During 1945-1949,
Howard McGhee was one of the finest trumpeters in jazz, an exciting performer with a sound of his own, who among the young bop players, ranked at the top with
Dizzy Gillespie and
Fats Navarro. The "missing link" between
Roy Eldridge and
Fats Navarro (
Navarro influenced
Clifford Brown who influenced most of the post-1955 trumpeters),
McGhee originally played clarinet and tenor, not taking up trumpet until he was 17. He worked in territory bands, was with
Lionel Hampton in 1941, and then joined
Andy Kirk (1941-1942), being featured on "McGhee Special."
McGhee participated in the fabled bop sessions at Minton's Playhouse and Monroe's Uptown House, modernizing his style away from
Roy Eldridge and towards
Dizzy Gillespie. He was with
Charlie Barnet (1942-1943), returned to
Kirk (where he sat next to
Fats Navarro in the trumpet section), and had brief stints with
Georgie Auld and
Count Basie before traveling to California with
Coleman Hawkins in 1945; their concise recordings of swing-to-bop transitional music (including "Stuffy," "Rifftide," and "Hollywood Stampede") are classic.
McGhee stayed in California into 1947, playing with
Jazz at the Philharmonic, recording and gigging with
Charlie Parker (including the ill-fated "Lover Man" date) and having an influence on young players out on the Coast. His Dial sessions were among the most exciting recordings of his career, and back in New York he recorded for Savoy and had a historic meeting on record with
Navarro in 1948 on Blue Note.
Eventually, drugs began to affect
McGhee's career. He traveled on a USO tour during the Korean War, recording in Guam.
McGhee also had sessions for Bethlehem (1955-1956) but was inactive during much of the '50s. He recorded some strong dates for Felsted, Bethlehem, Contemporary, and Black Lion during 1960-1961, and on a quartet outing for United Artists (1962), but (with the exception of a Hep big band date in 1966) was largely off records again until 1976. He had a final burst of activity during 1976-1979 for Sonet, SteepleChase, Jazzcraft, Zim, and Storyville, but by then,
McGhee was largely forgotten and few knew about his link to
Fats Navarro and
Clifford Brown. ~ Scott Yanow