Booker Little

Booker Little
Birth name	Booker Little, Jr.
Born	April 2, 1938
Origin	Memphis, Tennessee, USA
Died	October 5, 1961 (aged 23)
Genres	Hard bop Avant-garde jazz
Instruments	Trumpet
Associated acts	Johnny Griffin, Eric Dolphy

Booker Little, Jr (2 April 1938, Memphis, Tennessee – 5 October 1961, New York City, New York) was an American jazz trumpeter and composer.

Despite his premature death from kidney failure at the age of 23, Little made an important contribution to jazz. Stylistically, his sound is rooted in the playing of Clifford Brown, featuring crisp articulation, a burnished tone and balanced phrasing. He is considered to be one of the first trumpet players to develop his own sound after Clifford Brown.

He studied at the Chicago Conservatory from 1956 to 1958 and it was during this time that he worked with leading local musicians such as Johnny Griffin. Later, after moving to New York, he became associated with drummer Max Roach and multi-instrumentalist virtuoso Eric Dolphy, recording with them both as a sideman and a leader. With Dolphy, he co-led a residency at the Five Spot club in New York in June 1961, from which three classic albums were eventually issued by Prestige Records. It was during this stint that he began to show promise of expanding the expressive range of the "vernacular" bebop idiom started by Clifford Brown in the mid-1950s. He also appeared on Dolphy's album Far Cry (New Jazz 8270), recorded December 21, 1960. He died of complications resulting from uremia on October 5, 1961 in New York City, New York.

Discography

As leader

• Booker Little 4 + Max Roach (1958) for United Artists
• Booker Little Quartet (1960) for Time
• Out Front (1961) for Candid, generally considered his best work
• Booker Little and Friend (reissued as Victory and Sorrow) for Bethlehem, recorded a few weeks before his death.

As sideman

• John Coltrane Quartet: Africa/Brass (Impulse!, 1960)
• Eric Dolphy: Far Cry (Prestige, 1960)
• Eric Dolphy: At the Five Spot (New Jazz / OJC, 1961)
• Abbey Lincoln: Straight Ahead (Candid, 1961)
• Max Roach: Deeds, Not Words (Riverside, 1958)
• Max Roach: Max Roach Plus Four on the Chicago Scene (EmArcy, 1958)
• Max Roach: We Insist! Max Roach's Freedom Now Suite (Candid, 1960)
• Max Roach: Percussion Bitter Sweet (Impulse!, 1961)
• Frank Strozier: The Fantastic Frank Strozier (Vee-Jay, 1960)

References

• Scott Yanow. "Booker Little Biography". Allmusic. VH1.com. http://www.vh1.com/artists/az/little_booker/bio.jhtml. Retrieved 2007-04-29. 
• Sinclair, John and Robert Levin (1970). An Interview with Booker Little - Music & Politics. World
• "Booker Little Discography". Jazz Discography Project. http://www.jazzdisco.org/little/dis/c/. Retrieved 2007-04-29. 
• Booker Little Interview by Robert Levin