Letter-Writer Clora Bryant: To Russia With Trumpet

“Dear Party Leader Gorbachev: When I was young, my father always said nothing ventured nothing gained, so I am venturing, and hopefully will gain a line of communication to you that will result in my being the first lady horn player to be invited to your country to perform, and maybe a friendship will blossom, because it seems that now is the time to try to open our hands and our hearts to each other.”

With those words Los Angeles trumpeter Clora Bryant began a letter to the Soviet leader and addressed simply “Kremlin, Moscow, U.S.S.R.” Encouraged by bass player Eugene Wright, who visited Moscow last spring with Dave Brubeck, Bryant two months ago also sent Gorbachev a biography, photos and a tape of a recent performance.

“I have succeeded in getting along without any manager or agent since the 1950s,” said Bryant on Thursday as she sat in her downtown living room blanketed with wall-to-wall photographs of her idol, Dizzy Gillespie. “I remember whenever my dad wanted something important he used to write regularly to a senator in Texas, and he always received a reply. So my theory is, if you want something badly enough, why not go direct to the top?”

On Nov. 11 Bryant received a reply: a letter from the Soviet Cultural Agency’s Gosconcert U.S.S.R. office, offering her up to five concerts in Moscow and Leningrad, starting March 10, at 1,000 rubles a concert (roughly $1,600, non-exportable). She will be provided an orchestra, an interpreter and transportation between Moscow and Leningrad.

“The letter was in Russian,” said Bryant, 59. “I’ve been studying the language, and with some help I understood the whole thing. The only problem is that I have to pay my own way there and back.”

Bryant, 59, would like to take her two sons along with her. Kevin, 23, is a drummer, and Darrin, 21, composes and sings. “I want them to see how young people live over there, and compare notes with them,” she said. “But if I can only get the fare for myself I’ll go anyway.

“I’ve written to (Secretary of State) George Shultz asking if he can arrange the transportation. If nothing happens there, I expect to be helped out by the Society for Cultural Relations U.S.A./U.S.S.R., here in town. One way or another, I’ll get there.”

A former child prodigy who at 15 graduated from high school in Denison, Tex., Bryant moved West soon afterward. For much of her professional life she has been fighting both racial and sexual prejudice while establishing herself on the Southland music scene. Along the way she has played and sung with Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Scatman Crothers, Dizzy Gillespie and Benny Carter.

A television documentary in which Gillespie plays warm tribute to her is now in production. “Trumpet is a man’s instrument, and a young man’s instrument at that,” says Gillespie, but just listening to Clora, you would never know she was a woman.” Bryant also has been at work for two years on an autobiography.

Since mid-1987 she has worked frequently with the Jimmy and Jeannie Cheatham blues band; Friday morning she flew with them to New York to play a one-night stand. She also works locally with her own group; Friday she will be heard at the Nucleus Nuance in Hollywood.

Along with her regular American repertoire, which includes a vocal and instrumental impression of Louis Armstrong, Bryant plans to include some Russian songs in her Soviet performances.

“American artists as a rule don’t take the trouble to relate to people by learning their language,” she said, “but I know it’s greatly appreciated when they do.”