Billie Holiday, nicknamed "Lady Day", was an American jazz singer and songwriter who transformed jazz and pop singing in the 20th Century. Her vocal style, strongly inspired by jazz instrumentalists, pioneered a new way of manipulating phrasing and tempo. Critic John Bush wrote that Holiday "changed the art of American pop vocals forever."

Miles Davis was one of the most innovative, influential and respected figures in the history of music. He has been described as "one of the great innovators in jazz". The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll notes that "Davis was the most widely recognized jazz musician of his era, an outspoken social critic and an arbiter of style-in attitude and fashion-as well as music". His album Kind of Blue is the best-selling album in the history of jazz. Davis was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006.

Louis Armstrong, also known as "Satchmo", or "Pops", was an American jazz trumpeter and singer originally from New Orleans, Louisiana. He earned his earliest acclaim as a trumpet virtuoso, beginning in the 1920s with the studio recordings of his Hot Five and Hot Seven ensembles. With these recordings Armstrong charted a future for jazz in highly imaginative, powerful and emotionally-charged improvisation.