Dear fellow students of jazz trumpet. Here’s a playlist I’ve put together covering most of the major contributors to the long tradition of jazz trumpet playing.
The list originally included more contemporary trumpet players, but I’ve decided it was too long to be easily digested, so perhaps I’ll post a ‘part 2’ at a later date. Curiously, there seems to be significantly fewer “celebrated jazz trumpet players” born after 1946 until we reach the 1960s where the names become very well-known again. This poses some interesting questions, but for now I’ve just used this ‘generational gap’ as a natural border between this traditional lineage and any potential ‘part 2’.
I’ve put them in order of birth year, not in the order that the recordings were made. I hope these selections serve as a good introduction to some players you may not have checked out, or perhaps some new recordings of players you know already.
Happy listening
Joe “King” Oliver (1881 – 1938)
Dipper Mouth Blues
Freddie Keppard (1890 – 1933)
Stockyard Strutt
Louis Armstrong (1901 – 1971)
Struttin’ with Some Barbecue
Wild Man Blues
Potato Head Blues
Bix Beiderbecke (1903 – 1931)
Singin’ The Blues
“Bubber” Miley (1903 – 1932)
East St Louis Toodle-Oo
Valaida Snow (1904 – 1956)
St Louis Blues
Rex Stewart (1907 – 1967)
Jug Blues
Roy Eldridge (1911 – 1989)
Heckler’s Hop
“Cootie” Williams (1911 – 1985)
Fly Right (Epistrophy)
Harry “Sweets” Edison (1915 – 1999)
Did You Call Her Today
Charlie Shavers (1917 – 1971)
Dizzy’s Dilemma
“Dizzy” Gillespie (1917 – 1993)
Woody’n You
Be-Bop
Clark Terry (1920 – 2015)
Haig & Haig
“Fats” Navarro (1923 – 1950)
Fats Flats
The Street Beat
Kenny Dorham (1924 – 1972)
Lady Bird
Nobody Else But Me
Teeter Totter
Miles Davis (1926 – 1991)
Good Bait
Freddie Freeloader
If I Were A Bell
Stella by Starlight
Clora Bryant (1927 – 2019)
Gypsy In My Soul
Art Farmer (1928 – 1999)
Fair Weather
Cocodrilo
Chet Baker (1929 – 1988)
Freeway
Autumn Leaves
Clifford Brown (1930 – 1956)
A Night In Tunisia
Stompin’ At The Savoy
Pent-Up House
“Blue” Mitchell (1930 – 1979)
I’ll Close My Eyes
Kenny Wheeler (1930 – 2014)
Smatter
Nat Adderley (1931 – 2000)
This Here
Donald Byrd (1932 – 2013)
My Girl Shirl
Don Cherry (1936 – 1995)
W.R.U.
Lee Morgan (1938 – 1972)
Moanin’ (alternate take)
Gary’s Notebook
Booker Little (1938 – 1961)
Mrs Parker of K.C.
Bee Vamp
Freddie Hubbard (1938 – 2008)
Birdlike
Straight Up And Down
One Finger Snap
Lester Bowie (1941 – 1999)
3 in 1 (Three In One)
Woody Shaw (1944 – 1989)
Rosewood
Fenja
Randy Brecker (1945 – )
Reach Out
Tom Harrell (1946 – )
Scrapple From The Apple
Joy Spring
