Jazz

In 1962, James Brown made the leap from rising star to musical icon with a single performance at midnight in the Apollo Theater.

Before he became known as the Godfather of Soul, James Brown was a musically talented child growing up near the South Carolina-Georgia border.

Tommy Benford, born in 1905, was a remarkable jazz drummer whose journey began—like his brother Bill’s—at the Jenkins Orphanage in Charleston, South Carolina.

William “Bill” Benford, born in 1902, found his musical path through the legendary Jenkins Orphanage in Charleston, South Carolina. As a child, he toured with the orphanage band’s musical revue as early as 1915, gaining early exposure to jazz on the move.

In jazz, the rhythm section is more than just backup—it’s the engine, the compass, and the canvas for improvisation.

Improvisation may sound spontaneous, but jazz musicians spend countless hours preparing for that freedom.

Jazz musicians continue to expand the canon with modern tunes that have become new standards.

Jazz standards are the songs every jazz musician knows — the shared language of the genre. But those standards didn’t all come from jazz.

From the jump, jazz and dance have been inseparable—born in the same spaces of joy, resistance, and rhythm.

During Hollywood’s Golden Age—from the 1930s to the 1950s—jazz didn’t just play in the background. It shaped the mood, style, and swagger of American cinema.