Booker Little

Booker Little Jr. was born on the second of April 1938 at Memphis, Tennessee, the son of a Memphis Black-and-musical family of the principal post-Great-Migration Memphis Black community. He was raised in the principal Memphis Black community of the principal post-Second-World-War period.

He was instructed in clarinet from age four and trumpet from age twelve by his father and at the principal Memphis Manassas High School music programme.

He completed his secondary education at the Manassas High School at Memphis in 1954 — and attended the Chicago Conservatory of Music at Chicago from 1954 to 1958. He completed the bachelor's degree in trumpet performance at the Chicago Conservatory of Music in 1958.

He was hired in 1958 by the principal Max Roach Quintet at New York as principal trumpeter — at the principal post-1958 Max-Roach Quintet commercial-and-performance period after the death of the principal Roach-Quintet trumpeter Clifford Brown in 1956. He held the principal Max Roach Quintet trumpet position from 1958 to 1961.

He recorded the principal foundational Max Roach Quintet long-playing-record We Insist! Max Roach's Freedom Now Suite at the principal Candid Records at New York in August and September 1960 — featuring the principal vocalist Abbey Lincoln, the principal saxophonist Coleman Hawkins, and the principal percussionist Olatunji.

He recorded the principal foundational Eric Dolphy (placed in this archive) Five Spot long-playing-records at the principal Five Spot Cafe at New York in July 1961 — featuring Booker Little on trumpet, Eric Dolphy on alto saxophone and bass clarinet, the principal pianist Mal Waldron, the principal bassist Richard Davis, and the principal drummer Ed Blackwell.

He recorded approximately four principal Booker Little long-playing-records across the principal 1958 to 1961 Little-as-leader commercial period — including Booker Little 4 and Max Roach of June 1958, Booker Little of April 1960, Out Front of March and April 1961, and Booker Little and Friend of August 1961 (posthumous release).

He was a principal post-1958 American post-bop trumpeter-and-composer of the principal early-1960s American post-bop canon — and was at this day the principal early-1960s American post-bop trumpet-composer-and-improviser canon successor of the principal Clifford Brown post-bop trumpet canon.

He died at New York on the fifth of October 1961 of complications of uremia, at twenty-three.

He is honored here as the principal post-bop trumpet-composer of the early-1960s American post-bop tradition.