Roots of Joe Williams

Annie Ross was a British-born American singer and actress, best known as a member of the influential jazz vocal trio Lambert, Hendricks & Ross. She helped pioneer the vocalese style of jazz singing, with a style described by critic Dave Gelly as "a kind of dreamy watchfulness that is a definition of 1950s hip." In 2010, she was named a Jazz Master by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Thaddeus Joseph Jones was an American jazz trumpeter, composer and bandleader who has been called "one of the all-time greatest jazz trumpet soloists".