New Orleans with his family in his youth. His older brother Jack Carey was a trombone player and bandleader; Mutt was playing cornet in his brother's band by about 1912. Carey toured the...
  
   aka "Papa Mutt"

N

• Nappy: Hilton Lamare
• Negro: Jorge González
• Newk: Sonny Rollins
  Sonny Rollins
  Theodore Walter "Sonny" Rollins is a Grammy-winning American jazz tenor saxophonist. Rollins is widely recognized as one of the most important and influential jazz musicians. A number of his compositions, including "St...
  
  
• Nick: Nick LaRocca
  Nick LaRocca
  Dominic James "Nick" LaRocca , was an early jazz cornetist and trumpeter and the leader of the Original Dixieland Jass Band. He is the composer of one of the most recorded jazz classics of all-time, "Tiger Rag"...
  
  

O

• Ol' Blue Eyes: Frank Sinatra
  Frank Sinatra
  Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
  
   aka The Voice
• Onzie: Onzie Horn - vibraphonist
• Osie: Osie Johnson
  Osie Johnson
  James "Osie" Johnson was a jazz drummer.He first worked with Sabby Lewis and then, after service in the United States Navy freelanced for a time in Chicago...
  
  

P

• Panama: Panama Francis
• Pancho: Kenny Hagood
  Kenny Hagood
  Kenny "Pancho" Hagood was an American jazz vocalist.-Biography:Hagood was born in Detroit, Michigan and first sang at age 17 with Benny Carter. He sang with the Dizzy Gillespie Orchestra from 1946 to 1948 and then with Tadd Dameron later in 1948...
  
  
• Pampero or Pamperito: Jorge Navarro
• Papa: Papa Celestin
  Papa Celestin
  Oscar "Papa" Celestin was an American jazz bandleader, trumpeter, cornetist and vocalist.-Life and career:...
  
  
• Papa: Louis "Papa" Tio
  Lorenzo Tio
  Lorenzo Tio Jr. was a master clarinetist from New Orleans, as were his father Lorenzo Tio Sr. and uncle Louis "Papa" Tio...
  
  
• Papa Jack: Papa Jack Laine
  Papa Jack Laine
  George Vital "Papa Jack" Laine was a pioneering band leader in New Orleans in the years from the Spanish-American War to World War I....
  
  
• Papa Jo: Jonathan David Samuel Jones
  Jo Jones
  Jo Jones was an American jazz drummer.Known as Papa Jo Jones in his later years, he was sometimes confused with another influential jazz drummer, Philly Joe Jones...
  
  
• Papa Mutt: Thomas Carey aka Mutt Carey
  Mutt Carey
  Thomas "Papa Mutt" Carey was a New Orleans jazz trumpeter.Carey was born in Hahnville, Louisiana, and moved to New Orleans with his family in his youth. His older brother Jack Carey was a trombone player and bandleader; Mutt was playing cornet in his brother's band by about 1912. Carey toured the...
  
  
• Pat: Laurdine "Pat" Patrick
• Patriarch of the Clarinet (The): Benny Goodman
  Benny Goodman
  Benjamin David “Benny” Goodman was an American jazz and swing musician, clarinetist and bandleader; widely known as the "King of Swing".In the mid-1930s, Benny Goodman led one of the most popular musical groups in America...
  
   aka "The Professor", "Swing's Senior Statesman" and the "King of Swing".
• Pazuza: Stafford "Pazuza" Simon
• Peanuts: Peanuts Holland
  Peanuts Holland
  Herbert Lee "Peanuts" Holland was an American jazz trumpeter best known for his contributions in swing jazz. He was born in Norfolk, Virginia and died in Stockholm, Sweden....
  
  
• Peanuts: Peanuts Hucko
  Peanuts Hucko
  Michael Andrew "Peanuts" Hucko was an American big band musician. His primary instrument was the clarinet.-Early life and education:...
  
  
• Peck: Peck Kelley
  Peck Kelley
  John Dickson "Peck" Kelley was an American jazz pianist born in Houston, Texas. Kelley was best known for his 1920s band Peck's Bad Boys, which included Jack Teagarden and Pee Wee Russell, among others.- Career :...
  
  
• Pee Wee: H. B. Barnum
  H. B. Barnum
  H. B. Barnum is an American pianist, arranger, record producer, songwriter, and former child actor....
  
  
• Pee Wee: Alfred "Pee Wee" Ellis
• Pee Wee: Pee Wee Erwin
  Pee Wee Erwin
  Pee Wee Erwin was an American jazz trumpeter.-Biography:Erwin started on trumpet at age four. He played in several territory bands before joining the groups of Joe Haymes and Isham Jones...
  
  
• Pee Wee: Harry Jackson
• Pee Wee: Pee Wee Russell
  Pee Wee Russell
  Charles Ellsworth Russell, much better known by his nickname Pee Wee Russell, was a jazz musician. Early in his career he played clarinet and saxophones, but eventually focused solely on clarinet....
  
  
• Pee Wee: Leon "Pee Wee" Whittaker
  Leon "Pee Wee" Whittaker
  Leon "Pee Wee" Whittaker was an African American musician from the Mississippi River delta country of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Arkansas who was particularly known as a trombonist of jazz, blues, and rock music. From 1919 until his death, Whittaker performed with minstrel shows, carnival bands,...
  
  
• Pepper: Pepper Adams
  Pepper Adams
  Park Frederick "Pepper" Adams III was a jazz baritone saxophonist and composer. He composed 43 pieces, was the leader on twenty albums, and participated in 600 sessions as a sideman.-Biography:...
  
   aka "The Knife"
• Pharoah: Farrell Sanders
• Phantom: Joe Henderson
  Joe Henderson
  Joe Henderson was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. In a career spanning more than forty years Henderson played with many of the leading American players of his day and recorded for several prominent labels, including Blue Note.-Early life:From a very large family with five sisters and nine...
  
  
• Philly Joe: Joseph Jones
  Joseph Jones
  Joseph Jones may refer to:* Joseph E. Jones, US state legislator from Wisconsin* Joseph Jones , U.S. statesman, Virginia delegate in Continental Congress* Joseph Jones , U.S...
  
  
• Pinky: Pinky Williams - saxophonist
• Poggy: Poggy Pogson - saxophonist
• Polo: Polo Barnes
  Polo Barnes
  Paul D. "Polo" Barnes was an American jazz clarinetist and saxophonist. He was the brother of Emile Barnes and was a mainstay of the New Orleans jazz scene of the 1920s and 1930s....
  
  
• Pony: Norwood Poindexter
• Pops: Louis Armstrong
  Louis Armstrong
  Louis Armstrong , nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana....
  
   aka Satchel Mouth, Satchmo, Dipper Mouth
• Pops: George Murphy "Pops" Foster
  Pops Foster
  George Murphy "Pops" Foster was a jazz musician best known for his vigorous playing of the string bass. He also played the tuba and trumpet professionally....
  
  
• Pops: Robert Popwell
  Robert Popwell
  -Career:Known as "Pops", he played with The Young Rascals, The Crusaders and the Macon Rhythm Section. The Young Rascals were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame May 6, 1997. They were inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2005...
  
  
• Pops: Paul Whiteman
  Paul Whiteman
  Paul Samuel Whiteman was an American bandleader and orchestral director.Leader of the most popular dance bands in the United States during the 1920s, Whiteman's recordings were immensely successful, and press notices often referred to him as the "King of Jazz"...
  
   
• Porky: Al Porcino
  Al Porcino
  Al Porcino is an American jazz trumpeter.Porcino began playing professionally in 1943, playing in many big bands of the 1940s and 1950s, including those of Georgie Auld, Louis Prima, Jerry Wald, Tommy Dorsey, Gene Krupa, and Chubby Jackson. He played with Woody Herman in 1946, 1949-1950, and again...
  
  
• Pretty: Bernard Purdie
  Bernard Purdie
  Bernard Lee "Pretty" Purdie is an American session drummer, and is considered an influential and innovative exponent of funk...
  
  
• Prez (short for "President"): Lester Young
  Lester Young
  Lester Willis Young , nicknamed "Prez", was an American jazz tenor saxophonist and clarinetist. He also played trumpet, violin, and drums....
  
  
• Professor, The: Cab Calloway
  Cab Calloway
  Cabell "Cab" Calloway III was an American jazz singer and bandleader. He was strongly associated with the Cotton Club in Harlem, New York City where he was a regular performer....
  
  
• Professor (The): Benny Goodman
  Benny Goodman
  Benjamin David “Benny” Goodman was an American jazz and swing musician, clarinetist and bandleader; widely known as the "King of Swing".In the mid-1930s, Benny Goodman led one of the most popular musical groups in America...
  
   aka the Patriarch of the Clarinet, "Swing's Senior Statesman" and the "King of Swing"
• Punch: Punch Miller
  Punch Miller
  Ernest Miller aka Punch Miller or Kid Punch Miller , was a Dixieland jazz trumpeter.Miller was born in Raceland, Louisiana. He was known in New Orleans, Louisiana, where he was based from 1919 to 1927 when he moved Chicago...
  
  

R

• Rabbit: Johnny Hodges
  Johnny Hodges
  John Cornelius "Johnny" Hodges was an American alto saxophonist, best known for his solo work with Duke Ellington's big band. He played lead alto in the saxophone section for many years, except the period between 1932–1946 when Otto Hardwick generally played first chair...
  
   aka "Rab" and "Jeeps"
• Ragbaby: Ragbaby Stephens
• Rap: Leon Roppolo
  Leon Roppolo
  Leon Roppolo was a prominent early jazz clarinetist, best known for his playing with the New Orleans Rhythm Kings. Roppolo also played saxophone and guitar. Roppolo married Mabel Alice Branchard on 17 May 1920 in New Orleans...
  
  
• Ray: Ray Bryant
  Ray Bryant
  Raphael Homer "Ray" Bryant was an American Jazz pianist and composer.-Biography:Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Ray Bryant began playing the piano at the age of six, also performing on bass in junior High School...
  
  
• Reb: Reb Spikes
  Reb Spikes
  Benjamin Franklin "Reb" Spikes Benjamin Franklin "Reb" Spikes Benjamin Franklin "Reb" Spikes (October 31, 1888 – February 24, 1982 was an American jazz saxophonist and entrepreneur. His composition with his brother John, "Someday Sweetheart", has become an often-recorded jazz standard.-Biography:...
  
  
• Red: Red Allen
  Red Allen
  Henry James "Red" Allen was a jazz trumpeter and vocalist whose style has been claimed to be the first to fully incorporate the innovations of Louis Armstrong.-Life and career:...
  
  
• Red: Tom Brown
  Tom Brown (trombonist)
  Tom Brown , sometimes known by the nickname Red Brown, was an early New Orleans dixieland jazz trombonist. He also played string bass professionally....
  
  
• Red: Red Callender
  Red Callender
  Red Callender, , was a jazz bass and tuba player, famous for turning down a chance to work with Duke Ellington's Orchestra and the Louis Armstrong All-Stars....
  
  
• Red: William Garland
• Red: Red Holloway
  Red Holloway
  James W. "Red" Holloway is an American jazz tenor saxophonist.-Biography:Holloway started playing banjo and harmonica, switching to tenor sax when he was twelve years old...
  
  
• Red: Red Ingle
  Red Ingle
  Ernest Jansen "Red" Ingle was an American musician, singer and songwriter, arranger, cartoonist and caricaturist. He is best known for his comedy records with Spike Jones and his own Natural Seven sides for Capitol....
  
  
• Red: Red McKenzie
  Red McKenzie
  Red McKenzie was an American jazz musician. He was the best-known, and one of the only, comb players in jazz history....
  
  
• Red: Keith Mitchell
  Red Mitchell
  Keith Moore "Red" Mitchell Keith Moore "Red" Mitchell Keith Moore "Red" Mitchell (September 20, 1927, New York City - November 8, 1992, Salem, Oregon, was an American jazz double-bassist, composer, lyricist, and poet. He was the brother of Whitey Mitchell....
  
  
• Red: Red Nichols
  Red Nichols
  Ernest Loring "Red" Nichols was an American jazz cornettist, composer, and jazz bandleader.Over his long career, Nichols recorded in a wide variety of musical styles, and critic Steve Leggett describes him as "an expert cornet player, a solid improviser, and apparently a workaholic, since he is...
  
  
• Red: Red Norvo
  Red Norvo
  Red Norvo was one of jazz's early vibraphonists, known as "Mr. Swing". He helped establish the xylophone, marimba and later the vibraphone as viable jazz instruments...
  
  
• Red: Red Prysock
  Red Prysock
  Wilburt Prysock known as Red Prysock, was an American rhythm and blues tenor saxophonist, one of the early Coleman Hawkins influenced saxophonists to move in the direction of rhythm and blues, rather than bebop....
  
  
• Red: Red Richards
  Red Richards
  Charles Coleridge "Red" Richards was an American jazz pianist.-Biography:...
  
  
• Red: Red Rodney
  Red Rodney
  Robert Roland Chudnick , who performed by the stage name Red Rodney, was an American bop and hard bop trumpeter.-Biography:...
  
  
• Red: Alvin Tyler
  Alvin Tyler
  Alvin "Red" Tyler was an American R&B and neo-bop jazz saxophonist and arranger.Born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States, Tyler grew up listening to the sound of New Orleans marching bands. He began playing saxophone when in the Navy, and by 1950 had joined Dave Bartholomew’s R&B...
  
  
• Rusty: Rusty Bryant
  Rusty Bryant
  Royal G. "Rusty" Bryant was an American jazz tenor and alto saxophonist....
  
  
• Rusty: Lyle Dedrick

S

• Santy: Santy Runyon
  Santy Runyon
  Clinton "Santy" Runyon was an American saxophonist and flautist as well as a designer and manufacturer of mouthpieces for woodwind instruments....
  
  
• Satchmo: Louis Armstrong
  Louis Armstrong
  Louis Armstrong , nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana....
  
   aka Pops, Satchel Mouth, Dipper Mouth
• Scoops: Scoops Carey
• Scrappy: Scrappy Lambert
  Scrappy Lambert
  Harold "Scrappy" Lambert was an American dance band vocalist who appeared on hundreds of recordings from the 1920s to the 1940s....
  
  
• Senator (The): Eugene Wright
  Eugene Wright
  "The Senator" Eugene Wright is an American jazz bassist, best known for his work as a member of The Dave Brubeck Quartet, in particular on the group's most famous album Time Out , with pianist Brubeck, drummer Joe Morello and saxophonist Paul Desmond.Wright, nicknamed "The Senator", had played...
  
  
• Shadow: Rossiere Wilson
• Shake: Shake Keane
  Shake Keane
  Ellsworth McGranahan “Shake” Keane was a jazz musician, poet and government minister...
  
  
• Sharkey: Joseph Bonano
• Shifty: Shifty Henry
  Shifty Henry
  John Willie "Shifty" Henry was an American musician, most noted as a double bass and bass guitar player, and blues songwriter. He also played flute, violin, viola, saxophone, and oboe and was in demand as a session musician and arranger in Los Angeles in the 1940s and 1950s...
  
  
• Shorty: Harold Baker
  Shorty Baker
  Harold "Shorty" Baker was a jazz trumpeter.Baker started on drums, but switched to trumpet in his teens. He began on riverboats and played with Don Redman in the mid-1930s. He also worked with Teddy Wilson and Andy Kirk before his more noted association with Duke Ellington...
  
  
• Shorty: Shorty Rogers
  Shorty Rogers
  Milton “Shorty” Rogers , born Milton Rajonsky in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, was one of the principal creators of West Coast jazz. He played both the trumpet and flugelhorn, and was in demand for his skills as an arranger. Rogers worked first as a professional musician with Will Bradley and...
  
  
• Shorty: Shorty Sherock
  Shorty Sherock
  Clarence "Shorty" Sherock was a prominent swing jazz trumpeter.Sherock attended the Illinois Military Academy before becoming a soloist with Jimmy Dorsey's orchestra and later with Gene Krupa's Orchestra, together with saxophonist Sam Donahue.He was a featured soloist at the first concert of...
  
  
• Shorty Nadine: Nat King Cole
  Nat King Cole
  Nathaniel Adams Coles , known professionally as Nat King Cole, was an American musician who first came to prominence as a leading jazz pianist. Although an accomplished pianist, he owes most of his popular musical fame to his soft baritone voice, which he used to perform in big band and jazz genres...
  
  
• Sir: Sir Charles Thompson
• Skeeter: Clifton Best
• Skeets: Skeets Tolbert
  Skeets Tolbert
  Campbell Aurelius "Skeets" Tolbert was an American jazz clarinetist, alto saxophonist, and bandleader....
  
  
• Skip: Skip Martin
  Skip Martin
  Lloyd "Skip" Martin was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, and music arranger....
  
  
• Skippy: Skippy Morton
• Skippy: Skippy Williams
  Skippy Williams
  Elmer, or Elbert, Skippy Williams was a jazz tenor saxophonist and musical arranger.First credited as the arranger for some July 12, 1939 recordings for Earl Hines and His Orchestra, Skippy Williams is best known as the substitute for Ben Webster in Duke Ellington's orchestra...
  
  
• Skitch (Henderson)
• Slam: Slam Stewart
  Slam Stewart
  Leroy Eliot "Slam" Stewart was an African American jazz bass player whose trademark style was his ability to bow the bass and simultaneously hum or sing an octave higher. He was originally a violin player before switching to bass at the age of 20.-Biography:Stewart was born in Englewood, New...
  
  
• Sleepy Hall: Chick Bullock
  Chick Bullock
  Chick Bullock was a popular American jazz and dance band vocalist, most active in the 1930s. He recorded some 500 tunes over the course of his career. Bullock was mostly associated with the ARC group of labels...
  
  
• Slide: Slide Hampton
  Slide Hampton
  Locksley Wellington "Slide" Hampton is an American jazz trombonist, composer and arranger.He was a 1998 Grammy Award winner for "Best Jazz Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist", as arranger for "Cotton Tail" performed by Dee Dee Bridgewater...
  
  
• Slim: Bulee Gaillard
• Slow Drag: Alcide Pavageau
  Alcide Pavageau
  Alcide "Slow Drag" Pavageau was an American jazz double-bassist.Pavageau started off his career as a guitarist, and sparked a dance craze in his early years which resulted in his "Slow Drag" nickname. He picked up bass in 1927, when he was 39 years old, and played with Buddy Petit, Herb Morand,...
  
  
• Smack: Fletcher Henderson
  Fletcher Henderson
  James Fletcher Hamilton Henderson, Jr. was an American pianist, bandleader, arranger and composer, important in the development of big band jazz and swing music. His was one of the most prolific black orchestras and his influence was vast...
  
  
• Smith: Smith Ballew
  Smith Ballew
  Smith Ballew was an American actor, sophisticated singer, orchestra leader, and finally, a Western singing star....
  
  
• Smitty: Marvin Smith
  Marvin Smith
  Smith, an alumnus of Berklee, has recorded 200 albums with various artists, as well as two solo albums.In addition, he also has toured with Sting, Dave Holland, Sonny Rollins and Willie Nelson. He is a former member of The New York Jazz Quartet, and is in a band with Kevin Eubanks, fellow Berklee...
  
  
• Snag/Snags: Clifford "Snag" Jones
• Snakehips: Ken Snakehips Johnson
  Ken Snakehips Johnson
  Ken 'Snakehips' Johnson was a jazz band leader and dancer.Born Kenrick Reginald Hymans Johnson, and originally from British Guiana, Johnson's parents sent him to the UK at the age of 15, where he attended Sir William Borlase's Grammar School, before studying medicine at Edinburgh University...
  
  
• Snub: Snub Mosley
  Snub Mosley
  Lawrence Leo "Snub" Mosley was an American jazz trombonist.-Biography:...
  
  
• Sonny: Sonny Berman
  Sonny Berman
  Saul "Sonny" Berman was an American jazz trumpeter.Berman was born in New Haven, Connecticut. He began touring at age sixteen and went on to work with Louis Prima, Harry James and Benny Goodman but is perhaps best known for his later work with Woody Herman...
  
  
• Sonny: Sonny Blount
  Sun Ra
  Sun Ra was a prolific jazz composer, bandleader, piano and synthesizer player, poet and philosopher known for his "cosmic philosophy," musical compositions and performances. He was born in Birmingham, Alabama...
  
  
• Sonny: Sonny Clark
  Sonny Clark
  Conrad Yeatis "Sonny" Clark was an American jazz pianist who mainly worked in the hard bop idiom.-Biography:...
  
  
• Sonny: Sonny Clay
  Sonny Clay
  William Rogers Campbell "Sonny" Clay was an American jazz pianist, drummer, and bandleader, who had an unusual impact on the development of Australian jazz....
  
  
• Sonny: Sonny Cohn
  Sonny Cohn
  George T. "Sonny" Cohn was an American jazz trumpeter.After working for fifteen years with Red Saunders , he went on to spend another 24 years in Count Basie's trumpet section .-Biography:...
  
  
• Sonny: Sonny Criss
  Sonny Criss
  William "Sonny" Criss was an American jazz musician.An alto saxophonist of prominence during the bebop era of jazz, he was one of many players influenced by Charlie Parker.-Biography:...
  
  
• Sonny: Sonny Dallas
  Sonny Dallas
  Francis Dominic Joseph Dallas , also known as Frank "Sonny" Dallas, was an American jazz bassist and singer....
  
  
• Sonny: Sonny Lester
  Sonny Lester
  Sonny Lester is a Grammy-award winning music producer from New York City. He started his career as a musician in a big band jazz ensemble before being drafted into the U.S. Army. During the war he earned a Purple Heart and worked under Henry Kissinger, who was an intelligence officer at time...
  
  
• Sonny: Sonny Payne
  Sonny Payne
  Sonny Payne was an American jazz drummer, best known for his work with Count Basie and Harry James.His father was Wild Bill Davis's drummer Chris Columbus...
  
  
• Sonny: Sonny Rollins
  Sonny Rollins
  Theodore Walter "Sonny" Rollins is a Grammy-winning American jazz tenor saxophonist. Rollins is widely recognized as one of the most important and influential jazz musicians. A number of his compositions, including "St...
  
   aka Newk
• Sonny: Sonny Russo
  Sonny Russo
  Santo J. "Sonny" Russo is an American jazz trombonist.Russo grew up in a musical family; both his father and grandfather were professional horn players. He first played piano and violin, and played with his father's group at age 15...
  
  
• Sonny: Sonny Sharrock
  Sonny Sharrock
  Warren Harding "Sonny" Sharrock was an American jazz guitarist. He was once married to singer Linda Sharrock, with whom he sometimes recorded and performed....
  
  
• Sonny: Sonny Simmons
  Sonny Simmons
  Huey "Sonny" Simmons is an American jazz musician.He grew up in Oakland, California, where he began playing the english horn. At age 16 he took up the alto saxophone, which became his primary instrument...
  
  
• Sonny: Edward Stitt
• Sound (The): Stan Getz
  Stan Getz
  Stanley Getz was an American jazz saxophone player. Getz was known as "The Sound" because of his warm, lyrical tone, his prime influence being the wispy, mellow timbre of his idol, Lester Young. Coming to prominence in the late 1940s with Woody Herman's big band, Getz is described by critic Scott...
  
  
• Spanky: Spanky Davis
  Spanky Davis
  Ronald J. "Spanky" Davis is an American jazz trumpeter.Davis played early on with Charlie Palmieri , Sam Jones , Machito , and Benny Goodman . He toured Ireland with Al Cohn in 1983-84, then played with Bob Haggart in 1984-85...
  
  
• Spanky: Spanky DeBrest
  Spanky DeBrest
  Jimmy "Spanky" DeBrest was an American jazz bassist.DeBrest played with Lee Morgan in his early years in Philadelphia. In 1957 he was a member of Ray Draper's Quintet, Jackie McLean, pianist Mal Waldron, and drummer Ben Dixon.He played with Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers until 1958, including...
  
  
• Specs: Gordon Powell
• Specs: Specs Wright
  Specs Wright
  Charles "Specs" Wright was an American jazz drummer born in Philadelphia.Wright played drums in an Army band until his discharge in 1947. Following this he played in a group with Jimmy Heath and Howard McGhee. In 1949 he joined Dizzy Gillespie's band alongside John Coltrane, remaining until it...
  
  
• Spike: Spike Heatley
  Spike Heatley
  Spike Heatley, born North London, February 17, 1933, is a British jazz bassist.Heatley was with Vic Ash's sextet in 1958, together with Ian Hamer , Johnny Scott , and Alan Branscombe and had then joined The Jazz Couriers some weeks before they disbanded...
  
  
• Spike: Spike Hughes
  Spike Hughes
  Patrick "Spike" Cairns Hughes was a British jazz musician, composer and music journalist. He was the son of Irish composer, writer and song collector Herbert Hughes...
  
  
• Spike: Spike Robinson
  Spike Robinson
  Henry Berthold "Spike" Robinson was a tenor saxophonist. He began playing at age twelve, making recordings with famous jazz and bop musicians on several labels including Discovery, Hep and Concord. However, he sought an engineering degree and followed that profession on a fulltime basis for nearly...
  
  
• Spike: Spike Wells
  Spike Wells
  Michael 'Spike' Wells is an English jazz drummer and priest.He was a chorister at Canterbury Cathedral Choir School, then became interested in jazz after coming across a recording by Dizzy Gillespie, which he found 'very exciting'.He took up drums in his early teens: 'I suppose the thing that...
  
  
• Spoon: Jimmy Witherspoon
  Jimmy Witherspoon
  Jimmy Witherspoon was an American jump blues singer.-Early life and career:James Witherspoon was born in Gurdon, Arkansas. He first attracted attention singing with Teddy Weatherford's band in Calcutta, India, which made regular radio broadcasts over the U. S. Armed Forces Radio Service during...
  
   ‎
• Spud: Spud Murphy
  Spud Murphy
  Lyle Stephanovic, better known as Spud Murphy was an American jazz multi-instrumentalist, bandleader, and arranger....
  
  
• Stan: Stan Hasselgård
  Stan Hasselgård
  Åke "Stan" Hasselgård was Swedish jazz clarinetist. Hasselgård was heavily influenced by Benny Goodman, and played swing jazz in his early years before exploring bebop shortly before his death.Hasselgård grew up in Bollnäs, Sweden, and began playing clarinet at age 16...
  
  
• Stix: Stix Hooper
  Stix Hooper
  Nesbert "Stix" Hooper is an American soul jazz/hard bop jazz drummer born in Houston, Texas, probably best known for founding his group The Swingsters, which later became known as The Jazz Crusaders.-References:...
  
  
• Stork (The): Paul Desmond
  Paul Desmond
  Paul Desmond , born Paul Emil Breitenfeld, was a jazz alto saxophonist and composer born in San Francisco, best known for the work he did in the Dave Brubeck Quartet and for penning that group's greatest hit, "Take Five"...
  
  
• Stuff: Stuff Smith
  Stuff Smith
  Hezekiah Leroy Gordon Smith , better known as Stuff Smith, was a jazz violinist. He is known well for the song "If You're a Viper".-Biography:...
  
  
• Sunny: Sunny Murray
  Sunny Murray
  James Marcellus Arthur "Sunny" Murray is one of the pioneers of the free jazz style of drumming.-Biography:...
  
  
• Swee' Pea: Billy Strayhorn
  Billy Strayhorn
  William Thomas "Billy" Strayhorn was an American composer, pianist and arranger, best known for his successful collaboration with bandleader and composer Duke Ellington lasting nearly three decades. His compositions include "Chelsea Bridge", "Take the "A" Train" and "Lush Life".-Early...
  
  
• Sweets: Harry Edison
• Swing's Senior Statesman: Benny Goodman
  Benny Goodman
  Benjamin David “Benny” Goodman was an American jazz and swing musician, clarinetist and bandleader; widely known as the "King of Swing".In the mid-1930s, Benny Goodman led one of the most popular musical groups in America...
  
   aka Patriarch of the Clarinet (The), "The Professor" and the "King of Swing"
• Sy: Sy Oliver
  Sy Oliver
  Melvin "Sy" Oliver was a jazz arranger, trumpeter, composer, singer and bandleader...
  
  

T

• Tab: Tab Smith
  Tab Smith
  Talmadge "Tab" Smith , was an American swing and rhythm and blues alto saxophonist. He is best known for the tracks, "Because Of You" and "Pretend". He variously worked with Count Basie, the Mills Rhythm Boys and Lucky Millinder.-Biography:Smith was born in Kinston, North Carolina, United States...
  
  
• Tain: Jeff "Tain" Watts
• Teo: Teo Macero
  Teo Macero
  Teo Macero , born Attilio Joseph Macero, was an American jazz saxophonist, composer, and record producer...
  
  
• Tex: Tex Beneke
  Tex Beneke
  Gordon Lee Beneke , professionally known as Tex Beneke, was an American saxophonist, singer, and bandleader. His career is a history of associations with bandleader Glenn Miller and former musicians and singers who worked with Miller. His band is also associated with the careers of Eydie Gorme...
  
  
• Tex: Herschel Evans
  Herschel Evans
  Herschel "Tex" Evans , was a tenor saxophonist who worked in the Count Basie Orchestra. He had also worked with Lionel Hampton and Buck Clayton...
  
  
• Tiger: George Haynes
  George Haynes
  George Haynes , British entrepreneur, pottery manufacturer, banker, and newspaper proprietor of Swansea, Wales-Early career:Haynes was born in 1745 to a Quaker family with its origins in Henley-in-Arden, Warwickshire, although his exact place of birth and continuing religious affiliations are...
  
  
• Tina: Tina Brooks
  Tina Brooks
  Harold Floyd "Tina" Brooks was an American hard bop tenor saxophonist and composer.-Early years:Harold Floyd Brooks was born in Fayetteville, North Carolina, and was the brother of David "Bubba" Brooks. The nickname "Tina", pronounced Teena, was a slight variation of "Teeny", a childhood moniker....
  
  
• Tiny: Tiny Grimes
  Tiny Grimes
  Lloyd "Tiny" Grimes was an American jazz and R&B guitarist. He was a member of the Art Tatum Trio from 1943 to 1944, was a backing musician on recording sessions, and later led his own bands, including a recording session with Charlie Parker...
  
  
• Tiny: Tiny Kahn
  Tiny Kahn
  Norman "Tiny" Kahn was an American jazz drummer, arranger, and composer.Kahn began playing drums at age 15. He played with Boyd Raeburn , Georgie Auld, Chubby Jackson, and Charlie Barnet , and played drums and vibraphone under Elliot Lawrence...
  
  
• Tito: Tito Burns
  Tito Burns
  Tito Burns was a British musician and impresario, who was active in both jazz and rock and roll.-Biography:...
  
  
• Toby: Otto Hardwick
  Otto Hardwick
  Otto James "Toby" Hardwicke was a saxophone player associated with Duke Ellington.-Biography:Hardwick started on string bass at the age of 14, then moved to C-melody sax and finally settled on alto saxophone. A childhood friend of Duke Ellington's, Hardwick joined Ellington's first band in...
  
  
• Tootie: Albert "Tootie" Heath
• Toots: Toots Mondello
  Toots Mondello
  Toots Mondello was an American swing jazz alto saxophonist.Mondello played with Mal Hallett from 1927-1933 and also with Irving Aaronson's Commanders, Joe Haymes, and Buddy Rogers...
  
  
• Tram: Frank Trumbauer
• Trane: John Coltrane
  John Coltrane
  John William 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 in jazz and later was at the forefront of free jazz...
  
  
• Tricky Sam: Joe Nanton
• Truck: Truck Parham
  Truck Parham
  Charles Valdez "Truck" Parham was an American jazz double-bassist.Parham played professional sports early in his career; he was a boxer and played football with the Chicago Negro All Stars. He played drums before settling on bass, and studied under Walter Page...
  
  
• Trummy: Trummy Young
  Trummy Young
  James "Trummy" Young was a trombonist in the swing era. Although he was never really a star or a bandleader himself, he did have one hit with his version of "Margie," which he played and sang with Jimmie Lunceford's Time-Life Orchestra.-Biography:Growing up in Savannah, GA and Richmond, VA, Young...
  
  
• Tubby: Tubby Hall
  Tubby Hall
  Alfred "Tubby" Hall was a jazz drummer.Hall was born in Sellers, Louisiana; his family moved to New Orleans in his childhood. His younger brother Minor "Ram" Hall also became a professional drummer...
  
  
• Tubby: Tubby Hayes
  Tubby Hayes
  Edward Brian "Tubby" Hayes was an English jazz multi-instrumentalist, best known for his tenor saxophone playing in groups with fellow sax player Ronnie Scott and with trumpeter Jimmy Deuchar. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest British jazz instrumentalists.- Early life :Hayes was born...
  
   aka Tubbs
• Turk: Turk Murphy
  Turk Murphy
  Melvin Edward Alton “Turk” Murphy was renowned as a trombonist who played traditional and dixieland jazz in San Francisco....
  
  
• Tuts: Tuts Washington
  Tuts Washington
  Isidore "Tuts" Washington was an American Louisiana blues pianist, who exemplified the New Orleans rhythm and blues style, also made famous by musicians such as Professor Longhair....
  
  
• Tutti: Tutti Camarata
  Tutti Camarata
  Salvador "Tutti" Camarata was a composer, arranger and trumpeter.-Early life and career:Born in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, Camarata studied music at Juilliard School in New York - a student of Bernard Wagenaar, Joseph Littau, Cesare Sodero, and Jan Meyerowitz...
  
  

V

• Velvet Fog (The): Mel Tormé
  Mel Tormé
  Melvin Howard Tormé , nicknamed The Velvet Fog, was an American musician, known for his jazz singing. He was also a jazz composer and arranger, a drummer, an actor in radio, film, and television, and the author of five books...
  
  
• Vice Prez: Paul Quinichette
  Paul Quinichette
  Paul Quinichette was a jazz tenor saxophone musician. He was known as the Vice President or Vice Prez for his uncanny emulation of the breathy style of Lester Young, known as Prez. Young, who affectionately called everyone "Lady ****" , called him "Lady Q"...
  
  
• Voice (The): Frank Sinatra
  Frank Sinatra
  Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
  
   aka Ol' Blue Eyes

W

• Wes: Wes Montgomery
  Wes Montgomery
  John Leslie "Wes" Montgomery was an American jazz guitarist. He is widely considered one of the major jazz guitarists, emerging after such seminal figures as Django Reinhardt and Charlie Christian and influencing countless others, including Pat Martino, George Benson, Russell Malone, Emily...
  
  
• Whitey: Gordon Mitchell
  Whitey Mitchell
  Gordon "Whitey" Mitchell was an American jazz bassist and television writer/producer. He was born in Hackensack, New Jersey....
  
  
• Wig (The): Gerald Wiggins
  Gerald Wiggins
  Gerald Wiggins was a jazz pianist and organist. He studied classical, but switched to jazz in his teens. He began as a professional playing accompaniment to Stepin Fetchit. He worked with Louis Armstrong and Benny Carter. In the 1940s he moved to Los Angeles where he played music for television...
  
  
• Wild: Wild Bill Davis
  Wild Bill Davis
  Wild Bill Davis was the stage name of American jazz pianist, organist, and arranger William Strethen Davis.Davis was born in Glasgow, Missouri...
  
  
• Wild: Bill Davison
• Wingy: Joseph Manone
• Wooden: Wooden Joe Nicholas
  Wooden Joe Nicholas
  Wooden Joe Nicholas was an American jazz trumpeter and cornetist, active on the early New Orleans jazz scene. He was born in New Orleans....
  
  

Z

• Ziggy: Ziggy Elman
  Ziggy Elman
  Harry Aaron Finkelman , better known by the stage name Ziggy Elman, was an American jazz trumpeter most associated with Benny Goodman, though he also led his own Ziggy Elman and His Orchestra....
  
  
• Zoot: Jack Sims
  Zoot Sims
  John Haley "Zoot" Sims was an American jazz saxophonist, playing mainly tenor and soprano.-Biography:He was born in Inglewood, California, the son of vaudeville performers Kate Haley and John Sims. Growing up in a performing family, Sims learned to play both drums and clarinet at an early age...
  
  
• Zurdo: Enrique Roizner
• Zutty: Zutty Singleton

See also

• Jazz royalty
  Jazz royalty
  Jazz royalty is a term that reflects the many great jazz musicians who have been termed as musically gifted, honorific, "aristocratic" or "royal" and had titles added to their names or nicknames due to their strong musical abilities....
  
  
• List of best-selling music artists
• List of honorific titles in popular music
• List of nicknames of blues musicians
• List of number-one hits (United States)
• List of stage names
• Pop icon
  Pop icon
  A pop icon is a celebrity, character, or object whose exposure in pop culture constitutes a defining characteristic of a given society or era. The categorization is usually associated with elements such as longevity, ubiquity, and distinction. Moreover, "pop icon" status is distinguishable from...
  
  
• Popular culture
  Popular culture
  Popular culture is the totality of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes, images and other phenomena that are deemed preferred per an informal consensus within the mainstream of a given culture, especially Western culture of the early to mid 20th century and the emerging global mainstream of the...
  
  
• Sobriquet
  Sobriquet
  A sobriquet is a nickname, sometimes assumed, but often given by another. It is usually a familiar name, distinct from a pseudonym assumed as a disguise, but a nickname which is familiar enough such that it can be used in place of a real name without the need of explanation...
  
  
• Teen idol
  Teen idol
  A teen idol is a celebrity who is widely idolized by teenagers; he or she is often young but not necessarily teenaged. Often teen idols are actors or pop singers, but some sports figures have an appeal to teenagers. Some teen idols began their careers as child actors...