William P. Gottlieb · Public domain

A Chicago-born jazz clarinetist and saxophonist who used his own money to organize and finance recording sessions for Tommy Ladnier and Sidney Bechet, at a time when getting such sessions made was as consequential as playing on them, and briefly managed Louis Armstrong. His 1946 autobiography Really the Blues, co-written with Bernard Wolfe, made him as well known for his colorful telling of jazz's early years as for his own playing.