IDREES SULIEMAN

Idrees Sulieman (August 7, 1923, in St. Petersburg, Florida – July 23, 2002 in St. Petersburg, FL) was a bop and hard bop trumpeter. Most notable is his claim that he was the very first trumpeter that played be-bop with the pianist and composer Thelonious Monk. (The first session on record of Sulieman's collaboration with Monk is in 1947.) Idrees Sulieman's decision to move to Scandinavia in 1961 cut into his potential fame, but resulted in steady work on the Continent.

Career

He studied at Boston Conservatory, and gained early experience playing with the Carolina Cotton Pickers and the wartime Earl Hines Orchestra (1943-1944). Sulieman was closely associated with Mary Lou Williams for a time; he also recorded with Thelonious Monk in 1947, and had stints with Cab Calloway, John Coltrane, Count Basie, and Lionel Hampton. Sulieman recorded with Coleman Hawkins (1957) and gigged with Randy Weston (1958-1959), in addition to popping up in many other situations.

He went to Europe in 1961 to tour with Oscar Dennard, and then settled in Stockholm, moving to Copenhagen in 1964. A major soloist with The Kenny Clarke-Francy Boland Big Band from the mid-'60s through 1973, Sulieman has frequently worked with radio orchestras. His recordings as a leader have been for Swedish Columbia (1964) and SteepleChase (1976 and 1985).

Sulieman's career slowed down considerably in the '90s as he got older. he died of bladder cancer on July 23, 2002 at St. Anthony's Hospital in St. Petersberg, Florida.

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Biography by Scott Yanow

A top bebop trumpeter with a wide range, Idrees Sulieman's decision to move to Scandinavia in 1961 has cut into his potential fame, but resulted in steady work on the Continent. He studied at Boston Conservatory, and gained early experience playing with the Carolina Cotton Pickers and the wartime Earl Hines Orchestra (1943-1944). Sulieman was closely associated with Mary Lou Williams for a time; he also worked with Thelonious Monk in 1947, and had stints with Cab Calloway, Count Basie, and Lionel Hampton. Sulieman recorded with Coleman Hawkins (1957) and gigged with Randy Weston (1958-1959), in addition to popping up in many other situations. He went to Europe in 1961 to tour with Oscar Dennard, and then settled in Stockholm, moving to Copenhagen in 1964. A major soloist with the Kenny Clarke-Francy Boland big band from the mid-'60s through 1973, Sulieman has frequently worked with radio orchestras. His recordings as a leader have been for Swedish Columbia (1964) and SteepleChase (1976 and 1985). Sulieman's career slowed down considerably in the '90s as he got older; he died of bladder cancer on July 23, 2002 at St. Anthony's Hospital in St. Petersberg, Florida.

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Idrees Sulieman, pioneering bebop trumpeter

Idrees Sulieman was an early bebop pioneer on trumpet. He was born Leonard Graham, and took up trumpet when his father could not afford to buy him a saxophone (he later played alto saxophone after moving to Europe). 

He began his professional career with the Carolina Cotton Pickers in 1939. He changed his name to Idrees Dawud ibn Sulieman after his conversion to Islam. He played with Miles Davis, Charlie Byrd, Earl Hines, Ella Fitzgerald and Dizzy Gillespie. He recorded with Thelonious Monk on the pianist's historic first sessions as a leader for Blue Note in 1947, and also recorded with Gene Ammons, John Coltrane, Coleman Hawkins, Dexter Gordon, Max Roach, and others. 

He settled in Europe in 1961, firstly in Sweden, then in Denmark. He worked with fellow expatriates Eric Dolphy, Bud Powell and Don Byas. He was part of the excellent Kenny Clarke-Francy Boland Big Band for 10 years from 1963, and also worked with the Danish Radio Big Band under Thad Jones. He returned to the USA in 1982, and lived in his native Florida. He died from bladder cancer.

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Idrees Sulieman

Early and eloquent Bebop trumpeter

Leonard Graham (Idrees Dawud ibn Sulieman), trumpeter: born St Petersburg, Florida 27 August 1923; married (one daughter); died St Petersburg 25 July 2002.

Idrees Sulieman was one of the first Bebop trumpeters. He had begun life as Leonard Graham and changed his name, as so many black jazz musicians did, when he converted to Islam. The drummer Kenny Clarke, for instance, became Liaquat Ali Salaam and another drummer, Art Blakey, metamorphosed into Abdulla ibn Buhaina.

In the mid-1940s, musicians in New York had to have a police card authorising them to work in night-clubs. The ones who converted to Islam found that they could write "W" in the entry for "Race" and then be accepted as white by the police and club and restaurant owners. Dizzy Gillespie wrote, 

When these cats found out that Idrees Sulieman, who joined the Muslim faith about that time, could go into these white restaurants and bring out sandwiches to the other guys because he wasn't coloured – and he looked like the inside of a chimney – they started enrolling in droves.

A gifted soloist, Sulieman was also notable as one of the first trumpeters to master circular breathing, a method of playing the instrument that theoretically means that a note can be held indefinitely. Two of Duke Ellington's musicians, the baritone sax player Harry Carney and another trumpeter, Clark Terry, are generally accepted as being the masters of the technique but on "Juicy Fruit", a recording he made with Coleman Hawkins in 1957, Sulieman can be heard holding a note for 57 seconds.

Sulieman was with the Carolina Cotton Pickers from 1939 until he joined Earl Hines in 1943. His stay there had a profound effect, for Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, both making fundamental changes to jazz, were then with Hines. In Gillespie's wake, Sulieman evolved an eloquent, fast-flowing style of his own.

Mary Lou Williams, a musically radical pianist and bandleader for whom Sulieman worked in the middle Forties, recalls that Sulieman, Kenny Clarke and Thelonious Monk were the first musicians that she heard playing Bebop. Monk's music was so complex that many people didn't catch on to it for another decade, but Sulieman proved to be fluent in it, as can be heard on Monk's first recordings as a leader in 1947.

Between 1943 and 1945 Sulieman spent much of his time in the Sabby Lewis big band, also finding time to study at the Boston Conservatory. He joined Benny Carter's big band in 1946, Cab Calloway in 1948, and in 1950 was with Mercer Ellington and Erskine Hawkins. In 1951 he played for Count Basie and Lionel Hampton, and he was with Dizzy Gillespie's big band from 1956 until 1958, when he became a member of Randy Weston's group. He played on many recording sessions alongside such greats as Gene Ammons, John Coltrane, Dexter Gordon and Max Roach, and was an early member of the Gerry Mulligan Sextet.

At the end of the Fifties, he toured Europe with a band led by the pianist Oscar Dennard. He liked what he saw and settled in Stockholm in 1961, working there with another expatriate, the saxophonist Eric Dolphy. Sulieman himself took up the alto saxophone at this time, but trumpet remained his first instrument. In Europe he recorded with other American residents such as Bud Powell and Don Byas.

He worked with the outstanding Kenny Clarke-Francy Boland big band for 10 years from 1963, contributing powerful solos on the band's recordings. He moved to Copenhagen in 1964 and worked with the Danish Radio big band under Thad Jones, participating in the recording of Palle Mikkelborg's "Aura" – a tribute to Miles Davis, with Davis as the soloist. He moved back to the US in 1982, settling in Florida.

Source: Steve Voce