MUSIC

Pianist Junior Mance is "so steeped in the blues tradition that he carries it along everywhere" (-Encyclopedia of Jazz). Mance's feeling for the blues permeates his sophisticated piano voice, which runs the stylistic gamut from bop to boogie-woogie. Indeed, "Mance seems capable of handling all manner of music with equal dexterity, a rare commodity these days" (-Toronto Star).

As a young man, Mance left his native Chicago to play with saxophone legends Gene Ammons and Lester Young. He was drafted into the Army in 1951 and narrowly avoided deployment to Korea when none other than Cannonball Adderley requested his services on the home front in the 36th Army Band. The affiliation with Adderley continued into peace-time, and Mance also gigged with many of jazz's greatest artists, including Dizzy Gillespie, Dinah Washington, Joe Williams and many more.

He has led his own groups on more than thirty recordings, and his quintet's latest album, Out South, was released in March 2010. After more than seven decades at the keys, Mance still delivers "the kind of electrifying performance that is chalked up permanently in the memories of everyone who [hears] it" (-New York Times).