Buddy Collette: Biography

Buddy Collette
Birth Name:
William Marcell Collette

Born:
Aug 6, 1921 in Los Angeles, CA

Genres:
Classical Music, Piano and Jump Blues Music, Jazz Music, Cool Jazz Music

Decades Active:
1950's|1960's|1970's|1980's|1990's|2000's


Artistic Quality
Medium
Cultural Impact
Medium
Popularity
Medium



An important force in the Los Angeles jazz community, Buddy Collette was an early pioneer at playing jazz on the flute. Collette started on piano as a child and then gradually learned all of the woodwinds. He played with Les Hite in 1942; led a dance band while in the Navy during World War II; and then freelanced in the L.A. area with such bands as the Stars of Swing (1946), Edgar Hayes, Louis Jordan, Benny Carter, and Gerald Wilson (19491950). An early teacher of Charles Mingus, Collette became the first black musician to get a permanent spot in a West Coast studio band (19511955). He gained his greatest recognition as an important member of the Chico Hamilton Quintet (19551956), and he recorded several albums as a leader in the mid to late '50s for Contemporary. Otherwise, he mostly stuck to the L.A. area, freelancing, working in the studios, playing in clubs, teaching, and inspiring younger musicians. Although a fine tenor player and a good clarinetist, Collette's most distinctive voice is on flute; he recorded an album with one of his former students, the great James Newton (1989). In addition, Collette participated in a reunion of the Chico Hamilton Quintet, and recorded a twodisc "talking record" for the Issues label in 1994, in which he discussed some of what he had seen and experienced through the years.

- Scott Yanow, All Music Guide

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