Home » Jazz Musicians » Harry "Sweets" Edison

Harry "Sweets" Edison

Harry "Sweets" Edison is one of the few players in the history of jazz trumpet who could be instantly identified after only a few notes; along with Bobby Hackett, he was acknowledged as one of the few master trumpet accompanists.

Born in Columbus, Ohio, Edison moved to Louisville, Kentucky to live with his uncle. It was his uncle who first exposed Edison to music, first teaching him to play a pump organ. Edison later found an old cornet in the house and taught himself scales. He cited early exposure to recordings of Louis Armstrong backing up Bessie Smith as important influences on his playing.

When he was eleven Edison almost died from typhoid fever. A year later his mother took him back to Columbus, Ohio, and bought a new horn for Edison, at considerable expense. He soon joined a local band led by Earl Hood. In 1933 he joined the Jeter-Pillars Orchestra and moved with the band to St. Louis, where he worked for two years. Tab Smith, A visiting alto player, heard him, and recommended Edison to Lucky Millinder, who led a top rank band in New York. Edison joined Millinder, whose band included trumpet giant Charlie Shavers, pianist Billy Kyle and the tenor saxophonist Don Byas.

After stints with the Millinder band, Edison was hired in 1937 to replace Bobby Moore in Count Basie's band. It was with Basie's band that Edison reportedly earned the nickname "Sweets" from Lester Young. (Together with the outstanding trumpet soloist Buck Clayton, Edison recorded more than 50 of Basie's records from this period.) It was also during this period that Edison became friends with Billie Holiday, then the bands vocalist. Basie broke the band up for a spell in 1950.

In 1952, Edison moved to California, where he established himself as a stalwart studio musician and first call trumpet soloist for the influential arranger Nelson Riddle. He would record with Sinatra for six years, and fill similar roles on recordings Bing Crosby, Billy Daniels, Nat Cole, Margaret Whiting, Jerry Lewis and Ella Fitzgerald, and played on many film soundtracks. (His commercial work and the studio pension system provided him $800 a week for the rest of his life, giving him a great deal of prosperity later in life.)

During this time, Edison also led his own band in Los Angeles, and toured with Norman Granz's all-star Jazz at the Philharmonic unit. During the Fifties he recorded frequently with Shorty Rogers' Giants. He played in the bands led by Henry Mancini, Quincy Jones, Buddy Rich and Louie Bellson, plus frequent guest appearances with the Basie band.

Paul Quinichette: Like Basie

by C. Andrew Hovan
March 20, 2023

Like any business concerned with making a profit, the record industry has often resorted to questionable concepts, tributes, or other hooks to lure more costumers to their product. Currently we find ourselves in an era where the quality of original music is arguably on the decline, thus it has become even more prevalent to use nostalgia as a selling point. While ghost bands and one-off tributes may be a way to bring a new audience to the music of some ...

Album Review

Basie All Stars: Live At Fabrik Vol. 1

Read "Live At Fabrik Vol. 1" reviewed by Chris May

by Chris May
March 13, 2023

Such are the glories of his band's recorded legacy from the 1930s through the 1950s, that the mere mention of Count Basie's name will trigger a Pavlovian response from his fan base. Like no other, the Count Basie Orchestra epitomised big-band swing at its most sublime; reefer fuelled, riff based, loose and louche Kansas City jazz that is irresistible even in 2023, a life-affirming antidote to the barbarity of DL-only albums, generative music and social media. Seasoned ...

272

Album Review

Paul Quinichette & His Basie-ites: Like Basie

by Nic Jones
December 5, 2006

Like Basie has already seen the light of day in the CD era as an OJC release, but given its qualities, its reappearance here is welcome anyway. Paul Quinichette's career was perhaps more dogged than aided by the lazy “Vice-Pres" tag that was placed upon him because of his stylistic allegiance to Lester Young. As ever the details of the matter were somewhat different. His work was in fact rhythmically far less oblique, whilst the timbre of his playing was ...

Video / DVD

Perfection: Harry James in the Late '50s/Early '60s

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
May 23, 2025

Two big bands that knock me out from the late 1950s and early 1960s are the ones led by Count Basie and Harry James. Both could swing the house sideways, but both knew when enough was enough. Basie, of course, invented the concept of just enough, but James's decade-straddling band is often overlooked for the same quality. James's near-stalker passion for Basie is well known ("Two O'Clock Jump) but less known is that during this period, they shared the same ...
read more

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Harry Connick, Jr.

Source: Michael Ricci
September 11, 2023

All About Jazz is celebrating Harry Connick, Jr.'s birthday today!

Harry Connick, Jr.'s career has been studded with awards and recognition, including several multi-platinum and gold albums, Grammy and Emmy awards, a starring role in a Tony-winning Broadway musical and much more. A true American icon, there are few artists of Harry's stature, and fewer still with such a comprehensive span of the entire realm of entertainment. Harry grew up in New Orleans, and it is here you will find ...
read more

Interview

Interview: Harry Allen

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
July 3, 2023

Harry Allen is often thought of as quiet and aloof. The truth is, the swinging tenor saxophonist is reserved and, based on my many email chats with him, a gentleman and great guy who tends to keep to himself. While you're certainly aware of his swinging style in the Zoot Sims-Paul Gonsalves tradition, you may not be aware that Harry is a superb arranger cut from the same cloth as Sammy Nestico and Nelson Riddle. [Photo above of Harry Allen ...
read more

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Harry Allen

Source: Michael Ricci
October 12, 2022

All About Jazz is celebrating Harry Allen's birthday today!

Gene Lees writes, “Stan Getz was once asked his idea of the perfect tenor saxophone soloist. His answer was, 'My technique, Al Cohn's ideas, and Zoot's time.' The fulfillment of that ideal may well be embodied in thirty-year-old Harry Allen." BMG recording artist Harry Allen has over twenty recordings to his name. Three of Harry's CDs have won Gold Disc Awards from Japan's Swing Journal Magazine, and his CD Tenors Anyone? ...
read more

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Harry Connick, Jr.

Source: Michael Ricci
September 11, 2022

All About Jazz is celebrating Harry Connick, Jr.'s birthday today!

Video / DVD

Charlie Shavers v. Harry James

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
June 7, 2022

Back in early May, I received an email from a reader, Jeremy Mushlin, who had an interesting point: “I will go toe to toe with any Harry James fan and argue that Charlie Shavers was his trumpet-playing equal. Charlie just did not get the same opportunities and also wasn't as well organized as James. Compare Harry James's Soft Lights, Sweet Trumpet and Trumpet After Midnight with Shavers's Gershwin, Shavers and Strings and The Most Intimate. A big, bold statement, ...
read more

Video / DVD

Count, Duke, Stan, Harry, Gerald and Tubby in '65

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
May 25, 2022

Thought to be over and done in 1965, big bands staged a comeback. Most of their acclaim came on tours in Europe and and on TV, but the truth is that bands led by top names were undergoing a renaissance. With their kids in college or out of the house and rock starting to dominate, many older listeners in the U.S. began paying attention again to artists who had shaped their youth. Abroad, a generation of young adults marveled at ...
read more

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Harry Allen

Source: Michael Ricci
October 12, 2021

All About Jazz is celebrating Harry Allen's birthday today!

Video / DVD

Harry Edison: The Swinger

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
January 30, 2019

Trumpeter Harry “Sweets" Edison is perhaps best known for providing chrome-tinged obbligatos behind jazz-pop singers. His muted trumpet can be heard playing tightly wound touches on the albums of singers such as Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald. When they paused between verses, arrangers had Edison fill the space. At times, he mirrored the vocalist's phrasing before disappearing back into the band. But Edison was much more than a colorist or sideman. He recorded a wealth of leadership albums that provide ...
read more

Video / DVD

Another Cause for Celebration: Harry "Sweets" Edison

Source: Riffs on Jazz by John Anderson
October 11, 2010

While October 10th is rightly honored for the birth of Thelonious Monk, I want to celebrate another jazz musician who shares his birthdate, trumpeter Harry “Sweets" Edison. Edison was born in Columbus, Ohio, in 1915, and spent part of his childhood in Kentucky, where an uncle introduced him to music. As a teenager, he played trumpet in local bands in Columbus. “Sweets" joined the Count Basie Orchestra in 1937 and stayed for 13 years. One can hear the Basie influence ...
read more