Bobby Lee Bradford (born July 19, 1934) is 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 ...

trumpeter, cornetist, bandleader, and composer. In addition to his solo work, Bradford is noted for his work with John Carter,

Vinny Golia Vinny Golia (born March 1, 1946) is an American composer and multi-instrumentalist specializing in woodwind instruments. He performs in the genres of contemporary music, jazz, free jazz, and free improvisation. Career As a composer, Golia fuse ...

and

Ornette Coleman Randolph Denard Ornette Coleman (March 9, 1930 – June 11, 2015) was an American jazz saxophonist, violinist, trumpeter, and composer known as a principal founder of the free jazz genre, a term derived from his 1960 album '' Free Jazz: A Colle ...

. In October 2009, Bradford became the second recipient of the

Festival of New Trumpet Music The Festival of New Trumpet Music (FONT Music) is a nonprofit organization founded by jazz trumpeter Dave Douglas to encourage aspiring trumpeters. The annual festival consists of concerts and workshops over a two to three week period in New Yor ...

's Award of Recognition. He taught at

Pomona College Pomona College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Claremont, California. It was established in 1887 by a group of Congregationalists who wanted to recreate a "college of the New England type" in Southern California. In 1925, it became ...

for 44 years.

Biography

Bobby Lee Bradford's life began in Mississippi; he and his family then moved to

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

, Texas, in 1946. He moved to

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

, California, in 1953 where he reunited with Ornette Coleman, whom he had previously known in Texas. Bradford subsequently joined Coleman's ensemble, but was drafted into the

U.S. Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...

and replaced by

Don Cherry Donald Stewart Cherry (born February 5, 1934) is a Canadian former ice hockey player, coach, and television commentator. Cherry played one game in the National Hockey League (NHL) with the Boston Bruins, and later coached the team for five se ...

. After playing in military bands from late 1954 to late 1958, he rejoined Coleman's quartet from 1961 to 1963, which infrequently performed in public, but was indeed recorded under Coleman's Atlantic contract. These tapes were among those many destroyed in the Great Atlantic Vault Fire.

Freddie Hubbard Frederick Dewayne Hubbard (April 7, 1938 – December 29, 2008) was an American jazz trumpeter. He played bebop, hard bop, and post-bop styles from the early 1960s onwards. His unmistakable and influential tone contributed to new perspectives fo ...

acted as Bradford's replacement upon his departure to return to the West Coast and pursue further studies. Bradford soon began a long-running and relatively well-documented association with the clarinetist John Carter, a pairing that brought both increased exposure at international festivals (though the records remain scantily available, when one excludes web rips and bootlegs). Following Carter's death in 1991, Bradford fronted his own ensemble known as The Mo'tet, with which he has continued to perform since. He is the father of drummer Dennis Bradford and jazz vocalist Carmen Bradford. He holds a B.M. degree from Huston–Tillotson College (now

Huston–Tillotson University Huston–Tillotson University (HT) is a private historically black university in Austin, Texas. Established in 1875, Huston–Tillotson University was the first institution of higher learning in Austin. The university is affiliated with the Unite ...

) in Austin, Texas. In addition to Coleman, Bradford has performed with

Eric Dolphy Eric Allan Dolphy Jr. (June 20, 1928 – June 29, 1964) was an American jazz alto saxophonist, bass clarinetist and flautist. On a few occasions, he also played the clarinet and piccolo. Dolphy was one of several multi-instrumentalists to gai ...

, Leon "Ndugu" Chancler, Ingebrigt Håker-Flaten, Bob Stewart,

Charlie Haden Charles Edward Haden (August 6, 1937 – July 11, 2014) was an American jazz double bass player, bandleader, composer and educator whose career spanned more than 50 years. In the late 1950s, he was an original member of the ground-breaking ...

, George Lewis (trombone), James Newton, Frode Gjerstad,

, Paal Nilssen-Love, and David Murray, who was previously a student of his in the 1970s. He was a lecturer at

Claremont, California Claremont () is a suburban city on the eastern edge of Los Angeles County, California, United States, east of downtown Los Angeles. It is in the Pomona Valley, at the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains. As of the 2010 census it had a popul ...

, where he taught the history of jazz and led the school's jazz ensemble. After 44 years at the college, he retired in June 2021.

Discography

As leader

* ''

Flight for Four ''Flight for Four'' is an album by American jazz saxophonist John Carter and trumpeter Bobby Bradford recorded in 1969 and released by the Flying Dutchman label.

'' (

Flying Dutchman The ''Flying Dutchman'' ( nl, De Vliegende Hollander) is a legendary ghost ship, allegedly never able to make port, but doomed to sail the seven seas forever. The myth is likely to have originated from the 17th-century Golden Age of the Dut ...

, 1969) * ''Seeking'' with New Art Jazz Ensemble (

Revelation In religion and theology, revelation is the revealing or disclosing of some form of truth or knowledge through communication with a deity or other supernatural entity or entities. Background Inspiration – such as that bestowed by God on the ...

, 1969) * ''

Self Determination Music ''Self Determination Music'' is an album by American jazz saxophonist John Carter and trumpeter Bobby Bradford released by the Flying Dutchman label in 1970.John Carter (Flying Dutchman, 1970) * ''Secrets'' with John Carter (Revelation, 1973) * ''Bobby Bradford with John Stevens and the Spontaneous Music Ensemble'' (Freedom/Intercord, 1974) * ''Love's Dream'' (Emanem, 1974) * ''Vols. 1 & 2'' with John Stevens (

Nessa Nessa Diab, known mononymously as Nessa, is an American radio and TV personality and television host. Early life and education Nessa was born to an Egyptian father and mother. She has two brothers. She grew up in Southern California but her ...

, 1980, 1981) * ''Lost in L.A.'' (Soul Note, 1984) * ''Live One Night Stand'' (Soul Note, 1988) * ''Comin' On'' with John Carter (hat ART, 1989) * ''West Coast Hot'' with John Carter (BMG/Novus/RCA 1991) * ''Tandem 1'' with John Carter (Emanem, 1996) * ''Tandem 2'' with John Carter (Emanem, 1996) * ''Purple Gums'' with Francis Wong & William Roper (Asian Improv, 2003) * ''Mo' Betta Butta'' with Francis Wong & William Roper (Asian Improv, 2007) * ''Reknes'' with

Frode Gjerstad Frode Gjerstad (born 24 March 1948) is a Norwegian jazz musician with alto saxophone as principal instrument, but he also plays other saxophones, clarinet, and flute. He has collaborated with Paal Nilssen-Love, Borah Bergman, Peter Brötzmann, E ...

(Circulasione Totale, 2009) * ''Varistar'' with

Tom Heasley Tom Heasley is an American musician, known for his ambient tuba work. Heasley also performs on didjeridu, voice, and electronics. ''Where the Earth Meets the Sky'', his first album, was released on the Hypnos Recordings ambient label and was mast ...

(Full Bleed Music, 2009) * ''Live in LA'' with

Mark Dresser Mark Dresser (born September 26, 1952) is an American double bass player and composer. Career Dresser was born in Los Angeles, California, United States. In the 1970s, he was a member of Black Music Infinity led by Stanley Crouch and performed w ...

(Clean Feed, 2011) * ''Dragon'' with Frode Gjerstad, (PNL, 2012) * ''Kampen'' with Frode Gjerstad, (NoBusiness, 2012) * ''Silver Cornet'' with Frode Gjerstad (Nessa, 2014) * ''No U-Turn Live in Pasadena 1975'' with John Carter (Dark Tree, 2015) * ''The Delaware River'' with Frode Gjerstad (NoBusiness, 2015) * ''Live at the Open Gate'' with Hafez Modirzadeh (NoBusiness, 2016) * ''Live at the Magic Triangle'' with Hafez Modirzadeh (NoBusiness, 2017) * ''Live at the Blue Whale'' with Hafez Modirzadeh (NoBusiness, 2018) * ''Blue Cat'' with Frode Gjerstad (NoBusiness, 2019) With Circulasione Totale Orchestra * ''Open Port'' (Circulasione Totale, 2008) * ''Bandwidth'' (Rune Grammofon, 2009) * ''PhilaOslo'' (Circulasione Totale, 2011)

As sideman

With John Carter * ''Variations'' (Moers Music, 1979) * ''Night Fire'' (Black Saint, 1981) * ''Dauwhe'' (Black Saint, 1982) * ''Castles of Ghana'' (Gramavision, 1986) * ''Dance of the Love Ghosts'' (Gramavision, 1987) * ''Fields'' (Gramavision, 1988) * ''Shadows On a Wall'' (Gramavision, 1989) With

* ''Compositions for Large Ensemble'' (Nine Winds, 1982) * ''Lineage'' (Nine Winds, 1998) * ''Sfumato'' (Clean Feed, 2005) * ''Take Your Time'' (

Relative Pitch Relative pitch is the ability of a person to identify or re-create a given musical note by comparing it to a reference note and identifying the interval between those two notes. For example, if the note ''Do'' and ''Fa'' is played on a piano, a per ...

, 2011) * ''Live at the Century City Playhouse Los Angeles 1979'' (Dark Tree, 2017) With David Murray * '' Murray's Steps'' (Black Saint, 1983) * '' Death of a Sideman'' ( DIW, 1992) * '' MX'' (

Red Baron Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–740 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a secondary ...

, 1992) * ''

Be My Monster Love ''Be My Monster Love'' is an album by saxophonist David Murray (saxophonist), David Murray's Infinity Quartet with guest vocalists Macy Gray and Gregory Porter released in 2013 on the Motéma Music, Motéma label. Reception The Allmusic review ...

'' ( Motéma, 2013) With others *

Nels Cline Nels Courtney Cline (born January 4, 1956) is an American guitarist and composer. He has been the guitarist for the band Wilco since 2004. In the 1980s he played jazz, often in collaboration with his twin brother Alex Cline, Alex, a percussionis ...

, ''

New Monastery ''New Monastery'' (subtitled ''A View Into the Music of Andrew Hill'') is an album by American guitarist Nels Cline performing compositions by Andrew Hill which was released in September 2006 on the Cryptogramophone label. Reception The Allmusi ...

'' (Cryptogramophone, 2006) *

, ''

Science Fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

'' (Columbia, 1972) * Ornette Coleman, ''

Broken Shadows ''Broken Shadows'' is an album by the American jazz saxophonist and composer Ornette Coleman recorded in 1971, at the same sessions that produced ''Science Fiction'', but not released on the Columbia label until 1982.Jayne Cortez Jayne Cortez (May 10, 1934 – December 28, 2012) was an African-American poet, activist, small press publisher and spoken-word performance artist whose voice is celebrated for its political, surrealistic and dynamic innovations in lyricism and ...

, ''Borders of Disorderly Time'' (Bola Press, 2003) *

, ''Ikosa Mura'' (Cadence, 1998) * Frode Gjerstad, ''Through the Woods'' (CIMP, 1998) *

Rich Halley Rich Halley (born November 25, 1947 in Portland, Oregon) is an American jazz tenor saxophonist and composer. He has released 24 recordings as a leader. As Down Beat described him: “Oregon-based saxophonist Rich Halley has been turning out sma ...

, ''The Blue Rims'' (Louie, 2003) * Rich Halley, ''Live at the Penofin Jazz Festival'' (Pine Eagle, 2010) * Roberto Miranda's Home Music Ensemble, ''Live at Bing Theatre - Los Angeles, 1985'' (Dark Tree, 2021) *

John Rapson Ira John Rapson, III (born February 4, 1953, Gary, Indiana, died July 21, 2021, Iowa City, Iowa) was an American jazz trombonist and educator. Rapson began on piano at age five before switching to trombone. He studied at Westmont College, graduati ...

, ''Dances and Orations'' (Music & Arts, 1996) * John Rapson, ''Water and Blood'' (Nine Winds, 2001) *

Bob Thiele Bob, BOB, or B.O.B. may refer to: Places *Mount Bob, New York, United States *Bob Island, Palmer Archipelago, Antarctica People, fictional characters, and named animals *Bob (given name), a list of people and fictional characters *Bob (surname) ...

, ''Head Start'' (Flying Dutchman, 1969)

Bibliography

*Isoardi, Steven L. (2006). ''The Dark Tree: Jazz and the Community Arts in Los Angeles''.

The George Gund Foundation The George Gund Foundation is a charitable foundation established in 1952 to provide grants in the areas of the arts, civic engagement, community development, economic development, environmental policy, and human services, public education, racia ...

Book in African American Studies. Berkeley: University of California Press. *Litweiler, John (1990). ''The Freedom Principle: Jazz After 1958''. New York: Da Capo Press. *Dailey, Raleigh. ''Folklore, Composition, and Free Jazz: The Life and Music of John Carter.'' Ph.D. dissertation; University of Kentucky, 2007.

Biography

Discography

As leader

As sideman

Bibliography

References

External links