Harry Beckett

Harry Beckett (1923-2010) had one of the most distinctive trumpet sounds in British jazz. Born in Barbados, he took up the trumpet at school and played in a local Salvation Army Band. His year of birth is often given as 1935, but his widow told the journalist Steve Voce that he “always knocked the years off”, as he was afraid of being judged as too old by prospective employers. In any case, he moved to London in 1954 and soon found work in the band of Jamaican bandleader, Leslie ‘Jiver’ Hutchinson.

Beckett was a significant contributor to the work of Graham Collier, joining him in 1961 and remaining with him until 1977.He recorded his debut album ‘Flare Up’ in 1970 featuring John Surman, Mike Osborne, John Taylor and Alan Skidmore.

Beckett’s unique voice made him a first choice in many of the key bands of the late 1960s and through the 1970s including Chris McGregor’s Brotherhood of Breath, the Stan Tracey Octet, and Mike Westbrook’s orchestra, while also finding time to explore free improvisation with the likes of Evan Parker and guitarist Ray Russell. He was at various times a member of John Dankworth’s big band, Ronnie Scott’s quintet, and Ian Carr’s Nucleus – in other words with many of the most important groups in UK jazz history.

In the early 1980s, Beckett worked in Denmark with guitarist Pierre Dørge’s New Jungle Orchestra alongside saxophonist John Tchicai and South African bassist Johnny Dyani. Beckett was sought out by Courtney Pine and Gary Crosby to join the Jazz Warriors in 1985 and would form productive latter day partnerships with trombonist Annie Whitehead and saxophonist Chris Biscoe. Beckett can be seen and heard in the 1961 film ‘All Night Long’ with the Charles Mingus band.

Key Recordings:

With Graham Collier, Brotherhood Of Breath, etc
Flare Up (Jazz Print 1970)
Out of Many, One People (Antilles 1987)
Tribute To Charles Mingus (WestWind 2001)