Jazz Trumpeter Howard McGhee Dies at 69

Howard McGhee, one of the first jazz trumpeters to create the be-bop sound on the West Coast, died Friday in New York City. He was 69.

Born in Tulsa, Okla., in 1918, McGhee, who acquired the off-beat moniker “Maggie,” first achieved prominence in the early 1940s in Detroit as a member of Lionel Hampton’s band, where he became known as a dazzling soloist.

But he achieved his widest fame as a member of the legendary be-bop band of Charlie Parker and Dizzie Gillespie, which arrived in Los Angeles in 1945. He later recorded with Parker and his own groups on Dial records. He was especially noted for solos marked by a clear sound and a jauntily swinging rhythm. The best-known of his recordings is a 1948 Blue Note album, “Boperation,” which features McGhee in a bravura trumpet battle with Fats Navarro.

After a decade of obscurity, McGhee re-emerged in the 1960s in New York, where he made his home, working with J. J. Johnson and Sonny Stitt. He returned to recording and made what critics consider some of his best records. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, he led a big band noted for a lively sound and a driving rhythm.

Jazz critic Nat Hentoff cited him as “a unique example of a jazzman who has spanned several stylistic eras, adapting himself to each while retaining an intensely personal tone and conception.”

In March, McGhee, seriously ill, was the guest of honor at a benefit concert in New York, where 19 of New York’s leading jazz musicians joined together to play works from the repertory of McGhee’s bands. Trumpeters Don Sickler, who organized the concert, and Jimmy Owens re-created the trumpet duel of “Boperation.”

McGhee is survived by his wife, Tina; sons Howard and David, and daughters Dru Ann and Joylin.