Duke Ellington was born in Washington, D.C. to a middle-class family. He began playing the piano at age seven and his interest in the arts was fostered at an early age. His family supported his endeavors and he remained an arts student through high school. Although he received a scholarship to attend Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York, he did not accept it. He started playing in Broadway nightclubs in New York City at age seventeen. Ellington was a very talented musician who became internationally known after he became bandleader at The Cotton Club. He put together an orchestra of the very best talents around. He and his orchestra were considered the "house band" for The Cotton Club and they played at The Cotton Club six nights a week from 1922 to 1931. The club not only gave Ellington national exposure through radio broadcasts originating there, but enabled him to develop his repertoire while composing not only the dance tunes for the shows, but also the overtures, transitions, accompaniments, and "jungle" effects that gave him the freedom to experiment with orchestral colours and arrangements that touring bands rarely had. Ellington recorded over 100 compositions during this era and composed over 3,000 songs, while building the group that he led for nearly fifty years. In his fifty year career, he played over 20,000 performances in Europe, Latin America, the Middle East as well as Asia. Duke Ellington is widely considered as one of the twentieth century's best known African American celebrities; One of the most influential figures in jazz if not all of American music.

Cabell "Cab" Calloway was born in a middle-class family in Rochester, New York on Christmas Day in 1907 and was there until the age of 11. He was later raised in Baltimore, Maryland. His father, Cabell Calloway II, was a lawyer, and his mother, Martha Eulalia Reed, was a teacher and church organist. His parents recognized their son's musical talent, and he began private voice lessons in 1922. He continued to study music and voice throughout his formal schooling. Despite his parents' and vocal teachers' disapproval of jazz, Calloway began frequenting and eventually performing in many of Baltimore's jazz clubs, where he was mentored by drummer Chick Webb and pianist Johnny Jones. Cab Calloway replaced the Duke Ellington band in 1934. Many said that it was not so much Calloway's skill as a bandleader but his overall entertainer-style ability to grab the audience in addition to leading the band during his tenure at The Cotton Club. In the same way that radio and film captured the talents of Duke Ellington and his band, so did they with Cab Calloway. Cab Calloway started out in Chicago getting the chance to lead an 11-piece band called the Alabamians. When he became the bandleader at The Cotton Club, Calloway's band also toured around the world. He was a leader who liked to share the spotlight with talented people. An example of that was when he featured the Nicholas Brothers as a part of his gig in Stormy Weather in 1943.

Ella Jane Fitzgerald was born in Newport News, Va. on April 25, 1917. By the time Ella was thirteen, her mother had died from severe wounds due to a car accident and her "stepfather" Joe died from a heart attack soon after. Both Ella and her half-sister Frances moved in with Ella's aunt Virginia. After a short while, Ella started doing poorly in school and when she got in trouble with the police, she was taken into custoday and sent to reform school. She ended up out on her own by the age of fifteen due to being mistreated and beaten. An opportunity to be in the spotlight had arrived after Ella's name was pulled during a weekly drawing to perform at the Apollo. Initially planning to dance, Ella decided after telling the band that was playing, that she would sing Hoagy Carmichael's "Judy," a song she knew well because Connee Boswell's rendition of it was among her mother's favorites. Ella received a great response and the audience wanted an encore so Ella sang another song. A band member at the Apollo that night by the name of Benny Carter liked her voice so much that he introduced her to people who could help Ella launch her career. That was it-she ended up singing and traveling with the infamous Chick Webb's band, who was the house band at the famous Savoy Ballroom until his untimely death. His band was renamed Ella Fitzgerald's Famous Band after that and she became the bandleader. Ella was able to successfuly transition from the current music format to the new "bebop" format where she became famous for using her voice as an additional instrument by "scatting". Her voice, once known to be light enough to sound ageless became known for scat singing that she turned into an art form. Before she was 20 years old in 1936, she had recorded her first song and by the 1990s, Ella had recorded over 200 albums. In 1991, she gave her final concert at New York's renowned Carnegie Hall. It was the 26th time she performed there. Ella appeared on television variety shows and numerous programs, including "The Bing Crosby Show," "The Dinah Shore Show," "The Frank Sinatra Show," "The Ed Sullivan Show," "The Tonight Show," "The Nat King Cole Show," "The Andy Willams Show" and "The Dean Martin Show."
Ella was awarded numerous honors and in 1987, United States President Ronald Reagan awarded Ella the National Medal of Arts. It was one of her most prized moments. Later, France presented Ella with their Commander of Arts and Letters award, while Yale, Dartmouth and several other universities bestowed Ella with honorary doctorates. On June 15, 1996, Ella Fitzgerald died in her Beverly Hills home. She left behind her son Ray Jr, and her granddaughter, Alice.

Eleanora Fagan, naming herself Billie Holiday (also known as "Lady Day") after the famous Billie Dove entered the jazz scene in the 1930's. She arrived in New York to join her mother who relocated shortly before her daughter's arrival. According to her own story, Holiday was recruited for a brothel and was eventually jailed briefly for prostitution. At some point after 1930, she began singing at a small club in Brooklyn, and in a year or so moved to a Harlem club well known to jazz enthusiasts called Pods' and Jerry's. In 1933, age 18, she was working in another Harlem club, Monette's, where she was discovered by the producer and talent scout John Hammond. Hammond immediately arranged three recording sessions for her with Benny Goodman and found engagements for her in New York clubs. In 1935, he began recording her regularly, usually under the direction of Teddy Wilson, with studio bands that included many of the finest jazz musicians of the day. These recordings, made between 1935 and 1942, constitute a major body of jazz music; many include work by Lester Young, the saxophonist who played along with Billie Holiday.
Though aimed mainly at the black jukebox audience, the recordings caught the attention of musicians throughout America and soon other singers were working in Holiday's light, rhythmic manner. Popularity with a wider audience came more slowly. When Holiday joined Count Basie in 1937 and then Artie Shaw in 1938, she became one of the very first black women to work with a white orchestra, an impressive accomplishment of her time. She loved the styles of Louis Armstrong and the great blues singer Bessie Smith, and learned to use her voice like an instrument.

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