Bee Tee's Minor Plea – Booker Little

Don Sickler writes: "Booker Little was only 21 when he wrote and recorded this composition. It's unbelievable when you realize he only lived to be 23 years old. He was both an extremely gifted trumpet player and an exceptional composer. He would have only been 70 years old in 2008!

"A major goal of mine is to expose all young trumpet players to Booker. I first discovered Booker Little late, when I was 25 years old. I had just finished my Master's Degree in Trumpet performance at Manhattan School Of Music. Boy, did I feel robbed of my trumpet youth when I first heard Booker. I had no idea the trumpet could be played with such ease. I always thought you had to take a real muscular approach to playing high. Not Booker: going up, coming down, everything sounds effortless. Of course, there is also his tremendous technical facility on the trumpet, which certainly goes hand in hand with an effortless approach. Where would he have taken the trumpet, had he lived?"

A lot of musicians are interested in the titles of compositions. His name is Booker T. Little, so we're presuming he's the "Bee Tee."

Check out other titles recorded on this album.

Transcribed Trumpet Solo: Booker  starts his solo trumpet with two developing lyrical choruses. Our solo audio excerpt starts with Booker's pick up note to his third solo chorus. As you can tell, Booker listened to a lot of Clifford Brown. You'll hear him pay homage to Clifford with his turns as he weaves an interesting tri-tone substitution line into the fourth measure of the blues. After a few more lyrical statements, Booker starts moving into double time. This young man definitely knows how to play the blues! A seven-chorus solo, B-flat and C treble clef concert editions available.