Harry Edison

Harry “Sweets” Edison (born Harry Edison, October 10, 1915, in Columbus, Ohio; died July 27, 1999, in Columbus) was an American jazz trumpeter. He played in bands around Columbus as a teenager, toured the Midwest with territory groups in the 1930s, and joined Count Basie’s orchestra in 1938, staying until 1950.

During twelve years with Basie he was one of the band’s most important soloists. Lester Young gave him the nickname “Sweets,” saying that whatever he played came out with a little sweetness in it. His muted trumpet had a round tone and his phrases were spare: he could say everything he had to say in a handful of notes and never chased volume or display. That less-is-more approach shaped a generation of trumpet players after him.

After leaving Basie in 1950 he settled in Los Angeles and became a fixture of the studios, while touring with Jazz at the Philharmonic and recording with Ben Webster, Buddy Rich and Lester Young; “Pres & Sweets” with Young in 1956 is the emblem of that period. In the 1970s he co-led a quintet with Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis, recording albums such as “Jusa Bit ‘O’ Blues,” and toured Europe and Japan for years, still playing Los Angeles clubs late in life. He received the NEA Jazz Masters award.

This catalog adds “The Swinger” (1958, Verve MG V-8295) and “Sweetenings” (1959, Roulette SR 52023). The first is a sextet date with tenor saxophonist Jimmy Forrest, pianist Jimmy Jones, guitarist Freddie Green, bassist Joe Benjamin and drummer Charlie Persip, including “Pussy Willow,” “The Very Thought of You” and “Sunday.” The second sets twelve pieces in larger arrangements, from “Centerpiece” and “Jive at Five” to “Indiana,” and shows a different side of him in the hands of an arranger.

Cover photograph by Lioneldecoster, Paris, CC BY-SA 3.0; body photograph by the same photographer, a Paris stage lineup reading from left Junior Mance, Eddie Vinson, Lou Donaldson, Scott Hamilton, Martin Rivera and Harry Edison, CC BY-SA 3.0. Both from Wikimedia Commons.