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Freddie Webster |
Freddie Webster
picture from Joe Mosbrook website page (see below)
"I used to love what he did with a note. He didn't play a lot of notes; he didn't waste any. I used to try to get his sound. He had a great big tone, like Billy Butterfield, but without a vibrato. Freddie was my best friend. I wanted to play like him. I used to teach him chords, everything I learned at Juilliard. He didn't have the money to go. And in return, I'd try to get his tone".
Miles Davis.
Trumpeter Freddie Webster was born in 1916 and died at the age of 30 in 1947. Officially, he died of a heart attack. Miles Davis thought otherwise ....
Freddie Webster was born in Cleveland, Ohio and grew up in a religious family. As a teenager he played in the Central High School band, but I wonder what his parents thought when he began to make a name for himself in the Cleveland jazz groups of the 1930s? By the end of the decade he had put together a 14-piece band to tour Northern Ohio. The band included his friend, pianist Tadd Dameron. Tadd claimed that it was Freddie who influenced his decision to pursue a career in jazz. It is interesting that Freddie's influence in his short life seems to have touched a number of people. Eventually Freddie left Cleveland and played with a variety of bands.
This page has now been updated and moved to: https://www.sandybrownjazz.com/jazz-remembered-20/freddie-webster