MILES DAVIS, Trumpet, 1926, Alton, Il.
Miles grew up in Saint Louis, Missouri the son of a wealthy dentist on a 200 acre estate. He took up the trumpet at 13 and studied music theory in high school. He was always very much influenced by Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington, and decided to continue his studies at the Institute of Musical Art. New York and Bebop interrupted his studies, he dropped out of school and joined Charlie Parker's band replacing Dizzy Gillespie who had gone to California with a new group of his own. He was barely in his 20s but he learned a lot on the stand with Monk and Byrd. In 1949 Miles formed his Jazz Nonet and wrote music with Gil Evans and Gerry Mulligan for "Birth of the Cool". It was a dreamy poetic sound with complex harmonies and a whole new direction for jazz. In 1955 Miles made an appearance at the Newport Jazz Festival and his sensational improvizing there brought him wide recognition. Throughout his career Miles was always looking for new sounds and new avenues for music and in the process discovered a lot of talent, John Coltrane, Bill Evans, and Wayne Shorter to name a few. One of the best loved albums in jazz is "Kind of Blue", a modal jazz creation done by the Miles Davis quintet in 1959. This album is actually the all-time biggest selling jazz album ever made because new listeners have been discovering it every year. Ten years later Miles was looking for something simpler, more African and rhythmic, and he created jazz fusion with "Bitches Brew". Miles Davis was an inspiring innovator and composer for his entire life. He died in 1991.
Ziggy Elman, Trumpet, 1914, Philadelphia, Pa
Ziggy Elman was born in Philadelphia but grew up in Atlantic City N. J. where he took lessons on both, reed instruments and the trumpet. During the early '30s he worked in a local band led by Alex Bartha based at the famous Steel Pier in Atlantic City. It was here that Benny Goodman heard Ziggy and convinced him to leave Bartha and join his orchestra in 1936. Goodman featured Elman on numerous recordings, using his powerful tone to advantage on such recordings as "Bei Mir Bist Du Schon", "Zaggin With Zig", and one of Elman's compositions, "And The Angels Sing". Ziggy (like Harry James, Gene Krupa, Lionel Hampton, and many others) gained his fame while with Benny. After leaving Goodman he was in demand for small group playing, notably with Lionel Hampton. Ziggy later worked for Tommy Dorsey, recording "Swing High", and "Swanee River", both hits for Tommy. Ziggy next spent several years in the army and then returned to work with Dorsey. Toward the end of the '40s Elman led several of his own bands, and also worked again for Tommy Dorsey several times. In 1956 illness forced Ziggy into semi-retirement, and and worked infrequently thereafter. One of the most exciting trumpet sections in big band history was comprised of Ziggy, Harry James, and Chris Griffin in Benny Goodman's band of 1938. Ziggy Elman died in 1968.
Shorty Baker, Trumpet, 1914, New York, N.Y.
Shorty's first instrument was the drums, and it wasn't until the late '20s that he began playing the trumpet in his brother's band. His brother was the trombonist Winfield Baker. In the early 1930s Shorty worked with Fate Marable and Erskine Tate before joining Don Redman's band. He worked briefly with Duke Ellington in 1938 and then again at intervals from 1942 to 1962. From 1940 to 1942 Shorty worked with Mary Lou Williams, whom he married in1942. For several years, in the early '40s, he worked as a freelance musician in New York and up and down the East Coast. From 1959 he led his own band for a long gig at the Metropole, in New York City. During this period he also recorded with Doc Cheatham and Bud Freeman. As a big-band player Shorty was much in demand, known for his careful dynamics, phrasing, and reading ability. In his wonderful solo playing he was known for his fine, pure tone and an elegant lyricism. Ellington said of Shorty, "With his phenominal phrasing and tone control he was an immense asset, he ad-libbed hot or blues.....his way of playing a melody was absolutely personal, and he had no bad notes at all". Shorty Baker died in 1966.
Peggy Lee, Singer/Composer, 1920, Jamestown, OH
Peggy was a world-class popular singer whose talents led her regularly into jazz surroundings. Her time with Benny Goodman, in the early '40s, established her as a blues singer of outstanding talent, with recordings like "Blues In The Night" and "Why Don't You Do Right". At that point Lee married guitarist Dave Barbour and temporarily retired, but she came back in 1944 to record with the Capitol Jazzmen ("Ain't Goin ' No Place", "That Old Feeling"). Over the next 15 years Peggy recorded numerous hits for Capitol and Decca, including compositions she co-wrote with Barbour, such as "It's A Good Day", "Manana", and "Fever", a catalogue that makes her one of the great twentieth-century popular composers. Amid her later, more commercial output, there were regular returns to jazz formats. One of her classic albums (1953) was "Black Coffee", which featured the magnificent twelve-bar blues title track. Two years later Peggy won an Oscar nomination for her role in "Pete Kelly's Blues", and placed her in the company of Dixieland masters such as Dick Cathcart and Matty Matlock. Her albums "Beauty and The Beast" and "Mink Jazz" attained classic status, but Peggy never slowed down despite illness during her last years. She appeared in Britain in the early 1990s, and in 1994 was the subject of a Peggy Lee Celebration Concert featuring Kid Lang , Cleo Laine, and many more international stars. Peggy Lee died in 2002.
