Collette helped merge the black and white musicians' unions in L.A. and mentored many African American musicians. He was active in preserving and promoting L.A. jazz history.
By Don Heckman, Special to The Times.
Buddy Collette, a Grammy-nominated jazz saxophonist, flautist, bandleader and educator who played important roles in Los Angeles jazz as a musician and an advocate for the rights of African American musicians, has died. He was 89.
Collette died Sunday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles after suffering shortness of breath a day earlier, according to his daughter Cheryl Collette-White.
Collette's virtuosic skills on saxophones, flute and clarinet allowed him to move easily from studio work in films, television and recording to small jazz groups and big bands. He was, in addition, one of the activists instrumental in the 1953 merging of the then all-African American musicians union Local 767 and the all-white Local 47.
"I knew that was something that had to be done," Collette told writer Bill Kohlhaase for a Times story 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."
Collette had already crossed the color bar before that in 1949 and 1950 by performing as the only African American musician in the orchestra for Groucho Marx's "You Bet Your Life" radio and television shows.
"We integrated the Academy Awards too," Collette said. "It was 1963, when Sidney Poitier won. We were going to picket that thing. But I was in the band, with saxophonist Bill Green and harpist Toni Robinson-Bogart."
A legend in American Jazz, Buddy Collette was mentor to Charlie Mingus and played with Ellington,Basie, Parker - all the great ones. Buddy was one of those rare talents that helped define what can be done with a saxaphone in LA's famed central avenue 1930's jazz scene.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment