There is an indescrible energy to Latin American music—but if you know your music theory, it's not so indescrible after all. A thorough packet provides definitions for terms like bolero, charanga, shekere, and tumbao before listing...

A good biography, with a good list of works, make this worthwhile, with links to related composers and at least one work, "Appalachian Spring."

This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Horace Silver, an American jazz pianist, composer, and bandleader, exemplary performer of what came to be called the hard bop style of the 1950s and '60s. The style was an extension of...

This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Herbie Nichols, an African-American jazz pianist and composer whose advanced bop-era concepts of rhythm, harmony, and form predicted aspects of free jazz.

Aaron Copland (1900-1990 CE) was one of the first composers to put jazzy music into symphonic music, Copland was also one of the greatest American composers. Read more about him and his work. Use RealAudio or Windows Media Player to...

This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Erroll Garner, a U.S. pianist and composer, one of the most virtuosic and popular pianists in jazz. Garner was influenced by Fats Waller and was entirely self-taught. He substituted for...

This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Adelaide Hall, an American-born jazz improviser whose wordless rhythms ushered in what became known as scat singing.

This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Lou Rawls, an American singer whose smooth baritone adapted easily to jazz, soul, gospel, and rhythm and blues.

This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Randy Weston, an American jazz pianist and composer noted for his use of African rhythms.

This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Sammy Price, an American pianist and bandleader, a jazz musician rooted in the old rhythm and blues and boogie-woogie traditions who had a long career as a soloist and accompanist.