# Clora Bryant > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Clora_Bryant > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Clora_Bryant.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clora_Bryant > Source revision: 1331035974 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{Short description|American jazz musician (1927–2019)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=February 2020}} {{Infobox musical artist | name = Clora Bryant | image = Clora Bryant.jpg | caption = Bryant in 1982 | birth_name = Clora Larea Bryant | birth_date = {{birth date|1927|05|30}} | birth_place = [Denison](/source/Denison%2C_Texas), [Texas](/source/Texas), U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|2019|08|25|1927|05|30}} | death_place = [Los Angeles](/source/Los_Angeles), [California](/source/California), U.S. | genre = [Jazz](/source/Jazz) | occupation = Musician | instrument = Trumpet, vocals | years_active = }} '''Clora Larea Bryant''' (May 30, 1927 – August 25, 2019){{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/01/arts/music/clora-bryant-dead.html |title=Clora Bryant, Trumpeter and Pillar of L.A. Jazz Scene, Dies at 92 |last=Russonello |first=Giovanni |newspaper=The New York Times |date=September 1, 2019 |access-date=February 10, 2020}} was an American jazz trumpeter. She was the only female trumpeter to perform with [Dizzy Gillespie](/source/Dizzy_Gillespie) and [Charlie Parker](/source/Charlie_Parker) and was a member of the [International Sweethearts of Rhythm](/source/International_Sweethearts_of_Rhythm). ==Early life== Bryant was born in [Denison, Texas](/source/Denison%2C_Texas) to Charles and Eulila Bryant, the youngest of three children. Her father was a [day labor](/source/day_labor)er and her mother was a [homemaker](/source/Homemaking) who died when Clora was only 3 years old. When Bryant was a young child, she learned to play piano with her brother Mel.{{Cite book |title=Central Avenue Sounds: Jazz in Los Angeles |date=1998 |editor-first=Clora |editor-last=Bryant |isbn=0-520-21189-8 |location=Berkeley |publisher=University of California Press |oclc=37361632}} As a child, Bryant was a member of the choir in a Baptist church. When her brother Fred joined the military, he left his trumpet, which she learned how to play. In high school she played trumpet in the marching band. ==Career== Bryant turned down scholarships from [Oberlin Conservatory](/source/Oberlin_Conservatory) and [Bennett College](/source/Bennett_College) to attend [Prairie View College](/source/Prairie_View_College) in [Houston](/source/Houston) starting in 1943, where she was a member of the [Prairie View Co-eds jazz band](/source/Prairie_View_Co-eds). The band toured in Texas and performed at the [Apollo Theater](/source/Apollo_Theater) in New York City in 1944. Her father got a job in Los Angeles, and she transferred to [UCLA](/source/UCLA) in 1945.{{cite web |last=Ankeny |first=Jason |title=Clora Bryant |url=https://www.allmusic.com/artist/clora-bryant-mn0001179578 |website=AllMusic |access-date=28 November 2017}} Bryant heard [bebop](/source/bebop) for the first time on [Central Avenue](/source/Central_Avenue_(Los_Angeles)). In 1946 she became a member of the [International Sweethearts of Rhythm](/source/International_Sweethearts_of_Rhythm), an [all-female jazz band](/source/All-female_band), earned her [union card](/source/Trade_union) and dropped out of school. [Dizzy Gillespie](/source/Dizzy_Gillespie) became her mentor and provided her with work. She joined the black female jazz band the Queens of Swing as a drummer, and went on tour with the band. In 1951 she worked in Los Angeles as a trumpeter for [Josephine Baker](/source/Josephine_Baker) and [Billie Holiday](/source/Billie_Holiday). Two years later she moved to New York City. The Queens of Swing performed on television in 1951 as The Hollywood Sepia Tones, in a half-hour variety program on [KTLA](/source/KTLA). They were the first women's jazz group to appear on television. After six weeks the show was dropped due to lack of a sponsor. During filming Bryant was about seven months pregnant. After her daughter's birth she was called onto [Ada Leonard](/source/Ada_Leonard)'s all-girl orchestra show; however, she only stayed for a week after calls demanding to "get that nigger off there".{{cite book |editor1-last=Bryant |editor1-first=Clora |editor2=Central Avenue Sounds Editorial Committee |title=Central Avenue Sounds: Jazz in Los Angeles |publisher=Berkeley, CA: University of California Press |year=1998 |page=362 |isbn=9780520220980 |oclc=37361632}} In 1954 she briefly moved to New York because she had lost inspiration from playing in bands.{{cite book |editor1-last=Price III |editor1-first=Emmett G. |editor2-last=Kernodle |editor2-first=Tammy L. |editor3-last=Maxile |editor3-first=Horace J. Jr. |year=2011 |title=Encyclopedia of African American Music |location=Santa Barbara, CA |publisher=ABC-CLIO |edition=1st |page=563 |isbn=9780313341991 |oclc=664451052}} In 1951, she was a member of an all-female sextet led by [Ginger Smock](/source/Ginger_Smock){{cite web |title=Hot Violinist is TV Hit in Los Angeles |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KkMDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA62 |website=Google Books |publisher=Jet magazine/Johnson Publishing Company |access-date=3 June 2013 |page=62 |date=24 April 1952}} that was broadcast for six weeks on [CBS](/source/CBS).{{cite book |author=Staff of The New York Times |title=The New York Times Television Reviews 2000 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z0QFKpI6p7AC&pg=PA372 |access-date=3 June 2013 |date=5 June 2003 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-0-203-50830-5 |pages=372–}} Bryant recorded her first and only album, ''Gal with a Horn'', in 1957 before returning to the life of a traveling musician. She worked often at clubs in Chicago and Denver. In Las Vegas she performed with [Louis Armstrong](/source/Louis_Armstrong) and [Harry James](/source/Harry_James). She toured with singer [Billy Williams](/source/Billy_Williams_(singer)) and accompanied him on ''[The Ed Sullivan Show](/source/The_Ed_Sullivan_Show)''. During the 1960s and 1970s, she toured around the world with her brother Mel, who was a singer, and they had a TV show in Australia. In 1989 Bryant became the first female jazz musician to tour in the [Soviet Union](/source/Soviet_Union) after writing to [Mikhail Gorbachev](/source/Mikhail_Gorbachev). After a heart attack and quadruple bypass surgery in 1996, Bryant was forced to give up the trumpet but she continued to sing. She also began to give lectures on college campuses about the history of jazz, co-edited a book on jazz history in Los Angeles titled ''Central Avenue Sounds: Jazz in Los Angeles'', and worked with children in Los Angeles elementary schools. In 2002, she received a lifetime achievement award (the [Mary Lou Williams](/source/Mary_Lou_Williams) Women in Jazz Award) from the [Kennedy Center](/source/John_F._Kennedy_Center_for_the_Performing_Arts) in Washington, D.C. Two years later a documentary about her was released. In an interview with ''[JazzTimes](/source/JazzTimes)'', Bryant said, "Nobody ever told me, 'You can't play the trumpet, you're a girl.' Not when I got started in high school and not when I came out to L.A. My father told me, 'It's going to be a challenge, but if you're going to do it, I'm behind you all the way.' And he was."{{cite web |last=Heckman |first=Don |title=Clora Bryant: Trumpetiste Extraordinaire |url=https://jazztimes.com/departments/overdue-ovation/clora-bryant-trumpetiste-extraordinaire/ |website=JazzTimes |access-date=28 November 2017 |date=1 May 2007}} ==Personal life and death== Bryant married bassist Joe Stone in the 1940s and the couple had two children, April and Charles Stone. That marriage ended in divorce. Bryant had two additional children from her relationship with drummer Leslie Milton; Kevin and Darrin Milton. Bryant died at [Cedars-Sinai Medical Center](/source/Cedars-Sinai_Medical_Center) in Los Angeles on August 25, 2019, after suffering a heart attack at home. At the time of her death, she had nine grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. ==Discography== * ''Gal with a Horn'' (1957){{cite web |title=Clora Bryant {{!}} Album Discography |url=https://www.allmusic.com/artist/clora-bryant-mn0001179578/discography |website=AllMusic |access-date=28 November 2017}} * ''The Billy Williams Revue (1960):'' Two solo tracks ==Filmography== * 1968: ''The [Rosey Grier](/source/Rosey_Grier) Show'' (TV show) season 1, episode 18 "Clora Bryant, Sam Fletcher" includes a featured guest appearance by Bryant * 2000: ''[Mysteries and Scandals](/source/Mysteries_and_Scandals)'' (TV show) season 3, episode 25 "Humphrey Bogart" includes a segment with Bryant * 2005: ''Trumpetistically, Clora Bryant'' (video short directed by [Zeinabu Irene Davis](/source/Zeinabu_Irene_Davis)) with Bryant as featured subject * 2010: ''[Leimert Park](/source/Leimert_Park%2C_Los_Angeles) Voices'' (documentary film co-directed by Paul Calderon and Alan Swyer) includes interview segment with Bryant * 2011: ''The Girls in the Band'' (documentary film directed by Judy Chaikin) includes Bryant as a featured musician{{cite web |url=https://thegirlsintheband.com/category/featured-musicians/ |title=The Girls in the Band: Featured Musicians |author= |date=2020 |website=The Girls in the Band |access-date=February 10, 2020}} * 2014: ''Sound of Redemption: The Frank Morgan Story'' (documentary film directed by N.C. Heiken) includes appearance by Bryant ==References== {{Reflist}} == Further reading == * {{cite book |last1=Enstice |first1=Wayne |last2=Stockhouse |first2=Janis |title=Jazzwomen: Conversations with Twenty-One Musicians |publisher=Bloomington, IN: University of Indiana Press |date=2004 |pages=33–46 |isbn=978-0-253-01014-8 |oclc=301489382}} * {{cite book |last=Placksin |first=Sally |year=1982 |title=American Women in Jazz: 1900 to the Present: Their Words, Lives, and Music |location=New York |publisher=Wideview Books |edition=1st |isbn=9780872237605 |oclc=8280710}} * {{cite book |last=Stein |first=Danica L. |editor1-first=Jacqueline Cogdell |editor1-last=DjeDje |editor2-first=Eddie S. |editor2-last=Meadows |title=California Soul: Music of African Americans in the West |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780520206281 |url-access=registration |publisher=University of California Press |date=1998 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780520206281/page/277 277–293] |chapter=Clora Bryant: Gender Issues in the Career of a West Coast Jazz Musician |isbn=978-0-520-20628-1 |oclc=42855007}} * {{cite book |last=Tucker |first=Sherrie |year=2000 |title=Swing Shift: All-Girl Bands of the 1940s |url=https://archive.org/details/swingshiftallgir0000tuck |url-access=registration |location=Durham, NC |publisher=Duke University Press |isbn=9780822324850 |oclc=42397506 |author-link=Sherrie Tucker}} ==External links== * [http://content.cdlib.org/xtf/view?docId=hb6489p54g&brand=oac&doc.view=entire_text Central Avenue Sounds: Clora Bryant.] Interviewed by Stephen L. Isoardi, Department of Special Collections, University of California, Los Angeles. * [http://oralhistory.library.ucla.edu/viewItem.do?ark=21198/zz0008znc2&title=Bryant,%20Clora Interview with Clora Bryant], part of [http://oralhistory.library.ucla.edu/viewItem.do?ark=21198/zz000905zz&title=%20Central%20Avenue%20Sounds%20Oral%20History%20Project Central Avenue Sounds Oral History Project] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160118083101/http://oralhistory.library.ucla.edu/viewItem.do?ark=21198%2Fzz000905zz&title=%20Central%20Avenue%20Sounds%20Oral%20History%20Project |date=January 18, 2016 }}, Center for Oral History Research, UCLA Library Special Collections, University of California, Los Angeles. * [https://www.namm.org/library/oral-history/clora-bryant Clora Bryant Interview] NAMM Oral History Library (2003) * [http://thegirlsintheband.com/2013/11/clora-bryant/ Clora Bryant at The Girls in the Band – The Official Site of the Music Documentary] * [https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-10-22-me-891-story.html ''Los Angeles Times'' article on Bryant] (1992) * [https://womenshistory.si.edu/spotlight/international-sweethearts-of-rhythm International Sweethearts of Rhythm Collection Spotlight, Because of Her Story, Smithsonian Institution] {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Bryant, Clora}} Category:1927 births Category:2019 deaths Category:20th-century American trumpeters Category:20th-century American women musicians Category:21st-century American trumpeters Category:21st-century American women musicians Category:American women jazz musicians Category:American jazz trumpeters Category:Bebop trumpeters Category:International Sweethearts of Rhythm members Category:Jazz musicians from Texas Category:People from Denison, Texas Category:Prairie View A&M University alumni Category:UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music alumni Category:20th-century African-American women singers Category:20th-century American women singers Category:20th-century American singers Category:Jazz musicians from Los Angeles Category:Women trumpeters Category:21st-century African-American women Category:21st-century African-American musicians --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Clora Bryant](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clora_Bryant) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clora_Bryant?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.