Joe Newman; Trumpeter With Count Basie Band

Joe Newman, a trumpeter known early in his career for his be-bop styling and later for his innovative approach to contemporary jazz, has died in New York City, it was learned Wednesday.

The Associated Press said Newman--a mainstay of the Count Basie Orchestra during the 1940s and 1950s--was 70 when he died Saturday after a stroke.

Born in New Orleans, Joseph Dwight Newman was the son of a pianist who led the Creole Serenaders at the Absinthe House. He studied trumpet with one of Louis Armstrong’s teachers and was playing in the band at Alabama State Teachers College when he was discovered by Lionel Hampton in 1941.

He played in the Hampton band for two years before joining Basie in 1943, leaving for the J. C. Heard and Illinois Jacquet be-bop bands of the late 1940s and then rejoining Basie in 1952, remaining as a primary soloist for 10 years.

After leaving the Basie band, Newman played in Broadway shows and recorded with such artists as Judy Garland, Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra, Aretha Franklin and Quincy Jones.

He toured with his own quartet and was seen in Los Angeles in 1985 at Marla’s Memory Lane.