This is the first biography of Eldridge, whose style is universally recognised as the all-important link between the playing of Louis armstrong and the achievements of modernist Dizzy Gillespie. Roy's daring harmonic approach and his technically awesome improvisations provided guidance and inspiration for countless jazz musicians, but he was also a star performer in his own right, whose recordings as a bandleader, and with Gene Krupa and Artie Shaw, gained him a durable international reputation. The indignaties he experienced and overcame during the 1940s while working in otherwise all-white ensembles proved he was as bold a social pioneer as he was performer.

Eldridge was one of the first trumpeters to improvise convincingly in the extreme high register, a skill that always added a thrilling edge to his solos. His presence in a jam session ensured that excitement was close at hand and his perpetually competitive attitude towards other trumpeters gained him a special place in the affection of jazz lovers. From the late-1940s through the 1970s he continued to develop his world-wide repuation by playing an important part in the famous Jazz at the Philharmonic tours, all the while adding to his impassioned recording performances.

John Chilton, who knew Eldridge for many years, presents a picture of a fiery yet sensitive individual, who never shunned candour and was at his happiest when playing the trumpet. New light is shed on the various occasions when Eldridge unwillingly became entangled with gangsters in New York and Chicago, and there are revealing details about Eldridge's uneven working relationship with Benny Goodman, Fletcher Henderson, Ella Fitzgerald and Count Basie.

CONTENTS:
Smoketown; Territory Band Travels; A Bit at the Big Apple; Chicago Bandleader; Settling in New York; Crusading with Krupa; Starring with Shaw; Jazz at the Philharmonic; Interlude in Paris; Tours & Triumphs; Flying with the Hawk; Festivals Galore; Radiance at Ryan's; Ending with A Song.
Roy on Record.

JOHN CHILTON divides his time between being a professional jazz trumpeter (with The Feetwarmers) and writing books on jazz; in 2000 he won the British Jazz Award for Writer of the Year. Jazz Rag recently described him as "one of the world's top jazz writers".

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HARDBACK EDITION available