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Booker Little

Booker Little was a prolific trumpeter and composer by any standard, but considering his tragically brief life, his musical achievements are astonishing. A Memphis native, he trained at the Chicago Conservatory of Music, where he impressed Sonny Rollins. This association led to a number of successful recordings with Max Roach in the late 1950s. Little went on to perform on other classic albums, such as John Coltrane’s Africa/Brass and Eric Dolphy’s At the Five Spot.

His trumpet sound was characterized both by undeniable technical facility and a dark tone that reflects the bittersweet nature of his life. But it is as a composer that Little left his real mark. Despite fluency in the language of Be-Bop, his own albums display a progressive slant toward composition -- albums such as Out Front are distinguished by dense, dissonant harmonies; tempo and meter shifts; and extended forms that give equal attention to composed and improvised sections.

Little suffered greatly due to the medical condition of uremia, and he died October 5, 1961 of kidney failure. He was 23 years old.

Max Roach: Deeds, Not Words

Read "Deeds, Not Words" reviewed by Richard J Salvucci

by Richard J Salvucci
January 29, 2025

Sometimes, someone listens to a recording mostly for one track. This is such a recording. Quite naturally, it involves drummer Max Roach. If he had to stake his reputation on one extended solo, some might say Roach on “Conversation" is the one. Not all drummers, suffice it to say, are melodic. But a first-time listener can be pardoned for being slightly overwhelmed by “Conversation"--and, perhaps, slightly underwhelmed by the remainder of the recording. In a way, ...

Album Review

Eric Dolphy: At Five Spot to Iron Man Revisited

Read "At Five Spot to Iron Man Revisited" reviewed by Alberto Bazzurro

by Alberto Bazzurro
April 22, 2024

Riunire in un unico CD di quasi ottanta minuti due capolavori cosa determina? Un capolavoro al quadrato, ovviamente, ed è quanto avviene in questo album semplicemente maestoso, i cui primi tre brani riprendono il live inciso al Five Spot il 16 luglio 1961 dal quintetto da favola riunito per l'occasione da Eric Dolphy, all'epoca trentatreenne, il cui nome iniziava finalmente a circolare con una certa insistenza nel mondo del jazz anche al di là dei colleghi che già ne conoscevano ...

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Profile

Introducing Booker Little

by Robert Levin
July 25, 2010

[Editor's Note: This article first appeared in Jazz & Pop Magazine, 1970. Little died in 1961, just a few months after this interview was originally published in Metronome]Booker Little, twenty-three year-old composer, arranger and trumpet player (the order is arbitrary, each role has equal importance to him), has lately come to demonstrate, in recordings and as the musical director of the Max Roach group, a talent that promises size.As is true of many jazz players of ...

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Album Review

Max Roach: We Insist! Freedom Now Suite

Read "We Insist! Freedom Now Suite" reviewed by Chris May

by Chris May
October 8, 2007

Re-released following the passing of drummer Max Roach in August 2007, We Insist! Freedom Now Suite (Candid, 1960) remains a work of enduring musical and social importance. Notwithstanding Roach's central role in the creation of bop, or his later hard bop explorations with trumpeter Clifford Brown, it is, by some margin, the most perfectly realised album he recorded. 1960 was the year in which black Americans' struggle for civil rights reached critical mass. In February, anti-segregationist lunch-counter sit-ins ...

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