7. Dizzy Reece
“There’s a great trumpeter over in England: a guy who’s got soul and originality and, above all, who’s not afraid to blow with fire.” So said none other than Miles Davis about Jamaican trumpeter Dizzy Reece. Also trained at the Alpha Boys School, Reece left JA for England at 16 and after making a name for himself in London and Paris, was invited to record an album, called Blues in Trinity, for Blue Note. By 1958, Reece had generated enough hype to prompt a move to the capital of jazz—New York. There Reece recorded a second album for Blue Note at Rudy Van Gelder’s legendary New Jersey studios, featuring all-star personnel Hank Mobley, Wynton Kelly (a Jamaican by way of Brooklyn), Paul Chambers, and Art Taylor (Jamaican by way of Harlem). Though Star Bright didn’t bring him jazz celebrity, he continued to record with some of the era’s biggest names, including Bobby Timmons, Dexter Gordon, and Ron Carter.
Now considered one of his era’s great unsung talents, Reece still resides and performs in New York.