Portal:Jazz/Did you know/6

 • ... that Chicago composer Margaret Bonds (pictured, left) wrote her first work, the Marquette Street Blues, at the age of five?
 • ... that the early musical influences of Austrian jazz-fusion guitarist Alex Machacek, who has been praised by legends like John McLaughlin, included heavy metal bands like Iron Maiden and KISS
 • ... that Erin Bode (pictured, right) performed with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra for three seasons before starting her recording career as a singer?

June - December 2006