Bernard Hartwell "Step-Buddy" Anderson (October 14, 1919 – May 10 1997) was an American

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

er from

Oklahoma City Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, it ranks 20th among United States cities in population, a ...

, Oklahoma. Having studied music at school under Zelia N. Breaux, Anderson was a professional musician by 1934, playing with the Ted Armstrong band in Clinton, Oklahoma. In the late 1930s he was a member of the

Xavier University Xavier University ( ) is a private Jesuit university in Cincinnati and Evanston (Cincinnati), Ohio. It is the sixth-oldest Catholic and fourth-oldest Jesuit university in the United States. Xavier has an undergraduate enrollment of 4,860 studen ...

jazz band in

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

. In 1939 Anderson returned to Oklahoma City and joined the Leslie Sheffield band that included Charlie Christian, another Zelia Breaux pupil. In 1940 he went to

Kansas City The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more ...

and became trumpeter for the Jay McShann band, which included

Charlie Parker Charles Parker Jr. (August 29, 1920 – March 12, 1955), nicknamed "Bird" or "Yardbird", was an American jazz saxophonist, band leader and composer. Parker was a highly influential soloist and leading figure in the development of bebop, a form ...

on alto saxophone, Ben Webster on tenor saxophone, bassist

Gene Ramey Gene Ramey (April 4, 1913 – December 8, 1984) was an American jazz double bassist. Ramey was born in Austin, Texas, United States, and played trumpet in college, but switched to contrabass when playing with George Corley's Royal Aces, The Moo ...

, drummer Gus Johnson and blues shouter Walter Brown. Ross Russell described Anderson's style as a trumpeter, during his tenure with McShann, as having "smooth tone and legato phrasing" influenced by previous work with Charlie Christian, in Oklahoma City. Russell considered Anderson "the most advanced musician in the band after harlieParker," and described him as an innovator: "the first to play in the new, linear, semi-legato, light-toned style later made popular by Fats Navarro and

Dizzy Gillespie John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie (; October 21, 1917 – January 6, 1993) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, composer, educator and singer. He was a trumpet virtuoso and improviser, building on the virtuosic style of Roy Eldridge but addi ...

." Later Anderson was co-leader, with

, of a small band that worked for several weeks at Tootie's Mayfair in Kansas City. Shortly after joining the

Billy Eckstine William Clarence Eckstine (July 8, 1914 – March 8, 1993) was an American jazz and pop singer and a bandleader during the swing and bebop eras. He was noted for his rich, almost operatic bass-baritone voice. In 2019, Eckstine was posthumously ...

Orchestra in 1944, he caught

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...

and was medically advised to abandon the trumpet. He played his own unique style of piano after putting down the trumpet. In 1978, Anderson was encouraged by a group of friends and medical students from Kansas City College of Osteopathic Medicine, to pick the trumpet up again. He began playing and eventually performed with many local Kansas City artists, including Ernie Williams.

References

1919 births 1997 deaths Jazz musicians from Oklahoma American jazz trumpeters American male trumpeters Swing trumpeters 20th-century American musicians 20th-century trumpeters 20th-century American male musicians American male jazz musicians {{Oklahoma-stub