Wally Heider (né Wallace Beck Heider; 20 May 1922 Sheridan, Oregon – 22 March 1989) was an American recording engineer and recording studio owner who refined and advanced the art of studio and remote recording and was instrumental in recording the San Francisco Sound in the late 1960s and early 1970s, recording notable acts including Jefferson Airplane, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Van Morrison, the Grateful Dead, Creedence Clearwater Revival, and Santana.

True, James Melvin Lunceford’s musical career could be tracked back to 1926 when he received his music degree from Fisk University, but it could be argued that his musical journey really began as Athletic Director at Manassas High in Memphis, TN one year later.

It was then that Jimmie Lunceford (later to be jokingly called “Piggie” by his band mates) organized a group of students under the name Chickasaw Syncopators which evolved into his namesake orchestra.

Born of Jamaican immigrants, Carmen Mercedes McRae started her musical journey at age 8 when she started taking piano lessons. Her parents had high hopes for a brilliant concert pianist to emerge from those Harlem streets, but Carmen had other plans. Admitting in an interview years later that she would hide sheet music popular in the late 20’s mixed in with Mozart and Chopin for those special occasions when her parents were out of earshot.

Her unmatched vocal talent, determination and hopes of aspiring to the level of her idol, Billie Holiday, (not to mention winning an amateur talent contest at the historic Apollo Theater at age 17) earned her recognition from DownBeat magazine as 1954’s best new artist.

The Red Hill Inn began life as a blocky farmhouse somewhere between New Jersey and Pennsylvania (Pennsauken N.J. to be exact) but over time had evolved into first a heaven for weary travelers then eventually, a hot spot for anyone with an itch for some entertainment just a swinging eighth note away from Philly.

He pioneered Afro-Cuban jazz and won several Grammy Awards. Scott Yanow wrote, "Dizzy Gillespie's contributions to jazz were huge. One of the greatest jazz trumpeters of all time, Gillespie was such a complex player that his contemporaries ended up being similar to those of Miles Davis and Fats Navarro instead, and it was not until Jon Faddis's emergence in the 1970s that Dizzy's style was successfully recreated Gillespie is remembered, by both critics and fans alike, as one of the greatest jazz trumpeters of all time".