David Roy Eldridge (January 30, 1911 – February 26, 1989), nicknamed "Little Jazz," was an American jazz trumpeter. He used complex harmony techniques, including tritone substitutions. His skillful solos showed a different style from Louis Armstrong, a famous jazz trumpet player. Eldridge had a significant influence on Dizzy Gillespie. He is considered one of the most important musicians of the swing era and an early influence on bebop.

Biography

Roy Eldridge was born on January 30, 1911, on the North Side of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His parents were Alexander, a wagon teamster, and Blanche, a talented pianist who could reproduce music by ear. Eldridge said he inherited this ability from his mother. He began playing the piano at age five and could play clear blues notes even then. He admired his older brother, Joe Eldridge, who played the violin, alto saxophone, and clarinet. Roy started playing drums at six, taking lessons and performing locally. Joe noticed Roy’s natural talent on the bugle, which Roy played in a church band, and encouraged him to try the valved trumpet. When Roy began playing drums in his brother’s band, Joe persuaded him to switch to the trumpet, but Roy did not practice much at first. After his mother’s death when he was eleven and his father’s remarriage, Roy began practicing seriously, spending hours in his room and focusing on the trumpet’s upper range. He struggled with sight-reading early in his career, but he could copy melodies by ear effectively.

Eldridge led and played in many bands during his youth, traveling across the American Midwest. He studied the styles of saxophonists Benny Carter and Coleman Hawkins, especially learning Hawkins’s 1926 solo on "The Stampede" by Fletcher Henderson’s Orchestra to develop his own trumpet style.

Eldridge left home after being expelled from high school in ninth grade. At sixteen, he joined a traveling show, but it closed, leaving him in Youngstown, Ohio. He later joined the "Greater Sheesley Carnival" but returned to Pittsburgh after witnessing racism in Cumberland, Maryland. He found work leading a small band in the "Rock Dinah" show, where his performance impressed swing-era bandleader Count Basie, who called Roy “the greatest trumpet I’d ever heard in my life.” Eldridge continued with traveling groups until returning to Pittsburgh at seventeen.

At twenty, Eldridge led a Pittsburgh band called "Roy Elliott and his Palais Royal Orchestra," though the agent changed his name to "Elliott" thinking it sounded more elegant. He later joined Horace Henderson’s orchestra, known as The Fletcher Henderson Stompers. He played with other territory bands, briefly staying in Detroit before joining Speed Webb’s band, which toured the Midwest. Many members left Webb’s band due to his lack of dedication and formed a similar group with Eldridge as leader. This group did not last long, and Eldridge moved to Milwaukee, where he competed in a famous trumpet contest with Cladys "Jabbo" Smith, later becoming friends with her.

Eldridge moved to New York in November 1930, playing in various bands in the 1930s, including Harlem dance bands with Cecil Scott, Elmer Snowden, Charlie Johnson, and Teddy Hill. During this time, he earned the nickname "Little Jazz" from saxophonist Otto Hardwick, who found it amusing that Eldridge’s loud, energetic playing contrasted with his small size. He recorded and broadcast music under his own name, with his first solos with Teddy Hill in 1935 gaining popularity. He briefly led his own band at the Famous Door nightclub and recorded with Billie Holiday in July 1935, including songs like "What a Little Moonlight Can Do" and "Miss Brown to You." In October 1935, he joined Fletcher Henderson’s Orchestra, playing lead trumpet and occasionally singing. He was Henderson’s main soloist until leaving in September 1936, performing pieces like "Christopher Columbus" and "Blue Lou." His ability to drive a band’s rhythm became a key feature of 1930s jazz. It was said that from the mid-1930s onward, Eldridge surpassed Louis Armstrong as the leading example of modern "hot" trumpet playing.

In 1936, Eldridge moved to Chicago to form an octet with his brother Joe Eldridge, who played saxophone and arranged music. The group had nightly broadcasts and recorded songs like "After You’ve Gone" and "Wabash Stomp." Frustrated by racism in the music industry, Eldridge quit playing in 1938 to study radio engineering. He returned to music in 1939, forming a ten-piece band that performed at New York’s Arcadia Ballroom.

In April 1941, Eldridge joined Gene Krupa’s Orchestra, becoming one of the first Black musicians to be a permanent member of a white big band. He helped shift Krupa’s band from pop music to jazz. His performance on Jimmy Dorsey’s "Green Eyes" transformed the song into a jazz piece. He recorded songs like "Let Me off Uptown" and "Knock Me a Kiss" with singer Anita O’Day.

One of Eldridge’s most famous solos is on Hoagy Carmichael’s "Rockin’ Chair," arranged by Benny Carter as a concerto for Eldridge. Jazz historian Gunther Schuller called the solo “a strong and at times tremendously moving performance,” though he disliked the opening and closing cadenzas. Critic Dave Oliphant described Eldridge’s tone on the piece as “raspy and buzzy,” which added intensity to his playing.

After complaints that O’Day overshadowed him, the band disbanded in 1943 when Krupa was jailed for marijuana possession. Eldridge freelanced in New York in 1943 before joining Artie Shaw’s band in 1944. Due to racial issues, he left in 1945 to form his own big band, which failed financially. He returned to small group performances.

After World War II, Eldridge joined the Jazz at the Philharmonic tours, becoming a key performer. Organizer Norman Granz said Eldridge represented the spirit of jazz, noting his determination to perform at his best no matter the circumstances.

Discography

• Count Basie at Newport (Verve, 1957)
• Basie Swingin' Voices Singin' (ABC-Paramount, 1966)
• Broadway Basie's…Way (Command, 1966)
• Count Basie Jam Session at the Montreux Jazz Festival 1975 (Pablo, 1975)

• Nothing But the Blues (Verve, 1958)

• Ella at Juan-Les-Pins (Verve, 1964)

• Mexican Bandit Meets Pittsburgh Pirate (Fantasy, 1973)

• 1952 Disorder at the Border (Spotlite, 1973)
• 1957 The Coleman Hawkins, Roy Eldridge, Pete Brown, Jo Jones All Stars at Newport (Verve, 1957)
• 1958 Coleman Hawkins and Confrères (Verve, 1958)
• 1962 Hawkins! Eldridge! Hodges! Alive! At the Village Gate! (Verve, 1962)

• Blues-a-Plenty (Verve, 1958)
• Not So Dukish (Verve, 1958)
• Triple Play (RCA Victor, 1967)

With Illinois Jacquet
• Swing's the Thing (Clef, 1956)

• The Main Man (Pablo, 1977)

With Gene Krupa and Buddy Rich
• The Drum Battle (Verve, 1952 [1960])

With Anita O'Day and The Three Sounds
• Anita O'Day & the Three Sounds (Verve, 1962) – 1 track

• 1954 Oscar Peterson and Roy Eldridge (Verve, ?)
• 1974 The Trumpet Kings Meet Joe Turner (Pablo, 1974) with Big Joe Turner, Dizzy Gillespie, Harry "Sweets" Edison, and Clark Terry
• 1975 Oscar Peterson and The Trumpet Kings – Jousts (Pablo, 1975)
• 1975 The Trumpet Kings at Montreux '75 (Pablo, ?) with Dizzy Gillespie, Clark Terry

• Buddy Tate and His Buddies (Chiaroscuro, 1973)

• The Art Tatum – Roy Eldridge – Alvin Stoller – John Simmons Quartet (Clef, 1955); reissued as The Tatum Group Masterpieces (Pablo, 1975)

• Ben Webster and Associates (Verve, 1959)

• Laughin' to Keep from Cryin' (Verve, 1958)