In the late 1930s and early '40s, Herbie Nichols played piano in the bands of Herman Autrey, Illinois Jacquet, Lucky Thompson, and Arnett Cobb; mastering styles that ranged from small-group swing to Dixieland to early R&B. Nichols preference, however, was for bop, particularly the sounds of its more idiosyncratic practitioners. Sadly, though, for much of his career the only gigs he could secure were playing in more trad modes. In the early 1960s, he scored work with modern musicians closer to his sensibilities, among them Roswell Rudd and Archie Shepp, but by then he was terminally ill with leukemia. His recorded legacy, though small, is of outstanding quality: particularly two Blue Note trio sessions reissued as the double album THE THIRD WORLD.