- Pharoah Sanders1940–2022
- Wayne Shorter1933–2023
- Albert Ayler1936–1970
- Eric Dolphy1928–1964
- Antônio Carlos Jobim1927–1994
- Herbie Hancock1940–
- Bill Evans1929–1980
- Wes Montgomery1923–1968
- Nina Simone1933–2003
- Ornette Coleman1930–2015
- Sun Ra1914–1993
- Charles Mingus1922–1979
- Dave Brubeck1920–2012
- Jimmy Smith1928–2005
- Cannonball Adderley1928–1975
- Art Blakey1919–1990
- John Coltrane1926–1967
- Sonny Rollins1930–
- Cecil Taylor1929–2018
- Horace Silver1928–2014
- Clifford Brown1930–1956
- Chet Baker1929–1988
- Miles Davis1926–1991
- Oscar Peterson1925–2007
- Stan Getz1927–1991
- Bud Powell1924–1966
- Thelonious Monk1917–1982
- Sarah Vaughan1924–1990
- Charlie Parker1920–1955
- Dizzy Gillespie1917–1993
- Nat King Cole1919–1965
- Charlie Christian1916–1942
- Billie Holiday1915–1959
- Coleman Hawkins1904–1969
- Ella Fitzgerald1917–1996
- Count Basie1904–1984
- Lester Young1909–1959
- Django Reinhardt1910–1953
- Art Tatum1909–1956
- Fats Waller1904–1943
- Bix Beiderbecke1903–1931
- Duke Ellington1899–1974
- Louis Armstrong1901–1971
- Sidney Bechet1897–1959
- Bessie Smith1894–1937
- King Oliver1885–1938
- Jelly Roll Morton1890–1941
- Scott Joplin1868–1917