Jazz in the post-war years: In the early 1940s, bebop-style performers began to shift jazz from danceable popular music toward a more challenging "musician's music." The most influential bebop musicians included saxophonist Charlie Parker, pianists Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk, trumpeters Dizzy Gillespie and Clifford Brown, and drummer Max Roach. Divorcing itself from dance music, bebop established itself more as an art form, thus lessening its potential popular and commercial appeal. Composer Gunther Schuller wrote, "In 1943 I heard the great Earl Hines band which had Bird in it and all those other great musicians. They were playing all the flatted
Washington School for the Blind the State School for the Deaf. Jazz singer and pianist Diane Schuur, blind since birth from retinopathy of prematurity, attended the Washington State School for the Blind from ages four to seven, in the late 1950s to early 1960s. She lived in Vancouver at the school but was able to commute home by train to suburban Seattle on her own. In her twenties, her talent was recognized by jazz musicians Dizzie Gillespie and Stan Getz. She has made over 20 albums including the Grammy-winning Diane Schuur & the Count Basie Orchestra. She has performed at Carnegie Hall, The White House