Kevin Whitehead

Haynes, who died Nov. 12, was a heavy hitter, whose limber beat could lift the bandstand. His 65-year recording career was studded with more classics than we have time to even hint at.

Born Sept. 27, 1924, Powell helped set the style for jazz piano after WWII. While earlier pianists played busy bass patterns, he helped establish a more fragmented, punctuating role for the left hand.

Washington, who died in 1963, was born in Alabama and got her start singing in church. Throughout her relatively short, two-decade career, she boasted — and proved — that she could sing anything.