Booker Little

Emerging as the first trumpeter to develop a personal voice after Clifford Brown's death, Booker Little displayed extraordinary promise that was cut short by his early passing. He took up the trumpet at age twelve and worked with Johnny Griffin plus the MJT + 3 during his time at the Chicago Conservatory. Little performed in Max Roach's band from 1958 to 1959 before turning to freelance engagements in New York. His credits include sessions with Roach and Abbey Lincoln, a spot on John Coltrane's Africa/Brass, and thorough documentation of a July 1961 Five Spot date with Eric Dolphy. Booker Little possessed a hauntingly melancholic tone whose wide interval leaps gestured toward the avant-garde even while he swung with hard-bop authority. He led four dates that yielded one album each for United Artists, Time, Candid, and Bethlehem, yet died of uremia at twenty-three, an especially painful loss.