[Dixielandjazz] Buddy Collette Obit

[Stephen G Barbone]

He played modern, but was turned on to jazz after his dad took him to  
see a concert by Louis Armstrong.

Cheers,
Steve barbone
www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband


Buddy Collette, Jazz Musician and Bandleader, Dies at 89
NY TIMES - SEPT 28 - By DENNIS HEVESI
Buddy Collette, a jazz saxophonist, flutist, clarinetist and  
bandleader who blended his usually soothing, often pungent sounds with  
those of many jazz greats and who was a leader in the struggle to  
break racial barriers in the music industry, died on Sept. 19 in Los  
Angeles. He was 89.

The cause was a respiratory ailment, his daughter Cheryl Collette- 
White told The Los Angeles Times.

Although Mr. Collette never attained the fame of many jazz stars, he  
played beside them, from his days as a teenager in the 1930s until a  
stroke ended his career in 1998.

According to Ted Gioia’s “History of Jazz” (Oxford University, 1997),  
one of Mr. Collette’s closest colleagues, the bassist Charles Mingus,  
went so far “as to claim that his friend Buddy Collette could play as  
well as Bird” — a reference to the nickname of the renowned  
saxophonist Charlie Parker.

Besides Mr. Mingus and Mr. Parker, Mr. Collette performed with Duke  
Ellington, Count Basie, Thelonious Monk, Stan Kenton, Sarah Vaughan,  
Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Nelson Riddle and Louie  
Belson.

He came to national attention in 1955 as a member of the drummer Chico  
Hamilton’s quintet. But he had already made his mark, moving from  
small jazz groups to big bands and from film studio work to television.

In the estimation of The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz (Macmillan,  
2002), Mr. Collette brought a “virile approach” to the saxophone. And,  
as a flutist, it said, “Collette’s fluent playing helped shape a style  
of chamber jazz that utilized a soft instrumentation, but was  
nonetheless improvisational, swinging, and in its own way, hot.”

William Marcel Collette was born on Aug. 6, 1921, in the Watts  
district of Los Angeles. His father, Willie, was, a pianist; his  
mother, Goldie Marie, was a singer. In addition to his daughter  
Cheryl, Mr. Collette is survived by two other daughters, Veda and  
Crystal; a son, Zan; eight grandchildren; and nine great-grandchildren.

As a child Mr. Collette went to a Louis Armstrong concert with his  
parents and soon turned from piano lessons to the saxophone — and  
jazz. When he was 12, he formed his first band. Among the youngsters  
in the group was Mr. Mingus, whom Buddy convinced to switch from cello  
to bass.

After serving in the Navy in World War II, during which he led a dance  
band, Mr. Collette became a well-known name among the swing and be-bop  
players in the night spots dotting Central Avenue in Los Angeles. In  
1949, he broke a color barrier by being chosen as the only African- 
American in the band for the Groucho Marx show “You Bet Your Life.”

Along with the pianist Benny Carter and the arranger Marl Young, Mr.  
Collette became a leader in the struggle to eliminate segregation in  
theAmerican Federation of Musicians. On April 1, 1953, the black and  
white locals of the union in Los Angeles merged.

“I knew that was something that had to be done,” Mr. Collette told The  
Los Angeles Times in 2000. “I had been in the service, where our band  
was integrated. My high school had been fully integrated. I really  
didn’t know anything about racism, but I knew it wasn’t right.  
Musicians should be judged on how they play, not the color of their  
skin.”