BUDDY COLLETTE
Genres: Cool Jazz, Latin Jazz, Exotica, Bop, Big Band • United States

Buddy Collette (born William Marcel Collette August 6, 1921 in Los Angeles, California) is an American tenor saxophonist, flautist, and clarinetist. He was highly influential in the West coast jazz and West Coast blues mediums, also collaborating with saxophonist Dexter Gordon, drummer Chico Hamilton, and his lifelong friend, bassist Charles Mingus. At age 12 Collette took up the alto-saxophone and led his first group which included Britt Woodman on trombone and Charles Mingus on bass. At 17 he started playing professionally. After serving as a U.S. Navy band leader, he played with the Stars of Swing (featuring Woodman, Mingus and Lucky Thompson). Along with saxophonist Dexter Gordon bassist Charles Mingus, and drummer Chico Hamilton, he helped keep bebop alive in Los Angeles' historic Central Avenue neighborhood. In the early 1950s he worked as a studio musician, also becoming the first African American musician to perform on television, on Groucho Marx's read more...