Clora Bryant(1927 — 2019)
Clora Bryant
États-Unis
6 min read
Clora Bryant (1927-2019) was an American jazz trumpeter, one of the very few women to establish herself as a soloist in bebop. A key figure on the Central Avenue scene in Los Angeles, she rubbed shoulders with the greatest musicians of her time.
Frequently asked questions
Key Facts
- Born on May 30, 1927, in Denison, Texas; died on August 25, 2019, in Los Angeles.
- In the 1940s, she became one of the only women trumpeters in bebop, on the Central Avenue scene in Los Angeles.
- Played and performed alongside major figures such as Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, and Billie Holiday.
- In 1957 she recorded her only album as a leader, “Gal with a Horn.”
- Invited to perform in the Soviet Union in 1989.
Works & Achievements
An all-female swing orchestra with which she performed during the war, all the way to the Apollo Theater in Harlem.
She made her mark in the clubs of Los Angeles alongside the great names of bebop, an exceptional feat for a woman instrumentalist.
Her only album as a leader, on which she plays trumpet and sings: a rarity for a woman in that era.
A tour of the Soviet Union that she requested herself, a symbol of cultural openness during the Cold War.
She contributed to this landmark book on the history of jazz in Los Angeles, passing on the memory of her generation.
Anecdotes
Clora Bryant never chose the trumpet: it was her two older brothers, Fred and Mel, who played it. When they left for the army during the Second World War, one of them left his instrument at home. Clora, then a teenager, taught herself to play, encouraged by her father, who was raising his children alone in Texas.
As a student at Prairie View College, she joined the Prairie View Co-Eds, an all-female swing band. During the war, these musicians filled in for the men who had gone off to fight, and they performed as far afield as the famous Apollo Theater in Harlem, New York.
On Central Avenue in Los Angeles, the heart of African American jazz life, Clora took part in late-night 'jam sessions' and 'cutting contests', duels in which musicians competed through improvisation. As one of the very few female trumpeters in this world of men, she held her own against the greatest soloists.
She idolized Dizzy Gillespie, one of the inventors of bebop, whom she regarded as her role model and mentor. She even composed a piece in his honor, and their friendship lasted for decades.
In 1989, she personally wrote to the Soviet authorities to ask permission to come and play in the USSR. Invited to do so, she became one of the first American jazz musicians to perform there, during the era of Mikhail Gorbachev.
In 1996, a major heart operation prevented her from playing the trumpet again, an instrument that demands powerful breath. Far from giving up music, she continued to sing and improvise through 'scat' with her voice well into old age.
Primary Sources
On Central Avenue, you could move from one club to the next all night long and hear the best musicians in the world. It was our university of music.
Clora Bryant plays trumpet and sings on it, backed by a quartet, proving that a woman could be both a bebop soloist and a singer.
I wanted to be judged as a musician, not as a 'woman trumpet player.' Dizzy Gillespie was my mentor and my idol.
Key Places
Town in northern Texas where Clora Bryant was born in 1927, in the then-segregated American South.
Historically Black university where she studied and joined the all-women band, the Prairie View Co-Eds.
The heart of African American jazz in Los Angeles, teeming with clubs where Clora built her reputation as a soloist.
The city where she lived most of her life, pursued her career, and died in 2019.
Soviet capital where she performed in 1989, among the first American women jazz musicians invited to the country.
