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An important force in the Los Angeles jazz community, Buddy Collette was an early pioneer at playing jazz on the flute. Collette started on piano as a child and then gradually learned all of the woodwinds. He played with Les Hite in 1942; led a dance band while in the Navy during World War II; and then freelanced in the L.A. area with such bands as the Stars of Swing (1946), <a href="spotify:artist:7LuYKkS2JVhnt6x2HmwK2P">Edgar Hayes</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:2nRbxpnBMMbtMBWH5QdqH2">Louis Jordan</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:5dlCVmfRbWVGOJYHzGyk32">Benny Carter</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:2gSkBqzo1VXaWnAyjhoYk7">Gerald Wilson</a> (1949 and 1950). An early teacher of <a href="spotify:artist:1W8TbFzNS15VwsempfY12H">Charles Mingus</a>, Collette became the first Black musician to get a permanent spot in a West Coast studio band (from 1951 to 1955). He gained his greatest recognition as an important member of the <a href="spotify:artist:31NF3yc9DoAdh2bgR6mY04">Chico Hamilton Quintet</a> (1955 and 1956), and he recorded several albums as a leader in the mid- to late '50s for <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Contemporary%22">Contemporary</a>. Otherwise, he mostly stuck to the L.A. area, freelancing, working in the studios, playing in clubs, teaching, and inspiring younger musicians. Although a fine tenor player and a good clarinetist, Collette's most distinctive voice is on flute; he recorded an album with one of his former students, the great <a href="spotify:artist:1Gth2y1RbGSA0OU0Ajdjhr">James Newton</a> (1989). In addition, Collette participated in a reunion of the <a href="spotify:artist:31NF3yc9DoAdh2bgR6mY04">Chico Hamilton Quintet</a>, and recorded a two-disc "talking record" for the <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Issues%22">Issues</a> label in 1994, in which he discussed some of what he had seen and experienced through the years. ~ Scott Yanow, Rovi
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