Which jazz musician are you most closely connected to?

Question

April is Jazz Appreciation Month, so we're featuring Duke Ellington and other jazz greats in the Connection Finder this week.

Featured alongside him are:

• George Benson
• John Coltrane
• Chick Corea
• Miles Davis
• Peggy Lee
• Big Miller
• Glenn Miller
• Jack Purvis
• Alice Babs
• Sarah Vaughan

Which one is most closely connected to you? If you're one of the 25.6 million of us who are connected to each other on our big tree you can check with the Connection Finder.

You can check for shared ancestors with the Relationship Finder. Are you a cousin to any of them? Your Relationship Finder Quick Links page (see your profile pull-down menu under "Relationships") has quick links for several notable groups.

Special feature: Check out how you're connected to other notables by using the green MyConnections button in the upper right hand corner of the category page. Browse related categories like Jazz Musicians, Swing Musicians, and Big Band Leaders.

Let us know how you're related below! If you want to share your connection on social media with cousins and friends, click the "get shareable image" below the results, e.g. Big Miller and Glenn Miller. Then just upload it along with the URL of your direct connection. (Please refrain from sharing your connection on the featured profiles themselves, though. It clutters conversations on research and collaboration. Thanks!)

Help us with next week's feature: Plant Experts. Help us choose and improve profiles for it.

Comments

I added [[Category:Jazz Musicians]] to Jazz Pianist Jimmy Rowles  [[Hunter-15718|James George (Hunter) Rowles (1918-1998)]]  profile.
Will he appear as James Hunter (birth name) or James Rowles (adopted name) in the list of Jazz Musicians?
Thanks,
Darryl
Didn't wait long enough - He appears as James (Hunter) Rowles 19 Aug 1918 Spokane, Spokane, Washington, United States - 28 May 1998 

Answer 1

Jack Purvis is 18 Degrees from Eric Weddington

Answer 2

I am most closely connected to Jack Purvis at 25 degrees.

Answer 3

I am 26 degrees from Duke Ellington, 23 degrees from George Benson, 31 degrees from John Coltrane, 28 degrees from Chick Corea, 43 degrees from Miles Davis, 20 degrees from Norma Egstrom, 13 degrees from Glenn Miller, 35 degrees from Clarence Miller, 17 degrees from Jack Purvis(my 14c 2xr), 35 degrees from Alice Sjöblom, 19 degrees from Sarah Vaughan and 19 degrees from Pip Sheppard (my 18c 1xr).  

Answer 4

21 degrees from Jack Purvis and 21 degrees from Glenn Miller.

Answer 5

I am most closely connected to Jack Purvis at 21 degrees of separation.

• 21 degrees from Jack Purvis
• 24 degrees from Norma Egstrom
• 24 degrees from Glenn Miller
• 25 degrees from George Benson
• 28 degrees from Chick Corea
• 28 degrees from Sarah Vaughan
• 29 degrees from Duke Ellington
• 30 degrees from John Coltrane
• 34 degrees from Clarence Miller
• 38 degrees from Alice Sjöblom
• 45 degrees from Miles Davis

Answer 6

I'm most closely related to Jack F. Purvis at 20 degrees. We are 35 degrees away from the most common direct ancestor Dorothy Stapleton on my father's line.

Answer 7

15 degrees to Peggy Lee thanks to a brief marriage to my 7th cousin Dewey Martin.

Otherwise, I'm not very jazzy.  Mostly in the 20 to 32 degree range.

Answer 8

I am closest to fellow WikiTreer, Pip Sheppard.  We are 14 degrees apart, and his 4th great-grandfather and my 5th great-grandfather were brothers!  Pip was my greeter when I joined WikiTree, so this was fun to learn!

As for the jazz musicians, my closest connection is Jack Purvis, at 16 degrees.  He is also a cousin, the only one for me in this group (unusual, I usually have at least a couple!)--13th cousin, 3 times removed.

Answer 9

19 degrees from Jack Purvis, who is also a cousin--12th cousin, 4 times removed.  No other cousins for me in this group.

Answer 10

• 18 degrees from Jack F. Purvis (1906 - 1962) - 18th Cousin twice removed
• 20 degrees from Alton Glenn Miller (1904 - abt. 1944)
• 22 degrees from George Benson
• 22 degrees from Norma Deloris Egstrom (1920 - 2002)
• 27 degrees from Armando Anthony Corea (1941 - 2021)
• 28 degrees from Sarah Lois Vaughan (abt. 1924 - 1990)
• 29 degrees from Edward Kennedy Ellington (1899 - 1974)
• 29 degrees from John William Coltrane (1926 - 1967)
• 34 degrees from Hildur Alice (Nilsson) Sjöblom (1924 - 2014)
• 35 degrees from Clarence Horatio Miller (1922 - 1992)
• 42 degrees from Miles Dewey Davis III (1926 - 1991)

Answer 11

19 degrees from Norma Egstrom
20 degrees from Jack Purvis (17th cousins, 3x removed)
22 degrees from Glenn Miller
27 degrees from George Benson
27 degrees from John Coltrane
28 degrees from Chick Corea
28 degrees from Sarah Vaughan
30 degrees from Duke Ellington
33 degrees from Alice Sjöblom
35 degrees from Clarence Miller
39 degrees from Miles Davis

Answer 12

28 degrees from Glenn Miller

28 degrees from Jack Purvis

29 degrees from Peggy Lee

33 degrees from George Benson

33 degrees from Chick Corea

34 degrees from John Coltrane

36 degrees from Duke Ellington

37 degrees from Sarah Vaughan

39 degrees from Alice Babs

40 degrees from Big Miller

50 degrees from Miles Davis

Answer 13

I am:

• 17 degrees from Jack Purvis as well as 18C1R from him, through our mothers.

And, I am: 

• 14 degrees from Pip Sheppard and 14C2R from him, through his father and my mother.

I am beginning to think that everyone is related to me through my mother. haha

Comments

Documented relationships are not necessarily representative of the closest genealogical ones, just more accessible.

---

Thank you for that information, Geoffrey. I know that, in some cases, WikiTree shows me a path through my mother, when there is a closer relationship through my father.  I guess I don't have enough of his family added to the tree yet for it to find those relationships.

Answer 14

I am the profile manager for the legendary jazz musician "Pepper Adams" (https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Adams-51648).  I'm wondering why his name doesn't show up in this list of jazz musicians.

Answer 15

• 21 degrees: Jack Purvis (17th cousins.3xr)
• 21 degrees: Glenn Miller
• 23 degrees: Norma Egstrom
• 27 degrees: George Benson
• 28 degrees: John Coltrane & Chick Corea
• 30 degrees: Sarah Vaughan
• 34 degrees: Duke Ellington
• 37 degrees: Clarence Miller & Alice Sjoblom
• 39 degrees: Miles Davis

Answer 16

Just Jack Purvis - 13th cousins, 3x removed.

related via  Eleanor Sinclair Countess of Atholl  (1457-1519)

Interesting, since my DNA on my father's side shows Sinclair not Sutherland. This Sinclair relative is on my mother's side.

Answer 17

So it appears you missed one. 'Billy' Maxted (Wm. George Maxted) was my second cousin once removed. He was best known for his amazing leadership of the 'Manhattan Jazz Band' that played in the NY area during the 'Big Band' era of the 1940s. Much has been said about him, which I included in my book on the Maxted genealogy ~ "Looking Back ~ Looking Forward." He produced several LPs, many of which are still hanging around as collectors' items. See his wikitree profile ~ Maxted-165. From Will Connelly (Florida musician) - "Billy will be forever memorialized by the legacy of the great - and still played (arrangements) he wrote for Benny Goodman, Bob Crosby and other leaders."

Comments

27 degrees from Billy Maxted 6 branches (4-3-4-5-9-3)  :)

Answer 18

Jack Purvis 25 degrees.

These quizzes rarely get much closer than that distance from me.  (Surprising exception: Mick Jagger at 20 degrees by a single marriage.)

Have I missed the ones about Mary Boleyn or the Rothschilds or Rockefellers, or nautical figures such as the Sea Wolf, or Celine Dion?

Answer 19

3 degrees from Dottie Reid [Reid-3947]]via my adoptive parents. (My aunt so that should be 3 degrees?)

Answer 20

20 degrees from Jack Purvis

21 degrees from Glen Miller

23 degrees from Norma Egstrom

26 degrees from John Coltrane

27 degrees from Chick Corea

29 degrees from George Benson

29 degrees from Sarah Vaughan

31 degrees from Duke Ellington

34 degrees from Clarence Miller

36 degrees from Alice Sjöblom

41 degrees from Miles Davis

20 degrees from Pip Sheppard. Pip was my  Wikitree greeter; thank you, Pip, for the warm welcome.  14th cousins once removed MRCA Elizabeth (Hilton) Thimbleby.