Biography

Though Clora Bryant (1927-2019) garnered the attention of jazz stars like Dizzy Gillespie, and many considered her among the finest jazz musicians on the West Coast, she remains an obscure and underappreciated figure in jazz. Bryant grew up in Texas, and studied at Prairie View College in Houston. After dropping out of school in 1946 to play with the all-female group the International Sweethearts of Swing, Bryant started studying and working with Dizzy Gillespie. Because of discrimination in the jazz world, major record labels and agents ignored Bryant. Even when she recorded her sole album, Gal With a Horn (1957), male executives forced decisions on her, insisting that she sing to conform with the stereotypical role of women in jazz at the time. In the 1970s and 1980s, Clora Bryant took on a stronger role as a leader, touring internationally with her group Swi-Bop. In 1989, Zeinabu Davis released a documentary called “Trumpetistically, Clora Bryant,” which highlighted Bryant’s life and struggles as a woman in the jazz world. Though medical issues forced her to stop playing trumpet in the 1990s, Clora Bryant dedicated herself to jazz education in Los Angeles. In 2002, the Kennedy Center presented her with a Lifetime Achievement Award.