Above: Dexter Gordon & Benny Bailet at The Village Vanguard June 1977
Benny Bailey
Birth name Ernest Harold Bailey
Born August 13, 1925
Cleveland, Ohio, United States
Died April 14, 2005 (aged 79)
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Genres Jazz, bebop, hard bop
Occupation(s) Musician, songwriter, record producer
Instruments Trumpet, piano, flute
Ernest Harold “Benny” Bailey (13 August 1925 – 14 April 2005) was an American bebop and hard-bop jazz trumpeter.
Bailey was born in Cleveland, Ohio. He had some training in piano and flute in his youth, but switched to trumpet, and concentrated on the instrument while at the Cleveland Institute of Music. He was influenced by his hometown colleague, Tadd Dameron, seven years his elder, and subsequently had a significant influence on other prominent Cleveland musicians including Bill Hardman, Bobby Few, Albert Ayler, Frank Wright and Bob Cunningham. Bailey also played with “Big T” Tony Lovano – Joe Lovano’s father.
In the early 1940s he worked with Bull Moose Jackson and Scatman Crothers. He later worked with Dizzy Gillespie and toured with Lionel Hampton. During a European tour with Hampton he decided to stay in Europe and spend time in Sweden. This Swedish period saw him working with Harry Arnold’s big band. He tended to prefer big bands over small groups and became associated with several big bands in Europe including the Kenny Clarke/Francy Boland Big Band. Later he began to work with Quincy Jones and that led to a brief return to the United States in 1960. During this time, he was invited to the studio as part of Freddie Redd’s sextet to record the Blue Note Records album Redd’s Blues after meeting the pianist during a tour in Sweden, where Bailey had been residing at the time. Shortly thereafter, he returned to Europe first to Germany, and later to the Netherlands, where he would settle permanently.
In 1969 he played on Eddie Harris and Les McCann’s album Swiss Movement, recorded live at the Montreux Jazz Festival, even though it was not his usual style of music, and including a memorable unrehearsed solo on the Gene McDaniels’ song “Compared to What”. Then in 1988 he worked with British clarinetist Tony Coe and kept producing albums until 2000 when he was in his mid-70s.
Bailey died at home in Amsterdam on April 14, 2005.
Discography
Quincy – Here We Come (Metronome, 1959) also released as The Music of Quincy Jones on Argo in 1961
Big Brass (Candid, 1960)
Soul Eyes – (MPS 1968)
Folklore in Swing (MPS, 1966)
The Balkan in My Soul(MPS, 1968)
Soul Eyes: Jazz Live at the Domicile Munich (MPS 1968)
Mirrors (The Amazing Benny Bailey) (arranged & conducted by Francy Boland (Freedom 1971)
The Rainbow People (Steeplechase, 1974 [2002]) with Dexter Gordon
Islands (Enja 1976)
Serenade to a Planet (Ego 1976)
East of Isar (Ego 1978) – The Sal Nistico-Benny Bailey Quintet
Grand Slam (Jazzcraft 1978)
While My Lady Sleeps (Gemini 1990)
No Refill (TCB Records1994)
Angel Eyes (Laika 1995)
Peruvian Nights (TCB 1996)
I Thought About You (Laika 1996)
The Satchmo Legacy (Enja 2000)
The Rainbow People (Steeplechase 2002)
With Count Basie
Basie in Sweden (Roulette, 1962)
With the Kenny Clarke/Francy Boland Big Band
Jazz Is Universal (Atlantic, 1962)
Handle with Care (Atlantic, 1963)
Now Hear Our Meanin’ (Columbia, 1963 [1965])
Swing, Waltz, Swing (Philips, 1966)
Sax No End (SABA, 1967)
Out of the Folk Bag (Columbia, 1967)
17 Men and Their Music (Campi, 1967)
All Smiles (MPS, 1968)
Faces (MPS, 1969)
Latin Kaleidoscope (MPS, 1969)
Fellini 712 (MPS, 1969)
All Blues (MPS, 1969)
More Smiles (MPS, 1969)
Clarke Boland Big Band en Concert avec Europe 1 (Tréma, 1969 [1992])
Off Limits (Polydor, 1970)
November Girl (Black Lion, 1970 [1975]) with Carmen McRae
Change of Scenes (Verve, 1971) with Stan Getz
With Eric Dolphy
Berlin Concerts (1961)
With Stan Getz
Imported from Europe (Verve, 1958)
With Dizzy Gillespie
The Complete RCA Victor Recordings (Bluebird, 1937-1949, [1995])
With Benny Golson
Stockholm Sojourn (Prestige, 1964)
With Dexter Gordon
Sophisticated Giant (Columbia, 1977)
With Quincy Jones
Quincy’s Home Again (Metronome, 1958) – also released as Harry Arnold + Big Band + Quincy Jones = Jazz! (EmArcy)
I Dig Dancers (Mercury, 1960)
With Freddie Redd
Redd’s Blues (Blue Note, 1961)
With Sahib Shihab
Companionship (Vogue Schallplatten, 1964-70 [1971])
With Randy Weston
Uhuru Afrika (Roulette, 1960)
With Jimmy Witherspoon
Some of My Best Friends Are the Blues (Prestige, 1964)
With Phil Woods
Rights of Swing (Candid, 1961)