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Born in 1901 in New Orleans, the cradle of jazz, Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong is the most important figure to emerge from the musically rich city. He first made his mark in the band led by cornetist Joe Oliver, whom he followed to Chicago in 1922, cutting his first records with the group the following year. Armstrong’s growing fame and feverish creativity led him to form his own groups, The Hot Fives and The Hot Sevens, between 1925 and 1928. Early on he embraced the contrapuntal style of early jazz mastered by Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band, but he soon pioneered the jazz solo, an extended improvisation gliding through the chord changes of each tune. His devastating technical mastery eclipsed that of his peers, and his brilliantly melodic, inherently bluesy, and rhythmically inventive playing paved the way to the swing quality that so largely defines the music. He used his raspy, avuncular singing to forge a second weapon on par with his horn work in both originality and influence, transforming scat singing into an art form, and rode it to mainstream success. By the ’30s he was a pop star, touring in Europe, appearing in Hollywood movies, and leading a buoyant big band. Adapting to the declining appeal of swing orchestra, in 1947 Armstrong debuted a smaller, more nimble all-star band. He endured on the pop charts despite changing tastes, scoring pop hits in the ’50s (“Mack the Knife”) and the ’60s (“Hello, Dolly!” and “What a Wonderful World”). Given his iconic status and international fame, he was enlisted as a cultural ambassador by the U.S. State Department. He died in 1971, but the magnetism and power of his work remain undiminished, the product of a lifelong elevation of jazz’s bawdy roots into one of America’s finest cultural achievements.

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Trumpeter and singer Chet Baker’s father was a professional guitarist who gave up the instrument to support his family during the Great Depression. ∙ In 1946, Baker dropped out of school at age 16 to enlist in the U.S. Army, where he played trumpet in military bands. ∙ Even before he made his first album as a bandleader, he had already won the DownBeat poll as the best trumpet player in jazz—at age 24. ∙ Along with Miles Davis, Gerry Mulligan, and Dave Brubeck, Baker was one of the principal architects of the West Coast “cool school” jazz scene. ∙ His debut vocal album, Chet Baker Sings—which includes his acclaimed renditions of “My Funny Valentine,” “That Old Feeling,” and “I Fall In Love Too Easily”—was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. ∙ Baker’s artistry and movie-star good looks inspired the character Chad Bixby, played by Robert Wagner, in the 1960 film All the Fine Young Cannibals. ∙ Let’s Get Lost, the 1998 Oscar-nominated documentary filmed near the end of his life, chronicles how his remarkable talent had been derailed by drug addiction. ∙ Ethan Hawke played Baker in the 2015 biopic Born to Be Blue.

Bilal Sayeed Oliver, who goes by just Bilal, is an American R&B, funk and hip-hop performer and record producer who played locally in Philadelphia when he was young and attended The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music in New York. His 2001 debut album, '1st Born Second' went to number 31 on the Billboard 200 and subsequent releases 'Airtight's Revenge' (2010), 'A Love Surreal' (2013) and 'In Another Life' peaked in the lower 100 of the chart. The 2001 track 'Soul Sista' reached number 71 on the Billboard Hot 100. His 2020 schedule was to include appearances at venues in Detroit, New York City and Napa in California.