Three female trumpeters who stand out for me in pop and jazz are Cynthia Robinson, who played in Sly & the Family Stone; Valaida Snow, who began recording in 1933; and Clora Bryant.
Born in 1927 in Denison, Texas, Bryant started on piano and sang in church. Not until her brother, Fred, joined the military and left his trumpet at home did Bryant pick up the horn. She learned to play in school and was in the marching band.
After high school, in 1943, she attended Prairie View College in Houston. She joined the Prairie View Co-Eds jazz ensemble, which toured regionally in Texas and wound up in New York at the Apollo Theater in 1944. Her father, a day laborer, relocated to Los Angeles and got her a job there.
Bryant transferred to UCLA in 1945, and on Central Avenue, she heard bebop for the first time. Many playing jobs followed, including stints with Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, and she backed Billie Holiday and Josephine Baker.
Her first and only album was Gal With a Horn, recorded for Mode in L.A. in mid-1957. She played trumpet solos and sang, and was accompanied by Norman Faye (tp), Walter Benton (ts), Roger Fleming (p), Ben Tucker (b) and Bruz Freeman (d).
Now Fresh Sound has issued the album with 24-bit remastering plus three bonus tracks, one recorded live with a big band at L.A.'s Jazz City in 1957 and two recorded with Dick Jacobs & His Orchestra for Coral in 1960.
As a trumpeter and singer, Bryant was good but not amazing. She also was better than many men who had more recording and touring opportunities. The liner notes by Jordi Pujol are superb.
Bryant is important, because through her approach and her vocals, we get a sense of the female contribution to jazz and the enormous struggle she and many women endured to be taken seriously as artists.
Clora Bryant died in 2019 after suffering a heart attack. She was 92.
JazzWax tracks: You'll find Clora Bryant: Plays and Sings (Fresh Sound) here. Save 8% on all Fresh Sound purchases with the JazzWax discount code: JAZZWAX_DISCOUNT
Type it in the space provided on the Fresh Sound payment page. Once you've typed in the code, the discount will automatically appear on the total purchase.
JazzWax clips: Here's Man With the Horn...
And here's Angel Eyes with the Dick Jacobs Orchestra...
