Benny Bailey, 79; American Trumpet Player Influential in European Jazz

Benny Bailey, a leading bebop-style trumpeter who was an important jazz presence in Europe since the 1950s, has died.

He was 79.

Bailey died April 14 at his home in Amsterdam, according to a report in the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

It was while touring with the Dizzy Gillespie and Lionel Hampton bands in the 1950s that Bailey became fascinated with Europe. He lived in Sweden for several years in the 1950s and after a brief return to the United States in 1960, settled in Germany and later the Netherlands.

A native of Cleveland, Bailey was born Ernest Harold Bailey on Aug. 13, 1925. He learned to play piano and flute before taking up the trumpet, and while still in high school, started a band with saxophonist Willie Smith. Bailey later studied music at the Cleveland Conservatory of Music.

Scatman Crothers, who later became famous as an actor and dancer, had his own band in those days and played the drums. He hired Smith and Bailey and brought them to Los Angeles in 1944.

From there, Bailey played with pianist Jay McShann’s band and with saxophonist Teddy Edwards before joining Gillespie’s band for several years and then Hampton’s band, where he was featured soloist.

While living in Europe, Bailey worked with leading radio orchestras and big bands in Germany and Switzerland. He was also a member of the Kenny Clarke-Francy Boland Big Band.

Over the years, Bailey worked steadily with visiting American jazz musicians, and is perhaps most famous to American audiences for one of those collaborations. In 1969, pianist Les McCann and saxophonist Eddie Harris were playing at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland. Bailey joined that session and from it came the album “Swiss Movement,” featuring a memorable, improvised solo by Bailey on “Compared to What.”

He returned briefly to Cleveland in 1992 to play in a big band formed by Smith. Later in the 1990s, he played in New York City and added vocals to his performance.

Bailey is survived by three children and two sisters.