BENNY BAILEY

Benny Bailey

Ernest Harold 'Benny' Bailey (Cleveland, 13 August 1925 - Amsterdam, 14 April 2005) studies piano and flute in 1937-'38 , and takes up the trumpet in high school. His early influences include Louis Jordan, Harry James, Charlie Spivak and fellow townsman Freddie Webster. He studies trumpet at the Cleveland Conservatory ...
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Instruments

bugel, trompet

Mentioned in the biography of

1964   Gijs Hendriks
1992   Rob Pronk (1)

Biography Benny Bailey

Ernest Harold 'Benny' Bailey (Cleveland, 13 August 1925 - Amsterdam, 14 April 2005) studies piano and flute in 1937-'38 , and takes up the trumpet in high school. His early influences include Louis Jordan, Harry James, Charlie Spivak and fellow townsman Freddie Webster. He studies trumpet at the Cleveland Conservatory of Music, works with rhythm and blues and jazz bands, and becomes a member of Dizzy Gillespie's big band, with which he tours Europe. He soon develops into a bop trumpeter with a high range, who doesn't shy away from playing warm ballads nor from the rough-and-tumble plunger work. He supplies the Lionel Hampton Orchestra with a modern touch, and takes up residence in Europe in 1953, where he works with (radio) orchestras and local combos. Much of his best work, which originally appeared on LP, has been reissued posthumously on CD. His Swedish recordings with the Harry Arnold big band from 1958 have become available on Gambit in 2006, those with Jerry van Rooyen's international all star orchestra from 1971 on Sonorama, since 2009. Of the historical small band recordings reissued after 2005 The Music Of Quincy Jones (from 1959 and 1961), Mirrors (from 1971), For Heaven's Sake (1988), I Thought About You (1996) and The Satchmo Legacy (1999) should receive a special mention.

1942 - 1947

Rhythm and blues and jazz with Bull Moose Jackson, Scatman Crothers, Jay McShann and Teddy Edwards. Recording debut with Edwards in July 1947.

1947 - 1948

He plays bebop with the Dizzy Gillespie Orchestra; visits Europe for the first time with this band, in 1948.

1948 - 1953

Soloist with the Lionel Hampton Orchestra; with this band he performs in the Netherlands for the first time, in 1953.

1953

Comes to Europe with tenorist Freddie Mitchell's rhythm and blues band.From 1953 he starts working as a freelancer in Europe, and takes up residence in Stockholm.

1957 - 1959

Soloist with Harry Arnold's radio orchestra.

1959 - 1960

He is one of the all stars of the Quincy Jones Orchestra; tour with the blues opera Free And Easy under Jones's leadership. Quincy Jones, who composes the feature Meet Benny Bailey for him, says: 'Benny has phenomenal technique, great control, and his own sound and phrasing. He is a completely authoritative trumpet player who never resorts to clichés and is never at a loss for original ideas.' (Leonard Feather: The Encyclopedia of Jazz in the Sixties, 1966).

1961 - 1962

Moves to Germany. Soloist with the radio orchestra of Sender Freies Berlin, and with the Kenny Clarke-Francy Boland Big Band (until 1973)

1964 - 1969

Regular engagement with the Orkester Max Greger.

1969 - 1979

Soloist with the Swiss radio orchestra in Geneva and the Kurt Edelhagen orchestra (until 1972). Performances in the Netherlands with Boy's Big Band, Eddie Engels, Peter Guidi, Daniele D'Agaro, Piet Noordijk, Ferdinand Povel, Gijs Hendriks, Rein de Graaff, Cees Slinger, Floris Nico Bunink, Frans Elsen, Peter Ypma, John Engels, Masha Bijlsma and others. Elsewhere in Europe he also plays with musicians from the musical vanguard, including Charles Mingus and Alexander von Schlippenbach. (In 1961 Bailey had already made live recordings with Eric Dolphy in Berlin.)
Mid 70s
Tours as a soloist with the George Gruntz Alpine Power Plant.

1980

Bailey returns to the United States, where he founds the Upper Manhattan Jazz Society with tenor saxophonist Charlie Rouse, and also plays with pianist Mal Waldron.

1983

Benny Bailey once again returns to Europe.

1986

Bailey tours with the Paris Reunion Band.

1991 - 2005

In 1991 he moves to Amsterdam permanently. Two years later Bailey's last great tour takes place, with Lionel Hampton's Golden Men of Jazz.

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