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Eddie Bert

Trombonist Eddie Bert's career spans nearly seven decades of Jazz, from big bands to bebop and beyond. In addition to being a Jazz musician who's played with one and all, he's been a regular in Broadway show bands, and a first call studio player. Yet no matter what the musical setting, Eddie has always played his uniquely personal, warm and melodic style of Jazz.

When renowned Jazz leaders needed a dependable, original trombonist for a significant recording or event in the second half of the twentieth century, they turned to Eddie Bert. In fact, his resume reads like a Who's Who of modern Jazz, including musical relationships with Thelonious Monk, Charles Mingus, Coleman Hawkins, Woody Herman, Stan Kenton, Machito, Tito Puente, Benny Goodman, Thad Jones and Mel Lewis.

There's a reason Eddie Bert has played with the Jazz masters—he's a truly gifted musician, a trombonist who has easily traversed eras and genres, from bop to swing, Mingus to Hampton, and Kenton to Herman. Eddie straddled the racial divide as well. He played in one of the first integrated big bands, Charlie Barnet's 1943 aggregation, which included Howard McGhee, Buddy DeFranco and Oscar Pettiford.

In addition to being one of the most dependable players in Jazz history, always in demand because of his sight reading skills and his ability to lend a passionate and individual approach to all music, Eddie is a soloist and arranger with a distinctive musical voice. In 1955, when he stopped playing only to sleep, he won Metronome's Musician of the Year award. He followed that with a top rated album of the same name for Savoy. He has led a number of other recordings during his distinguished career, featuring such sidemen as Duke Jordan, Joe Morello, Hank Jones and Kenny Clarke.

Interestingly, Eddie Bert reports that his major musical influences are saxophone players: "Lester Young was very important to me, as were Willie Smith, who taught me a lot about phrasing, and Budd Johnson. I worked with Budd and we used to hang around a lot. He had a great knowledge of music. My early influences on trombone were Trummy Young, Vic Dickenson and Benny Morton."

A participant in numerous Jazz history moments, Eddie is also a chronicler as well. Since his first days as a musician, he has kept a meticulous diary of everything he's done, including details of every gig and recording session, with the names of the other musicians and what they were paid for the gig. These notebooks have proven to be invaluable to Jazz historians, record producers and writers.

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Eddie Bert

Read "Eddie Bert" reviewed by Elliott Simon


Beginning with swing and then flowing into bop, Broadway and beyond, trombonist Eddie Bert has lent his perfect sense of timing, touch, and tone to sessions led by the best. An integral part of influential recordings and landmark concerts for more than six decades, Bert remains a busy player and at the age of 82 is a headliner at this month's gala, “Remembering Jazz at the Brooklyn Paramount". As a youngster, Bert's early fascination with jazz led ...

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Video / DVD

Eddie Bert: Musician Of The Year

Eddie Bert: Musician Of The Year

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

Today is Eddie Bert's centenary. The trombonist was born May 16, 1922 and died in 2012. Eddie was an extraordinary musician, a solid swinger and a great guy. And if we're looking at East Coast and West Coast doppelgängers, then Eddie can be compared with Frank Rosolino in Los Angeles for powerful and hungry improvisational lines, a seasoned approach and wit. One of Eddie's most remarkable leadership albums was Eddie Bert: Musicians of the Year, recorded for Savoy in 1955. ...

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Video / DVD

Eddie Bert: Kaleidoscope

Eddie Bert: Kaleidoscope

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

In the early 1950s, with the 10-inch LP format on the rise, New York had a crew of jazz musicians who were superb studio swingers. They were dependable, driven and could really get feet tapping. Their watering hole was Charlie's Tavern on the west side of Seventh Avenue between 51st and 52nd St., in the Roseland Building. Since Charlie's banned known junkies to limit the theft of horns and fights that often followed, producers used the tavern as a place ...

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Obituary

Eddie Bert (1922-2012)

Eddie Bert (1922-2012)

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

Eddie Bert, a swinging bebop trombonist whose aggressive, bouncing playing style was deeply influenced by his love for the instrument's singing voice and who found himself in steady demand from 1942 on, appearing on 336 known recording sessions, died on September 28. He was 90. Greatly assisted by fearless ambition and a quest for excellence, Eddie's early drive resulting in meeting  Trummy Young outside a ballroom in New York in the late 1930s. Taken with Eddie's honest approach, Young sent ...

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Performance / Tour

Tribute to Legendary Trombonist Eddie Bert - Celebrating His 80th Birthday

Tribute to Legendary Trombonist Eddie Bert - Celebrating His 80th Birthday

Source: All About Jazz

Eddie Bert Returns to Town Hall Thursday, May 16, 2002 www.eddiebertjazz.com

On May 16, 2002 at The Town Hall, New York City, tribute will be paid to legendary trombonist Eddie Bert on the occasion of his 80th Birthday. The concert will feature Eddie Bert himself with the George Gee All-Star Jazz Orchestra under the musical direction of Walt Szymanski, and with many special guests to be announced. Noted jazz author and historian Dan Morgenstern will be ...

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Performance / Tour

Eddie Bert Returns to Town Hall: Tribute to Legendary Trombonist Celebrating His 80th Birthday

Eddie Bert Returns to Town Hall: Tribute to Legendary Trombonist Celebrating His 80th Birthday

Source: All About Jazz

On May 16, 2002 at The Town Hall, New York City, tribute will be paid to legendary trombonist Eddie Bert on the occasion of his 80th Birthday. The concert will feature Eddie Bert himself with the George Gee All-Star Jazz Orchestra under musical direction of Walt Szymanski, and with many special guests to be announced.

This will be a Town Hall homecoming for Eddie: In 1945 he played in a Red Norvo concert at Town Hall which also was recorded. ...

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Encore

Repertoire Records
1993

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Like Cool

Repertoire Records
1958

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Modern Moods

Fresh Sound Records
1956

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Encore

Savoy Jazz
1955

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