JazzWax List: The Midgets

Last Friday, I assembled a band based on the beefy names of artists. This week, I offer a new ensemble featuring musicians with mini monikers or slight of height names. For those adding Comments, this list is about the names only, not whether they were truly big or small:

• Peanuts Hucko (clarinet) [pictured]
• Budd Johnson and Bud Shank (saxophones)
• Booker Little and Phil Napoleon (trumpets)
• Nat Pierce (piano)
• Slim Gaillard and Tiny Grimes (guitar)
• Wilbur Little (bass)
• Tiny Kahn and Mousey Alexander (drums)
• Little Jimmy Scott (vocal)
• Les Brown (arranger)

And the gig would be held at Small's Paradise.

Comments

[Sal Franchino]

Shorty Rogers?

[Jeff Helgesen]

Bobby Short?

Tiny Grimes?

[Larry Kart]

Brick (Flea)gle

[Bill Forbes]

Shorts McConnell
Shorty Baker
Pee Wee Russell
Pee Wee Hunt
Pee Wee Moore
Joe Newman and Frank Wess ("Midgets")

[Bill Forbes]

P.S. Minor Hall

[Bill Forbes]

P.P.S. Compositions by Loesser and Lowe

[Bruce Armstrong]

Don't forget "Stumpy" Brown--Les Brown's brother--who played trombone with the band for many years.

[Dick Cutler]

Wee Bonnie Baker, Skinnay Ennis, Les Elgart

[Don Brown]

And the emcee would be Pee Wee Marquette.

[Richard Salvucci]

Shorty Sherock, maybe the most unheralded trumpet player of the late Swing Era

And, of course, Pee Wee Erwin

[Steve Provizer]

Henry "Thins" Francis,
Specs Powell and Benny Moten.

[John P. Cooper]

Little Ryan
Half Pint Jaxon
Chick Webb
"Slim Slacks" Jackson ("Fat Slacks" brother)
Wingy Mannone
Little Brother Montgomery

[John P. Cooper]

"And the gig would be held at Small's Paradise."
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With cover charge 1/2 price before 1.

[Paul Wood]

My wife who listens mostly to baroque music and gregorian chants immediately mentioned "WAYNE SHORTER." After all, she remarked, he's shorter than all the others.

[Ted Steinberg]

Little Esther (R&B Vocalist)
Tiny Bradshaw (R&B Singer & Band Leader)
Tiny Mayberry (Blues Vocalist in 1930's)
Wee Bea Booze (Blues Vocalist in early 1940's)
Cliff Smalls (Pianist with Art Farmer)
Little Jazz (Roy Eldridge)
Small Jazz (Charlie Shavers)
Shorty Baker (Ellington Trumpeter)
Ernie Small (Bari Sax w/Monk - late 1960's)
Slims: Memphis Slim, Slim Harpo, Lighting Slim, Guitar Slim,

[David]

If we're going to get into all of the Slims, it would be amiss not to mention Slim Richey, "the most dangerous guitarist in Texas." The music begins two minutes into this clip which also features some admirable swing vocal phrasing:
http://www.myfoxaustin.com/dpp/good_day/041609_Good_Day_Live_Music_The_Jitterbug_Vipers

[John P. Cooper]

Props to all for their witty contributions!

[TWN]

I thought Tiny Kahn was called Tiny because he was actually gigantic.

Ruby Braff would fit in the shorty list, though nobody had the stones to call him shorty to his face.

[John Herr]

Shadow Wilson on drums.

[Brew]

Ages before he became "Prince of Darkness", "Symphony Sid" Torin announced him as "Miles Davis (some seconds pause) LITTLE Miles Davis!"

That "nickname" didn't last too long, especially *not* after Miles's breathtaking solo flight on "Move", then, at Carnegie Hall, on Christmas in 1949.