The following biographical excerpts have been freely plagiarized from
http://www.shout.net/~jmh/ (An interesting trumpeter’s site). Perhaps the apprentice aspect of trumpet playing is as important, or maybe more important, than having a fine professional trumpet player and teacher.
CLARK TERRY — Born on December 14, 1920 in St. Louis, Clark Terry first instrument was a $12.50 trumpet purchased at a local pawn shop. At age 15, while attending Vashon High School, he joined a local drum and bugle corps. After graduating from high school, he played with several bands around the midwest, including Fate Marable (an early mentor of Louis Armstrong).
In 1942, he joined the Navy, and was stationed at Great Lakes Naval Station in Chicago, and was discharged in 1945.
For the next three years, Terry played with a variety of professional bands, including those of Lionel Hampton, George Hudson, Charlie Barnet, Eddie Vinson, Charlie Ventura, and Count Basie.
Barnet recommended Terry to Duke Ellington, who hired him in 1951. Terry remained with the band through 1959, while recording several albums for the Argo and Riverside labels.
CARL SAUNDERS — A superior bop trumpeter inspired by Don Fagerquist and Kenny Dorham, Carl Saunders has long been one of the top jazz soloists based in Los Angeles, but has only recently begun to record as a leader and receive the notoriety he deserves. Saunders was born August 2, 1943 in Las Vegas, Nevada. As a teenager, he played with Stan Kenton and Bobby Sherwood (his uncle). Saunders picked up experience touring with Benny Goodman, Charlie Barnet, Harry James, Buddy Rich, and Maynard Ferguson (1967), and played regularly in show bands in Las Vegas until moving to Los Angeles in 1984.
“BLUE” MITCHELL — Born Richard Allen Mitchell in Miami on March 13, 1930, "Blue" Mitchell did not begin playing the trumpet until the age of 17, when he began playing in his high school band. Mitchell, exposed early on to the music of Dizzy Gillespie (and probably fellow Floridian Fats Navarro) credited Miami dance band trumpeter Dick Smothers with the concepts of lyrical tone and phrasing which was a hallmark of Mitchell's sound throughout his career. His early jazz fundamentals were honed with a young local group that included bassist Sam Jones; by 1948 he had joined a group which worked in the Tallahassee area, where he would meet future benefactor Julian "Cannonball" Adderley and his brother Nat.
In 1949 and 1950, Mitchell played with the Frank Brown orchestra; he then joined the Paul Williams band (Detroit?), and by late 1952 had moved to New York City, where he joined Earl Bostic's band (and met tenor saxophonist Benny Golson). Mitchell remained in New York until 1955, departing to tour briefly with the Sarah Vaughan/Al Hibbler road band, and then returning to the Miami area.
HARRY “SWEETS” EDISON — Harry "Sweets" Edison (1919-1999) is one of the few players in the history of jazz trumpet who could be instantly identified after only a few notes; along with Bobby Hackett, he was acknowledged as one of the few master trumpet accompanists.
Born in Columbus, Ohio, Edison moved to Louisville, Kentucky to live with his uncle, a coal miner and farmer. It was his uncle who first exposed Edison to music, first teaching him to play a pump organ. Edison later found an old cornet in the house and taught himself scales. He cited early exposure to recordings of Louis Armstrong backing up Bessie Smith as important influences on his playing.
When he was eleven Edison almost died from typhoid fever. A year later his mother took him back to Columbus, Ohio, and bought a new horn for Edison, at considerable expense. He soon joined a local band led by Earl Hood. In 1933 he joined the Jeter-Pillars Orchestra and moved with the band to St. Louis, where he worked for two years. Tab Smith, A visiting alto player, heard him, and recommended Edison to Lucky Millinder, who led a top rank band in New York. Edison joined Millinder, whose band included trumpet giant Charlie Shavers, pianist Billy Kyle and the tenor saxophonist Don Byas.
KENNY DORHAM — Overshadowed for most of his career by the likes of Dizzy Gillespie, Fats Navarro, Miles Davis, Clifford Brown, and Lee Morgan, Kenny Dorham's abilities as a composer and unique voice as an advanced bop trumpet player are underrated to this day.
McKinley Howard Dorham was born on August 30, 1924 on a ranch called Post Oak, near Fairfield, Texas. He attended Anderson High School in Austin, where he began teaching himself to play piano and trumpet, and spending much of his time on the school boxing team. He later enrolled at Wiley College in Marshall, Texas, studying chemistry and minoring in physics. During this time he experimented with arranging, writing for the stage band, where he met such players as Wild Bill Davis, Harold Land, and Roy Porter.
CHET BAKER — Born Chesney Henry Baker, Jr. in Yale, Oklahoma on December 23, 1929, Chet Baker began his musical career as a child, singing at amateur competitions and in a church choir. His father brought home a trombone for him to play, then replaced it with a trumpet when the larger instrument proved too much for him. His first formal training in music occurred at Glendale Junior High School, but Baker would play mostly by ear for the rest of his life.
In 1946, at the age of 16, he dropped out of high school and enlisted in the army. He was sent to Berlin, Germany, where he played in the 298th Army Band. After his discharge in 1948, he enrolled at El Camino College in Los Angeles, where he studied theory and harmony while playing in jazz clubs He quit college in the middle of his second year. He re-enlisted in the army in 1950 and became a member of the Sixth Army Band at the Presidio in San Francisco, but began sitting in at clubs like Bop City and the Blackhawk in the city, and soon obtained a second discharge to pursue a career as a professional musician.