Roy Eldridge

USA, 1927–1980

American trumpeter (1911-1989), called Little Jazz. He played with a saxophonist's line rather than a trumpeter's, at speed and into the top of the horn, and he stands exactly between Armstrong and Gillespie - the man who made bebop trumpet possible without ever quite playing it.

MusicRoots documents 2 artists who influenced Roy Eldridge and 2 artists Roy Eldridge influenced in turn. Every connection cites a published source.

Who influenced Roy Eldridge?

• Louis Armstrong — Eldridge worked Armstrong's solos out by ear as a young man, the starting point he then pushed past.
• Coleman Hawkins — Eldridge set himself to play Hawkins's 1926 solo on 'The Stampede' on the trumpet - which is why his line moves like a saxophone's and why bebop could be played on a horn at all.

Which artists did Roy Eldridge influence?

• Dizzy Gillespie — Gillespie learned Eldridge's solos note for note in Philadelphia and named him as the channel through which the older trumpet reached him.
• Clark Terry — Eldridge is the other trumpeter Terry names.