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Nelson Boyd
Nelson Boyd
American musician
1
Oscar Pettiford
Oscar Pettiford
American musician
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Curley Russell
Curley Russell
American jazz musician
3
Budd Johnson
Budd Johnson
American musician
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Bud Powell
Bud Powell
American pianist and composer
5
Tommy Potter
Tommy Potter
American musician
6
Don Byas
Don Byas
American musician
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Fats Navarro
Fats Navarro
American jazz trumpeter
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Barry Harris
Barry Harris
American bebop jazz pianist
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Dizzy Gillespie
Dizzy Gillespie
American jazz trumpeter
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Max Roach
Max Roach
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Lucky Thompson
Lucky Thompson
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Coleman Hawkins
Coleman Hawkins
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Idrees Sulieman
Idrees Sulieman
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Charlie Parker
Charlie Parker
American jazz saxophonist and composer
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Joe Gordon
Joe Gordon
American trumpeter
16
Walter Davis
Walter Davis
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Billy Bauer
Billy Bauer
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Sabu Martinez
Sabu Martinez
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Ernie Henry
Ernie Henry
American musician
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Pierre Michelot
Pierre Michelot
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Sonny Stitt
Sonny Stitt
American jazz saxophonist
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Kenny Clarke
Kenny Clarke
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Johnny Griffin
Johnny Griffin
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Kenny Dorham
Kenny Dorham
American jazz trumpeter, singer, and composer
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Leonard Gaskin
Leonard Gaskin
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John Lewis
John Lewis
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Charlie Rouse
Charlie Rouse
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Sahib Shihab
Sahib Shihab
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Phil Woods
Phil Woods
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Al Haig
Al Haig
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Charlie Christian
Charlie Christian
American swing and jazz guitarist
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Art Taylor
Art Taylor
American jazz drummer
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Red Rodney
Red Rodney
American musician
34
Cecil Payne
Cecil Payne
American jazz saxophonist
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Stuff Smith
Stuff Smith
American musician
36
Al McKibbon
Al McKibbon
American musician
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Joe Carroll
Joe Carroll
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38
Dexter Gordon
Dexter Gordon
American jazz tenor saxophonist
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Walter Bishop Jr.
Walter Bishop Jr.
American jazz pianist, recording artist
40
John Ore
John Ore
American musician
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Sid Catlett
Sid Catlett
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Clyde Hart
Clyde Hart
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Bill DeArango
Bill DeArango
American musician
Benny Harris
American jazz trumpeter

Benny Harris

Intro
American jazz trumpeter
Genres
Music

"Little" Benny Harris (April 23, 1919 in New York City – May 11, 1975 in San Francisco) was an American bebop trumpeter and composer.

A self-taught musician, in the mid-1930s Benny Harris was already playing with Thelonious Monk. In later years, he participated to some of the jam sessions that gave birth to the bebop jazz style. Reportedly, it was Harris that persuaded Dizzy Gillespie of Charlie Parker's ability by playing one of Parkers's improvisations to Gillespie.

Harris's first major gig was in 1939 with Tiny Bradshaw. He played with Earl Hines on and off from 1941 to 1945, and worked the 52nd Street bebop circuit in New York City in the 1940s, where he collaborated with Benny Carter, John Kirby, Coleman Hawkins, Don Byas, and Thelonious Monk. He was with Boyd Raeburn from 1944–45 and Clyde Hart in 1944; he and Byas worked together again in 1945. He played less in the late 1940s, though he appeared with Dizzy Gillespie in 1949 and Charlie Parker in 1952. Tina Brooks' biographer, Michael Cuscuna reports that Harris was still performing around New York in 1957 (at the Blue Morocco jazz club in the Bronx), entertaining relationships with fellow musicians and discographic agents. However, he appears to have never recorded again.

Harris was never a well-known soloist, and is better known for his compositions, which include "Ornithology" (a signature Charlie Parker tune), "Crazeology", "Reets and I" (a Bud Powell favorite), and "Wahoo".