Roy Eldridge has been called the swing era’s finest trumpet soloist, though he was also an adept jazz pianist, drummer, and vocalist. As a trumpet player, he was the premier mainstream stylist of the 1940s, and has often been credited with bridging the gap from Louis ARMSTRONG’S swing to Dizzy GILLESPIE’S bebop through his aggressive, combative style. Known mostly for his stamina, fierce attack, and powerful high notes, Eldridge had complete control of the full register on his instrument, and often played tremendously fast solos in the middle and lower registers. Like most good bandleaders, he was renowned for bringing out the best in his fellow players, often pushing them to new heights of creativity.
Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on January 30, 1911, Eldridge was nicknamed “Little Jazz” by bandleader Elmer Snowden in the early 1930s. His early playing was influenced by the saxophone styles of Coleman HAWKINS and Benny CARTER, and he adapted a version of Hawkins’s “Stampede” for the Nighthawk Syncopaters dance band. He later drew inspiration from trumpeter and trombonist Jabbo Smith.
In 1927, Eldridge toured the Midwest with the bands of Lawrence “Speed” Webb, Zack Whyte, and Horace Henderson, though his profile as a soloist grew in Fletcher HENDERSON’S Dixie Stompers, which he joined in 1928, left, then rejoined in 1935. After settling in with his own band in Pittsburgh in 1933, Eldridge moved to New York in the early 1930s, where he quickly drew the attention of audiences and musicians. He played in a number of big bands such as McKinney’s Cotton Pickers and Teddy Hill’s band; recorded with Billie HOLIDAY and Benny GOODMAN; and co-led a band with his brother Joe.
Throughout his career, Eldridge moved back and forth between various big bands and fronting his own performing units. In 1936, he debuted his new band at Chicago’s Three Deuces, picking up a nightly radio broadcasting contract through the early 1940s.
In 1941, he broke racist social conventions by playing as featured soloist in the all-white Gene Krupa band. On extensive American tours and recording sessions with Krupa, Eldridge thrilled audiences with his solos on “After You’ve Gone,” “Rockin’ Chair,” and “Let Me Off Uptown,” which included a legendary vocal duet with singer Anita O'Day. This was not a happy period for Eldridge, however, as he suffered racial discrimination and harassment, being the only African-American in a white ensemble. When Krupa was jailed briefly in 1943 for employing an underage bandboy, Eldridge took over the band, but suffered a nervous breakdown that drove him from the group and led him to vow never again to work with a white band. From 1945–50, he again led his own group, but did work briefly with Artie Shaw in 1944 and toured Europe with Benny Goodman in 1950.
Eldridge then hit a crisis. He felt disillusioned with his playing and out of step with bebop’s new directions in trumpet playing. He took a sabbatical in Paris, recovered, and the following year became a featured artist with Norman Grantz’s Jazz at the Philharmonic.
In later years, Eldridge was revered as an elder statesman of jazz, having maintained a swing-based style while only dabbling with new techniques. From the 1950s through the 1970s, he toured and recorded with many famous names: Benny Carter, Oscar Peterson, Johnny HODGES, and Coleman HAWKINS; backed Ella FITZGERALD and Count BASIE; and co-led a quintet with Richie Kamuca. He began a long-standing engagement at Ryan’s in New York from 1971 until 1980, when a stroke curtailed his career. Eldridge died in New York on February 26, 1989.
Todd Denton
SEE ALSO:
BEBOP; BIG BAND JAZZ; SWING.
FURTHER READING
McCarthy, A. Big Band Jazz (New York: G. P. Putnam, 1974);
Shapiro, Nat, and Nat Hentoff, eds. The Jazz Makers (New York: Da Capo Press, 1979).
SUGGESTED LISTENING
At the Opera House; Big Sound of Little Jazz; Heckler’s Hop; Little Jazz; Roy and Diz; Montreux ′77; The Urbane Jazz of Roy Eldridge and Benny Carter.