The Legendary Clora Bryant, the Trumpeter’s Dream
The life and times of a legend who carved her own path through trials and triumphs
When you have a talent and in your heart you know this is your gift to share with the world nothing should stop you or get in our way. Every one is born with at least one gift and must share that gift with the world for their wholeness and humanity’s wholeness. One person’s struggle encourages the next person’s struggle to be the best they can under any and all circumstances.
Clora Bryant, a trumpet player who broke barriers in jazz. Born May 30, 1927 and transitioned August 25, 2019. Ms. Bryant played the trumpet while attention and recognition was slow in coming, if it came at all being in a male dominated arena and during a time when she was considered a novelty.
Ms. Bryant stated, “When you put that iron in your mouth, you run into problems, the other horn players gave me respect, but the men who ran the clubs considered me a novelty, “ per the Los Angeles Times from an interview in 1998.
She was a barrier breaker who stood steadfast and firm in her resolve to be respected as a jazz trumpet player despite the open sexism and racism that shadowed her career. When you are the first or one of the first, that door of opportunity is like a brick wall and must be chipped away for those that follow to enter.
She lived a life as a jazz trumpeter and it was an uphill battle per her son. The sad part about this story, if she was white and a female, the story would have had a totally different and more successful ending. Shame on America the Beautiful, denying one’s talent it’s rightful place in society. Yes, it was a man’s world and it made it hard for her but she had a dream to be and she was a trumpet player, undeniably. She proclaimed all her rejection made her more determined.
Her spirit has ignited a fire in me that needed to be relighted. As an actress, there is much rejection for various reasons and all can be very daunting. While yes, synonymous to Ms. Bryant, I have had some measure of success and been blessed but the windows of opportunity is smaller due to my ethnicity, not talent, but I am encouraged more by her legacy.
Her talent made room for her. She was a constant on the jazz scene along Central Avenue and Las Vegas in the 1940s along with the greats and was highly revered by Dizzy Gillespie, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, and Louis Armstrong just too name a few. Her associations speak volume attesting to her talent.
While work was hard to come by, she pursued her dream. Even to this very day there are few female horn players and probably even less African American ones.
Ms. Bryant was born May 30, 1927 in Denison, Texas, her mother died when she was three years old and her father raised her and her brothers and he encouraged them to think big. Reminds me of my mother and father, coming from Mississippi, they all ways pushed their children to exceed at all cost.
Ms. Bryant discovered her brother’s trumpet after he went off to the war, and joined the school marching band. Her father warned her that she’d face a lot of resistance, and that he supported her all the way in what ever she wanted to do. His famous words, Charles Bryant, after he advised she’d face a lot of opposition was “But anything you want to do, I’m behind you, You keep playing.”
Being raised a baptist and was taught that anything with a backbeat was probably, “the devil’s music” , she didn’t find jazz but it found her. Early she was privy to the likes of Earl Hines, Cotton Club, Cab Calloway on the radio in the wee hours of the night. During the day, only white bands played on the radio.
When their is a passion, the doors will open perhaps not as wide and as quick as the pursuer would like but at the end of the day, one should follow their heart and dreams to live a fulfill life.
After she attended Prairie View A&M University, a historically black college, she moved to Los Angeles and found her place on the jazz scene in jazz clubs along Central Avenue — the Downbeat, the Last Word, Club Alabam and the Dunbar Hotel.
Against all barriers and along side the greats like Miles Davis, Teddy Edwards, Sonny Criss, Ms. Bryant held her own. Mind you these guys were sizzling and she sizzled with them. She also played with Charlie Parker, Billie Holiday, and Scatman Crothers. Gillespie was a life long fan and a regular at the Lighthouse and the High Seas in Hermosa Beach. She also performed with the Sweethearts of Rhythm and the Sepia Tones. She even appeared on the Ed Sullivan show after she cut her lone album, “Clora Bryant-Gal With a Horn”, in 1957.
When a door or window closes, create your own window or door and that’s all that matter is the journey you make and take for yourself with all the tenacity that is within.
Ms. Bryant was innovative when she wrote a letter directly to Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev and asked to be the first female horn player to visit Moscow to perform. She got the idea from Dave Brubeck’s decision to take his music to Moscow. In 1988, she arrived in Moscow and played at a jazz festival and the city’s marquee jazz club. Her travel was documented by a UCLA film crew.
In 2002, Ms. Bryant was awarded the Mary Lou Williams Women In Jazz Award at the Kennedy Center in Washington. Also, a documentary entitled, “Trumpetistically Clora Bryant”, which captures this trailblazer’s distinguished journey as a trumpeter in it’s entirety and expounds on all the racism and gender bias that held back women with ambition.
Her most recent words pertaining to her long career of fighting barriers, “I would like them to give me my props, not because I think I’m so great, but because I endured. I stuck with it.”
My accolades to her is that, “unbeknownst to her she is an indelible part of not only musicians history but world history and women’s history for she was the ultimate fighter for her God given talent and she paved the way for many to follow regardless of their pursuit. She came, she did and she went!! The Trumpeter who defied barriers!!!
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