Skeeter Best

Skeeter Best (* as Clifton Best on November 20, 1914 in Kinston, North Carolina ; † May 27, 1985 in Bronx , New York ) was an American jazz guitarist of swing and modern jazz .

Live and act

Skeeter Best learned guitar from his mother, a piano teacher, and made his debut as a professional musician in Abe Dunn's local band. He first worked at Slim Marshall from 1935 to 1940 and recorded with Erskine Hawkins . He then played in Earl Hines ' orchestra from 1940 to 1942 , serving in the US Navy during World War II . After the war he played for Bill Johnson (1945-1949). He toured Japan and Korea with Oscar Pettiford in 1951/52 and then briefly had his own trio in New York and played with Paul Quinichette . He gained fame through his participation in the Soul Brothers session with Ray Charles and Milt Jackson in 1957. He also worked as a freelance musician in New York, playing in 1956 in the Modern Jazz Sextet with Dizzy Gillespie , Sonny Stitt , John Lewis and Percy Heath and Charlie Persip , also with Kenny Clarke and Sir Charles Thompson ; he also accompanied the singers Etta Jones and Nellie Lutcher . Skeeter Best made records with Milt Hinton , Osie Johnson , Jimmy Rushing , Sonny Stitt, Lucky Thompson . In later years he worked as a teacher in the Bronx at Manna House .

Skeeter Best is influenced by Charlie Christian and Freddie Green . He also worked as an arranger .

Carlo Bohländer , Karl Heinz Holler, Christian Pfarr: Reclam's Jazz Guide . 4th, revised and supplemented edition. Reclam, Stuttgart 1990, ISBN 3-15-010355-X .
Richard Cook , Brian Morton : The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD . 6th edition. Penguin, London 2002, ISBN 0-14-051521-6 .
Leonard Feather , Ira Gitler : The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz. Oxford University Press, Oxford et al. 1999, ISBN 0-19-532000-X .