Bill Hardman (April 6, 1933 – December 6, 1990) was an American jazz trumpeter and flugelhornist who chiefly played hard bop. He figures by and large among the top ranks of hardbop titans of the time, although he never managed a commercial breakthrough like many of his colleagues such as Donald Byrd, Freddie Hubbard and Lee Morgan.
William Franklin Hardman Jr.was born and grew up in Cleveland, Ohio and studied trombone and trumpet as a youth. Armstrong and Roy Eldridge were early influences, and at the age of 16 he heard Charlie Parker and worked with local players including Bobby Few and Bob Cunningham; while in high school he appeared with Tadd Dameron, and after graduation he joined Tiny Bradshaw's band (1953 – 1955). Hardman's first recording was with Jackie McLean in 1955; he later played with Charles Mingus (1956), Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers (1956 – 1958), Horace Silver (1959), and Lou Donaldson, (on and off during 1959-1966) .He re-joined Blakey twice (1966-1969 and in the late ’70s), was with Mingus again during parts of 1969-1972.
Here's "Angel Eyes" from above album
Hardman also recorded half a dozen albums as a leader. His first album “Saying Something” on the Savoy label received critical acclaim in jazz circles, but was little known to the general public. Hardman's misfortune was not to be with the Messengers at the time of their popular Blue Note recordings.
A crackling hard bop player with blazing technique, crisp articulations, and a no-frills sound, Hardman later incorporated into his sound the fuller, more extroverted romantic passion of a Clifford Brown - a direction he would take increasingly throughout the late-1960s and 1970s. When put to the test, few could match and none exceed his pyrotechnical or imaginative gifts - Blakey would occasionally feature him playing several extended choruses unaccompanied.
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| Bill with Etta James |
In the New York jazz scene of the 1970s, it was not uncommon to find him at all-star trumpet sessions on which he would go head to head with heralded trumpet stars and emerge the clear and decisive winner. From 1972, with Bill Lee and Billy Higgins, he led the Brass Company, a large ensemble including four or five trumpets, two flugelhorns, and a rhythm section, which sought to re-create the thick textures characteristic of the sound produced by Miles Davis’s groups during the period of his collaboration with Gil Evans.
In 1973 Hardman won the Down Beat Critic’s Poll. He toured the United States and Europe with tenor saxophone star Junior Cook between 1979 and 1981 before settling in France.
He died December 6, 1990 in Paris, France, of a brain hemorrhage at the age of 57.
(Edited
from Wikipedia, New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, LA Times & BMan’s Blues
Report)
Here’s a clip from Omkring Midnat Denmark TV of Billy Cobham, Horace Silver, Bill Hardman, Bennie Maupin and John Williams playing “Nutville” during 1968.