Musa Kaleem

Musa Kaleem (actually, Orlando Wright, born January 3, 1921 in Wheeling, West Virginia; † March 26, 1988 in Los Angeles ) was an American tenor saxophonist, baritone saxophonist and flutist.

Musa Kaleem worked at the beginning of his career in 1939 with the formation of El Rogers Mystics of Rhythm, the singer Eddie Jefferson was also in the same year one of the first bands of Art Blakey in Pittsburgh, who still was playing as a pianist. Later he worked with Mary Lou Williams in 1942, Fletcher Henderson in 1943, the Savoy Sultans in 1945 and again with Art Blakey together in 1947. With the band in December 1947 first recordings for the Blue Note label created ( " New Sounds "). During this time he was an accomplished musician of the Pittsburgh jazz scene. In the 1950s he was mostly not musically active, but played in the late 1950s sporadically again, as in 1958 recordings of Tiny Grimes with Coleman Hawkins on the album Blues Groove and 1959 with James Moody. In the 1960s, he accompanied the singer Eddie Jefferson again.

Literature / Sources

• John Jorgensen, Erik Wiedemann: Jazz Encyclopedia, Munich, Mosaic, 1967
• Bielefeld Catalog Jazz 2001