Elbert "Pee Wee" Claybrook (March 13, 1912 – February 25, 1996) was a prominent

tenor saxophonist The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B (while t ...

from

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, whic ...

. He lived a life of over 50 years playing

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a majo ...

swing music Swing music is a style of jazz that developed in the United States during the late 1920s and early 1930s. It became nationally popular from the mid-1930s. The name derived from its emphasis on the off-beat, or nominally weaker beat. Swing bands ...

. He began his musical career in the late 1930s playing with the

Fate Marable Fate Marable (December 2, 1890 – January 16, 1947) was an American jazz pianist and bandleader. Early life Marable was born in Paducah, Kentucky to James and Elizabeth Lillian (Wharton) Marable, a piano teacher. Fate had five siblings, includin ...

Mississippi riverboat band. In the 1930s, he was playing with many famous jazz artists such as

Jimmy Blanton James Blanton (October 5, 1918 – July 30, 1942) was an American jazz double bassist. Blanton is credited with being the originator of more complex pizzicato and arco bass solos in a jazz context than previous bassists. Nicknamed "Jimmie," Bla ...

Jimmy Forrest James, Jim or Jimmy Forrest may refer to: Sports * James Forrest (rugby union) (born 1907), Scotland international rugby union player * James Forrest (baseball) (1897–1977), American baseball player * James Forrest (basketball) (born 1972), Amer ...

Sid Catlett Sidney "Big Sid" Catlett (January 17, 1910 – March 25, 1951) was an American jazz drummer. Catlett was one of the most versatile drummers of his era, adapting with the changing music scene as bebop emerged. Early life Catlett was born in Eva ...

Art Blakey Arthur Blakey (October 11, 1919 – October 16, 1990) was an American jazz drummer and bandleader. He was also known as Abdullah Ibn Buhaina after he converted to Islam for a short time in the late 1940s. Blakey made a name for himself in the ...

Sweets Edison Harry "Sweets" Edison (October 10, 1915 – July 27, 1999) was an American jazz trumpeter and a member of the Count Basie Orchestra. His most important contribution was as a Hollywood studio musician, whose muted trumpet can be heard ba ...

and

Clark Terry Clark Virgil Terry Jr. (December 14, 1920 – February 21, 2015) was an American swing and bebop trumpeter, a pioneer of the flugelhorn in jazz, and a composer and educator. He played with Charlie Barnet (1947), Count Basie (1948–51), Duke ...

. In 1942, Pee Wee and his buddy Clark Terry were inducted into the

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage o ...

, and sent to the

Great Lakes Naval Training Station Naval Station Great Lakes (NAVSTA Great Lakes) is the home of the United States Navy's only boot camp, located near North Chicago, in Lake County, Illinois. Important tenant commands include the Recruit Training Command, Training Support Center ...

band near

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

. In 1944, he was reassigned to the Navy's Pre-Flight School located at

St. Mary's College Saint Mary's College (in French, ''Collège Sainte-Marie''), is the name of several colleges and schools: Australia *St Mary's College, Ipswich, an all-girls Catholic school in Queensland *St Mary's College, Maryborough, a co-educational school i ...

Moraga, California Moraga is a town in Contra Costa County, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. The town is named in honor of Joaquín Moraga, member of the famed Californio family. As of 2020, Moraga had a total population of 16,870 people. Moraga is ...

Career

Claybrook hailed from St. Louis Missouri helping to kindle the big band music scene along with Clark Terry, trumpeter, bands like George Hudson's Orchestra, Eddie Randall's Blue Devils,

Dewey Jackson Dewey Jackson (June 21, 1900 – January 1, 1994) was an American jazz trumpeter and cornetist. Early life Jackson was a native of St. Louis, Missouri. Career Jackson began playing professionally at an early age, with the Odd Fellows ...

Jeter-Pillars Orchestra Jeter-Pillars Orchestra was an American jazz troupe, led by altoist James Jeter and tenor-saxophonist Hayes Pillars. Career Jeter and Pillars were previously members of Alphonso Trent's big band. After that outfit split in 1933 they formed the gr ...

, St. Louis Crackerjacks. In 1944 Pee Wee Claybrook was transferred out West to California. The

big band A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s ...

era was waning after World War II. After being in the Navy Pee Wee stayed in California, and played with Earl Hines known as (Earl "Fatha" Hines) in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

. Pee Wee continued his musical relationship with

Vernon Alley Vernon Alley (May 26, 1915 – October 3, 2004) was an American jazz bassist. Early life Alley was born in Winnemucca, Nevada, and played football in high school and college. His brother, Eddie Alley, was a drummer; they played together ...

, who had also been a member of the U.S. Navy 45-piece regimental band at the Navy's Pre-Flight School located at St. Mary's College, in Moraga, California. He was a family man and 'he kept his day job'. He bought a home in the new community, Parchester Village, Richmond, California, that was developed after WWII. In 1995, Peewee reunited with his longtime navy and musical friend Clark Terry for a historic reunion concert at Berkeley's The Freight and Salvage Club. The reunion was recorded and Pee Wee was in excellent form on his tenor saxophone at the age of 84. The session was released 1995 as the album ''Reunion: Clark Terry and Pee Wee Claybrook''. Claybrook was an immense contributor to the Bay Area Jazz scene for over 50 years. He played with the Swing Fever Band performing at many of the Northern California jazz clubs, concert tours,

Monterey Jazz Festival The Monterey Jazz Festival is an annual music festival that takes place in Monterey, California, United States. It debuted on October 3, 1958, championed by Dave Brubeck and co-founded by jazz and popular music critic Ralph J. Gleason and jazz ...

, Cotati Jazz Festival, and the Los Angeles Classic Jazz Festival. Because of his immense influence in the music scene in Jazz music in Northern California, the Napa Valley Jazz Festival established the "Peewee Claybrook Award". Thanks to Peewee's collaborations with Clark Terry his sounds are heard and known to international jazz audiences.

Discography

* ''Reunion: Clark Terry and Pee Wee Claybrook'', released November 21, 1995 * ''Grand Masters of Jazz'', released October 15, 2013 on the Openart label, with the Swing Fever Big Band

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Claybrook, Elbert Pee Wee Musicians from St. Louis American jazz tenor saxophonists American male saxophonists African-American jazz musicians 1912 births 1996 deaths African-American history in the San Francisco Bay Area 20th-century American saxophonists Jazz musicians from Missouri 20th-century American male musicians American male jazz musicians 20th-century African-American musicians