Lammar Wright, Jr.

The family that plays trumpets together...well, what do they do? Stays rump-fit together? Sautés crumpets together? A legitimate poet should no doubt be consulted to provide the ultimate rhyme scheme, but for factual information the career of the Wright family of Kansas City is the obvious place to look. Lammar Wright Sr. was a big-band trumpeter who stayed with the hysterical band of Cab Calloway for nearly two decades. Two of the male offspring he fathered, Lammar Wright Jr. and Elmon Wright, were also trumpeters. All three were into jazz, although the younger generation took advantage of opportunities that came along in R&B, rock & roll, doo wop, and other genres that hired session musicians. The fact that these are obscure figures despite quite large discographies and associations with leading musical stars might have something to do with the incredible confusion between the junior and senior "Lammarelatives." Many recordings left off the identifying abbreviation; live recordings or airshots can be mystifying, since on at least a few occasions father would substitute for son, and vice versa. At 16, Lammar Wright Jr. was performing professionally with the Lionel Hampton band, meaning that he must have started with local bands at least a few years earlier. The adolescent start has led to some important losses, such as the performer's childhood and the sanity of discographers trying to figure out who is playing on a record, father or son. Normally a somewhat wider gap separates recordings by a junior and senior, meaning much less squinting at other details for a reasonable clue. But by entering the music scene in the early '40s, Wright Jr. put his feet on a track that would lead to revolutionary musical developments. While Wright Sr. played with Calloway; Wright Jr.,...