Taswell Baird

Taswell Baird, Jr., towered among the preeminent trombonists of bebop’s heyday, collaborating with giants including Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. Blessed in St. Louis on June 24, 1922, Baird — categorised as “Small Joe” per his middle name — obtained his initial trombone at age group 12 and by his mid-teens was frequently touring through the entire Midwest, producing his documented debut with an Apr 30, 1941, Dallas-based program headlined by Jay McShann and offering Parker on alto saxophone. Baird continued to be with McShann through a July 1942 program in NEW YORK. The trombonist produced ny his permanent house and in early 1944 became a member of Louis Armstrong’s orchestra, afterwards that same calendar year backing vocalist Billy Eckstine for the program that also highlighted such rising greats as trumpeter Gillespie, tenorists Dexter Gordon and Gene Ammons, and drummer Artwork Blakey. Baird afterwards rejoined Gillespie for the November 12, 1946, program for Musicraft aswell as the trumpeter’s now-legendary Sept 29, 1947, big-band functionality at Carnegie Hall. But an extended battle with medications undermined Baird’s ascent, even though he continuing to find are a touring musician, his operate as a program player was generally over with the past due ’40s. Little is well known of his lifestyle until the past due ’70s, when he resolved in Oakland, CA. In the fall of his years Baird transferred into a pension home and used piano when his lip area could no more finesse his trombone. He was vaulted back to the news under tragic situations in 2002, when three attackers threw him from his wheelchair, defeat him, and robbed him of 80 dollars. After three weeks in a healthcare facility, Baird passed away November 22, 2002, at age 80. His grim demise was the main topic of headlines and outrage through the entire Bay Region and over the jazz world.