On a recent visit to the House of Blues and Jazz, the tall, blond hostess was dressed in a floor-length evening gown, with a bright red hat angled down the front of her face and an intriguing Russian accent.

BBC: Reliving Shanghai��s 1930s past

Eigsti performs before a full house at Seiji Ozawa Hall at the 2004 Tanglewood Jazz Festival in Lenox, Mass.

NPR: Jazz Pianist Taylor Eigsti Dazzles at Tanglewood

By the time he was 19, Holland was playing with the house band at Ronnie Scott's, a legendary jazz club in London, where he got to play with Ben Webster and Coleman Hawkins.

NPR: Dave Holland: A Jazz Bassist's Bassist

In 1948, Valdes harnessed the influences of American jazz, Cuban melodies and African rhythms when he became the principal pianist and arranger for the house orchestra of Havana's Tropicana night club, the crown jewel of Cuban nightlife.

NPR: Bebo Valdes' Long Musical Journey

Last October John Matthews, owner of the Jazz Daiquiri Lounge on South Claiborne and a witness to the first murder, was shot 17 times in his own house.

ECONOMIST: A murderer sows terror, even from jail